Updates

  1. Person pages list letters, writing, profiles and links as sortable tables with filters, and show each person's companies as links; Fund letters show each letter's description in its own column.
  2. Experts show a checked job title and a short description of each person; 30 more people have photographs.
  3. Every company, fund, university and publication the experts work for has a page listing the people there.
  4. Fund letters show each letter's thesis and filter by it; 225 person pages list the essays, columns and newsletter issues the person wrote.
  5. Person pages list every essay and newsletter issue a person wrote, and their own books as a table in List view.
  6. Recommends shows the five largest kinds of book and the rest under More; browse pictures load sooner.
  7. Podcasts and talks link the original episode, filter by Audio and video or Press, and list each publisher once.
  8. Pages are wider, Recommends has List and Grid, and a filter clicked again turns off.
  9. Book cards sit in a ruled grid with Open Library and Goodreads links and each book's one-line note.
  10. Funds is now Investors; each investor's styles are buttons that filter the table.
  11. Podcasts and talks on a person's page filter by year and publisher and show as a list or a grid of pictures.
  12. Quotes show only people's own words: 472 summaries written by list sites are gone.
  13. Country pages open from Browse again, and every link on the shelf lands on a page.
  14. Subject and person pages show their sections as tabs, and each book appears once on a person's page.
  15. Book cards show the quote, who said it and the source; grids show five cards to a row.
  16. On a phone, a menu holds the sections, search, Updates, Feedback and dark mode.
  17. Feedback takes a screenshot of the page with no browser prompt, opens a screenshot full size when you click it, and clears itself once sent.
  18. Book cards are centred, search names the topic each book sits in, and any text cut short shows whole on hover.
  19. Search groups its results by kind: people, companies, geographies, subjects, topics, books, funds, fund letters and papers.
  20. The Books table lists who recommended each book by name, and the browser tab names the section you are in.
  21. Feedback can take a screenshot of the page, or one you paste or choose, and opens in the corner beside Updates.
  22. Each rail button reopens its section where you left it, and Browse, Table and People show on every book and subject page.
  23. Filters grey out choices that hold nothing instead of hiding them, and Books › People filters by authors or recommenders.
  24. Feedback takes a subject line and up to three screenshots.
  25. Biographies are grouped by the person they are about: 41 new pages, from Abraham Lincoln to Lee Kuan Yew.
  26. Sport splits into 23 sports, and Religion into one topic per faith.
  27. Book lists show as cards: the cover, one recommendation quote and every recommender by name.
  28. Seventeen subjects that had two or three pages under different names now have one page each.
  29. Every page lists its Experts as authors and recommenders, with a link to them on the Experts tab.
  30. Economics, Financial history, Financial panics and Accounting are subjects of their own, with one page per financial crisis.
  31. Book, person and subject pages open inside the app, so the tabs stay in view.
  32. 996 more book covers, and photographs or logos for 227 more people and companies.
  33. Books › Browse shows every subject as cards, and the rail holds Fund letters, Papers, Experts, Books and Funds.
  34. Every topic over 150 books splits into narrower topics, each with a page of its own.

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Cities and urban life

Society and culture

Holds books on how cities grow, work and fail, from Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford to Edward Glaeser, Jan Gehl and studies of single cities such as Bombay, Dubai and San Francisco.

Books 29Experts 1Recommenders 23

Start here

  1. The Death and Life of Great American CitiesJane Jacobs, 1961
  2. The Economy of CitiesJane Jacobs, 1969
  3. Crabgrass FrontierKenneth T. Jackson, 1985
  4. The New Geography of JobsEnrico Moretti, 2012
  5. Arrival CityDoug Saunders, 2010
The Death and Life of Great American CitiesThe Death and Life of Great American Cities
T1 The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane Jacobs · 1961
Open LibraryGoodreads

What makes city streets work, and how 1950s planning and slum clearance broke them.

Recommended by: Patrick Collison, Chris Dixon, Daniel Burka and 1 other

The Economy of CitiesThe Economy of Cities
T2 The Economy of Cities
Jane Jacobs · 1969
Open LibraryGoodreads

Cities, not farms, drive economic growth by adding new work to old.

Crabgrass FrontierCrabgrass Frontier
T2 Crabgrass Frontier
Kenneth T. Jackson · 1985
Open LibraryGoodreads

How Americans chose separate suburban houses and how that shaped the country.

The New Geography of JobsThe New Geography of Jobs
T2 The New Geography of Jobs
Enrico Moretti · 2012
Open LibraryGoodreads

Why US cities have split apart in wages and jobs, and why innovation hubs pull ahead.

Arrival CityArrival City
T3 Arrival City
Doug Saunders · 2010
Open LibraryGoodreads

The migrant districts on the edges of growing cities, where rural people move to.

Dubai, the City as CorporationDubai, the City as Corporation
T3 Dubai, the City as Corporation
Ahmed Kanna · 2011
Open LibraryGoodreads

Dubai governed openly as a company, and what that means for those who invest there.

Kuwait TransformedKuwait Transformed
T3 Kuwait Transformed
Farah Al-Nakib · 2016
Open LibraryGoodreads

How oil rebuilt Kuwait City and how land deals made its merchant fortunes.

The City in HistoryThe City in History
T4 The City in History
Lewis Mumford · 1961
Open LibraryGoodreads

How cities developed, from Egypt and Mesopotamia through Greece and Rome to today.

Recommended by: Keith Rabois, Patrick Collison

Toward a radical middle: Fourteen pieces of Toward a radical middle: Fourteen pieces of reporting and criticism
T4 Toward a radical middle: Fourteen pieces of reporting and criticism
Renata Adler · 1969
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

How Buildings LearnHow Buildings Learn
T4 How Buildings Learn
Stewart Brand · 1994
Open LibraryGoodreads

Buildings as processes that change after they are built, and how to design for it.

Recommended by: Stewart Brand, Caterina Fake, Daniel Burka and 3 others

Chicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the LiChicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City
T4 Chicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City
Stevenson Swanson, Chicago Tribune · 1997
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

Outside Lies MagicOutside Lies Magic
T4 Outside Lies Magic
John R. Stilgoe · 1998
Open LibraryGoodreads

Reading the built landscape; observation trained as a research habit

“Professor John Stilgoe at Harvard is trying to teach it and wrote an interesting book recently entitled "Outside Lies Magic” — Nick Sleep

Source: Nomad Investment Partnership, Annual Letter for the period ended December 31st, 2005, p. 76

Recommended by: Nick Sleep

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and FoundMaximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
T4 Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
Suketu Mehta · 2004
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

The High Cost of Free ParkingThe High Cost of Free Parking
T4 The High Cost of Free Parking
Donald Shoup · 2005
Open LibraryGoodreads

How free parking costs society, and why parking should be priced and deregulated.

Recommended by: Bill Gurley

The City That Became SafeThe City That Became Safe
T4 The City That Became Safe
Franklin E. Zimring · 2011
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Bill Gates

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest InventTriumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier
T4 Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier
Edward L. Glaeser · 2011
Open LibraryGoodreads

How dense cities make people more productive, inventive and green.

“on the central role cities play in our world and why it's so important for us to build them” — Marc Andreessen

Source: @pmarca, companion thread to 'It's Time to Build'

Recommended by: Marc Andreessen, Mohnish Pabrai and 2 others

Season of the WitchSeason of the Witch
T4 Season of the Witch
David Talbot · 2012
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

The Victorian City: Everyday Life in DickensThe Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London
T4 The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London
Judith Flanders · 2012
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an UrbaA Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America
T4 A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America
Vishaan Chakrabarti · 2013
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

Happy CityHappy City
T4 Happy City
Charles Montgomery · 2013
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Mr. Money Mustache

How to Study Public LifeHow to Study Public Life
T4 How to Study Public Life
Jan Gehl · 2013
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

Capital: The Eruption of DelhiCapital: The Eruption of Delhi
T4 Capital: The Eruption of Delhi
Rana Dasgupta · 2014
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

Eyes on the StreetEyes on the Street
T4 Eyes on the Street
Robert Kanigel · 2016
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Paul Graham

Nonstop MetropolisNonstop Metropolis
T4 Nonstop Metropolis
Rebecca Solnit · 2016
Open LibraryGoodreads

Twenty-six imaginative maps of New York City and the lives lived within it.

Recommended by: Laura R Walker

The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science,The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life
T4 The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life
Jonathan F. P. Rose · 2016
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

Order Without DesignOrder Without Design
T4 Order Without Design
Alain Bertaud · 2018
Open LibraryGoodreads

Cities as labour markets, and planning that works with land markets.

Recommended by: Alexis Ohanian, Emmett Shear and 1 other

Golden GatesGolden Gates
T4 Golden Gates
Conor Dougherty · 2020
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Marc Andreessen

San FransickoSan Fransicko
T4 San Fransicko
Michael Shellenberger
Goodreads

Recommended by: Matt Mullenweg

The Rise of the Creative ClassThe Rise of the Creative Class
T4 The Rise of the Creative Class
Richard Florida
Goodreads

Recommended by: Nat Eliason

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