My 2019 year in books
In 2018, I read 8.5 books (I just couldn’t finish one and stopped halfway through). For 2019, I didn’t set a firm goal for myself, but I surely hoped I’d read more than I did in 2018. For 2019, it looks like I read 7.5 books, a dip from the year before and a negative trend considering I read more in 2017 than in 2018, which was more than 2019.
I’m not going to worry about the amount I read. Sure, I’d like to read more, but I have no lack of new information and entertainment in my life. If I can read more in 2020 than 2019, that would be fantastic. If not, it’s okay.
Without further to do, here is my reading list from last year, with titles linking to each book on Amazon.
This is the follow up book from 2 of the authors of Sprint, one of my favorites that I’ve read twice in the past. While Sprint talks about generating and validating product ideas in 1 week, Make Time is focused on how to manage both personal and work time in order to align with your priorities in life. The book has some interesting ideas and was a great reminder that time management matters in life, the book wasn’t exactly a page turner and didn’t blow my mind.
Talking to Strangers is the latest book from my all-time favorite author Malcolm Gladwell. This book is all about communication and how two people can have very different experiences around the same event. It is clearly inspired by the current political and social divide in America today. It’s not Gladwell’s best book, but an interesting read none-the-less. If you really want to dive deeper into this topic, I recommend Crucial Conversations, which was a life changing read for me many years ago.
Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is one of the most well known business books of all time, one I read many years ago. In 2018, I was lucky enough to hear the books author, Patrick Lencioni, speak on the topic at a conference. In 2019, I was navigating a team dysfunction at work, and my leadership counterpart in Engineering and I decided to both read this book as a way to arm ourselves with tools for how to help our team get back on track. It was helpful and I am really glad I read through this supplemental to the best seller!
The Subtle Are of Not Giving a F*ck
I kept seeing this book in airport bookstores, and the title really stands out at a glance! The title is brilliant marketing and I had to pick up a digital copy to read! I expected an irreverent, sarcastic view on the world, but what I got was a solid, fantastic read on how to manage the stress of life. This book isn’t about not caring, it’s about how to care about the right things. I highly, highly recommend anyone read it, unless you’ve already reached a state of zen and have no worries in life.
I actually came across this book when I was searching for The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Not only did the title catch my attention, just like the other book I was looking for, the content sounded interesting, so I bought it. This book is made up of very short chapters that each focus on a quality that the author advises men to embrace. You might consider this book an operating manual on how to be a good and masculine human being that others want to be around. The author shares stories from his past, and I related to many of them…which isn’t great considering how miserable this guy, and I were, but also a sign that I’ve moved past those pathetic behaviors that used to define me.
This was a re-read for me in 2019 as part of the fledgling book club I was running at work. I like this book because it demonstrates how to quickly, and efficiently, develop products and test ideas. It uses stories from startups, but the concepts can be used by any product development team. I recommended it to my colleagues, and read it along with about 8 others. After reading, we discussed our favorite stories and concepts from the book, imagining how we could do similar in our work at PagerDuty.
The Score Takes Care of Itself
My new boss and CEO of Zenput recommended and gifted this book to me after a discussion we were having about leading teams. This book is the career autobiography of legendary football coach Bill Walsh. Coach Walsh transformed a number of football teams, most notably the San Francisco 49ers, who won 3 Super Bowls under his leadership. Walsh took a completely different approach to leading his organization, and shares his playbook here. I absolutely LOVED this book and have already changed my approach at work. Similar to The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Walsh offers some great insight on how to care about the right things, and manage them. Love, love, LOVE this book!
This is the half book mentioned at the top of this blog post. I saw two friends talking about books with each other on Twitter, and this book was recommended to one by the other. It sounded great, advice on how to get into a flow of life and work such that its effortless. Unfortunately, it reads just too much like a textbook, and I couldn’t get more than 20% through the dry content. Oh well, better to just move on and find something else I would enjoy!
So what’s on my list for 2020? I’ve already started reading Survival of the Prettiest, a gift I received from a coworker. I also plan to read Patrick Lencioni’s new book The Motive, Ben Horowtiz’s latest What You Do Is Who You Are, Monetizing Innovation, and many more!