Title: Hell Yeah or No what's worth doing Author: Derek Sivers Completed: November 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: For many years, I've been interested in the writings of Derek Sivers. It goes back far enough I don't have any idea where I first heard about him, but the idea of sharing all my book notes came from him.

Title: The 99% Invisible City A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design Author: Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt Completed: November 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: I've been listening to the 99% Invisible podcast for over a decade and when they released this book, I had to read it. When I got it, hardcover was the only option and my system for taking notes works best with ebooks so when they announced that we've hit the fifth anniversary of its release, I decided it was time to revisit it.

Last year we had a lot of fun with the First Mistake 5k. We had 40 runners, lots of hills, and four Mistake Station (including one bottle of Malört, free haircuts, and firefighters hosing us down). I wonder if we can do better this year. Registration details are below. If you're interested in offering a Mistake Station, contact me to talk details.

I learned to weld in shop class in 8th grade. Two years later, my new shop teacher showed me how to weld well. Working with middle schoolers now, I'm shocked that we ever let any of them near metalworking equipment but also very glad I had the opportunity to try. I've continued to weld and tinker around with metal for years.

Title: A Closed and Common Orbit Author: Becky Chambers Completed: October 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: After finishing The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first in the Wayfarers series, I assumed the second book would continue to follow the crew we met already. This was a different direction but very enjoyable.

Title: Potholes and Pavements: A Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network Author: Laura Laker Completed: October 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: This book was harder for me to get through than many of the others about infrastructure and I'm not sure why. As shown by the highlights below, there were many pieces that I loved.

Title: Picks and Shovels Author: Cory Doctorow Completed: Sept 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: This is the third book in the Martin Hench series and having read the first two earlier this summer, I moved onto this one. It took a minute to get into the first book, he really put a lot of "geek speak" into it seemingly to show his nerdy credentials, but after that, I really enjoyed it.

Title: The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been Author: Jake Berman Completed: August 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: I've had one or two people tell me recently that I seem to be obsessed with public transit. Not sure I'd phrase it that way, but I do believe that many problem we currently face would be better (not completely solved but certainly better), if we relied more on transit and less on cars.

Title: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Author: Becky Chambers Completed: August 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: A few years ago I came across A Psalm for the Wild Built. I don't remember how I found it, but I loved Becky's writing. The second book in that series came out a few months later and I tore through it.

Title: Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land Author: Kurt Timmermeister Completed: August 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: At a recent kid's birthday party, I was talking with a neighbor about local foods. He has owned at least one Seattle restaurant and been working in the Seattle food world for decades.

Title: A Study in Scarlet (free from Project Gutenberg) Author: Arthur Conan Doyle Completed: July 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: After deciding to keep a fiction book on my phone to read during moments of downtime, I picked a classic, then went camping. Turns out, if you're trying to read around the campfire or in the tent, having a screen that emits light is handy for reading.

Title: The F-Word (IV Edition) Author: Jesse Sheidlower Completed: July 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: In May, I was listening to an episode of The Allusionist podcast. Helen Zaltzman is great and her interview with Jesse Sheidlower about this book was fascinating. They discussed how versatile this word is in our language. There are very few words that are able to act as a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb and basically none that are insertion words in a…

Title: The Bezzle: A Martin Hench Novel Author: Cory Doctorow Completed: July 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: This summer I attended Teardown 2025 where Cory Doctorow presented. When preparing for the event, I found his Martin Hench books and read the first one, Red Team Blues. Unfortunately, I lost my highlights from that one (first time reading on my phone) but enjoyed it enough to keep the series going.

Title: The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism Author: Jathan Sadowski Completed: July 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: I've been listening to This Machine Kills podcast and enjoy their take on current technology developments enough that when I heard one of the hosts had a new book coming out, I immediately reserved it at the library.

Title: Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom Author: Daniel T. Willingham Completed: June 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: This book was not what I expect... but I'm not entirely sure what I thought it would be. It took a little while to get into it.

Title: Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection Author: John Green Completed: May 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: I've been listening to John Green talk about AFC Wimbledon for year and thoroughly enjoyed reading The Anthropocene Reviewed audiobook a few years ago. I also enjoyed reading Rabid so this seemed like my type of book.

Title: The Things We Make: The Unknown History of Invention from Cathedrals to Soda Cans Author: Bill Hammack Completed: May 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: I found Bill Hammack a few years back when I stumbled on a video he made talking about all the thinking and design that went into soda cans…

Title: The High Cost of Free Parking Author: Donald Shoup Completed: Apr 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: This book has been on my To Read list for several years, but the 800+ pages was always a bit daunting. When I heard that the author passed away earlier this year, I decided that was as good a reason as any to dive in.

Title: Movement: How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform Our Lives Author: Thalia Verkade Completed: Mar 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: Seeing the changes that took place in the Netherlands over the last 50 years gives me hope that things in the US can change as well. We are constantly making choice about how we want our cities to be and this book helps examine many of the underlying assumptions we make.

Title: Everything to Play For: An Insider's Guide to How Videogames are Changing Our World Author: Marijam Did Completed: Feb 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: After hearing an interview with the author, I decided to check this out. I'm not a gamer but often feel like I should play more games because of the benefits they bring.

Title: It's Never Just About The Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management Author: Claire English Completed: Jan 2025 (Full list of books) Overview: This book did a good job articulating many of the concepts that I've been thinking but not always putting into words about effective teaching and classroom management. It's strange to me how long teachers, schools, and society have depended on punishment as a way to correct behavior despite so many studies showing that it is ineffective at best or counterproductive at worst.

Several weeks ago, Seattle was hit with a bomb cyclone which brought gusts of wind over 70 mph. Seattle fared better than many surrounding towns but we had the top ~50' of a redwood snap off next to our house. Luckily, it fell away from us and managed to avoid all the cars, fences, and other homes near us. It fell directly in the street and caused no…

Title: The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past Author: Nate DiMeo Completed: Dec 2024 (Full list of books) Overview: Such a great collection of stories. Many were familiar to me from all the episodes of the Memory Palace podcast I've heard over the years but it was wonderful to reexamine them. I even started reading a few of them to my 8 year old who has expressed zero interest in any other books I've been reading but was enthralled by the story of Betty Robinson.