Here’s what I read in 2018, in chronological order of when I finished it, as promised in my birthday post. I’ve highlighted a few in bold but in general I was pretty satisfied with almost all of my book choices this year. I’ve put a lot more time into the “deciding what to read” phase of things, and have also had some great help from friends there, and have been trying to balance and alternate titles that have stood the test of time and newer au courant books.
- Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook by Dan Shapiro
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (audio)
- A Higher Standard by Ann E. Dunwoody
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (audio)
- The Boat by Nam Le
- Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
- Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
- How to Say Goodbye by Wendy Macnaughton
- When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön
- Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger and Peter Kaufman
- Sam the Cat by Matthew Klam
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang
- The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
- After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley by Rob Reid
- The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell
- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
- Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
- Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
- Darkness Visible by William Styron
- Tin Man by Sarah Winman
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
- Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Update: On Obama’s 2019 book list.)
- Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
- The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant
- Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
- How to Fix a Broken Heart by Guy Winch
- Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
- Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
- Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson
- Severance: A Novel by Ling Ma
- On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
- It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
- Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
13 replies on “39 Books in 2018”
I’ve heard good things about Nonviolent Communication. Is it useful for a professional setting or is primarily for interpersonal relationships?
I found the book incredibly useful in a professional setting as well. I just wish the title was better!
Really looking forward to the chapter in your upcoming book, entitled: “How WordPress Democratized Education.”
I’m having one of the best—and most affordable—educational experiences of my life thanks to WordPress. I think you know the WordPress-powered music education site I’m referencing. (B.R.). 🙂 The flute is now in my mix. Had a very nice exchange earlier today about the clip below thanks to WordPress. Learned a lot…
Hope your horns are treating you well.
https://youtu.be/hV0F1fvviKQ
Chicago’s next mayor will be a WordPress user. Not technically 100% as of now, but the odds are overwhelming. That’s what will happen. Very exciting news!
Thanks for sharing! I’m looking into Nonviolent Communication, The Paper Menagerie, and Notes of a Native Son right now. Will add them to my list.
I’ve just posted my favorites from 2018 — I thought you might be interested as we seem to have similar preferences. http://max2c.com/favorite-books-of-2018/
The Prophet is one of my favorites, even after being an athiest.
Thanks for sharing this books. #36 needs an author
Thanks, update! Severance is by Ling Ma.
I love book lists. Thank you for sharing. I will start one for 2019.
Thank you for sharing. Considering a pretty tight schedule that includes reading time, and that includes some of your older reads, I will not be able to pick up any of the new suggestions before the end of May. Luckily there are three from this list of 39 that have been read already although I hardly remember anything by Bertrand Russel. And, at a glance, my first pick from this list will be the octopus one. Regards.
It looks like you had a bit of a hard year, judging by some of the titles. I hope this year is good for you, and that you read lots more books!
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Nice selection! For 2019, I would recommend – Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup: John Carreyrou: http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Blood-Secrets-Silicon-Startup/dp/152473165X