The book this episode covers
Bourdain
Laurie Woolever · Reading rank 214 · in 2 other episodes
David highly recommends the biography despite its difficult, tragic subject matter.
Dedicated episode · Explicit praise · Founder theme
Books David recommends along the way
A Man for All Markets
Edward O. Thorp · Reading rank 14 · in 16 other episodes
David calls A Man for All Markets fantastic and urges listeners to read it.
Cross-episode reference · Explicit praise · Founder theme
Setting the Table
Danny Meyer · Reading rank 26 · in 14 other episodes
David calls Danny Meyer's Setting the Table an absolutely fantastic book.
Cross-episode reference · Explicit praise
Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success
Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg · Reading rank 98 · in 4 other episodes
Cross-episode reference
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz · Reading rank 331 · in 4 other episodes
David attributes the 'euphoria or terror' startup framing to a book he believes is The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
Founder theme
Kitchen Confidential
Anthony Bourdain · Reading rank 383 · in 3 other episodes
David recounts advice Bourdain received to relentlessly promote Kitchen Confidential after its release.
Founder theme
A Cook's Tour
Anthony Bourdain · Reading rank 434
David explains that Bourdain wrote A Cook's Tour while traveling to fifteen cities and that the project became his first television show, the starting point for the work that later evolved into No Reservations and Parts Unknown.
Founder theme
Also mentioned
My Turn
Johan Cruyff · Reading rank 207 · in 2 other episodes
David carries the Cruyff book's warning about large-institution bureaucracy into his analysis of Bourdain's product-first stance.
Cross-episode reference · Founder theme
Bone in the Throat
Anthony Bourdain · Reading rank 472
David uses a quoted recollection of Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo to illustrate the discipline, focus, experience, and drive behind Bourdain's transformation from cook to published writer.
Founder theme
Gone Bamboo
Anthony Bourdain · Reading rank 472
David uses Gone Bamboo to connect Bourdain's fiction to the quiet beach-and-cocktail life he said he wanted and to the tension between that stated dream and the driven working life he continued to choose.
Founder theme
Each note is a short paraphrase of why David brings the book up. Book pages show every piece of evidence and its review status. How ranking works