The 36 Books I Read in 2019

…and a tweet-sized review of each one.

I didn’t quite match the 43 books I read in 2018…. but here is a run down of what I read in 2019. It equates to about 20 minutes / 20 pages a day. Main themes were around planetary crises (and how we can best respond), privacy, mental health (and altered states of the mind) and truth-hunting / avoiding fake news.

Thanks to Rebel Book Club for the accountability and inspiration as always!

Now in London, Bristol, Oxford, Brighton, Berlin & Barcelona (and over 800 active members), RBC is kicking off a big year in January with The Doorstep Mile with Al Humphreys. Join in and accelerate your reading habits with us.

The scores are the personal impact and enjoyment I got out of each book specifically, not necessarily the topic or RBC conversations.

The Books

1. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson: Finally got round to reading this remarkable scientific history of nearly everything (and everyone)… Bill makes it easy and fun to follow. Particularly enjoyed the universe building blocks and the atmosphere chapters. 8/10
2. Atomic Habits by James Clear: The best balanced (psychology + practical action) on habits forming and breaking that I’ve read. The kind of book that pushes you to start changing things straight away. Have recommended it a lot already. 9/10 (Rebel Book Club January)
3. The Art of Running Faster by Julian Goater: Enjoyed this old school approach to cross-country and endurance running. 7/10
4. Make: a Bootstrapper’s Handbook by Pieter Levels. A useful guide to building an online businesses with few resources whilst working remotely. Levels has become a role model in this space. Best bits were Pieter sharing his personal journey and how he’d written and made money from self-publishing online. 6/10
5. Just Eat It by Laura Thomas: ‘We trust our phones more than we trust our bodies’…and according to Laura intuitive eating might be one way to re-build that trust. Her passion for the subject at our London meet was evident! Having never really dieted this topic didn’t make a big personal impact but was fascinating to see how it drove strong opinions at RBC. 6/10 (Rebel Book Club February)
6. Worth Dying For: The Power & Politics of Flags by Tim Marshall: ‘When you see your nation’s flag fluttering in the breeze, what do you feel?’ A fascinating journey revealing how much we have — and continue to — pin our hearts and minds to these colourful symbols. Flags appear to be the ‘book-covers’ of our collective history of stories. 8/10
7. Empty Planet by Darrell Bricker: ‘We’re running out of space’, There’s too many of us’, It’s easy to see why we’ve become captivated by the population bomb — it feels like humanity is taking over every corner of the planet and in terms of our impact, we are. But this book’s data-driven evidence shows that we’re wrong. Birth rates are declining almost everywhere for similar reasons — urbanisation & female education. The counter-intuitive argument is backed up well by evidence and stories from every continent. Its a bold, fascinating and potentially world-changing read. 10/10
8. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking: Clearly a classic from a legend. Personally I went from ‘I’ve got this Black Hole thing’, to ‘I’ve got no idea what Stephen’s talking about.’ But that doesn’t stop the admiration or fascination. 7/10
9. Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal: Exploring man’s journey through altered states of consciousness. Stealing Fire reads like an adventure rather than structured analysis. Its fun and fascinating without convincing me that we’re only two steps from enlightenment. 8/10
10. Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark: How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? It starts frighteningly well with an AI world takeover story. The mapping of when we’ll realistically see AI happen was helpful to a novice. I got lost in the physics in the second half but glad I’m persevered. 7/10 (Rebel Book Club March)
11. Tsunami Kids by Paul & Rob Forkan: Like the wave that changed their lives, Tsunami Kids is an unstoppable force that lurches from heartbreak to heartwarming drama. In three parts: The nomadic life — getting to know this quirky (large) family as they escape their treadmill lives and seek a more interesting, spiritual path. The Tsunami — an end of the world disaster retold in harrowing detail, its really amazing the children all survived. The startup — recovering and channeling the emotions and learning into doing something positive and smart. The family travel and startup stories resonated strongly with me whilst the Tsunami and their loss was hard to read and, despite the excellent storytelling, impossible to imagine. Their parents, I imagine, would be incredibly proud. 8/10
12. Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth: Economics is broken, can the ‘doughnut’ save us? This is the economics book (and theory) I wish I’d been taught at school. Compelling, clear and passionate. Kate was equally convincing and energising at our London meet, one of my most recommended books in recent years. Send to all world leaders now! 10/10 (Rebel Book Club April)
13. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou: In 2014, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionise the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. How did the investors not do their due-diligence at such scale? A wild, frightening ride into a broken Silicon Valley culture and psychology of a sociopath. A brave piece of investigative journalism too. Reads like a thriller. 9/10 (Rebel Book Club May)
14. Drawdown: A Comprehensive Plan to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken: Fridges. If we sort out refrigeration we have a good chance of solving the climate crisis. Who knew? Each of the 100 solutions is a mini chapter (with graphs and pictures). Easy to dive into. Fascinating to discover. Solvable! 7/10
15. The Automatic Customer by John Warrilow: ‘The lifeblood of your business is repeat customers.’ We’re building a membership business at Rebel Book Club and we concur! A simple, clear introduction to subscription models and the key metrics — Churn, Lifetime Value — to track. Not a book to obviously inspire, but definitely one to apply. 8/10
16. My Midsummer Morning by Al Humphreys: Adventurer busks his way — boldly but pretty badly — whilst walking across Spain in homage to Laurie Lee (As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning), living off what little he earns in the over-heated town squares. I appreciated the vulnerability Al shared in this book, and his one-man-and-a-violin survival challenge gave this poetic journey a real edge. 9/10
17. All the Ghosts in the Machine by Elaine Kasket: A glimpse into the future of digital life after real death. Painful, remarkable and one of the most thought-provoking reads in a while. Its complicated! 8/10 (Rebel Book Club June)
18. How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollen: Take a 60 something who has never tried psychedelics and follow the journey. Wonderful mix of history, science and experiment and a brilliant RBC meet. 9/10 (Rebel Book Club July)

RBC London x ‘You Are What You Read’ November 2019

19. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck: My only novel of the year and made be want to read more. I love Steinbeck who writes evocatively about a group of misfits during the Great Depression in the Cannery district of Monterey, California. Transported to another world is a phrase that would easily apply here. 8/10

20. Becoming by Michelle Obama: “It is lazy and easy to lead by fear, it is harder to lead with hope.” What a woman! What a story! Powerfully told, especially the early years in Chicago. 9/10

21. Money: A User’s Guide by Laura Whateley: Cuts through the panic of personal finances and reminds you of what the basics (tax, pensions, mortgages, simple investments) you should have learnt a long time ago. Laura is a clear guide to sensibly managing money and gave our members — and me — lots of great tips. 7/10 (Rebel Book Club August)

22. The New Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan: We’d read the epic Silk Roads at RBC which retells world history from the perspective of the Middle East (where Christianity and Islam were both born), rather than Europe. Now, at a time of Brexit & Trump, Frankopan gives us clear insight as to why The New Silk Roads lead to Beijing. 8/10

23. Do Disrupt by Mark Shayler: Great for first time thinking about turning an idea into reality and some good visuals and worksheets but didn’t bring me any fresh insights. But generally a fan of DO and Mark’s work. 6/10

24. There is No Planet B by Mike Berners-Lee: A surprisingly clear and user-friendly guide on how to tackle the climate crisis. We turned our meet into a ‘pub quiz’ to help cement the books key data which is both shocking and galvanising. 8/10 (Rebel Book Club September)

25. Climate Justice by Mary Robinson: I really connected with these engaging human stories from the front-line of the impact of our industrial scale pollution. Hearing about the suffering brings the abstract climate data to painful reality. 8/10

26. This is Not a Drill by Extinction Rebellion: Out of nowhere it seems this movement has taken over. The stories about why and how they have done it in this collection of passionate essays is fascinating, especially the protest tactics. 8/10

27. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells: Of all the books I’ve made the effort to read on tackling our planetary challenges this one packed the biggest punch. The cascades of crises that Wallace-Wells poetically describes are hard to take on-board. But it is the emotive reality that we need to engage with. There is hope, but not a lot so don’t read when feeling hopeless. A visceral, bone-shaking book. 10/10

28. Led By Donkeys by Led By Donkeys: So they didn’t stop Brexit, but these 4 Dad’s from North London with their crowd-funded giant-tweet billboards did more to show the hypocrisy and lunacy of the last few years than any political opposition has. They could form a successful ad agency tomorrow. Great pictures. 8/10

29. Lost Connections by Johann Hari: The book that led to our largest ever turnout at an RBC meet-up (270 in Soho) and a topic that clearly resonates with many. Johann’s skill is to tell his painful personal journey exploring recovery from depression without traditional drugs, whilst questioning the industry behind them. A lot of his ‘connections’ seemed blindingly obvious, but maybe that’s the point. 9/10 (Rebel Book Club October)

30. Airhead by Emily Maitlis: Published before the Prince Andrew interview, but still a remarkable, readable diary of the chaotic, workaholic life behind the scenes of a 21st century story-hunter. Seemed a bit too chummy with some celebs — Piers Morgan — but great at making politicians accountable and impressive endurance! 8/10

31. You Are What You Read by Jodie Jackson: Bad news sells but good news is needed more. Jodie was an excellent guide as we shared and explored our media diets. My biggest insight: Read the news less regularly (not a few times a day), and when you do, read more diversely and in more depth (beyond the headlines). 7/10 (Rebel Book Club November)

32. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden: “I was resolved to bring to light a single, all-encompassing fact: that my government had developed and deployed a global system of mass surveillance without the knowledge or consent of its citizenry.” Crazy story. Amazingly smart, brave and slightly mad. I think he’s a hero. 9/10

33. This Could Be Our Future by Yancey Strickler: Co-founder of one of my favourite tech brands, Kickstarter, I was excited to read Yancey’s manifesto for a better world. It started well, challenging the inevitability of pure single bottom line capitalism and shared some juicy bits of Kickstarter’s journey but in the second half it lost me around Yancey’s theory of how it could all work. Overall though, a message the corporate world need to hear, but will they read it? 5/10

34. On Fire by Naomi Klein: 20 years ago No Logo woke me up. Klein is back to tackle her favourite subject — the Climate Crisis and Corporate & Government negligence. She’s on fire, especially when sharing stories of those unfairly impacted by the crisis. A continual, powerful voice in the world. 8/10

35. In Extremis by Lindsey Hilsum: I didn’t know the story of Marie Colvin until I opened this book, but My God, what a life! Colvin saw more war than most veteran soldiers and it’s not surprising perhaps that her personal life was chaotic and her own health poor. But, incredible bravery and a constant mission to share human stories of suffering to try and bring change. Impossible not to be moved or inspired. 9/10 (Rebel Book Club December)

36. Rise Up by Stromzy & Jude Yawson: “Heavy is the head that wears the crown.” I wasn’t expecting to be reading a story about a group of Grime artists and producers at the end of the year, but I’m glad I did. Stormzy’s rise is rapid and the conviction in their own talent, mission and work ethic revealed in these diaries and lyrics shows you how he and his #Merky team have thundered into the sanitised music industry. 8/10

My Book of the Year: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

Why? Connects convincingly with both heart and head by combining the emotion and science of the unstable future we’re already starting to experience. A visceral, bone-shaking book.

Thank you for reading my reviews. Please add any of yours or recommendations for future reads yourself.

The Rebel Reads

Join us at Rebel Book Club in 2020 for 12 (not 36) more remarkable reads.