{
  "title": "The PointCast reading shelf",
  "url": "https://pointcast.xyz/books/",
  "description": "Twenty reading doors (nineteen books and an interview/essay room) with original artwork, edition comparisons, sources and external purchase or borrowing routes.",
  "readingMap": {
    "url": "https://pointcast.xyz/books/map/",
    "metadata": "https://pointcast.xyz/books/map.json",
    "records": 87,
    "source": "Manually reviewed user-supplied Goodreads RSS snapshot. Title and author metadata only; not ratings, reading activity or a complete account scan."
  },
  "books": [
    {
      "id": "siddhartha",
      "title": "Siddhartha",
      "author": "Hermann Hesse",
      "kind": "A novel",
      "firstPublished": "1922",
      "href": "/siddhartha/",
      "metadata": "/siddhartha.json",
      "image": "/images/siddhartha/river-horizon.webp",
      "tone": "river",
      "themes": [
        "attention",
        "place"
      ],
      "note": "A life in search of itself. Compare translations, follow the river, find a copy."
    },
    {
      "id": "den-of-thieves",
      "title": "Den of Thieves",
      "author": "James B. Stewart",
      "kind": "Reported nonfiction",
      "firstPublished": "1991",
      "href": "/books/den-of-thieves/",
      "metadata": "/books/den-of-thieves.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshop/den-of-thieves.webp",
      "tone": "midnight",
      "themes": [
        "power"
      ],
      "note": "Inside the ambition and financial crime of 1980s Wall Street. Read the record closely."
    },
    {
      "id": "playing-for-pizza",
      "title": "Playing for Pizza",
      "author": "John Grisham",
      "kind": "A novel",
      "firstPublished": "2007",
      "href": "/books/playing-for-pizza/",
      "metadata": "/books/playing-for-pizza.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshop/playing-for-pizza.webp",
      "tone": "parma",
      "themes": [
        "place",
        "attention"
      ],
      "note": "American football, a second chance and life in Parma. A different sort of Grisham."
    },
    {
      "id": "barbarians-at-the-gate",
      "title": "Barbarians at the Gate",
      "author": "Bryan Burrough & John Helyar",
      "kind": "Reported business history",
      "firstPublished": "1990",
      "href": "/books/barbarians-at-the-gate/",
      "metadata": "/books/barbarians-at-the-gate.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf/barbarians-at-the-gate.webp",
      "tone": "oxblood",
      "themes": [
        "power"
      ],
      "note": "A reported corporate drama about the contest for RJR Nabisco. Follow the people before the numbers."
    },
    {
      "id": "new-rules-for-the-new-economy",
      "title": "New Rules for the New Economy",
      "author": "Kevin Kelly",
      "kind": "Ideas & economic argument",
      "firstPublished": "1998",
      "href": "/books/new-rules-for-the-new-economy/",
      "metadata": "/books/new-rules-for-the-new-economy.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf/new-rules-for-the-new-economy.webp",
      "tone": "sage",
      "themes": [
        "networks",
        "power",
        "attention"
      ],
      "note": "Kevin Kelly’s 1998 argument about connected systems. Read its proposals in their moment, then test the questions they leave."
    },
    {
      "id": "ethan-frome",
      "title": "Ethan Frome",
      "author": "Edith Wharton",
      "kind": "A novella",
      "firstPublished": "1911",
      "href": "/books/ethan-frome/",
      "metadata": "/books/ethan-frome.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf/ethan-frome.webp",
      "tone": "winter",
      "themes": [
        "place",
        "memory"
      ],
      "note": "Edith Wharton’s compressed story of desire and constraint. Attend to the weather, the rooms and the distance between telling and knowing."
    },
    {
      "id": "treasure-island",
      "title": "Treasure Island",
      "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
      "kind": "An adventure novel",
      "firstPublished": "1883",
      "href": "/books/treasure-island/",
      "metadata": "/books/treasure-island.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf/treasure-island.webp",
      "tone": "sea",
      "themes": [
        "adventure",
        "place"
      ],
      "note": "A voyage, a dangerous company and a young narrator learning to judge people. Follow the voices as closely as the map."
    },
    {
      "id": "the-kite-runner",
      "title": "The Kite Runner",
      "author": "Khaled Hosseini",
      "kind": "A novel",
      "firstPublished": "2003",
      "href": "/books/the-kite-runner/",
      "metadata": "/books/the-kite-runner.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf/the-kite-runner.webp",
      "tone": "indigo",
      "themes": [
        "memory",
        "place"
      ],
      "note": "Khaled Hosseini’s novel of friendship, memory and responsibility across a changing Afghanistan and a life abroad."
    },
    {
      "id": "mistborn-the-final-empire",
      "title": "Mistborn",
      "author": "Brandon Sanderson",
      "kind": "Epic fantasy",
      "firstPublished": "2006",
      "href": "/books/mistborn-the-final-empire/",
      "metadata": "/books/mistborn-the-final-empire.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf/mistborn-the-final-empire.webp",
      "tone": "ash",
      "themes": [
        "fantasy",
        "power",
        "adventure"
      ],
      "note": "Begin Sanderson’s Mistborn sequence with its first novel: a crew, a dangerous plan and a world whose rules matter."
    },
    {
      "id": "what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars",
      "title": "What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars",
      "author": "Jim Paul & Brendan Moynihan",
      "kind": "Autobiographical trading account and argument about decision-making under loss",
      "firstPublished": "1994",
      "href": "/books/what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars/",
      "metadata": "/books/what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars.webp",
      "tone": "oxblood",
      "themes": [
        "power",
        "attention"
      ],
      "note": "Paul and Moynihan revisit a trader's experience of a large loss and ask how confidence, attachment and judgment interact. Read the personal account beside the authors' explanations, keeping the difference between a vivid case and a general claim in view."
    },
    {
      "id": "troy-shield-of-thunder",
      "title": "Troy: Shield of Thunder",
      "author": "David Gemmell",
      "kind": "Novel; heroic historical fiction drawing on the Troy tradition",
      "firstPublished": "2006",
      "href": "/books/troy-shield-of-thunder/",
      "metadata": "/books/troy-shield-of-thunder.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/troy-shield-of-thunder.webp",
      "tone": "sea",
      "themes": [
        "adventure",
        "place"
      ],
      "note": "The coast is a meeting place for travellers, warriors and uneasy alliances. As conflict gathers around Troy, Gemmell asks what courage and loyalty might mean to people caught inside a legend. This is the second part of a continuing story: begin with Lord of the Silver Bow, then arrive here with its relationships still in mind."
    },
    {
      "id": "the-etymologicon",
      "title": "The Etymologicon",
      "author": "Mark Forsyth",
      "kind": "Popular nonfiction about English word histories and connections",
      "firstPublished": "2011",
      "href": "/books/the-etymologicon/",
      "metadata": "/books/the-etymologicon.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/the-etymologicon.webp",
      "tone": "sage",
      "themes": [
        "language",
        "networks"
      ],
      "note": "One familiar word opens a door into another. Forsyth follows unexpected connections through English, turning vocabulary into a trail of small discoveries. Read for the pleasure of being carried somewhere you did not expect, then choose a few word histories to explore more closely."
    },
    {
      "id": "the-horologicon",
      "title": "The Horologicon",
      "author": "Mark Forsyth",
      "kind": "Popular nonfiction about unusual and historical vocabulary",
      "firstPublished": "2012",
      "href": "/books/the-horologicon/",
      "metadata": "/books/the-horologicon.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/the-horologicon.webp",
      "tone": "winter",
      "themes": [
        "language",
        "attention"
      ],
      "note": "A day becomes a way of finding words. Forsyth moves from waking toward bedtime, gathering unusual vocabulary around familiar activities. Read it beside your own routines: the pleasure lies in discovering that a feeling or small habit you thought unnamed has a linguistic companion."
    },
    {
      "id": "atomic-habits",
      "title": "Atomic Habits",
      "author": "James Clear",
      "kind": "Popular nonfiction about habits and personal change",
      "firstPublished": "2018",
      "href": "/books/atomic-habits/",
      "metadata": "/books/atomic-habits.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/atomic-habits.webp",
      "tone": "indigo",
      "themes": [
        "practice",
        "attention"
      ],
      "note": "Clear organizes everyday behavior into a practical account of small changes, surroundings and repeated choices. Read one proposal at a time, asking what conditions make it useful and where a memorable rule needs qualification."
    },
    {
      "id": "paul-graham-startup-essays",
      "title": "Paul Graham: The Art of Funding a Startup",
      "author": "Catalog-attributed Andrew Warner / Hyperink · interview with Paul Graham",
      "kind": "Interview and essay reading room",
      "firstPublished": "Not verified",
      "href": "/books/paul-graham-startup-essays/",
      "metadata": "/books/paul-graham-startup-essays.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/paul-graham-startup-essays.webp",
      "tone": "ash",
      "themes": [
        "networks",
        "power"
      ],
      "note": "The name on a cover can identify a subject without identifying an author. This historical interview edition points toward a conversation with Paul Graham about startups. Begin with the original interview and his official essays, keeping their dates and publication roles visible."
    },
    {
      "id": "think-and-grow-rich",
      "title": "Think and Grow Rich",
      "author": "Napoleon Hill",
      "kind": "Historical motivational nonfiction",
      "firstPublished": "1937",
      "href": "/books/think-and-grow-rich/",
      "metadata": "/books/think-and-grow-rich.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/think-and-grow-rich.webp",
      "tone": "oxblood",
      "themes": [
        "practice",
        "power"
      ],
      "note": "Hill’s 1937 book turns desire, persistence and organized effort into a program of personal achievement. Practical suggestions about planning sit beside claims about faith, autosuggestion and the powers of the mind. Read the confidence of its voice closely, and keep a separate place for questions about its evidence."
    },
    {
      "id": "the-law-of-success",
      "title": "The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons",
      "author": "Napoleon Hill",
      "kind": "Historical motivational nonfiction",
      "firstPublished": "1928",
      "href": "/books/the-law-of-success/",
      "metadata": "/books/the-law-of-success.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/the-law-of-success.webp",
      "tone": "indigo",
      "themes": [
        "practice",
        "networks"
      ],
      "note": "Hill’s extended course puts personal achievement into a sequence of lessons. Definite aims, effort and cooperation share space with a philosophy of mental power. Read it at the scale of a course: one lesson, a few notes, and enough distance to question the claims before accepting them."
    },
    {
      "id": "as-a-man-thinketh",
      "title": "As a Man Thinketh",
      "author": "James Allen",
      "kind": "Historical motivational nonfiction",
      "firstPublished": "1903",
      "href": "/books/as-a-man-thinketh/",
      "metadata": "/books/as-a-man-thinketh.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/as-a-man-thinketh.webp",
      "tone": "sage",
      "themes": [
        "attention",
        "practice"
      ],
      "note": "A brief sequence of meditations asks what repeated thoughts do to character, purpose and daily conduct. Allen writes through images of cultivation: the mind as a place to tend, the life as something that takes shape over time. Read it as an encounter with an influential historical voice, leaving room to question how far its claims can reach."
    },
    {
      "id": "the-science-of-getting-rich",
      "title": "The Science of Getting Rich",
      "author": "Wallace D. Wattles",
      "kind": "Historical motivational nonfiction",
      "firstPublished": "1910",
      "href": "/books/the-science-of-getting-rich/",
      "metadata": "/books/the-science-of-getting-rich.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/the-science-of-getting-rich.webp",
      "tone": "winter",
      "themes": [
        "practice",
        "power"
      ],
      "note": "Seventeen short chapters connect purposeful action, gratitude and imagined possibility to a spiritual theory of prosperity. Wattles asks readers to think creatively rather than competitively. The interest today lies partly in watching how an early twentieth-century writer gives conviction the language of a method—and where that confidence asks more of the evidence than the text provides."
    },
    {
      "id": "soul-surfer",
      "title": "Soul Surfer",
      "author": "By Bethany Hamilton and Rick Bundschuh, with Sheryl Berk",
      "kind": "Autobiographical sports memoir; young-adult nonfiction with an explicit Christian perspective",
      "firstPublished": "2004",
      "href": "/books/soul-surfer/",
      "metadata": "/books/soul-surfer.json",
      "image": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/soul-surfer.webp",
      "tone": "sea",
      "themes": [
        "memory",
        "place"
      ],
      "note": "Before it is a comeback story, this is a surfer's account of a life organized around the water. Hamilton writes about injury, family, Christian faith and the practical work of returning to a sport she loves. Read for her particular voice and experience, noticing the people and adjustments that make participation possible."
    }
  ],
  "literaryDoors": [
    {
      "title": "The Bukowski room",
      "href": "/bukowski/",
      "image": "/images/bukowski/room.webp",
      "label": "A literary tribute",
      "note": "A quieter room for the work, the voice and the contradictions. An existing PointCast tribute, with its own reading paths."
    }
  ],
  "themes": [
    {
      "id": "all",
      "label": "Everything"
    },
    {
      "id": "power",
      "label": "Power & money"
    },
    {
      "id": "networks",
      "label": "Networks & ideas"
    },
    {
      "id": "place",
      "label": "Place & belonging"
    },
    {
      "id": "adventure",
      "label": "Adventure"
    },
    {
      "id": "memory",
      "label": "Memory & choices"
    },
    {
      "id": "fantasy",
      "label": "Fantasy"
    },
    {
      "id": "attention",
      "label": "Attention"
    },
    {
      "id": "language",
      "label": "Words & language"
    },
    {
      "id": "practice",
      "label": "Habits & aspiration"
    }
  ],
  "commerce": {
    "inventory": false,
    "checkout": false,
    "prices": false,
    "affiliateLinks": false
  },
  "copyright": "Original editorial copy and generated atmosphere artwork. Full texts are linked only through authorized or jurisdiction-qualified public-domain sources. Modern introductions, notes, translations and illustrations retain separate rights.",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-03"
}