We're now in the second quarter of 2021 and I've got another batch of books toward my goal of reading 150 new books before 2024 and a lifetime goal of reading a book a week!
The Toliet Paper Entrepreneur - Classic book by Mike Mechalowicz about getting started on your business and its unique angle is how to grow without having a lot of assets (money or resources). The name and concept came from those times you use the bathroom and only to your horror that there is no TP left, and having to use unconventional methods. It's not what you'd call a refined book by any stretch of the imagination, but still a fantastic read and a lot of humor in it.
David and Goliath - By Malcolm Gladwell recommended to me by my friend and mentor Paul Edwards. The book is about viewing your weaknesses in different lights and turning those into your strengths. A lot of it is outside the box thinking and overcoming beliefs about yourself. Amazing book, very well written, and the case studies were both very entertaining and educational!
Who Not How - Written by Dr. Benjamin Hardy for Dan Sullivan in an interesting twist that uses the principles described in the book. The whole idea behind Who Not How is focusing more on looking for people who can solve your problems instead of trying to figure out how to solve them yourself. They had points about how certain procrastination for tasks might mean that you need to find someone else to do it for you that's better equipped and capable of doing the work.
Harry Potter books 1-7 - Classics by J. K. Rowling, recommended to me by a good friend, and decided to read the whole series as a break the business and personal development ones. I was pleasantly surprised by how well they were written and greatly underestimated how gripping they would be. I, unfortunately, had a few nights staying up later than I intended finishing up a chapter here, or a book there.
Talking to Strangers - Another one of Malcolm Gladwell's books, though not as good as Outliers or David and Goliath. I had this on audible and didn't end up finishing it due to the format in which it was presented. He wanted to do something a bit different for an audiobook and decided to have a podcast format with music and instructions as well as live audio clips from examples he had. It didn't really feel like a book and I quickly lost interest.
Time Warrior - Phenomenal book by Steve Chandler outlining how you can be more efficient and effective with your time. He gave many excellent examples in short 1-2 page chapters. It's one of those books you always have near your nightstand and after reading flick through now and then. Always something you can glean from this book and you read many times. The most similar book I can think to compare it to is Josh Kaufman's book Personal MBA with short, informative ideas in bite size peices.
Dwell On These Things - Another amazing book that just came out by John Stange who I've been following on Facebook for some time. This book is more focused on what kind of mindset we should have as Christians in a 30 day devotional with each chapter being a morning mindset and reflection. One of the things that really caught my attention with this book is it's real life emphasis, having scenarios that are very relatable which can't be said for all books like this. This book is dirrived from the passage in Phillipians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Giftology - Super short read but an amazing one nonetheless. John Ruhlin's purpose with this book was to encourage people to be more thoughful and unqiue with their giftgiving to develop relationships. He gave many examples of the gifts he's given out over the years and the impact they've had in his buisness and life. I really love this, though I felt like he could have done a better job explaining how you find the right gifts for people and what to look for. One of the emphasises I really liked about it was that of starting small and turning it into a dialy graditude aswell. He said that if you're not ready for certain bigger ticket gifts, hand writing letters were an amazing second best and having a daily practice of writing out notes gives inspiration and ideas to gift ideas!
The Millenial Manifesto - Written by Curtis Hennicutt and Zach Keyton about how the generations miss and fail to see past historical mistakes and emphasises not making those again. I haven't finished the book yet due to time constraints but the stories in there were very intriguing aswell as informative!