What's in Keith's library?

Spoilers: It's books.

If you're a Rockefeller, your legacy likely includes colleges and museums featuring your name, and vast philanthropic funding for causes you favor.

But if you're the rest of us, our legacies create a smaller footprint. One way for the people who come after you to know something about who you were, is by the books found in your library.

So if you're reading this and curious to learn about me, here's some insight into some of the actual paper books I have, broken done very roughly by category.

Law and crime

A lot of my work experience is related to law enforcement and adjacent industries. I haven't been a cop for a long time, but I was for a bit, and while these books are a bit dated now, there are still some good tips in here about staying safe on the street.

• Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters (Charles Remsberg, ISBN 978-0935878004)
• The Tactical Edge: Surviving High-Risk Patrol (Charles Remsberg, ISBN 978-0935878059)

Later, while working as a private investigator, a big chunk of my work hours were just focused on finding people. One of my most rewarding cases was finding a kid who had been taken in a parental abduction, a case which ultimately spanned four countries. A hugely useful book in that endeavor was an OSINT resource. Some would say the OSINT resource.

• Open Source Intelligence Techniques (Michael Bazzell, ISBN 1530508908)

That book is also super helpful in better understanding your own digital footprint. A lot of the cases I worked as a private investigator were anti-stalking cases, and knowing what people can easily find about you can save your life.

I know of one example where a woman was killed by her ex-boyfriend, despite letting her employer know about the stalking, and the protection order, and also taking extensive precautions to obfuscate her location. But a "helpful" coworker updated the employee directory with her new office number, and that was all it took to let her stalker find her. Simple details about your life, in the wrong hands, can truly harm you.

There is a tremendous overlap between being good at surveillance and being good at counter-surveillance. They are not the same skill set certainly, but knowing how people watch you can help you take steps to mitigate that harm. Surveillance Tradecraft (Peter Jenkins, ‎ ISBN 978-0953537822) is a good starting point to learn how cops, PIs, and creeps keep an eye on you.

For times you need a more direct approach in finding someone, typically in the context of search and rescue, this book has you covered:

• Fundamentals of Mantracking (Albert Taylor, ‎ ISBN 978-1629149615)

Last in this category, an excellent resource to understand how people commit fraud, is the official guide put out by the Association for Fraud Examiners. The ACFE Fraud Examiner's Manual is expensive, and extensive, and covers just about every fraud scheme that has ever existed.

Most crime isn't too inventive, it just relies on prevention being too expensive or too much work to succeed. If you run a small business and can find a copy at your library, this manual is such a good tool to understand how inventory and cash go out the back door without your knowledge.

Finance

Do you like money? Do you want more of it? Than it pays (heh) to have a solid understanding of how investing works. And don't stop at "buy index fund" even if that might be the best actual strategy for you. If you hate money, it's still useful to know how the ruling class is able to turn so much of your money into their money. These two books are not really entry-level reading, but both are phenomenal at helping you understand how investments are priced, how options work, and why you'll never win on the futures market if you're just some guy.

• Investments (Zvi Bodie, ISBN 978-1260571158)
• Fundamental of Futures and Options Markets (John C. Hull, ISBN 978-1292410654)

Motorcycling

I have been riding motorcycles on and off for about 20 years. My first bike was a Kawasaki Ninja 250. Adorable. Looked faster than it was. And was actually a solid commuter vehicle getting like 70 miles to the gallon.

Nowadays, as a middle-aged white dude, I ride an adventure motorcycle. I can proudly say she goes on actual adventures, and not just trips to the coffee shop. And as a KTM motorcycle (seen here), sometimes she even runs!

These two books were super useful in developing my riding skills in the early days, and I think anyone getting into riding should look for extra training and knowledge anyway you can. If you can take a class, do it. If you can't afford a class, get one of these from your library:

• Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well (David L. Hough, ISBN 978-1935484677)
• Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques (Lee Parks, ISBN 978-1627885607)

Stay woke

Marcus Garvey and Lead Belly were right. Except for that mail fraud bit, I guess. But the world is full of injustice, and most of it is directed towards people who aren't like me. It's okay to recognize that, and if you disagree I doubt we'd get along.

It might surprise you to learn I own this next book, given my past work experience. But something needs to change, and slow reform isn't going to get it done. Fully abolishing the police sounds radical, in large part because people assume it means like, one day there are cops, and the next day there are none. Don't be that person, and like most real problems in life, the solutions are complicated. Read No More Police: A Case for Abolition (Mariame Kaba, ISBN ‎ 978-1620977309) for an understanding on some positive steps we could take to improve policing in America. Even if we just made some of these changes, everyone would benefit, including most cops ironically. A good read.

If you're in the small inner circle of my friends you know I have some strong feelings about patriarchy, and feminism. You should have those feelings too, and the world would be so much better if people would just take the time to understand what these concepts actually mean, and the goals they actually have to help. The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging the Persistence of Patriarchy (Cynthia Enloe, ISBN 978-0520969193) is a deep dive into the reality of patriarchy, and how it shapes all of our lives, usually for the worse.

Another good book to understand people who aren't like me (and probably different from you too) is Queering Anarchism (C.B. Daring, ISBN 978-1849351218). It's a collection of a couple dozen essays on "queerness." If you've ever worried about the "trans agenda" here is your opportunity to actually read it! Spoilers: Folks just want to live their lives, and boy have we made it hard for some people to do that.

Miscellaneous

And finally a random selection of some other books on my shelf, that I think most people would like.

When I was briefly a Pilates instructor (curse you COVID) the Trail Guide to the Body (Andrew Biel, ISBN 978-0998785066) was the resource my teacher used to help us learn about muscles in our body, and how things work to help us move in various directions. I think everyone should read this and have a copy at hand, even if you just want to understand like, "why does my elbow hurt?" Bodies are complicated, and this book helps explain things.

Speaking of pain, I would hate to live in a submarine, because close quarters with a bunch of squids sounds awful (side note: Go Army, beat Navy). That said, the reality of submarines sneaking through the ocean and just...keeping an ear on things is pretty wild. Blind Man's Bluff (Sherry Sontag, ISBN 978-1586486785) is one example, and just a fascinating look into a life I hope to never lead. And at this point it's a pretty safe bet I won't.

Submarine battles kind of remind me of old-timey kung fu movies where everyone puts on a blindfold to show off.

Finally, and also from YouTube, the really cool Kurzgesagt channel wrote a book about our immune system and how it works, predictably titled Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive (Philipp Dettmer, ISBN 978-0593241332). Want to know why you didn't die from some random fungus spore last week? Me too! And this book has the answers.

So who is Keith?

Armed with that knowledge about me now, what conclusions have you drawn about me? Post in the comments below no just kidding I'm not trying to deal with spammers everyday. But if you want to have a chat, reach out on my Contact page and say hi!