Reading has never been "easy" for me and finishing a book often takes a long time. As I venture into the world of Substack, I thought that it could be interesting to reflect on the reading that has helped to shape my thoughts which I hope to share in the coming weeks, months, and years.
Many of the books I read focus on my three areas of interest: thinking in systems, hacking daily norms to be more effective, and understanding how to become a better leader.
Below is a summary of the digital books which I've read over the past few years but there are some physical ones which do not appear here. One honourable shoutout would have to be The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F_ck by Mark Manson.
I stumbled across that book in 2018 during a trip to Australia for my cousin's wedding at a pivotal moment in my life, post-breakup. It was exactly what I needed at that moment and I read it twice in the space of two weeks—which for me is unheard of.
Let’s dive in and take a look at my bookshelves of recent years…
2022
This last year wraps up with finishing off Matthew McConaughey's book—Green Lights. You will notice as you scan through the rest of my list that this is a bit of a departure from my usual work-adjacent books. So why Greenlights? I really enjoy Matthew's movies and after an interview where he shared more about himself personally, I was intrigued to learn more about him and his path to now.
The beginning of 2022 kicked off, as most new years do with looking at ways to improve oneself. Notably, how to build good habits and get better at note-taking, a prerequisite to the work I am looking to publish here. Off the back of reading James Clear's Atomic Habits book, I subscribed to his 3-2-1 Thursday newsletter which offers great prompts and questions each week. I'd highly recommend that you go and check it out.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Everyday Information Architecture by Lisa Maria Martin
The Work of Leaders by Julie Straw Barry Davis, Mark Scullard, Susie Kukkonen and Bernard W. Franklin
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
2021
Definitely, the call out of this year has to be Weapons of Math Destruction. Working in tech and behind the scenes on the products that track and monitor us as humans, made this book an eye-opening read. Given that data is now effectively a currency, I would highly recommend being aware of just how some of that data is being used today.
In contrast, a book which was a welcome relief from the troubles of the world was Humankind. For context, we were still mid-pandemic and American democracy was crumbling—it was a heavy year. In those moments I often go down the rabbit hole and explore all the wrongs of this world and fixate on the injustices. This book was a nice reminder that there is still hope and that deep down most of us are not assholes.
Remote: Office not required by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
Humankind by Rutger Bregman
Management by First Round
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil
2020
As you can see, this was one of my busier reading years. This can largely be put down to the fact that I left my role as Principal Product Design Manager at TravelPerk to take on a new role as CPO at Boatim.
I'd never been an executive before and had never been explicitly accountable for a product. Taking a week between roles, I binged on a couple of books in preparation and revisited some golden oldies.
A true gem of a read, for many reasons, was Creativity Inc. Being an admirer of Pixar's work, it was genuinely exciting to get a peek behind the scenes of how it all came to be. Ed Catmull's book offers a range of anecdotes and inspiring takeaways that have helped shape or reaffirm many of the ways I think and work. If you're interested, you can read an in-depth recap of my key takeaways from Creativity Inc.
The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins
Shape-up by Ryan Singer
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Hooked by Nir Eyal
Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
Radical Candor by Kim Scott
The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier
2019
So...not sure what happened this year. I guess I was busy and also trying to figure out how to be more effective as a manager. Jokes aside, I did transition more to digital books, reading them on my iPad in place of physical ones which may explain this sad-looking bookshelf.
Resilient Management by Lara Hogan
Be deliberate while reading
Let me finish by sharing something that I am learning from and constantly seeking to improve—to not passively read a book but to actively understand and interpret it.
I believe that reading is something personal to each of us. We all have our own tastes and preferred ways of reading, but one thing that I failed at in the past was that I didn't read to remember. To capture the parts that truly resonated with me.
As shared, I moved my library into the digital world and this was very much with intention. Whilst I truly love the feel, and the smell, of physical books I never found a good way to keep track of those golden nuggets, the key takeaways. Those personal "aha" moments you get when reading. All lost.
Migrating my reading to a digital library has allowed me to easily highlight and revisit key concepts. It also offers tools like note-taking and reference-linking which supports my need to go down the rabbit holes whilst staying in place. This was just not possible for me when reading physical books.
If you'd be interested to learn more about one of the titles, or would like to discuss your personal experience in reading one of these books why not join the discussion on the Substack chat?