I really enjoy that so many people have freely given their knowledge on the web. Part of the reason the internet was so exciting was for the information. Although there is still something wonderful about books. Maybe it is all of the rigor that goes into making one or just that it is still a highly preferred method of distribution for knowledge. Whatever it is I have used books to further my career quite a bit and hope that I can inspire others to do so as well.
Curating a book list isn't easy. There are so many good titles and if you ask for recommendations from everyone you know you will likely be overwhelmed. You will need to deploy a system to help you think through what makes it and what doesn't. My system is not fully encompassing but it is simple. I created a set of categories of books that I wanted to fill and aligned them to my goals. For Self Help I wanted to build knowledge that I could use to help others as well as myself, and the books I chose would do just that. I also know that if I don't mix some fun books in with learning I will lose focus which led me to adding a couple of fun categories including kids books.
Usually I tend to get a set of titles as the year progresses from others but this year I thought I would jump in and collect a list of my own and start reading through it. Even as I was building this list I got some new ones while speaking to people. I will update this list as I pick more up throughout the year.
Self
Burnout Fix by Jacinta Jimenez
PEAK Mind by Amishi P. Jha
Thinking In Systems by Donella H. Meadows
Leadership
Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson
She Engineers by Stephanie Lynn Slocum
What got you Here Won’t get you There
Teck Skills
Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas
Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout
Fun
The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Kids
Kenny & the Book of Beasts by Tony DiTerlizzi
The Adventurers Guild: Twilight of the Elves by Zack Loran Clark
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