The best books I read in 2018
In 2017, I read 30 books, and compiled a list of my top favorites. For 2018, I set out with a goal of reading 100 books, but I unfortunately only managed to read 50.
There are very few books I would recommend most people read, and these are the 7 of this year.
1. Little Black Stretchy Pants: The unauthorized story of lululemon by Chip Wilson
This one might be the book of the year for me. It’s so full of nuggets, that I found myself unable to read this book without a pencil in hand highlighting key passages. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or marketer, you can learn a lot from the successes and mistakes Chip shared in his autobiography.
I plan on putting together a follow up post with my takeaways learned from Chip. Doing contract work for lululemon on the side for the last six years has given me a perspective of how things are run internally, but Chip’s side of the story has allowed me to see where the manifesto came from.
2. Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal Book by Nick Bilton
In a word, Twitter was a complete mess — both in terms of technology, strategy, and management. It’s amazing that the company is purported to be worth nearly $24B.
Having first heard of Jack Dorsey, Ev Williams, and Biz Stone on Kevin Rose’s video series of The Foundation, I recommend watching these three interviews both before and after reading the book.
3. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
This follow up book to Kitchen Confidential did not disappoint. My favorite parts were when he would describe eating pho and his chapter about wanting to become a chef.
I was really sadden about the news this year of his passing. He was a celeb that I always wanted to meet at one point in my life.
Rest In Piece Anthony.
4. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
Having read The Daily Stoic, this book made a great follow up. Most of its teaching were closely related to those of stoic philosophers. I was better equipped to understand the concepts than I probably would have without reading Ryan Holiday’s book.
One quote that stood out the most for me was:
“Your anxiety, stress, worry is about the future, your regret, depression, anger, jealousy is about the past. Live in the now.”
5. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh
I picked up this read as a recommendation from Kevin Rose. It was sitting on my shelf for a while, but I finally got around to reading it. The book describes mindfulness as not just something you do as you meditate, but something you do throughout the day.
Hanh’s concept of meditation and mindfulness doesn’t necessarily mean what you do in a lotus position while going “ohm.” He means by it living in the moment and fully alert even as you drink tea or wash dishes. “Mindfulness frees us of forgetfulness and dispersion and makes it possible to live fully each minute of life.” Not that he doesn’t see a place for more formal meditation, and he provides several practical exercises, particularly focusing on the breath. “Our breath is the bridge from our body to our mind… it alone is the tool which can bring them both together.”
It’s an interesting and useful book if you’re curious about meditation and Buddhism, written clearly and succinctly. Although to get much out of it means reading with mindfulness, repeatedly, slowly, taking notes, and practicing the exercises.
6. Anything, Anywhere: The Future of Retail and How to Build a Digital-First Roadmap to Growth by Matthew Bertulli
If you work in commerce, or service clients in the commerce space, read this book.
Far too many retail businesses leave money on the table due to a lack of focus.
“For a few decades […] retailers didn’t care about knowing their customers, because competition was scarce. If they opened more stores, they made more money.”
The retail and ecom space is evolving and Matt’s book encourages us to focus on doing three things to succeed:
1. Build a roadmap and stick to it. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects.
2. Focus on customer acquisition.
3. Focus on customer retention.
It’s that simple.
7. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
This book dives into the high-frequency trading in the US equity market and Michael Lewis explains how electronic trading replaced the trading floor.
While reading this, I can only think about how the crypto trading market will advance in the coming months and years. I feel we’re still in the infancy of it, where you can make large gains with simple arbitrage between exchanges. If you google “flash boys” + “crypto”, we get some results, but I’d wait a few more years to see what stories emerge.
Here are the other books I read last year. Although many of them were great, they did not make the cut for the top 7.
- Lying by Sam Harris
- Tribes by Seth Godin
- Lean In by Nell Scovell
- Waking Up by Sam Harris
- Venture Deals by Brad Feld
- On Writing by Stephen King
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
- Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Naked Forex by Alex Nekritin
- Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis
- Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher
- Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg
- Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini
- Zero to Tesla by Sanjay Singhal
- Getting Past No by William Ury
- Creativity, Inc. by Amy Wallace
- Rework by DHH and Jason Fried
- Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
- Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
- Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
- The Rational Male by Rollo Tomasi
- Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker
- The Everything Store by Brad Stone
- Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
- 12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson
- Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday
- Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
- Think Like a Freak by Stephen J. Dubner
- Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
- The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
- The 50th Law by 50 Cent & Robert Greene
- What Every BODY is Saying by Joe Navarro
- Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
- The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
- A World of Three Zeros by Muhammad Yunus
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward Burger
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
