2020 Reading Audit

I read more this past year than I have in a long time, maybe the most I’ve ever read.

That’s because I changed the way I consume books. I bought a kindle (and I’m a fan), but what really increased my intake was the shift to audiobooks.

I clocked a total of 7 days and 11 hours of listening. I average 1.3x-1.5x listening speed depending on the book.

So here’s my reading list for the year, ranked in order of Favourite:

1. Nonviolent Communication (Marshall B. Rosenberg)

2. Speaking Peace (Marshall B. Rosenberg)

3. Mating in Captivity (Esther Perel)

4. No Rules Rules (Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer)

5. Traction (Gino Wickman)

6. Religion for Atheists (Alain de Botton)

7. How I Built This (Guy Raz)

8. The Deficit Myth (Stephanie Kelton)

9. The Practice (Seth Godin)

10. Enchantment (Guy Kawasaki)

11. Post Corona (Scott Galloway)

12. Vagabonding (Rolf Potts)

13. Essays in Love (Alain de Botton)

14. The Righteous Mind (Jonathan Haidt)

15. Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers Programs 1-6

16. The Expanse: Caliban’s War (James S.A. Corey)

17. The Son (Jo Nesbo)

18. The Expanse: Leviathan Wakes (James S.A. Corey)

19. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman)

20. His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife (Philip Pullman)

21. His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass (Philip Pullman)

22. Stalling for Time (Gary Noesner)

23. Status Anxiety (Alain de Botton)

24. Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely)

25. Thinking in Bets (Annie Duke)

26. Debt: The First 5000 Years (David Graeber)

27. Sapiens (Yuval Noah Hurari)

28. Tribe (Sebastian Junger)

Here are 3 lessons I learned from a year of relatively intense reading.

1. Don’t get caught in the hype of thinking you need to read best-sellers or really long books. Most of the time I wouldn’t finish these books. The ones I did finish ended up near the bottom of my list. (this leads to my next point)
2. You don’t need to finish the book. Also, feel free to jump around. The book is for your enjoyment, not to suffer through so that you can say “I read THAT book”.
3. Re-listen to parts of your favourite books when you need inspiration or guidance. This was a huge turning point for me after reading “Religion for Atheists.” I went back to several favourite passages and had soul food for the mind.