Off-brand books

Books I read that I didn't want to tell you about

NOTE: Meant to send this earlier this week, but then I didn’t and then I was like well, it’s Saturday and I usually send links on Saturday but here are some books, maybe I’ll mix things up, IDK here you go

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There’s this thing in writing (and even more so in marketing) about finding a niche.

Staying in your lane. Not “alienating” the audience.

Even a year in, I’m still trying to figure out what that means for this space, because I jump around to a lot of topics.

Generally, this newsletter is about “fiction culture online writing” but I don’t always know what that means.

For example, I linked to a post about Kanye’s house the other week and another about dining room tables.

Being random is one of the cardinal sins of audience building.

With that said, I often read or peruse books I don’t want to tell you about.

Not because they’re bad per se, even though you may not like them, they just felt off-brand—they’re not fiction or literary or culture-centered, but they are books.

Here’s a list of those off-brand books¹.

1. Blood in the Garden by Chris Herring

   • It’s about the New York Knicks in the 90s (basketball!). What you get here are the odd stories that don’t make the news, like John Starks going to play in a minor league basketball game on the day of his wedding. Feel like I did mention this somewhere, but here you go.

2. Day Trading Attention by Gary Vaynerchuk

   • This is about marketing. I’ve listened to a 1/4 of it on Spotify audiobooks, which has got me back into audiobooks. Gary is essentially a maniac but also a marketing genius

3. New City Catechism Devotional by Colin Hansen & Tim Keller, et al

   • Keller was the pastor a church in New York City, and he had this idea of updating the old ideas of catechisms — something you memorized that emphasized the tenets of the Christian faith. This is a modern catechism in a Q-A format that essentially goes over Christian fundamentals. He combines old theologians with modern day pastors. I use it as a daily devotional.

4. Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

   • Another Christian book that I started reading at the beginning of the. year and now pick up occasionally because it’s quite overwhelming to do all at once. Discusses prayer, fasting, simplicity, meditation, etc.

5. Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland

   • Ok, I haven’t actually read these. But my kids do and they are all over the house and I’ve read like 5 words of them, but I had to go to like 3 bookstores in Manhattan to find graphic novel and then chapter versions for my kids, so yeah they get included

6. The Personal MBA by Josh Kauffman

   • I didn’t study business (American Studies! English!) but now I have to deal with business all the time, and I’ve been in a bunch of small startups and I haven’t always understood what was happening. So I thought this would be a good primer. It’s okay, I’m about halfway done and should probably take more time with it

7. Die with Zero by Bill Perkins

   • Honestly, this is the book I’ve probably talked the most about this year, even though it’s not a great book. The idea is good though, so here it is: people often die with too much money. Which means they worked for too long. Even normal job-type people. For example, he talks about a person in their late 50s as an assistant or something making $70k a year with a 1M in the bank. He does the average math and says that they may waste 2 or 3 years of their life if they work until 63 because they may die with $200k in the bank. That’s very simplistic but you get the idea and he goes into a bit more detail. His main point is that most people just don’t know how much money they need to “retire” and they just keep working when your late 50s is still kinda prime and you can move around and travel better than you can 10 years later. Not financial advice, do your own research, etc etc but it’s a good concept to think about.

The following is a list of books of off-brand books I’ve bought, but haven’t actually read yet.

1. Public Speaking with Confidence by Philipp Humm

2. Scientic Advertising by Claude Hopkins

3. Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan

4. The Art of Focus by Dan Koe

5. Filterworld by Kyle Chayka

   • This might be the most “on-brand” on this list, it’s about how algos have flattened our sense of design and purpose. I started it, but felt like I understood the premise, probably need to go a bit deeper

6. Why Does the Stock Market Go Up? Brian Feroldi

   • I don’t know why, that’s why I bought this book

7. Questioning Faith: Indirect Journeys of Belief through Terrains of Doubt - Randy Newman

   • Common q’s and objections to Christianity. A trusted person recommended this, but then I gave away my copy and then I just bought a new copy

What do you think? On-brand off-brand who cares? Some of these already have made their way in, and I’m sure I’ll reference them in the future.

And don’t worry, I’m still reading fiction books.

Keep going-

Josh Spilker

1. yes affiliate links