readinglist-2025.md

This isn’t an end-of-year list, but I honestly don’t know how much time I’ll be afforded to keep reading over the upcoming months. I’ve also kind of burnt myself out. Not in a bad way, but it has made me want to shift focus. You’ll probably understand once you get into the contents of this list.

Not everything is included here. A lot of what I read isn’t great. So I’ve selected the ones that were most interesting to recommend and stood out as particularly relevant. If you want more in-depth recommendations, just hit me up over Discord or email!

The story of the RJR Nabisco buyout. One of the wildest, most cutthroat deals in Wall Street history. Ross Johnson’s proposal to take Nabisco private unleashed a corporate war with a level of ego, greed, and backstabbing that reads like fiction. But everything in this book actually happened. It’s a brutal reminder of how far people will go when billions of dollars are in play.

Second time reading this, and it still hits… It’s an autobiography that traces Reggie’s path from growing up in the Bronx to leading Nintendo of America. An uncommon path, but evenmore so as a Black executive leading within a traditionally homogeneous Japanese company. His chapters on Iwata are some of the most meaningful. If you already respect Reggie, this book just reinforces why. He is just built different.

Kaput explains how Germany’s economic strength, once seen as untouchable, started to fall apart. It covers deep, unchecked financial fraud in Germany, the 2008 economic crisis, and how bad policy led to deep reliance on Russian gas. Showing how a full shift to renewables isn’t just unrealistic now, but mathematically impossible for the country. It’s a relatively short read, but deeply sourced and difficult to put down.

“Apple In China” shows how Apple helped develop China’s tech ecosystem, unknowingly enabling competitors that now threaten their market share. It’s detailed but still readable. And more importantly a serious look at the hidden costs behind Apple’s global dominance. To paraphrase the author, Patrick McGee, “There is no vocational school in China. It’s working for Apple.”

Breaks down the myth of the “free market” and the lost art of “marketcrafting”. How government intervention quietly shaped markets to serve poltical and economic goals. Like with the housing market, climate change policy, and several other examples. It focuses more on history than offering any specific policy solution. But makes a strong case that if markets are made by people, they can (and should) be remade.

The book argues that America’s biggest problem isn’t scarcity, but a system built to say “no” to progress. The book covers housing, energy, immigration, all centered around the idea that we could build so much more, but just don’t. Most people have a strong opinion about this book without having ever read it. But I kind of just rolled my eyes, despite agreeing with most of Ezra’s points.

Exposes how insurance companies manipulate claims, write policies that are written to be confusing, and how payouts are systematically delayed on purpose. Training adjusters to treat every claimant as a potential adversary. It is incredibly pursuasive, and will both infuriate and radicalize you. It makes a clear case for why the system feels rigged even when you follow the rules.