In 2018 I completed 40 books and spend ~$330.
I spent very little time listening to music or podcasts, it was almost all audiobooks.
If you are familiar with reading lists on pages like mine, you may notice it’s not filled with same “self development” books so many of my peers are reading. I would like to say loud and to the world that I think non-fiction self help books are over hyped, and they under deliver.
There are certainly a few good ones, but how much time does one person need to spend getting their mindset right?? Get it right and get to learning. This circle of motivational texts is similar to traveling motivational speakers and “guru’s”. They don’t have any technical proficiency of how the world works, they just know how to sell their story well.
My MUST READ list of 2018
Sapeins
you’ve heard me talk at all this year, you likely heard me mention this book. Why? read it and find out.
This book provides historical and cultural perspective for everything we know about humanity, and it acts as a prologue to the future.
So do you want to know why mankind is the way it is? Do you want to rid yourself of blind ideology? Do you want to know what to expect from the future? Do you realize that humans are barely in the middle of the primate food chain?
Sapiens might be my favorite book of all time. (A close second would be “A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking). I think everyone should read this book, and once you’re done you’ll probably want to read the next two in the series: “Homo Deus” and “12 Lessons for the 21st Century”. I read both of these immediately after the first.
Everyone should read this book. Once you’ve read it, reach out and talk to me about it
Thinking, Fast and Slow
This is a book written by a nobel prize winning behavioral Psychologist. This book is written about the work he did which won him that award. It’s a bit technically tricky at times, but it’s also non-stop brilliant.
The premise of this book is there are 2 systems in your brain, 1 that basically is pure instinct, and a second that is rational and analytic. The problem is that system 2 is LAZY, and instead of rationalizing complex ideas for you, it basically convinces you that your first system is correct.
This is really bad news for all of us.
Why is this bad news? Because we all want to think we are both in control of our actions, and acting rationally. Unfortunately neither are true, by a longshot, and it’s really hard to see this in ourselves. Reading this book really helped me see flaws in my behaviour, and flaws in other people’s thinking in general.
These are the two books I recommend everyone reading. I hope everyone does for their benefit, and when you’re done reach out to me to discuss!
Books I wasted my time on this year
Stones’s Rules
Roger Stone is a political operative and worked close with Donald Trump to get him elected in 2016. He’s the self proclaimed “master of the dark arts” of politics. Interesting right? I was intrigued to learn more, unfortunately Roger seems to play his cards close to the vest. This book was a weird combination of him bashing people he didn’t like, and telling young men how to dress with style. It was annoying, useless and weird as well.
The one thing I really like that Roger said that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life was
“Past is fucking prologue”
Now, this is good advice. If you want to know what the future holds, you need to know the context of how we got here.
At the time of this writing (Nov 2018) it seems quite likely that Roger Stone is going to be arrested and perhaps convicted for his behavior in helping Wikileaks attain and release stolen emails from the Democratic party in the run up to the 2016 election.
Lifeonaire
I can’t stand being “sold” poorly. You know the slick car salesperson, or that hustler standing by a mall kiosk trying to sell you a massage? Worse yet, your old friend who suddenly has a great opportunity for you but want’s to meet for coffee to pitch you?
That’s what this book was, a slow rolling pitch. By the halfway mark they had all the primer for the pitch done, but had given zero meat yet. Basically, it’s a long introspection about how people don’t like their lives, and apparently this guy has all the answers. Just like a pyramid scheme he won’t pitch what he has until you’re desperate and heavily invested. This is sign number one of a charlatan! If someone makes you commit a portion of your time first just so they can slow pitch you some emotional “need”, then RUN.
2018 Here is my Audible Purchase list for the year.
Complete, transparent, thorough
Read with me
This is a link to my Facebook book group. It’s almost entirely just me posting , but I would love to include more people. Please interact!
I also have this idea to put a running list of “Best Bookshelves” on my website. Any feedback on this idea or encouragements is appreciated.