At the end of every year I like to take a look back at some of the highlights. Things that happened personally & professionally, things I learned, books I read, products I loved, etc. So here is one of those posts. My reading list from 2018 was fairly broad, as I love everything from science fiction to history to product management. And this year had some great reads from all of those categories. As 2018 draws to a close, I wanted to take a look back at some of my favorites and most influential reads from the past year. 1. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst This was probably one of my favorites from 2018 as it was endlessly fascinating and actually led me to explore some other books around similar topics, such as The Willpower Instinct, You Are Not So Smart, and Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. The interaction between our genes, our environment, our ancestry and every other possible factor combines to make us who we are. It’s such a beautiful and profound complexity. 2. Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love For anyone familiar with some of my other posts regarding product management, this book won’t come as a surprise. It is one of my top reads for product managers and has profoundly influenced the way I work. I’ve probably read it through a couple times this year as I’ve referred back to it in various scenarios. If you’re a product manager or involved in product development, this is one you’ll want. 3. Foundation Series: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation This series is incredible. I hadn’t read any of Isaac Asimov until this year, and I was blown away with how great this was. The original stories were published in 1942, which is crazy to think about. But it’s amazing how futuristic they still seem even today. If you enjoy science fiction, I’d highly recommend them. And I’ve already got more Asimov books in my backlog ready to go soon. 4. A Short History of Nearly Everything I know I’m late in discovering this one (I’m always behind the times in my reading it seems), but what a gem. It’s a walk-through of, well, nearly everything in history. It is incredibly fun and kept me coming back for more with the clever writing and fascinating incites. It’s a great overview and refresher of everything you likely learned, and so many things you probably haven’t. 5. User Story Mapping Going back to product management/product development, User Story Mapping is now one of my favorites. It is a great book on tools and techniques to use in building great products. I also had the opportunity to attend a session by Jeff Patton where he walked us through some of his key insights. If you ever get the chance to attend a workshop with him, don’t miss it. Worth every second. In the meantime though, you can definitely get a ton out of his book. It was a great year of reading. I set a goal to read a book every 2 weeks, and I was able to do it! I’m planning on upping that goal for 2019, so hopefully I can keep up with an ambitious schedule and maybe even catch up with some of the current best-sellers (though that probably won’t happen).
Here is my full reading list as well (in order that I read them), including first time reads and re-reads:
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January 2023
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