Our Favorite Fiction and Why We Read It
We talk a lot about nonfiction on this podcast. We’ve covered The Procrastination Equation, Deep Work, The Productivity Project, and many others. But is there a place in our busy schedules for fiction? Do we read for fun?
Absolutely.
Few things make me as happy as reading. I grew up a voracious reader, even going so far as to flip through and read sections from an encyclopedia set my Dad got me. Obviously that’s an example of nonfiction writing, but I read plenty of fiction — I actually still have a trophy I won for reading 100 books in 1st grade.
Unfortunately, not everyone is so immediately drawn to stories and words. It’s easier to sell the idea of a productivity book — who feel like they’re on the verge of something great if they could just focus a little better? I’ll read some words if it’ll make me more money somehow, but what good’s a story?
We’ll talk a bit about the more “productive” benefits of reading fiction in this episode, and to make it a little more fun we’ll go over a few of our favorite books and what they mean to us. No spoilers though, I promise!
Things mentioned in this episode:
Tom’s Books:
- , by Neil Gaiman
- , by Neal Stephenson
- , by Apostolos Doxiadis
- , by Douglas Adams
- , by Eliezer Yudkowsky
Martin’s Books:
- , by Kurt Vonnegut
- , by David Mitchell
- , by Kazuo Ishiguro
- , by Patrick Rothfuss
- , by Gene Yang, Michael DiMartino, and Bryan Konietzko (also see , which takes place after the television series)
Other links:
- Tom on Goodreads
- Martin on Goodreads
- Crash Course
- Tom’s Impossible List
- How Ben Franklin Structured His Day
- The Procrastination Equation: An In-Depth Breakdown (Ep. 167)
- How to Make Consistent Progress on Your Goals (Even If You’re Lazy)
- , by Viktor Frankl
- Buffer – The Surprising Power of Reading Fiction
- , by Clifford Stoll
- , by Gabriel García-Márquez (Spanish version)
- How to Remember More of What You Learn with Spaced Repetition
- 9 Life-Changing Books (Ep. 96)
- , by William Gibson
- , by Catherynne Valente
- , and , by Lewis Carroll
- A Crash Course on How to Start Investing (Even If You’re in Debt) (Ep. 168)
- Listen Money Matters
- Cryptonomicon
- Tom’s Top 10 Favorite Fiction Books!
- , and , by Patrick Rothfuss
- , by George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, and more (the anthology with a story about one of the characters from The Kingkiller Chronicle)
- , by Orson Scott Card
- , by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- , by Dan Ariely
- , by Daniel Kahneman
- , by Bill Bryson
- Marvel Unlimited
- , by Brandon Sanderson
- , by Alexander Wales
Want more cool stuff? You can find all sorts of great tools at my Resources page.
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