What to Read Next: April 4, 2025
Issue #373, featuring a new framework for your life
Today’s newsletter is free for all subscribers.
Happy Friday readers,
If you missed it, yesterday I announced our Huckleberry Finn reading schedule for The Big Read — along with a few reasons to read this classic in our modern age. I’d love for you to join us.
Moving to this newsletter, here is what’s on tap this week:
A review of
’s RangeThe importance of secure communications
My March reading recap
5 Things: Links and Opinions
Read More Books is a reader-supported publication. Paid subscribers get full access to every issue and the archives. Subscribe today for just $5/month or $45/year.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
My career has taken a bit of a winding path since I graduated from college about 15 years ago:
InterVarsity Staff Ministry
Social Media Account Manager at a small agency (RIP)
Marketing Manager at a cloud computing company
Editor/Producer at a major lifestyle blog/podcast
Managing Editor at a small self-publishing company
Marketer at a major tech company
Self-employed as a writer, editor, and consultant
Even though I’ve stayed in similar realms of work (marketing and writing), my day-to-day has looked quite different and I’ve never really specialized within my field. I’ve always been a bit of a jack of all trades. That goes contrary to most career advice you see these days, which is all about finding your niche and going deep in one speciality.
Thankfully, David Epstein’s Range made me feel much better about how I’ve been operating.
With a perfectly balanced combination of storytelling, science, history, and practical application, Epstein brings readers through the various problems with specialization and why adopting a flexible framework is a much better approach.
The writing style is casual (in a good way) and never presumes to contain high-falutin ideas, but I came away feeling like I had read a book that could fundamentally shape how I view the world and my role in it. Yes, it’s a psychology/self-improvement book, but it’s also philosophical — it’s a way to approach the world that goes against the grain of what we tend to be taught here in America.
What’s beautiful about the ideas in Range is that you can easily practice and learn them. As I wrote in our Big Read recap of the book: Read outside what you think you’re interested in. Learn new skills throughout your entire life. Shake up your well-worn routines. Try new foods and drinks. When you expand your range, you expand your human well-being.
I loved Range and I’m 100% sure that I’ll be recommending it far and wide for years to come.
In the News: Signalgate
This section offers a book recommendation based on recent headlines, to help you make sense of the world with a bit more depth and context rather than just clickbait.
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre
This 2018 book tells the true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a high-ranking KGB officer who became a British double agent during the Cold War. His life — and the fate of entire nations — depended entirely on secure communication channels and precise tradecraft. In our era of Slack messages, cloud storage, and disappearing DMs, this book is a heart-pounding reminder that information, and how it’s transmitted, can still tip the scales of history.
March Round-Up
Short takes on other books I read this month. This list does not include books that I’ve given a full review in the newsletter.
Lorne by Susan Morrison. Enjoyable for fans of SNL and showbiz in general, but got rather long and overly detailed.
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens. I actually DNFed this one, which is often considered Dickens’ worst novel. I have to agree.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. I enjoyed this one well enough, and the audio production was great, but it got rather weird at the end. Big-time H.P. Lovecraft vibes. I can’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t a fan of out-there horror.
Y2K by Colette Shade. A pop culture-fueled examination of the Y2K era. This was trying to be like Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties, but didn’t do as good a job. Overall it was fine, but skippable for most readers.
A Bell for Adano by John Hersey. This WWII-era novel felt a bit rosy-eyed and sentimental. Given that it won the Pulitzer smack in the middle of WWII, it makes sense that the public wanted a feel-good war story. It also makes sense, then, why it doesn’t quite hold up 80 years later. Both The Caine Mutiny and Catch-22 have similar vibes and are much better.
5 Things: Links and Opinions
😆 Conan O’Brien recently received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The above excerpt of his acceptance speech — which is coming in full to Netflix on May 4 — is a fantastic primer on Twain’s importance today. It’s only three minutes, give it a watch!
🩳 I have one more hiking rec, courtesy of our Utah trip: Prana Zion pants have gotten me through hundreds of miles of hiking, not to mention everyday wear around town. I’ve had two pairs for about 10 years and finally added a third pair last year. I wear ‘em all the time.
🏃 In a feat of political courage and sheer physical endurance, Cory Booker broke the record for longest speech on the senate floor, holding court for an astounding 25 hours and 5 minutes. The best part about it? Strom Thurmond set the record in 1957 by protesting the Civil Rights Act. This is the kind of history I’m here for.
⚾ Baseball is back! In the last few years, however, I’ve become more of an NBA fan (see below). With young kids, my sports-watching is pretty darn limited — and when it comes to baseball, there’s just not quite enough action for watching a few minutes at a time. (Although maybe the new “torpedo bats” will make things more interesting.)
🏀 I’ve mentioned basketball-related media a few times in the last few months, but it’s worth another one because all-time great analyst and podcaster Zach Lowe is back in business after being let go from ESPN last year. Unequivocally good for basketball fans.
Thanks so much for reading. Be good to each other.
-Jeremy
Just finished Range. I'll admit, I went in with a bias leaning towards specialization. The more I read and reflected though, the more I started to see how having a broad background and NOT being specialized has benefited me in life, career, etc. Rarely does a book challenge my views like this. I guess you could say I see the benefits of both having range and an expertise.
Super interesting book. The chapter on the Challenger disaster hit me hard.
"Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." I've had a varied career path as well, and I believe that it has been ultimately wise, if mostly unintended. Specialized skills are fine, but in this ever changing world they can become obsolete with the next innovation.