Every year I read at least 50 books. With so many goods ones even at one per week it seem to make hardly a dent. My reading focuses on the three categories below (my guilty pleasures are detective and historical fiction).
While I generally keep abreast of current works, I also look back to see what classics I have missed. Here are the best:
Life Design and Business:
Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Dr. John E. Sarno
A year ago I was so badly laid-up by back pain my doctor told me it would be six to nine months before I could consider running again. Six weeks after reading Dr. Sarno’s book I was back doing roadwork. Today I average 25 miles a week. When my friend Bill Gross told me this book changed his life I was skeptical. He was right.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
A writer for The Wall Street Journal, Duhigg gets to the heart of how habits are formed. More importantly he explains how to use his research to break your bad habits and form positive ones.
Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better by Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway & Katie Yezzi
Riffing the old saying, Lemow and company opine that if you are practicing incorrectly you will not approach perfection. Their 42 rules are clear, sensible, and proven in the real world. This truly is the textbook for getting better at getting better.
The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential by John Maxwell
If you are a regular reader of my blog then undoubtedly you are working to improve yourself. A master on this topic, John Maxwell distills his wisdom into actionable principles that you can readily integrate into your life.
How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen
Harvard Business School professor, and aspirant to editor of The Wall Street Journal, Christensen asks powerful questions to stimulate your thinking about what success is and ought to be to you. Among the important themes of his book is how to better integrate your values and work.
History and Biography:
Patton (Great Generals) by Alan Axelrod
If what you know about this controversial, powerful icon comes from the caricatured portrait in the 1970 movie, Axelrod’s short, well researched, incisive biography will introduce you to a man who devoted his life to identifying and overcoming his character flaws and weaknesses. Patton will show you how to live intentionally.
On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Though I am not a fan of Stephen King’s books, his memoir is enormously educational. If you have always wanted to be (Fill in the Blank), whether a writer or whatever, King will instruct you. His story of overcoming a horrendous accident will inspire you.
Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson
So much of World War II history focuses on the battles and major characters that influenced the conflict. Olson’s book examines the impact three lesser-known Americans had on creating and maintaining the American-British alliance at the senior and at the person-in-the-street level. Each had a different character, style, and motivation. You can glean a lot from this study of how they created and nurtured relationships.
My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir by Dick Van Dyke
If you love The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins then you have reason enough to read Dick Van Dyke’s autobiography. Neither salacious nor gossipy, it is an absorbing portrait of a flawed man who has done his best to live life honorably. Most impactful is how despite many setbacks he maintained a positive attitude.
Literature:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
A work of historical fiction for juvenals, I read this book to my six-year-old daughter who was fascinated by a teenage girl’s life in Colonial America. Exciting and thought-provoking, this 1958 Newbury Award winner will delight and engage your children and you.
What worthwhile books did you read this year…
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