And it took me about 10 years to get through the first one (in all fairness, I was listening to it, and the problem could have been the narrator). I just had zero desire to read any after the first one.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (the Flavia de Luce series). I know! Everyone loves these books so so much.

I promise the next ten books I’ve actually read or attempted to read. I haven’t read any of this book (although I laughed my head off at Dave Barry’s take on the book – warning that there is some slightly sexual content in his essay, which is to be expected considering the subject matter). you have to pretend it was great (or possibly avoid that friend for the rest of your life).Īnyway, here are ten of those books for me, where everyone is constantly recommending them to me and I have to either smile and nod or admit that I couldn’t even make it through the whole book.Īnd they are probably your favorite books in the whole world, so you are welcome to tell me that I am a complete idiot. Or the extremely awkward thing where someone recommends a book that is the best book ever and so you read it and you think it is really awful but.

In the fall of 2022, he launched a dedicated online portal,, to organize the various digital media he produces related to the major themes of his work.You know that thing where you read a book and think “This is garbage” and then go to Goodreads or Amazon to look at other reviews and realize, “Oh, apparently I’m on my own here.” He’s published a popular blog/newsletter since 2007 and more recently has branched into podcasting and video. In addition to his traditional book and article publications, Cal has also been an enthusiastic supporter of digital media.

In 2012, he transitioned into the world of idea writing with his fourth title, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, which challenged the conventional career wisdom to “follow your passion.” This was followed by his Technology and Society trilogy: Deep Work (2016), Digital Minimalism (2019), and A World Without Email (2021), which combined his roles as an academic technologist and popular writer to examine, for a broad audience, the impact of technology on the quest to live and work in meaningful and deep ways. In recent years, his magazine work has been focused mainly on The New Yorker, where he became a Contributing Writer in 2021.Ĭal’s early books focused on student advice. He’s also a frequent contributor to major print publications including the New York Times, WIRED, and Outside. He went on to publish seven books (and counting), which include multiple New York Times bestsellers, have been translated into over 40 languages, and have cumulatively sold over 2,000,000 copies worldwide. Cal signed his first book deal with Random House soon after his 21st birthday, while still an undergraduate at Dartmouth College.

Here the whole time book