Bookshelves

Excerpt from my bookshelves page.

“Books are magical. When you read one, you can travel through time and space, read other peoples’ minds, and even talk to the dead. When you write one, you can achieve immortality, spread ideas, and gather influence. When you talk about one, you can instantly connect with others, deepen your understanding, and generate new ideas.”

As someone who spends a significant amount of his spare time studying others, I’ve found that reading their influences is a great complement to reading their writing. Without understanding a person’s influences, it is hard to truly understand their thinking. If they don’t write publicly, then it’s the only way to understand their thinking.

I love to read primary sources (See my Compilations), but I’ve found that my favorite writers often reference other writers. It’s been particularly fun to go back and read those referenced writers, and see if I draw the same conclusions — if not, I ask myself why, what I might be missing, and what the person I’m studying might have missed.

I’ve always loved to seek out the influences of my influences, and while I know I’ll never be able to read everything someone else has ever read, perusing others’ bookshelves has been a fun way to seek out new books (I prefer the serendipity of bookstores over the algorithms feeding me decisions — don’t @ me).

This is an ongoing collection of bookshelves from people I respect — many of whom I’ve already made compilations for. At the top of every Sheet, I’ve linked the sources — some are literally pictures of their bookshelves, others are direct references/reviews of books from their Twitter Accounts, Shareholder Letters, Blog Posts, Essays, or something else.

If you’d like to make recommendations for future bookshelves, connect, or drop a note, feel free to reach out to me via email at kevin@12mv2.com or DM me via twitter @kevg1412.

I hope you enjoy!

All Bookshelves, Categorized, Here.

Select Bookshelves

Venture Investors

Creative CEOs

Technical CEOs

Consumer/Retail Operators

Value Investors

Macro Investors

Short Sellers

Next Gen Investors/Operators

Mathematicians/Scientists

Political Leaders

Novelists