I’ve read more than 80 books this year, guided by topics that have excited me and questions I’ve sought to answers. I’ve investment about 320 hours of time (3% of my year) and about a thousand dollars. In my view, this investment is completely worth it – each book I read is like a perspective on life’s greatest truths.
Below are the books which have had the greatest influence on my life this year, including links to my synopsis of the books. This way, you can get their list without having to make the same large investment of time and money.
I hope you enjoy.
Success Through Stillness – by Russell Simmonse
Read my synopsis HERE.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma – by Bessel Van der Kolk, MD
Read my synopsis HERE.
Influence: How and why People Agree to Things – by Robert Chialdini
Read my synopsis HERE.
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy – by Thomas J. Stanley Ph.D.
Read my synopsis HERE.
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal – by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
Read my synopsis HERE.
The Magic of Thinking Big – by David J. Schwartz
Read my synopsis HERE.
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story – by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Read my synopsis HERE.
The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory – by John Seabrook
Read my synopsis HERE.
The Five-Hour Workday: Live Differently, Unlock Productivity, and Find Happiness – by Stephan Aarstol
Read my synopsis HERE.
How to Win Friends and Influence People – by Dale Carnegie
Read my synopsis HERE.
Eat the Yolks: Discover Paleo, Fight Food Lies, and Reclaim Your Health – by Liz Wolfe
Read my synopsis HERE.
Honourable Mentions (In Order)
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease – by Michael McGregor, Gene Stone
This book made me turn semi-vegetarian.
Leap First: Creating Work That Matters – by Seth Godin.
This book gave me the courage to quit my job and start my own company.
A Brief History of Time – by Stephen Hawking
This book put my life in perspective, and showed me the size of the universe.
Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth – by Brad Blanton
This book made me realize the vital importance of the complete truth.
The 48 Laws of Power – by Robert Greene
This book gave me great insights into power dynamics in humans.
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade – by Robert Chialdini
This book helped me understand many of the invisible sources of influence around me.
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find – and Keep – Love – by Amir Levine
This book helped me to understand my own relationship with relationships.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action – by Simon Sinek
This book helped me focus on my core values.
Outliers: The Story of Success – by Malcolm Gladwell
This book made me realize that history and upbringing play a bigger role in success that I thought.
Mind Over Mood – by Dennis Greenberger, Christine A. Padesky
This book helped me to become objectively aware of my own anxious and depressive thought.
Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist – by Michael J. Fox
This book made me realize that it’s all a matter of perspective, and that some people are able to view “setbacks” in a very beneficial way.
Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses – by Amy Whitaker
This book made me realize that I need to take time out to tinker, waste time, and be bored on purpose.
Books I’m Currently Reading
Letting Go – by Richard Hawkins
Efter min bedste overbevisning – by Nils Foss
Come As You Are – by Emily Nagoski
Integral Life Practice – by Ken Wilber and co.
Managing Artists in Pop Music
The Autobiography of a Yogi – by Paramahansa Yogananda
Other Books I’ve Read This Year (Not in Order)
Tao Te Ching
The Kybalion
Sing to me – by LA Reid
The Art of Manliness
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
Relentless
The Inevitable – by Kevin Kelly
Suggestible You
The Revenge of Analog
The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done – by Peter F. Drucker
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle – by Mark Wolynn
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds – by Carmine Gallo
101 Things I Learned in Film School – by Neil Landau and Matthew Frederick
The Power of Myth – by Joseph Campbell
The Art of Happiness – by Matthieu Ricard and the Dalai Lama
Modern Romance – by Aziz Ansari
Winning Proposals – by Hans Tammemagi
The Ultimate Introduction to NLP
Anything You Want – by Derek Sivers
The Old Man and the Sea – by Ernest Hemmingway
Contagious
The Everything Store – by Jeff Bezos
Benjamin Franklin Biography
How to win at the sport of business – by Mark Cuban
The Automatic Customer
Disrupt You
Who moved my cheese
More than Two
The Moral Animal
Linchpin – by Seth Godin
Tribes– by Seth Godin
Anxious
Den ideele føde – by Martinus
Empire State of Mind
The Six-Figure Musician
War of Art – by Stephen Pressfield
Life Coaching for Dummies
Blue Ocean Strategy
5 Love Languages
Screw It, Let’s Do It – by Richard Branson
Drake: An Unofficial Biography
Proof of Heaven
Elements of Style
Show Your work
Content Inc.
The Lean Startup
Manage Your Energy
Daily Rituals