2021 was a failure… but I was right. Early 2021 I already predicted that I wouldn’t read as much, which indeed proved to be true. My newborn daughter (hi 👶🏻!) caused a good amount of sleep deprivation in the earliest months of the year. Only in the Summer period I slowly got back into reading but meanwhile also spent most of December catching up on my Pocket (app) reading list that had gotten out of hand. But 2022 could be more bright. I think I could end up at > 15 books again this year with some luck.
Why am I writing this blog post? For the last six years, I wrote blog posts (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 & 2016) listing the books that I read in the past year and wanted to read during that year. Mainly to commit myself to read as much as possible.
What books I didn’t get to in 2021 and have re-added to the list for 2022:
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: This book is the top one on Amazon. It seems almost required to read.
- The Culture Map
My favorites from 2020:
- Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork: If you’ve watched the WeWork documentary on Hulu, you’ve likely already enjoyed the story. However, I thought the business angle was missing in the documentary. The book does a much better job providing that context and walks you through the entire history.
- Amazon Unbound: It was a great look behind the scenes of one of the biggest companies in the world. Getting a better insight into their other business units, process, and organizational structure over the years was an interesting read.
- Quantum Marketing: Although I’m afraid I disagree with the term ‘quantum marketing’, I think the book touches on a few good things and shows how important it is to stay ahead of the curve on trends.
- Think Again: The concept of being able to ‘rethink’ is so important, but so many people struggle with it. From Adam Grant, who is great regardless, this book gave plenty of great examples to show how important rethinking your opinions is.
What books I’d like to be reading in 2022:
- Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life: Mentioned by Chamath on the All-In Podcast (my favorite weekly podcast), it’s worth a shot.
- The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects: Andrew Chen’s book seems a required one to read in the next months to at least stay up with the hype around the book.
- How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need: After watching the documentary: Bill’s Brain on Netflix a while back, I’m very interested in getting a better sense of how Bil Gates is thinking about the climate. It’s a bit out of the scope of books I usually read, but worth spending some more time in this area.
- The Strategy Journal