Over summer season, I was still consuming books at a good rate of knots well beyond my target. At time of writing (early October) I’ve done 52 books this year. I’ve started rereading a few old favourites as well.
( You can check out my Q1 and Q2 reads in previous posts )
Here are a couple of quick picks of the things I read or listened to this quarter and enjoyed/recommend:
Non Fiction / Business / Effectiveness
Ultra Processed People
I read this whilst on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean which was not the greatest idea and it was shocking enough that when I came back I started (and continue to) fundamentally change many of the things I eat. It was a good read, eye opening and i find myself looking at food labelling a hell of a lot more now. I haven’t eaten biscuits or crisps for 62 days now, which is a miracle for me, such was the effect.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
I think this is a third time re-read for me, I’m sure I first did this in the late 90s, certainly last decade and also this summer. It is the grandaddy of personal effectivity and personal change books, offering guidance on setting out personal principles and a structure. It is a phenomenal book, even at 30 years old. Reading it stimulates loads of ideas, it’s almost overwhelming at times. It’s a tremendous book for those that need to work or collaborate with others, both in a work and family context.
- Be Proactive
- Begin With the End in Mind
- Put First Things First
- Think Win-Win
- Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the Saw
Re-reads This Quarter
The other 3 books of note which were re-reads this quarter were Cal Newports Deep Work, Greg Mckeown’s Effortless both of which are about personal productivity, and finally Measure What Matters the “OKR Book” by John Doerr.
Deep Work largely evangelises about the need to create time and space to work deeply without distractions, interruptions and how this leads to success. It will make perfect sense if you are constantly context switching. It is a little dated now but still highly relevant. Check out the authors weekly podcast “Deep Questions” for related content.
Effortless is a follow up to one of my all-time favourites, Essentialism, and in many ways is a similar theme to Deep Work, that is making the essential / impactful activities easy. In many ways this is about being in a state of deep work / flow and intrinsic satisfaction and jsut as importantly, getting sufficient rest. There is quite in this book that aligns with agile methodology, get started, deliver working outcomes, at steady pace. Highly Recommended.
Measure What Matters is an absolute classic, much discussion revolves around Intel (historical) and Google (contemporary). The simplicity of the concept is breathtaking and the case studies plus special guest readers (i had this on audiobook) make it an easy listen. Much like Deep Work, at its heart is focusing an org on a handful of initiatives that can make a real difference, and getting everyone aligned behind those with inidividuals key results.
Fiction
I didn’t read that much fiction this quarter, but did start a couple that I will finish in Q4.
Ancillary Justice
This is a trilogy of books by Anne Leckie in the 2010’s, and this was the first. It is a story about people, religion and AI based spacecraft. It was quite a confusing read in the first third given the proliferation of clones of those in power, AI consciousness manifesting as humans, and ancillaries who are enslaved humans. The language doesn’t recognise gender so everyone is described as “she” or “her”. The book is written in the first person as well. It’s an unusual book in many ways and I enjoyed and recommend it, it’s not on the level of the culture series by Iain M Banks (my all time favourite) but is worth the time.
Of Mice And Men
Of course this Steinbeck is considered a classic of American fiction (and probably many a GCSE exam) but I hadn’t read much of this type and a random mention of it somewhere provoked me into getting it. It’s set in the US Great Depression of the 1930s. It’s very much of it’s time and is tough going for most of the short read, the denouement being particularly hard. I’m planning to read a few more of these classics.
Come back again at the end of December/early January for Q4 reading.
Full Q3 List
Here is my full Q3 list: (19 titles)
| title | pages | format | author | type | rating | keywords | one sentence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Of Mice and Men | 121 | Kindle | John Steinbeck | fiction | ⭐️⭐️ | historical | american classic, never read it previously, of it’s time, a bit of a grim read |
| MIT Technology Review Mar/Apr 24 | 80 | Journal | MIT | non fiction | journal, technology | ||
| The Second Mountain | 384 | Audiobook | David Brooks | non fiction | ⭐️ | personaleffectiveness | disappointing, overbearing and pompous at times and endless quotations and citations, overly religious |
| MIT Technology Review Jan/Feb 24 | 80 | Journal | MIT | non fiction | journal, technology | ||
| Matter (Culture Series Book 8) | 620 | Kindle | Iain M. Banks | fiction | scifi, dystopia | ||
| Deep Work | 305 | Audiobook | Cal Newport | non fiction | ⭐️⭐️ | personaleffectiveness | Remains a great book although some references are a bit out of date now. |
| The Art of Not Thinking | 86 | Audiobook | Kelson Hayes | non fiction | zero ⭐︎ | personalplanning | utterly dreadful, finished it for comedic value |
| MIT Technology Review Jul/Aug 24 | 88 | Journal | MIT | non fiction | journal, technology | ||
| Ultra Processed People | 399 | Kindle | Chris van Tulleken | non fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | health | frightening enough that I changed several eating habits immediately |
| The Shrine (DCI Ryan 16) | 236 | Kindle | LJ Ross | fiction | ⭐️ | fiction, crime | crime series in Northumberland; this was pretty weak book in the series |
| The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | 464 | Kindle | Stephen Covey | non fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | personalplanning | <reread> Profound and powerful book, 3rd time read, resonates deeply; a top 5 favourite |
| Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch 1/3) | 393 | Kindle | Ann Leckie | fiction | ⭐️⭐️ | scifi | initial bit was slightly confusing, but picked up but remained a bit pondorous |
| Effortless | 238 | Audiobook | Greg McKeown | non fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | personaleffectiveness | <reread> fantastic follow up to essentialism, a top 5 favourite book, plenty to think about |
| Masters of Change | 244 | Audiobook | Brad Stulberg | non fiction | ⭐️⭐️ | personaleffectiveness | wasn’t that fussed about this book, never really spoke to me |
| Silos, Politics and Turf Wars | 158 | Audiobook | Patrick Lencioni | non fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | business, management | short; interesting fable about shared purpose, useful for something we were doing at work |
| Harvard Business Review Nov/Dec 23 | 160 | Journal | HBR | non fiction | journal, business, management | Storytelling edition | |
| Measure What Matters | 320 | Audiobook | John Doerr | non fiction | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | business, managementent | <reread> incrediblly insightful, full of great soundbites and real life experience |