David Wu


Reading List
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Reading List

List of books I have completed, starting from 2019, organized chronologically from bottom to top.

2024

  • Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
  • The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
  • Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection by Jia Jiang
  • Home Buying for Dummies, 3rd Edition by Eric Tyson and Ray Brown

2023

  • Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
  • Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success by Jordan Belfort
  • $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi
  • The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane
  • The Age of Fentanyl: Ending the Opioid Epidemic by Brodie Ramin
  • (Reread) How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated for the Next Generation of Leaders by Dale Carnegie
  • Wait, What?: And Life's Other Essential Questions by James E. Ryan
  • The YouTube Formula: How Anyone Can Unlock the Algorithm to Drive Views, Build an Audience, and Grow Revenue by Derral Eves
  • Solo World Traveler: How to Travel the World Independently All By Yourself in a Fun, Affordable, and Memorable Way from A to Z by HowExpert and Deneice Arthurton
  • Denver Travel Guide: 101 Unique, Interesting, and Fun Places to Visit, Explore, and Experience Denver Colorado to the Fullest from A to Z by HowExpert and Caitlyn Knuth
  • The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance by Adharanand Finn
  • Training for the Uphill Athlete: A Manual for Mountain Runners and Ski Mountaineers by Steve House, Scott Johnston, and Kilian Jornet
  • Grit, Guts, and C4: The Sapper School Experience by Ryan Andrew Voznick
  • Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons by Bryon Powell
  • Training for the New Alpinism: A Manual for the Climber as Athlete by Steve House and Scott Johnston

2022

  • Mini Maui Travel Guide: 7 Quick Steps to Experience the Island of Maui in Hawaii to the Fullest by HowExpert and Dena Gray
  • Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within by David Goggins
  • Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
  • Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
  • The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
  • How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love by Logan Ury
  • Dating Essentials for Men: The Only Dating Guide You Will Ever Need by Robert Glover
  • Blueprint: Build a Bulletproof Body for Extreme Adventure in 365 Days by Ross Edgley
  • Cloud Computing (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series) by Nayan Ruparelia
  • Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone
  • Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time by Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, and Hyrum Wright

2021

  • Rock Climbing 101: How to Rock Climb and Become the Best Rock Climber You Can Be From A to Z by HowExpert and Brigitte Ngo-Trinh
  • The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer
  • The Instant Millionaire: A Tale of Wisdom and Wealth by Mark Fisher
  • Unscripted: The Great Rat Race Escape by MJ DeMarco
  • Zillow Talk: Rewriting the Rules of Real Estate by Spencer Rascoff and Stan Humphries
  • Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
  • The Rational Male by Rollo Tomassi
  • Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
  • Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland
  • Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek
  • The Google Resume by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
  • (Reread) Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear
  • What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 - 10th Anniversary Edition: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World by Tina Seelig
  • (Reread) The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime by MJ DeMarco
  • No More Mr. Nice Guy by Robert Glover
  • (Reread) Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins

2020

  • Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War by P.W. Singer and August Cole
  • Company Commander: The Classic Infantry Memoir of WWII by Charles B. MacDonald
  • Behind the Housing Crash: Confessions from an Insider by Aaron Clarey
  • Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss
  • I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry by Halsey
  • Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
  • Zoology: Understanding the Animal World by Donald E. Moore and The Great Courses
  • The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss
  • Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World by H.R. McMaster
  • Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World by William McRaven
  • Lights and Sirens: The Education of a Paramedic by Kevin Grange
  • The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare by Christian Brose
  • Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
  • Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About American Law by Jay M. Feinman
  • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz
  • The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care by Eric Topol
  • Reprogramming the American Dream: From Rural America to Silicon Valley - Making AI Serve Us All by Kevin Scott and Greg Shaw
  • The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
  • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  • Leaders: Myth and Reality by Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jay Mangone
  • The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide by John Sonmez
  • The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships by Neil Strauss
  • The 48 Laws of Power (Abridged) by Robert Greene
  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  • How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius by Donald Robertson
  • Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold
  • Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship by MJ DeMarco
  • The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime by MJ DeMarco
  • The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, and Jay Papasan
  • Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
  • No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America by Ron Powers
  • Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
  • Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
  • Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear
  • The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
  • UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan
  • The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
  • The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder by Sean McFate
  • Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam by H.R. McMaster
  • Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual by Jocko Willink
  • The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition: Your Journey to Mastery by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt
  • How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes
  • (Reread) Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
  • The Minimalist Way: Minimalism Strategies to Declutter Your Life and Make Room for Joy by Erica Layne
  • 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation by Clint Emerson
  • Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  • Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual by John Sonmez

2019

  • AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
  • Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again by Eric Topol
  • The Guerrilla Factory: The Making of Special Forces Officers, the Green Berets by Tony Schwalm
  • The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life by Chris Guillebeau
  • Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work by Sarah Kessler
  • Software Developer Life by David Xiang
  • The Visual MBA: Two Years of Business School Packed into One Priceless Book of Pure Awesomeness by Jason Barron
  • The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data by Gene Kim
  • The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America by Margaret O'Mara
  • The Islanders by Douglas Diehl
  • The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman
  • Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki
  • Bachelor Pad Economics by Aaron Clarey
  • TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson
  • The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
  • The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future by Andrew Yang
  • Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump and Tony Schwartz
  • Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future by Pete Buttigieg
  • The Art of War by Sun Tzu
  • How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon by Rosa Brooks
  • Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
  • Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths
  • Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age by Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne
  • The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford
  • Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet by Jesse Itzler
  • Speak With No Fear: Go from a nervous, nauseated, and sweaty speaker to an excited, energized, and passionate presenter by Mike Acker
  • Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat by James McDonough
  • Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott Young
  • America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History by Andrew Bacevich
  • Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations by William McRaven
  • Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead by Jim Mattis and Bing West
  • Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China by Karoline Kan
  • Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
  • (Reread) Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
  • Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark
  • Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
  • The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Nanh
  • Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
  • Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
  • A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
  • Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
  • Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff
  • Probability and Random Processes: ORF 309/MAT 380 Lecture Notes by Ramon van Handel
  • Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
  • Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves
  • Reconnaissance Man by Aaron Clarey