It’s that time of the year again. Every first week of the year, I hunker down to get a handle on what’s going to be up on my bookshelf for the rest of the year. So after having sifted through my Amazon Wishlist one time, too many, I have zeroed in on a list of 27 books.
The whole exercise of which books to read and which ones to save for later has a meta-learning spin on it. Meta-learning is the state of being aware of and taking control of one’s own learning, in the words of the famous Australian novelist John Biggs.
I have always been big on self-education, more sophisticatedly called autodidactism in philosophical circles. The eclectic mix of 27 books below is a step further into my own goal of enhancing my self-education and become an autodidact. I’d love to quote that intellectual battering ram called Nassim Nichola Taleb here, “Only the autodidacts are free.”
Finally, the book list below is not written in the stone by any yardstick, but yes, these are the books I am determined to read this year. Still, there can be and there will be changes to the list as I go into the year. I will keep you all posted.
1. Entrepreneurship
- Dotcom Experts by Russell Brunson
- Side Hustle by Chris Guillebeau
- Reinvent Yourself by James Altrucher or The 4-hour work week by Timothy Ferriss
2. Fitness and Survival
- What doesn’t kill us by Scott Carney
- Deep Survival – Who lives, Who dies and Why by Laurence Gonzales
3. Philosophy
- Skin in the game by Nassim Nicolas Taleb
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- Plato and a Platypus walk into a bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
4. Finance
- Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
- Where are the Customers’ yachts by Fred Schwed
5. Technology
- Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark
- WTF?: What’s the future and why it’s up to us by Tim O’Reilly
- The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook & Google by Scott Galloway
6. Essays
- The Essays by Michel de Montaigne
- Sceptical Essays by Bertrand Russell
- Chronicles of a Liquid Society by Umberto Eco
7. Leadership
- Extreme Ownership: How Navy SEALs lead and win by Jocko Willink
8. Productivity/Personal Development
- Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown
- Barking up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker
- Habits of a Happy Brain by Loretta G. Breuning
- Sh*t my Dad Says by Justin Halpern
9. Writing Guides
- Stein on Writing by Sol Stein or On Writing by Stephen King
- The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing by Mayra Calvani or The Writing Life by Marie Arana
10. Fiction
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
11. Mathematics
- A Numerate Life by John Allen Paulos
- Idea Makers by Stephen Wolfram
12. Sports
- Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathon Wilson
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