Wow, hello there! It’s been a while... Between the end of my EVS in Spain, moving back to Hungary, a hectic summer, then moving to London and getting a very time-consuming job, the previously very consistent weekly blogging has abruptly come to a standstill. Now I’m not going to bullshit you, there is absolutely no chance of me being able to bring back the weekly blog. I simply don’t have the time and energy for it, but this is a post that I’ve been slowly chipping away at since the start of last year.

Last year I decided that I need to read more, as I’ve had way too many interesting books recommended to me piling up on my bookshelf, not getting read. So not only did I decide to read a lot more, but to also write short reviews of every book when I finished reading them and eventually compile that all into a big blogpost. And here we are, a little longer into 2020 than we should, but the post is finally done!

Especially in the first half of the year and the summer I had a lot of time to read, so I got through a fair few books. 28 in fact, which is more than I expected at the start of the year. Here is a list of those books and I’ve highlighted the few which I think stand out, for either educational or entertainment value. After that, I put all the mini-reviews in chronological order, but I don’t expect you to go through all of it. Hop back and forth to the things that are interesting for you. Also, recommendations for my 2020 reading list would be great!

Seth Godin – The Dip

James Clear – Atomic Habits

Rolf Potts – Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

Greg McKeown – Essentialism

Dave Ramsey – The Total Money Makeover

Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander – The Art of Possibility

Tim Ferriss – The 4-Hour Chef

Neil Strauss – The Game

Angela Duckworth – Grit

Simon Sinek – Start With Why

Hans Rosling – Factfulness

Bo Burlingham – Small Giants

Michael E. Gerber – The E-myth Revisited

Tim Ferriss – Tribe of Mentors

Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Jocko Willink – Extreme Ownership

Kelly Starrett – Ready to Run

Yvon Chouinard – Let My People Go Surfing

Isaac Asimov – Prelude to Foundation

Matt Ridley – The Rational Optimist

Frank Herbert – Dune

Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman – Good Omens

Frank Herbert – Dune Messiah

Frank Herbert – Children of Dune

Frank Herbert – God Emperor of Dune

Yuval Noah Harari – 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Christopher McDougall – Born to Run

Steve House, Scott Johnston & Kílian Jornet – Training for the Uphill Athlete

So, let’s start in chronological order of reading!

Seth Godin – The Dip

This was a fun little book to start the year with – really short and impactful. It is about when it is worth to push ahead and when you should quit. Basically the “dip” is the tough part of the journey where most people quit. If you are smart, you either have to quit before that, to avoid wasting your time or push through and emerge on the other side while competitors give up. In essence, it is about “strategic quitting” and how being the best in a niche has huge benefits.

James Clear – Atomic Habits

A really good book about the process and psychology of habit formation. Full of practical advice, tactics and case studies, but unlike most self-help/self-improvement books, it actually properly explains why things work.

Here is a little quote from it: “The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can build better habits [with]. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.” It’s damn hard to make habits stick, and it provides tools to help the process. From seemingly obvious things like how the environment influences your habits (e.g. cookies on the table vs. hidden in a cupboard) to more nuanced psychological cues. A top recommendation for people interested in self-improvement.

Rolf Potts – Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

It is a really interesting read, dealing as much with the philosophy of travel, especially long-term travel as with practical travel advice. It is about how focusing on slowly experiencing a place and giving into unexpected and unusual experiences can completely change our travel compared to the usual, one-week, packed-itinerary “travel” that most people do. It has a lot of practical advice too, including how to make long-term travel sustainable mentally, physical and financially, although the internet-related bits of the book seem pretty hilarious today, as it was written about 20 years ago. Nevertheless, it remains a travel classic.

Greg McKeown – Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

While first, I didn’t think it would have a big impact on me, I found it very useful and inspiring. It made me think about the things I’m doing, what is important, how I am focusing my energies, and how to say no to things that are a bad use of my time. Honestly, I should probably re-read this book now.

While the subtitle is “The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, it really could just be “less, but better.” Admittedly, that doesn’t sound as fancy, but it summarizes the whole premise of the book – not becoming more efficient at a million different tasks, but becoming great at one or a few. It is also not the same as minimalism, because it is not about having or doing less for its own sake, but to be intentional and choose to do something or own something because it is genuinely valuable or important to your life. “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will”. Also, I always recommend this book to people who have problems saying no to things!

Dave Ramsey – The Total Money Makeover

I thought it would be a very adult choice to read something on personal finance, and this was one of Tim Ferriss’ recommendations, so why not. The basic idea is that personal finance is 80% behavior and 20% knowledge, so the real task is fighting “the man in the mirror,” not necessarily finding the newest, most novel investment tactics. It is a book very much aimed at US readers who have to provide more for themselves in terms of retirement and health care than Europeans, but the lessons from it are very valuable, regardless of whether you stick to the steps of the “makeover.” For me it was just a good reminder to take a look at my finances, keep track of spending, etc.

Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander – The Art of Possibility

It is a nice collection of feel-good anecdotes with a few useful ideas thrown in between, but I hardly feel like I have taken much away from it that will be useful. But I guess that could be because I was not open enough in my approach… But I can’t help it, the sarcastic asshole in me just kept thinking that 90% of it is just airy-fairy BS!

The ideas in it I liked were a collaborative approach to learning, taking mistakes as a good lesson and learning opportunity, how changing wording (e.g. instead of “bad at math” say “still learning math” – this could lead us down a whole rabbit hole of Tony Robbins and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, but I’ll leave that to some other time). My main problem with it was that it undervalues competition as a tool for motivation and that it has an annoying amount of self-congratulatory stories about the authors. This is one of the few books on the list that I do not recommend.

Tim Ferriss – The 4-Hour Chef

This is a book about fast-track learning how to cook, looking at important skills that you can master, so that you can quickly “fake” being a pro and cook delicious dishes, but on a deeper level it is also about a method of learning things through deconstruction and experimentation. Not really a book that you can read in one go, it is better to jump around and explore. Also, I only recommend this to people who already enjoy reading Tim Ferriss. If you are new to his writing, start with The 4-Hour Workweek. It is a fun book, with a lot of crazy and cool ideas, but I had to hold off on experimenting with a lot of things due to the lack of an oven in my Spanish apartment.

Neil Strauss – The Game

This book is about Neil Strauss, a geeky writer who gets involved in the “secret society” of pick up artists, or PUAs as they call themselves. He takes on the name “Style,” becomes obsessed with this weird world and the book is the story of how he becomes the best. These PUAs use crazy tricks, psychological wizardry, tons of practice and sheer randomness to dazzle girls, get phone numbers and sleep with people in no time. Things of course get a little out of hand and the book is like a crazy reality version of Trainspotting and Fight Club mixed together. It is kind of ironic for me to read this book now, but beyond the pick-up stories, it is a story of self-improvement, a tale of an awkward guy who completely transforms himself with a ton of hard work and practice. Finally, it is also just really damn entertaining.

Angela Duckworth – Grit

The premise of this book is that achievement is more about grit than talent. In our society we put so much emphasis on “talent,” while most of it is actually about discipline and hard work done passionately. It discusses a disturbing cycle in education where the “talented” kids get more attention, therefore improve more, leaving others behind, while often just a change of the educational method could boost the “slow” kids to the same level. This leads to a “learned helplessness” in those who hear that they can’t possibly do something or improve more, and they stop trying. Often all that it takes is an enthusiastic and patient teacher, mentor or coach to change this.

Simon Sinek – Start With Why

A business book on a mission – most companies know what they do, but they don’t really figure out why they do what they do, or they lost their meaning a long time ago. This can of course be translated to a personal level as well. Some of the examples are a bit outdated, but interesting nevertheless.

Hans Rosling – Factfulness

I read this book in one go, as it was so fascinating and accessible. It is a great reminder about how little we know and understand about our world and how much we think we know that we don’t really know. It shows that in many senses the world is not as fucked as we like to think and how the media/politicians/activists drum up things – but it also shows that this positivity should not lead to complacency but spur further action. We need to start accepting the notion that in many areas things are bad, but also getting better at the same time.

Bo Burlingham – Small Giants

A great little book about companies that chose to be great instead of grow huge, often consciously restricting growth to ensure that the quality of the products, the employees’ rights, the company ethics, etc. could be maintained. It goes through stories, good practices and hard lessons using a few interesting and unique businesses like Cliff Bar, Anchor Brewing, Zimmerman’s Community of Businesses and the Union Square Hospitality Group. These companies owe their success to how they invest in their employees, how consistent they are in their vision and how they can say no to things that can take away from that vision.

Michael E. Gerber – The E-Myth Revisited

Quite an old book about entrepreneurial work and it sure as hell didn’t age well – a very know-it-all, prescriptive, only-my-way-works style with some occasional sexist undertones, but hey, that was still fine in the ‘90s I guess. But there are definitely some good ideas to it, mainly how you should handle your business like it was a prototype to a future franchise, making a company systems-dependent instead of people-dependent, meaning that the success of the company won’t hinge on a few hiring decisions or your own charismatic leadership (or the lack of it).

Tim Ferriss – Tribe of Mentors

This book is exactly like Tim’s previous book, Tools of Titans, but that recipe worked well, so why change it? It is a collection of short interviews with interesting people. There are a fixed set of questions (not everyone answers everything) that 100+ successful people (artists, scientists, athletes, entrepreneurs, etc.) answer. The questions may be the same, but the answers certainly aren’t repetitive. Not recommended as a cover-to-cover read, but more something that you browse for inspiration. Just a small sample of people in the book: Neil Strauss, Amelia Boone, Ben Stiller, Maria Sharapova, Arianna Huffington, Brandon Stanton, Ray Dalio and Jocko Willink.

Just a fair warning: this book will probably give you 50 new book recommendations. It’s worth it though!

Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Having studied archaeology, I always approach books with grand historical narratives with plenty of skepticism, but considering the brevity of it, it usually avoids oversimplification reasonably well compared to other works in this genre. In fact, it is a great way of introducing people to not so well known historical questions and debunk some common misconceptions, like for example how the Stone Age is a bit of a misnomer, because it is more than likely that the tools used at the time were wood or bone, but those don’t preserve as well as rocks. It also discusses the development of agriculture, religion, capitalism, empires, science and a bunch of other major influences.

My main criticism of it is how often the author says “these are exceptions that prove the rule”. That is bollocks. Just say that it is an exception and leave it at that. An exception proves nothing, and this is the kind of comment that a serious scholar should not use.

Jocko Willink – Extreme Ownership

Leadership lessons from elite Navy SEALs, with entertaining war stories mixed in with the lessons applied to the “regular” world. The main idea in this book is very powerful: that you need to take ownership of everything happening around you. There is no one else to blame. Someone on your team messed up? You didn’t explain the task well enough. You mess up? Well, you better own up to that. It is about how to prioritize, how to lead by example and how to execute decisions. Short, fun read.

Kelly Starrett – Ready to Run

I got this book when I destroyed my knees on long trail runs. This book is not about running, but about achieving the mobility, flexibility, strength and range-of-motion necessary for safe running long-term. Kelly is of course a doctor and mobility specialist, and a consultant to Olympic teams, and TJ Murphy provides the pro endurance runner’s perspective in the book. It is full of exercises for mobility and recovery, as well as what equipment to use (or DIY). It has had a huge impact on my life, changing a lot about how I train, as well as leading me down a rabbit hole of foam rollers, zero-drop running shoes and so on…

Yvon Chouinard – Let My People Go Surfing

Patagonia is an amazing company – great outdoors gear, incredible environmental projects and awesome, often retro designs. Usually a bit too expensive for me, but oh well… Anyway, I’m a big fan, so I decided to read the autobiography of Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. In this book he shares the story of how he started his company and he also talks about the company’s philosophies in relation to product design, production, distribution, image and of course the environment. Basically it is the story of a “reluctant businessman” who just wanted to be a dirtbag rock climber and a beach bum surfer, but he ended up with one of the most iconic outdoors companies.

Isaac Asimov – Prelude to Foundation

Foundation is one of the most iconic sci-fi classics, but it is actually a 6-part series and this is the first one in the sequence. So, in the future the galaxy is ruled by an empire consisting of 25 million planets, centered on Trantor, a giant city-planet. But the empire is starting to decay… DUM-DUM-DUM (cue epic music!). Hari Seldon is a young mathematician who started to figure out “psychohistory” a way of making predictions about the future and even though it is only a vague theory, the emperor takes an interest in this and he has to flee. This book is about the journey of Hari through the various sectors of Trantor, running from the empire.

Matt Ridley – The Rational Optimist

The whole premise of this book (like Pinker’s Better Angels of Our Nature, or Rosling’s Factfulness) is that the world is not as fucked as we like to think it is. This book is basically as if Harari’s Sapiens and Factfulness were rammed together, starting with history and evolution, discussing how humans stand out. A key aspect of this is collective intelligence – humans are special because we specialize and build on others’ ideas. It is not one or not even dozens of individual inventions, but thousands that led to the development of say the computer or the car. Very hip-hip-hooray about capitalism and a little too nonchalant about climate change, but there is a lot in it that I agree with, and plenty that I don’t.

Frank Herbert – The Dune

Another true sci-fi classic and one of my favorite books. This was my second time reading it and it is just like going through an onion, peeling away layers – you find something new that you didn’t see the first time around. The story is an interesting vision of the future, where humanity has spread out over the galaxy, but it is in decline at the same time, ruled by a stagnant empire, with quarreling houses of lords and barons. It is sci-fi, but a lot of it is very medieval. Arrakis (Dune) is a distant desert planet that the galaxy relies on for a substance essential for space travel (hint-hint… what could that be the analogy of?) and the story revolves around a young boy called Paul and his adventures around the conflict for the rule of that vital resource. Amazing book, with a lot to unpack, from epic stories, to political visions and environmentalism.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – Good Omens

Easily the most entertaining book I’ve read all year! I’ve rarely laughed so often so loudly on public transport as I did when I was reading this – people probably thought I’m a bit crazy, but this book is just bloody brilliant. The two main characters are an angel and a demon who have really come to like living on earth and kind of like each other at this point, but now the apocalypse is coming and they are trying to avoid it, plus they accidentally lose the antichrist… whoops! The whole book is an absurd, brilliant masterpiece.

Frank Herbert – Dune Messiah

Part 2 of the Dune series and (spoilers!), the young Paul is now the emperor, having expanded his power. His dilemmas are the violence committed in his name, his lack of control over the future, how people look at him like god and how that ties him, plus court intricacies, conspiracies, etc. It shows the dark side of Paul, but it also is a deep dive into the ethics of political and religious power, plus the dilemma of free will.

Frank Herbert – Children of Dune

Part 3 of the Dune series – now Paul has disappeared into the desert and the story is of his two children who are growing up and grappling with their special abilities. Honestly, I could already see that things were starting to get out of hand here and this book is nowhere near as good as the original Dune book.

Frank Herbert – God Emperor of Dune

Things really got crazy by this point in the book series and this is where I decided to say that it is enough and I’m not going to continue with it after finishing this one. The whole book is this weirdly philosophical rambling of a god-emperor tyrant ruling the galaxy with an iron fist, but nothing makes sense and it is all just too much…

Yuval Noah Harari – 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Another very interesting book from Harari, looking at questions that are going to affect us in the 21st century. In fact, I think it could have been called “21 Question for the 21st Century” because it is not so much about lessons, but more about throwing questions out there and discussing them a bit. Examples of these questions would be: disillusionment, future of work, big data & liberty, nationalism, religion, terrorism, post-truth, the future of education, etc.

Christopher McDougall – Born to Run

A weirdly epic story of a journalist who after a series of running injuries sets off on a quest to learn how people used to run before the modern desk-bound age and high-tech running shoes that seem to cause more problems than they prevent. It starts off as a fairly anthropologically focused discussion of running in indigenous communities and in the past, and it turns into an epic road trip story of him chasing the elusive Tarahumara tribe in the cartel-infested badlands of Mexico. Later he returns to do a race with a raggedy crew of US ultrarunners and the locals, bringing together the weirdest characters that sound like they just walked out of a Hunter S. Thompson novel.

You are not going to run better from reading this book, but maybe you’ll question whether the cushy clouds under your heel are really necessary, or if it is maybe time to fix your technique instead of putting a band aid on a problem… It oddly reminded me of The Game – completely different topic, but the same type of gripping storytelling. Also, in a sense both are about taking your craft to extreme levels and self-improvement.

Steve House, Scott Johnston and Kílian Jornet – Training for the Uphill Athlete

While this isn’t really the book for most people, for me it has been one of the most important reads of the year. It is a super in-depth, science-based, athlete-tested book about training methods for mountain running and ski mountaineers. Remember how I couldn’t run the marathon in the Sierra Nevada mountains last year? Well this year I’ll be back and I’m using this book’s methodology to prepare.

It is a no-BS deconstruction of endurance sport preparation – that you need to log the miles, put in the hours and prepare over a much longer period of time than most people would like to. There is no quick fix, no new 10 minute HIIT workout that will replace hours of regular work and no special diet – just hard work and a solid plan. One of the best insights in this book that most people do their slow running too fast and their fast running too slow – in order to reach optimal results in endurance events, you need to first significantly increase your aerobic capacity, to run a lot at what first feels like a very slow pace. I’ve been training for about 2 months using the principles in this book and it has worked damn well so far. The real test will be in July when I’ll be back in Spain for the race!

Conclusion

Well damn, that was a lot of books. Congrats if you got this far, or at least scrolled to the interesting ones. 2019 has been a great year for reading and learning and I hope you found some good recommendations in this post. I have no illusions about reading this much in 2020 or taking notes so rigorously… But we’ll see! Anyway, 4000+ words in a single post is way too much for this blog, so I’ll shut up now! See y’all later!

Of course, photos of me by Aisling!