As much as I try, I can’t find steady schedule that could allow me to read books every day (or at least few times a week). Believe me, I tried. As I started walking our dog more often, I realised pretty fast that listening music all the time gets boring real fast. I started looking for some mental stimulation. As I tried audiobooks, I could see how little light above my head lit up.
Do you wanna know what happens when you finish a book every two weeks for a year? You finish 26 books. That’s it. It’s never about the number though. You need to understand that audiobooks are not like textbooks. You can’t see formulas, pictures, charts, or code examples. That makes it pretty limiting to what you can actually listen to. Otherwise you need solid focus and imagination to draw it in your head. Even through all that, you can get solid knowledge out of it.
Here is my list of 26 books I finished in 2017 with my top 3 and a looser of the year at the bottom.
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck; Mark Manson
- Thinking, Fast and Slow; Daniel Kahneman
- Algorithms to Live By; Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths
- Think Simple; Ken Segall
- The master Algorighm; Pedro Domingos
- The Power of Habit; Charles Duhigg
- Matchmakers; Richard Schmalensee, David Richards S. Evans
- Crossing the Chasm; Goeffrey A. Moore
- Superintelligence; Nick Bostrom
- Smarter Faster Better; Charles Duhigg
- The Undoing Project; Michael Lewis
- Remote; Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
- How to Win Friends & Influence People; Dale Carnegie
- Hackers; Steven Levy
- The 10% Entrepreneur; Patrick J. McGinnis
- The Obstacle Is the Way; Ryan Holiday
- Influence; Robert B. Cialdini
- Social Engineering; Paul Wilson, Christopher Hadnagy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; The Great Courses
- Markov Models; William Sullivan
- Machine Learning; Matt Gates
- Surviving AI; Calum Chace
- Blockchain; Charles Jensen
- Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies; Hideki Kiyoko
- Life 3.0; Max Tegmark
- Disrupted; Dan Lyons
My top 3 picks of 2017
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck; Mark Manson — Do you wanna be happy? Are you tired of shitty pinky motivational quotes? Then this book is perfect for you.
- Thinking, Fast and Slow; Daniel Kahneman —Don’t let the length of this book discourage you. It’s totally worth it. It shows you how easily your brain can be manipulated.
- Life 3.0; Max Tegmark && Superinteligence; Nick Bostrom. If you are interested in future of Artificial Intelligence and it’s consequences, then these are a must read.
I don’t always pick good books. It’s not that easy. You can check the reviews but that’s just popularity indicator. It doesn’t really say anything about how well the book will fit you. My looser of the year goes to The 10% Entrepreneur; Patrick J. McGinnis. To me, it was the hardest book to get through.
What are your top books? Do you have any suggestions for my next book?