The Art and Business of Online Writing (80% done)
I picked this up out of frustration. I struggle with structuring content on my newsletters (e.g. coming up with good titles, writing intros that are not awkward, overthinking my content). It is one of the most valuable books I've read with practical frameworks on how to structure your writing. I've been testing them out on my newsletters and also on reddit posts, and I can tell the difference through the engagement they've had. Zero bad things to say about this book.
City of Light: The Making of Modern Paris (44% done)
Paris is a city I've always been fascinated with. Prompted by some recent trips I've done there, I wanted to find some good books about the city. I love this book because it unveils how the city became what it is known for today, and you realize that politics and the pursuit of a specific set of ideals by a small group of individuals, whether good or bad, lead to dramatic change. Optics and "Trickery", for lack of a better word, are two elements that I've extracted from this book as being critical concepts to be aware of and understand if you wish to make sense of everything that happens around you and to you.
The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire (32% done)
I picked up this book after conversing with my grandfather about great leaders from ancient history. One of the things that has always fascinated me about leaders, pre-internet and pre-mass-printing, is the scale and level of influence they have had. At the same time, I've been pondering a lot about the future of politics and power, and some of the things I want to understand is (1) what makes great political and societal models/ideals, (2) how things that were considered "great" at one time end up falling apart. While this book does not necessarily answer all of these things, it is a start, and I love ancient history. It can be a dry and lengthy read, but extremely detailed and well researched.
Books I've picked up recently but have not started, or barely started:
- Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
- Buterin: Proof of Stake
- The Library: A Fragile History
- Les Catacombes: Histoires du Paris souterrain
- Memoires d'un Galerien du Roi-Soleil
- Picasso a Paris
- Bienvenu a L'Agence (Famille Kretz -- the people from the Parisian Agency on Netflix)
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- and a couple of chess books 😅
PS. A book I am looking forward to read is King of Domains by Marc Kohlbrugge. Such an obscure space for me (domain acquisition), so definitely excited about that drop 🙏
@davidalarse great question -- directly, it does not.
The book targets online writing from a perspective of socials/blog/newsletters; but it is 100% applicable to landing pages, especially if you think about building pages like 37Signals/Basecamp (basecamp.com)(https://once.com).
While it won't guide you on landing pages specifically, it would help you understand some of its most important components headlines, how to capture AND retain attention, and how to think about structuring length and format of your paragraphs. This is only about 20-30% of the book however. But I'd say, that part was the most impactful for me.
Currently Reading:
The Art and Business of Online Writing (80% done)
I picked this up out of frustration. I struggle with structuring content on my newsletters (e.g. coming up with good titles, writing intros that are not awkward, overthinking my content). It is one of the most valuable books I've read with practical frameworks on how to structure your writing. I've been testing them out on my newsletters and also on reddit posts, and I can tell the difference through the engagement they've had. Zero bad things to say about this book.
City of Light: The Making of Modern Paris (44% done)
Paris is a city I've always been fascinated with. Prompted by some recent trips I've done there, I wanted to find some good books about the city. I love this book because it unveils how the city became what it is known for today, and you realize that politics and the pursuit of a specific set of ideals by a small group of individuals, whether good or bad, lead to dramatic change. Optics and "Trickery", for lack of a better word, are two elements that I've extracted from this book as being critical concepts to be aware of and understand if you wish to make sense of everything that happens around you and to you.
The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire (32% done)
I picked up this book after conversing with my grandfather about great leaders from ancient history. One of the things that has always fascinated me about leaders, pre-internet and pre-mass-printing, is the scale and level of influence they have had. At the same time, I've been pondering a lot about the future of politics and power, and some of the things I want to understand is (1) what makes great political and societal models/ideals, (2) how things that were considered "great" at one time end up falling apart. While this book does not necessarily answer all of these things, it is a start, and I love ancient history. It can be a dry and lengthy read, but extremely detailed and well researched.
Books I've picked up recently but have not started, or barely started:
- Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
- Buterin: Proof of Stake
- The Library: A Fragile History
- Les Catacombes: Histoires du Paris souterrain
- Memoires d'un Galerien du Roi-Soleil
- Picasso a Paris
- Bienvenu a L'Agence (Famille Kretz -- the people from the Parisian Agency on Netflix)
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- and a couple of chess books 😅
PS. A book I am looking forward to read is King of Domains by Marc Kohlbrugge. Such an obscure space for me (domain acquisition), so definitely excited about that drop 🙏
Hello @alvivanco I am curious about The Art and Business of Online Writing does it apply for webpage/landing pages writing?
@davidalarse great question -- directly, it does not.
The book targets online writing from a perspective of socials/blog/newsletters; but it is 100% applicable to landing pages, especially if you think about building pages like 37Signals/Basecamp (basecamp.com)(https://once.com).
While it won't guide you on landing pages specifically, it would help you understand some of its most important components headlines, how to capture AND retain attention, and how to think about structuring length and format of your paragraphs. This is only about 20-30% of the book however. But I'd say, that part was the most impactful for me.