Lex Roman answers The Questionnaire

Edition no 12. Date: 3 August 2026
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Welcome to the first edition of the Questionnaire, a collection of six questions featuring interesting people and their recommendations for books, apps, and media.

Lex Roman is a writer and the publisher of “Revenue Rulebreaker”- a community-fuelled small business media. On this, they are covering service businesses, memberships, digital products, and how to succeed as a small business.
Their work experience covers growth, publishing and media ventures, working with clients like Toyota, Nissan, Gusto and Macy's.
Currently, Lex is travelling in Latin America, but you can find them in Bogotá, Colombia.

Follow them on lexroman.com/about and https://www.revenuerulebreaker.com/start-here/

What is your favourite bookshop?

Dog Eared Books in San Francisco and Matorral Librería in Bogotá.

What piece of technology/gadget do you miss?

Super 8mm filmmaking. I come from a theatrical, filmmaking family. When I was a kid, my uncle Dave used to shoot our family vacation movies on Super 8, but they weren’t normal home movies. He would write re-enactments of movies like Godzilla, Karate Kid and Miami Vice and cast my family as all the actors. They were extremely hokey in the most perfect way with blow-up monsters and fake explosions drawn on paper. His handmade special effects were impressive, like making a can of Cream of Mushroom soup smoke out the top. The funniest part was that Super 8 cameras don’t usually have sound, so my uncle did all the voices in post. He was voicing everyone from my grandmother to all us little kids, including my cousin Zak, who was the star of every film. When Uncle Dave cut them together, he would make intricate titles using things like sand and grass, meticulously crafting every frame. This was back in the 80s when digital editors didn’t exist. He was physically cutting and splicing film to produce these. Years later, when I was in college, I made a short documentary about the lost art of physical film editing, and I also started shooting my own Super 8 and 16mm movies.

What is the app or software you cannot live without?

Sunsama, which is a task manager and daily planner that keeps me on track with my work and writing. Perfect for ADHD.

What’s in your to-be-read pile?

“The AI Con” by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. Link to the book.

“When McKinsey comes to town” by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe. Link to the book.

“Monsters. A fan’s dilemma” by Claire Dederer. Link to the book.

Also looking forward to “Don’t Be Evil” a book about Google by Claire Stapleton, which comes out in August. Link to the book.

How are you taking notes on things you find interesting?

I use the built-in notes app on my phone. I do carry a notebook nearly always, but I use that more to work out ideas than to capture them. I rarely refer back to it.

What’s the last piece of media that made you feel something?

I went to see a movie last week called Barrio Triste, which is about what life was like in Medellín, Colombia in the 80s through the lens of four teens growing up there. I hated it, and I hated that I hated it because while the story, the characters and the music were truly excellent, the filmmaking style being completely handheld made it unwatchable for me, physically nauseous. I couldn’t make it through the movie, and it made me frustrated that I couldn’t stomach it. My reaction to this film is perhaps an interesting parallel for the oil and water cultural challenges Colombia is facing thanks to gringos like me. Perhaps it’s fitting that some culture is untouchable.

Matorral Librería on the left (or first on mobile), Dog Eared Books on the right (or second on mobile). Last two images: Matorral Librería. Images via Lex Roman and Matorral Instagram.

Recommendations

• Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s Odyssey. From her essay in the London Review of Books:
  “Adaptations needn’t and shouldn’t follow the original with anything like the exactitude of a translation. Some of the best radically transform or resist the source material, providing what Harold Bloom called ‘strong misreadings’ of their ancestors. The most memorable creative responses to The Odyssey – such as Euripides’ Helen, Virgil’s Aeneid, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Joyce’s Ulysses, Walcott’s Omeros, Atwood’s Penelopiad, Madeline Miller’s Circe or Lisa Peterson’s play set in a modern migrant camp – reconsider the poem’s structure, narrative and values. In theory, Nolan seems to understand the assignment and its hazards.” Link

• Mary Beard’s review in The Times gives more context outside Odysseus’ journey:
  “The Odyssey goes far beyond boy’s own-style adventures. It raises big questions of what heroism and manhood are (the poem’s very first word is “man”), of what it takes to grow up, how war changes you and how difficult homecoming is. Is “home” ever the same when you get back as it was when you left it?” Link

• Ian Glen (Game of Thrones, Resident Evil, Downton Abbey) is hosting a history podcast about the real Vikings. It has a great immersive sound design that supports the narrative act of Ian Glen. Perfect for some lazy afternoons. Link

Until next time,

Daniel