Books Recommended by Max Gurvits

As far as Surely Youʼre Joking is concerned, Richard Feynman is probably one of the best storytellers the world has known. The book is a collection of stories about his work (heʼs one of the fathers of the US nuclear program, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1965) and his passions, like music and teaching. Whatʼs really exciting about Feynman, and a trait I think generally is one of the most important in life, is that he manages to explain very complicated things as if theyʼre the simplest you can imagine, constantly making fun at his own expense and showcasing his insatiable curiosity and optimism. This resonates a lot with my own, very modest, experience in doing anything successfully: if itʼs really great and good, it feels like a walk in the park.

The Unbearable Lightness I first read when I was 16, and twice more at six-year intervals since then. Which is a good reminder that I should read it again in the next 12 months, keeping up the tradition. That book has a beautiful mix of a love story, a glance at life during the Cold War, particularly at the angst of intellectuals living behind the Iron Curtain, who are trying to reconcile their understanding of the fallacy of the regime and their personal fears, with a dictated sense of normalcy. For me, its strongest message is about the threats of cowardice and jealousy, that surround us in everyday life. That very “unbearable lightness” is not just a way to lock oneself up in a daily routine without paying attention to the world around us falling apart, but also the hardship that comes with a lifestyle perceived by others as worth of jealousy. And the realization that a carefully crafted life of sense and beauty sometimes invokes illogical anger from others who try to emulate it, but canʼt.

Sometimes it does happen that for whatever reason an English book only comes out on paper, and I had an interesting experience recently with Jack Barskyʼs book about his years as a KGB spy in the US (Jack Barsky - Deep Undercover: My Secret Life & Tangled Allegiance As a KGB Spy in America). I really wanted to give the book as a present to my dad, which normally would involve buying it on Kindle and dispatching to his e-mail address, but then it turned out itʼs only available in print! And so I had it delivered to the place I always stay at in San Francisco (for free, thanks Amazon Prime!), and then found myself inadvertently with a big bulky object for the next two weeks, until I saw my dad again in Europe. Which of course allowed me to read the book myself, but also presented me with inconveniences I had already forgotten about.

I donʼt think a single book changed the way I see things or my career path. Iʼm trying hard to think now of something that impacted me in such a way… Maybe to some extent James Altucher did (James Altucher - How to be the Luckiest Person Alive!). Heʼs kind of a recognized author nowadays, but I remember following him on Twitter 7-8 years ago, when he was still up and coming, and his almost comical, seemingly self-destructive advice on just doing your thing and not paying attention to others made a lot of sense to me.

I was at that time in the midst of my first company, which looking back did alright, and all of us co-founders have done well, but as it was developing it was really the proverbial roller-coaster from the startup war stories. And much like with Richard Feynman whom I already mentioned above, Altucherʼs witty observations on living life and doing business were a great source of support.

Later, in 2011, the book came out based on his earlier blog posts and I remember pre-ordering it just out of gratitude for those earlier writings. And I have to admit, I havenʼt really been reading him since then.

I remember in particular reading the autobiography of CNN correspondent Peter Arnett (Peter Arnett - Live from the Battlefield), who grew up in a remote town in New Zealand, bored and looking for trouble as a teenager, much like I did in the remote town I was growing up in in The Netherlands. And I thought to myself, “well, he made it alright, and so can I”. And I think that helped.

Right now the four books Iʼm reading are The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, 45th Parallel by Polina Zherebtsova (in Russian),“The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov (in Bulgarian), and re-reading the Dutch classic Au Pair by W.F. Hermans (in Dutch). Itʼs hard to say what we expect to gain from reading. Perhaps only true for introverts, but books are a way to look really deep into ourselves and have very meaningful conversations in our mind about the questions we think about as we go about our daily lives.

Right now the four books Iʼm reading are The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, 45th Parallel by Polina Zherebtsova (in Russian),“The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov (in Bulgarian), and re-reading the Dutch classic Au Pair by W.F. Hermans (in Dutch). Itʼs hard to say what we expect to gain from reading. Perhaps only true for introverts, but books are a way to look really deep into ourselves and have very meaningful conversations in our mind about the questions we think about as we go about our daily lives.