“For 2024, I’m committing to reading 20 books again.” – Well, I didn’t make that; some passion projects (more on that later this year) came in the way, and I ended up at only 11. This year, I’m off to a slightly better start, aiming to hit this number.
Why am I writing this blog post? For the last nine years, I wrote blog posts (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 & 2016) listing the books I read in the past year and want to read during that year. Truth be told, I often change my mind about what books to read or order new releases that take the spots of the planned books.
My favorite books of 2024
- Quit: Annie Duke’s book Thinking in Bets was hugely popular. In Quit, she’s taking the other side in this book to evaluate when stepping away is better. It shows how the feeling of the sunk-cost fallacy can be avoided and provides alternative ways to step away from making a bad decision.
- The Lifecycle of a CEO: Written by the team at Spencer Stuart, the top C-suite recruiting firm, it shares an insight into the different stages of the CEO role after joining a company (it’s merely focused on new CEOs coming into existing public/private/PE-backed companies). The ways to think about the role and how to get through the different stages was a great read and provided a good plan for not just CEO’s but all C-suite level roles.
- The biographies of Andre Iguodala and the CEOs of IBM and PepsiCo: Many stories on how they faced adversity growing up (all in different ways) and climbed up to the top of their fields. These are very inspiring reads.
What books am I planning to read in 2025?
- Playing to Win: Authored by the former CEO of Procter & Gamble—one of the world’s largest advertisers—this book offers fascinating insights from a marketing perspective. But beyond that, it delves into the strategic expertise behind managing hundreds of brands and deploying hundreds of billions in capital. I’ve already started reading, and the lessons on how to position the company (not just the brand) make it an incredibly valuable read.
- Valuation: It’s considered the definitive guide to understanding corporate valuation from one of the most respected consulting firms in the world (McKinsey). Having read more of their books in recent years I added this one to the list too.
- Rewired: Same reason why it’s on the list. Let’s see if they have anything useful to share.
- Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: For obvious reasons, this is practically a re-read for me as years ago I already went through it. But as so much of this applies to operating a company, at scale, it would be good to dive back into it.
What books have I been reading in 2025 thus far?
Thus far, I’ve been able to cross Playing to Win and Good Strategy/Bad Strategy off the list. In addition, I’ve also been able to read a few other books (I started to make good progress in early March).
- More Time To Think: Helping people think deeply through problems or leveraging this yourself is a crucial skill. This is a follow-up book from the original. More Time To Think goes deeper into it and provides a few additional techniques.
- The Synergy Myth: Harold Geenen built out the ITT conglomerate and describes his life lessons in the book. It’s a no-nonsense book and sometimes hits as a great reminder of topics to remember.
- The Journey of Leadership: It’s great to dive into the techniques you can use in your journey of leadership. The team at McKinsey based their findings on years of research and workshops they conducted with top CEOs.
What biographies should I be adding to my list? I’d love more recommendations.