I succeeded in maintaining my reading habit in 2018 and ended up reading 25 books. I keep a log of all the books I’ve finished on my website, but wanted to highlight a few of my favourites from 2018.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions
Stephen Hawking
Professor Stephen Hawking has greatly inspired me over the years. In his final book—posthumously published—Hawking discusses his outlook on some of the biggest issues facing our existence.
Measure What Matters
John Doerr
If you’ve ever been interested in how OKRs can drive growth and ambition within an organisation, Measure What Mattersshould be at the top of your reading list. Written by the man that introduced OKRs to Google. John Doerr draws upon his wealth of experience working at Intel and other high-powered tech companies to demonstrate the power of OKRs in driving results where they matter.
Unbelievable
Jessica Ennis-Hill
Unbelievableis the story of how a young girl from Sheffield became an Olympic champion. I found this book as I was training for my first competitive races earlier this year and it provided buckets of inspiration to keep me going. It’s easy to overlook the amount of hard work required to rise to the top of your sport. Unbelievable gives you an inside look into the work and sacrifice that Jessica Ennis-Hill went through to get there.
To Pixar and Beyond
Lawrence Levy
I’ve long been fascinated with Pixar’s success and have read many books on the studio. Most of which have focussed on the creative/storytelling side of things but To Pixar and Beyondgives an insight into the business behind the hit movies. Lawrence Levy tells the story of his time as Pixar’s CFO, what it was like to work with Steve Jobs, and how he found meaning after leaving Pixar.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
DHH and Jason Fried once again prompt us to slow down, take a step back, and reconsider how we are working. If you read Signal v. Noiseyou may have already encountered some of the ideas in this book, but it’s always good to have a refresher.