📚 3 Recent Reads, 5 Free Resources for Authors, and more.

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 5 Free resources every author should check out.

• Bestselling author Brian Tracy on how to change your life.

• A story about Mohamed Aziz, the most photographed bookseller in the world.

This week’s newsletter was made possible by:

Bad news is good business. We never bought in.

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📚 Book Summary:

Instead of one book summary this week, here are 3 recent books I enjoyed:

📖

1) “The One and the Ninety-Nine” by Luke Burgis

In today’s world the problem isn’t finding your tribe, it’s not losing yourself within one.

When you join a tribe, whether it’s political, professional, or otherwise, you can quickly lose your personal identity and independence. You stop thinking critically and start thinking as a hive mind.

In this book, Burgis explains how groups shape our desires, how “social contagion” spreads, and most importantly, how to remain oneself while staying connected to others. If you enjoyed his previous book “Wanting”, you’ll love this book.

📖

2) “Reader, Come Home” by Maryanne Wolf

Author Maryanne Wolf has been studying and researching literacy for over two decades.

In this thought-provoking book, she explains what happens in the brains of readers, how ebooks and audiobooks change how we read, how decreasing attention spans are affecting readers, the many benefits of reading physical books, and much more.

If you’re into books about books or interested in neuroscience, you’ll enjoy this book.

📖

3) “Breath” by James Nestor

This book changed my life years ago, so I’m revisiting it.

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how young you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.

Breathing seems simple enough, but 40% of people suffer from chronic nasal obstruction and around 50% of people are habitual mouth-breathers. I was one of them. I thought breathing through your mouth was normal, but in reality, it was causing several of my health problems.

If you have trouble breathing through your nose, snore at night, have sleep apnea, or wake up in the morning with a dry throat, you NEED to read this book.

✅ Actionable Advice:

💎 Weekly Gem:

App: Shortform

I’ve tried several book summary apps over the years, but Shortform is the best one.

They have 10,000+ handwritten book summaries–by real people (not AI). And at the end of each summary, there are exercises to help you apply what you’ve learned.

I like to read their summaries as a way of sampling books before deciding whether to buy them and to review key lessons from my favorite books.

If you want to learn faster, retain more, or make your reading habit pay off, I recommend checking them out.

Try Shortform for FREE for 5 days here!

Your opinion matters!

Thank you for your support,

-Alex & Books

PS: Here are two ways I can help you:

1) If you’re a READER who wants to read more books, check out The Art of Reading (700+ readers have already got it).

2) If you’re an AUTHOR who wants to sell more books, check out How to Sell More Books (100+ authors have already got it).