At the end of 2016 I spent a week on a Tall Ship as part of a Leadership Subject in my MBA. When we boarded the ship we handed in our electric devices. I had no access to mobile phone for a week.
I actually had a lot of down time and managed to read a number of books that week. This reminded me about my love of reading so I have decided that 2017 is the year of reading. Here are some books to start my list for 2017.
The small paragraph under each book is a quick description from Book Depository.
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
By Phil Knight
“In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the boot of his Plymouth, Knight grossed $8000 in his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion.”
By Tim Ferriss
“The latest groundbreaking tome from Tim Ferriss, the best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek. From the author: “For the last two years, I’ve interviewed nearly two hundred world-class performers for my podcast,” The Tim Ferriss Show. The guests range from super celebs (Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) and athletes (icons of powerlifting, gymnastics, surfing, etc.) to legendary Special Operations commanders and black-market biochemists.“
The E-Myth Revisited : Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About it
By Michael E. Gerber
“E-Myth \ ‘e-,’mith\ n 1: the entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work Voted #1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs. “
Influence:The Psychology of Persuasion
By Robert B. Cialdini
“Influence”, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say “yes” – and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion.”
By Marcus Aurelius
“Originally written only for his personal consumption, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations has become a key text in the understanding of Roman Stoic philosophy.“
By Ryan Holiday
We give up too easily. With a simple change of attitude, what seem like insurmountable obstacles become once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Ryan Holiday, who dropped out of college at nineteen to serve as an apprentice to bestselling ‘modern Machiavelli’ Robert Greene and is now a media consultant for billion-dollar brands, draws on the philosophy of the Stoics to guide you in every situation, showing that what blocks our path actually opens one that is new and better.
The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World
By Dr. Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen
“Most of us will freely admit that we are obsessed with our devices. We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask — read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip. Talk on the phone, send a text, drive a car. Enjoy family dinner with a glowing smartphone next to our plates. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, the near-miss on the road, and the unheard conversation at the table.”
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
By Mark Manson
“In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be “positive” all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people. For decades, weve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. “F**k positivity,” Mark Manson says. “Lets be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it.”
By Chuck Klosterman
“‘But What if We’re Wrong?’ is a book of original, reported, interconnected pieces that speculate on the likelihood that many of our universally accepted, deeply engrained cultural and scientific beliefs will someday seem absurd. Looking at our present-day society as we consider past civilisations, Klosterman points to a profound and simple idea: what if one day our thinking is as hopelessly outdated as that of that Middle Ages?“
The Years of Lyndon Johnson (4 Volumes)
By Robert A.Caro
“The story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill country. Reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy and ambition that set LBJ apart.” (Link is to the first book in the series.)
As I finish each book I will write a review but initially I thought it good to share an overall list.