Tag: books

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These Are the Books I Read in 2022

A Christmas present: Aliens - Colonial Marines Technical Manual
Screenshot of my Amazon Kindle reading insights: Days in a row=406; weeks in a row=230.

I have enjoyed reading my entire life, since I was a toddler. For the past couple years, I have typically had at least two books going at the same time: one for learning and one for pleasure. This year was no different.

I was hoping to read over 40 books in 2022, but I counted the Legacy War 9-book series as a single book and several books were pretty massive, taking a while to finish. Regardless, I’m pretty happy with the reading I achieved this past year and I’m looking forward to another great reading year in 2023. I’ve already built quite a backlog in my Kindle library and my Amazon wishlist.

Here are the books I read in 2022:

  1. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (Started 2021 – COMPLETED)
  2. Sprinting Though No Man’s Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour De France, by Adin Dobkin (Started 2021 – COMPLETED)
  3. Feedback (First Contact), by Peter Cawdron
  4. Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, by Jeff Bezos (in progress)
  5. All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries (book 1), by Martha Wells
  6. The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda Book 1), by Richard Phillips
  7. The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music, by Dave Grohl
  8. Legacy War: The Complete Series Books 1-9, by John Walker
  9. Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How To Say No To Take Control Of Your Life (updated and expanded edition), by Henry Cloud and John Townsend
  10. The Language of Emotional Intelligence: The Five Essential Tools For Building Powerful and Effective Relationships, by Jeanne Segal
  11. The Filmmaker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age: Fifth Edition, by Steven Ascher, Edward Pincus (in progress – 15%)
  12. Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet
  13. The Filmmaker’s Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition, by Gustavo Mercado
  14. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport
  15. On the Meldon Plain (The Fourline Trilogy Book 2), by Pam Brondos (in progress)
  16. The Last Remnant (The Fourline Trilogy Book 3), by Pam Brondos
  17. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
  18. Chasing Space: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances, by Leland Melvin
  19. Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries (book 2), by Martha Wells
  20. Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries (book 3), by Martha Wells
  21. Exit Strategy: The Murderbot Diaries (book 4), by Martha Wells
  22. Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX, by Eric Berger
  23. DODO, by Neal Stephenson
  24. Chasing Failure: How Falling Short Sets You Up For Success, by Ryan Leak
  25. Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media, by Brittany Hennessey
  26. Network Effect: The Murderbot Diaries (book 5), by Martha Wells
  27. Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us, by Seth Godin
  28. The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph, by Ryan Holiday
  29. Fugitive Telemetry: The Murderbot Diaries (book 6), by Martha Wells
  30. Into the Black: Remastered Edition (Odyssey One Book 1), by Evan Currie
  31. Crushing It: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business And Influence – And How You Can, Too, by Gary Vaynerchuck
  32. Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers, by Andy Greenberg (in progress – 49%)
  33. One Million Followers, Updated Edition: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days, by Brendan Kane (in progress – 10%)
  34. Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual, by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood (in progress – 10%)

Of the 34 books on my 2022 list:

  • 2 were started in 2021 and completed in 2022
  • 4 are still in progress
  • 28 were started and completed in 2022
  • 1 “book” was actually a series of 9 books (1280 pages total)
  • Several were significantly longer than average – i.e., 700+ pages (e.g., #8, 11, 17, 23, possibly others)
  • Most were in Amazon Kindle format, though some were hardcopy
  • Most were purchases or gifts, though at least one was a library loan and a few were “free” via Amazon Prime Reading
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I Started a Book Club at Work

Woman wearing glasses reading a book titled The Making of a Manager
Photo by John Ray Ebora from Pexels

Earlier this year, I had been spending a lot of time thinking about how to better engage my team as well as how to better support them. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been reading a lot of books lately. As I was reading some good books in the beginning of this year, a few neurons fired, sparking an idea: what if there was a way to get other folks at work to read similar books and to multiply what they learn by meeting to discuss the books? It’s hardly a novel idea, but something about it really resonated with me.

In order to gauge reception to the idea, I asked a number of colleagues and direct reports whether they’d be interested. Only a handful of people expressed a desire to participate, but that’s all that’s necessary to get started. I figured that if nothing else, at least it’s a worthy experiment.

Our Team’s Approach

Over the past 6 months or so, we’ve read and discussed 3 books and have selected the 4th. Our group’s approach is pretty simple. We read a book every 2 months and meet to discuss it. I start the process by requesting 1-3 book ideas from the group based on a previously selected theme, as well as what the group members would like to have as the theme of the following book. Once the deadline for inputs has expired, we all vote on the books and themes. For books, everyone picks their top 3 choices in prioritized order, so the votes are weighted accordingly; for themes, we all get a single vote. Once the voting deadline has passed, I announce the results.

Since we can’t meet during work hours, our group meets in the evening via Zoom. Our meetings have been pretty laid back, but always interesting. We follow a rather loose format – in other words, we haven’t used a structured set of questions.

Book Club Best Practices

When first getting started, I did some simple online research to see what others have done to build successful book reading clubs. I’ve summarized here what I learned from my research.

General

  • Set expectations up-front, including the purpose of the group, genres / themes that will be covered, etc.
  • Schedule meetings regularly. Best frequency is about every 2 months; quarterly is probably too long. Alternatively, meet weekly and discuss one or more chapters (two chapter is a good number per week) at each meeting vs. the entire book.
  • Meeting times
    • The time of day should be consistent
    • Lunchtime (“brown bag”) is a good time
    • 3PM is a good time for afternoon sessions
  • Consider inviting experts on the topics occasionally
  • Keep it informal; there are different approaches that can work
    • Can ask some questions for conversation starters (email them beforehand), then let it flow
    • Can have a ‘standard’ set of questions that the group discusses for every book
    • Can select a different person to start the conversation each meeting
    • Can ask each person to choose a passage from the week’s chapters and read it aloud;  then the group discusses their thoughts on the passage
  • Keep the tone of the discussions cordial & arbitrate if necessary
  • Keep two lists: what was read and what possible future options are
  • Consider asking HR or training group if the cost can be covered by the company
  • Discussion should cover how the reading applies to your work / business
  • Invite new members each time
  • Switch up themes each time
  • Consider doing something thematic at each (or some of) the meetings related to the book theme
  • Listen to your members – what do they want?

Book Selection

  • Get suggestions (e.g., 10 suggested books) from each member
  • Allow members to vote on the books. Use an online survey for voting or draw from a hat, etc. Alternatively, consider delegating the book selection each time to someone different, either to select the book or collect suggestions and run the vote.
  • Consider book length – too short could be difficult to have enough to discuss; too long might not allow people to finish reading
  • Books should be widely / easily available (and low cost – e.g., paperbacks)
  • Keep it work appropriate and focus on strengthening the group, not dividing it

Bibliography

  1. The Ultimate Guide To Starting A Book Club At Work, By Nicole Gulotta, January 16, 2017, http://nicolemgulotta.com/blog/starting-a-book-club, accessed 2/23/2021
  2. Implement a Book Club at Work, by  Susan M. Heathfield, Updated September 17, 2020, https://www.thebalancecareers.com/implement-a-book-club-at-work-1917942, accessed 2/23/2021
  3. 6 Tips for Running a Book Club at your Workplace, By Dawid Bednarski, updated in March 2019, https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/6-tips-for-running-a-book-club-at-your-workplace, accessed 2/23/2021
  4. Tips on Creating a Book Club, Penguin Random House, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/book-clubs/tips/, accessed 2/23/2021
  5. The Art Of Picking Books For A Book Club, By Elizabeth Allen, Aug 22, 2017, https://bookriot.com/how-to-pick-books-book-club/, accessed 2/23/2021
  6. How Does Your Book Club Choose Books to Read?, https://booksmakeadifference.com/bookclubpicks/, accessed 2/23/2021
  7. How to Pick the Perfect Book Club Book in 7 Steps, By Julianna Haubner, July 30 2018, https://offtheshelf.com/2018/07/pick-perfect-book-club-book-7-steps-2/, accessed 2/23/2021

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Start With Why

Start With Why, by Simon Sinek

Last week I finished reading Start With Why by Simon Sinek. This book was written in 2009 – I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of it much earlier. All-in-all I enjoyed the book. It provides powerful insights that seem obvious once you read it… but based on our own behaviors and those of organizations we know, it’s not as obvious at it appears.

The gist of the book is that people are attracted to your business or organization when they believe what you (or your organization’s culture) believes, which is your WHY – your reason for doing what you do, personally or in your organization. The WHY and the WHAT are evidence of the WHY, so they need to align in order to be trusted. People who believe what you believe will resonate with your WHY. If you lead off with the WHY in your messaging, that is when you create attraction and action. When you lead with WHAT or HOW, the reaction is less intense and less likely to result in loyalty.

There are at least three areas the author identifies that can benefit from starting with your WHY:

  1. Recruiting / hiring
  2. Leading your organization
  3. Selling products and services

As he says, nobody cares about WHAT you sell, they care WHY you’re selling it. That holds for ‘selling’ products and services, employment opportunities, or your company’s goals.

Overall, I think Start With Why a great book with a powerful message that can lead to profound results if properly embraced. Sinek provides a number of examples, which he touches on throughout the bool – such as Apple, Martin Luther King, and Southwest Airlines.

It seemed to me that Start With Why probably could have been distilled into 5-10 pages overall; however, the examples and nuanced repetition does help hammer home the important principles. Simon Sinek gave a TED Talk in 2009 (video below) that encapsulates the essence of his book. I recommend watching the video, regardless of whether you read the book. But I recommend reading the book too, since it has additional detail and nuance not able to be captured in a short talk.

Now I just need to capture what I’ve learned and take action, putting it to use. I already have some ideas, related to each of the three areas identified above. Have you had measurable improvements in your results from putting Start With Why into practice?

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“Everything Is Figureoutable”

Everything Is Figureoutable, by Marie Forleo

Have you ever read a book and said to yourself, “this should be required reading…for everyone!” Everything Is Figureoutable, by Marie Forleo certainly fits that description. The title itself says it all. In a nutshell, the idea is that having a belief that you can figure out anything forces you to eliminate excuses and focus on finding solutions. This applies whether you have an immediate problem, or whether you are stretching towards achieving your goals, “everything is figureoutable.”

In the first few pages, Marie describes her mother, who was constantly amazing her with the ability to solve problems that seemed not only difficult, but outside of her abilities. On one particular occasion, her mother’s favorite transistor radio broke, and Marie came home to see her mother fixing it. 

“Hey, Mom, how do you know how to do so many different things that you’ve never done before, without anyone showing you how to do it?”

She put down her screwdriver, turned to me, and said, “Don’t be silly Ree. Nothing in life is that complicated. You can do whatever you set your mind to if you just roll up your sleeves, get in there, and do it. Everything is figureoutable.”

–Everything Is Figureoutable, by Marie Forleo

I absolutely loved that introduction to the phrase that became the title of this book!

There are several things that I really like about Everything Is Figureoutable. First, Marie Forleo is totally down to Earth. Her style is non-nonsense, but sincere and encouraging. She’s talking directly to you. 

Second, the book follows a natural progression. It starts by providing a ‘roadmap’ to achieving results using the “everything is figureoutable” approach. Next, you’re prompted to proactively challenge your beliefs and understand that your excuses are exactly that. While numerous typical excuses are discussed, there is a whole chapter on fear, which of course is near and dear to my heart (anything to tame fear is a good thing). It then walks through defining your dream and taking the steps to make your dream become your reality, including strategies for taking the first steps, overcoming barriers, and keeping momentum. 

Not only is the book a practical guide, but the author also has added actionable exercises throughout the book to help spur you to action. She has also provided some inspiring stories from others who have used the techniques to push through their own challenges.

I first read Everything Is Figureoutable by borrowing the Kindle edition from the library. Honestly, the title is what caught my attention; I’d never heard of the book before. I devoured the book, adding highlights and notes (I love the Kindle app!). Since I loved the book and plan to reference and re-read it, I bought the Kindle version for myself. Of course the added bonus is that all my notes and highlights from the borrowed version synchronized with the copy I purchased.

It was interesting to see references to other books I have recently read or have on my short list to read soon. For example, the author cites The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (I had recently purchased that book; it’s in my reading queue) and Mindset by Carol Dweck (which I borrowed and read several weeks ago, and then purchased).

In conclusion, I recommend Everything Is Figureoutable.

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Holy Cow, I’ve Read a Lot of Books This Past Year!

Just for grins, I decided to look back at all the books I’ve read over this past year. Over the past 13 months, I have read at least two dozen books. I knew I had read a lot of books, but I didn’t realize it was quite that many! The books generally fall into the following five broad categories: space, business, self-improvement, biking, and science fiction.

The Amazon Kindle’s Reading Insights feature shows you what you’ve read each year, as well as some statistics on your reading activity

How to Read a Lot of Books: Read Two Per Month

Here’s the list of books I know I read this past year. I may have forgotten a few, but regardless, that’s a lot of reading – nearly two books per month!!

  • Grit, by Angela Duckworth (“grit” is applying passion and persistence to achieve excellence and mastery for an extended period of time)
  • Mindset, by Carol S. Dweck (“fixed” versus “growth” mindset; heard about this book from the 12/16/2020 episode of The HKT Podcast)
  • Endurance, by Scott Kelly (about former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s year aboard the International Space Station)
  • The Last Campaign, by Martin L. Shoemaker (fiction; sequel to The Last Dance, below)
  • Stalling for Time, by Gary Noesner (written by a former FBI hostage negotiator about his experiences)
  • Do Hard Things, by Alex & Brett Harris (society expects much less of teenagers than they are capable of, wasting potential; do hard things for the glory of God)
  • Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy, by Timothy Zahn (fiction; covers Thrawn’s early years, before he joined the Empire)
  • It’s All About the Bike, by Robert Penn (an avid biker tells the story of building his dream bike with high end components from all over the world)
  • Rescue Mode, by Ben Bova & Les Johnson (fiction)
  • Space 2.0, by Rod Pyle (humankind’s endeavors in space are gaining momentum)
  • Foundation, by Isaac Asimov (fiction)
  • 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson (fiction)
  • Space is Open for Business, by Robert C. Jacobson (there are a significant number of space-related businesses and business opportunities, with more on the way)
  • Thuvia, Maid of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (fiction – part of the John Carter of Mars series… I actually thought I read more than one of the books on the series this past year)
  • Alone at Dawn, by Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz (true story about recent special forces heroes)
  • Tap Code, by Carlyle S. Harris & Sara W. Berry (about POWs in the Vietnam War who communicated using codes based on tapping)
  • Imperial Earth, by Artur C. Clarke (fiction)
  • Clutter Free, by Kathi Lipp (how to eliminate clutter in your home)
  • Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon (for artists – how to get your work out there)
  • Elon Musk, by Ashlee Vance (Biography of Elon Musk of SpaceX, Tesla, etc. fame)
  • The Airbnb Story, by Leigh Gallagher (just what the title suggests, it’s about Airbnb)
  • Atomic Habits, by James Clear (how to develop habits)
  • The Last Dance, by Martin L. Shoemaker (fiction)
  • Can’t Hurt Me, by David Goggins (former Navy SEAL eliminates any excuse you’ll ever have)
  • Mining the Sky, by John S. Lewis (mining asteroids, etc. – this is my 2nd time reading it; I’m only halfway through at the moment)

I’ve really enjoyed the books I’ve read this past year. I’m not sure I’ll sustain the same pace over the coming 12 months, but regardless, I still plan to read a lot of books by reading every day.

By the way – as I mentioned in an earlier post, borrowing e-books from the library has been a big help in complementing my selection of books.

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Free eBooks: Borrowing Books From Your Local Library

I use the OverDrive app for borrowing eBooks from the library

Did you know that you can get free eBooks on loan from your local library? Here in the state of Connecticut, we use a tool called OverDrive, which is available both as a website and a mobile app. While I have been using this service for a couple years already, it’s especially convenient during this seemingly endless COVID-19 pandemic.

I Love to Read

I’m an avid reader – often reading more than one book at a time. I love books and love to read. For as long as I can remember, I have both bought books as well as borrowed them – from the library, or from friends. I do love the feel of a book in my hands, but I’ve also grown to love my Kindle and the (free) Kindle app on my phone. My Kindle eBook library has been growing over the past few years. At first I was hesitant, but now I read more eBooks than physical books. I can store a giant ‘stack’ of Kindle books on my phone, instantly available wherever I am, whenever I want to read. Some books I buy; others I borrow.

Free eBooks on OverDrive

To complement my purchased collection, I often borrow books from our state’s library system’s collection of eBooks. With the OverDrive app, I can borrow a book (usually in the Kindle format), request a hold on a book (i.e., waitlist), add a book to my wishlist, or recommend a book to be added to the library’s collection. The loans are generally 2 weeks.

One of the benefits of borrowing free eBooks in the Kindle format is that I can add highlights and notes in the Kindle app. As far as I know, these remain – in other words, if I borrow or buy the Kindle book later, I think my highlights and notes are retained.

Another useful tool is the ability to export your highlights and notes from Kindle. Obviously you can’t highlight the entire book, but if you can a ‘reasonable’ amount of highlighted text, the export feature is available.

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