Reading 52 books in 2016: Recap

In 2016, I tried to read a lot and write a lot. (I explained why in my post about writing in 2016.) “A lot” is relative, of course. My goal was to finish 52 books in the year1. Before getting to the full list, here are some thoughts from completing this goal.

(Also check out my recent post about my ten favorite books from the year.)

I should be pickier with the books I read. It’d be better to read half as many book chosen with more care. Not all the books were great. A few weren’t very good at all. There’s a certain type of self-published book that I’ll try avoiding next year.

Immediate sign: links in the book to “more content” that open up to pages blocked by mailing list sign ups. It’s a little too transparent. If you won’t put a ghillie suit on your marketing channel at least toss a camouflage shirt on it.

I should read more broadly. The books that strayed from my usual reading topics2 were the ones that I enjoyed most. Particularly fiction and narrative nonfiction. It makes sense that those were the most entertaining because they’re written to be entertaining.

I should take the time to write book notes. Along with being pickier, I should take the time afterward to review what I read. I’ve found so much value in writing thoughts about books during or after reading. Being active in thinking about what I’m reading increases my enjoyment of the books.

If I don’t write things down, it’s hard to remember any specifics from a book after a few months. Sharing these thoughts (hopefully) helps create value for others.

(As for extra value, carrying the zero… I made $0 from affiliate links in 2016 but I’ll keep the dream alive for 2017.)

30 minutes here or there adds up. Something that struck me when I first started browsing through Audible was the time estimates. Most books clocked in under 10 hours and were sometimes as low as 4 or 5 hours. Reading is much faster than listening so it wasn’t too hard to find enough time in 30-minute blocks through the week.

A minute here or there adds up… poorly. Nearly every book I buy is in Kindle format so I read on the iOS app often. Sometimes that means reading a page or two while standing in a line. It’s useless compared to reading that page or two while undistracted as part of a larger block of time.

How to read a book. Check out this PDF by Paul N. Edwards. After practicing some things there, I was a much more effective reader. Next year I’ll continue trying to be more thoughtful during reading.

I can continue the pace. I don’t read quickly. I tried reading instead in place of the time that would have gone to social media or social news. Which was way more time than I would’ve guessed.

Listening to an audiobook feels different. I listened to more this year than in past years, but didn’t count them in the full count of 52 books. Listening to audiobooks is just different. It doesn’t go as fast but you can just have it just go on for hours at a time.

It’s better for certain books and worse for others. I like shorter books that I can listen to repeatedly. Essentialism and 10% Happier are books that I’ve listened to multiple times. Same with Eat that Frog. This year I listened to Grit by Angela Duckworth 3 or 4 times.

I tried a couple novels3 but I think they’d probably be better for long highway commutes instead of walking commutes. Long-form podcasts are good here because of the rambling. You can go in and out of podcast conversations. It’s like being at a group dinner at a very long table, sitting between a few different conversations.

Here’s the full list of books that I read this year. Highlighted titles link to book notes. Also check out my ten favorite books from this year.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose by Nicole Fenton, Kate Kiefer Lee

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin, Christopher Noessel

Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris

Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton

Wireframing Essentials by Matthew J. Hamm

User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product by Jeff Patton, Peter Economy

Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less (Revised third edition, 4th printing, September 1, 2014) by Sam Carpenter

Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman by Dave Hoover, Adewale Oshineye

Dark Force Rising: Star Wars Legends (The Thrawn Trilogy) (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy Book 2) by Timothy Zahn

Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work by Whitney Johnson

The Wild Diet: Get Back to Your Roots, Burn Fat, and Drop Up to 20 Pounds in 40 Days by Abel James

Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity by Charles Duhigg

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sht by Steven Pressfield

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World by David Sheff

The Miracle of Morning Pages: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Most Important Artist’s Way Tool: by Julia Cameron

Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz

Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success by Shawn Stevenson

The Elements of Style by William Strunk

Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers

Kettlebell Simple & Sinister by Pavel Tsatsouline

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R. R. Martin, Gary Gianni

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV by Joe Toplyn

The Umbrella Man and Other Stories by Roald Dahl

The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories by Simon Rich

Spoiled Brats: Stories by Simon Rich

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg

You Don’t Know JS: Up & Going by Kyle Simpson

Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations by Simon Rich

Free-Range Chickens by Simon Rich

Elliot Allagash by Simon Rich

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

You are a Writer by Jeff Goins

Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan

Hard Thing About Hard Things by By: Ben Horowitz

But What If We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman

The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth by James Altucher

The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis

The Serious Guide to Joke Writing by Sally Holloway

What in God’s Name: A Novel by Simon Rich

The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics by Freddie E Ii Williams, Brian Bolland

The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics by Klaus Janson

The DC Comics Guide to Creating Comics: Inside the Art of Visual Storytelling by Carl Potts, Jim Lee

How to Write Funny by Scott Dikkers

Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations by Dan Roam

Shut Your Monkey: How to Control Your Inner Critic and Get More Done by Danny Gregory

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande

Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons by Tim Kreider

  1. It wasn’t exactly a book each week. Varying lengths made it so some took around 3 days and others were a couple weeks. Also, I would have 2 or 3 going at a time. Ideally that was one non-fiction and one fiction book. In reality though, it was pretty much two pop-psychology books at a time. ↩︎
  2. They’re likely to be displayed cover-out in airport bookstores. I love reading these books the same way I love reading productivity blogs. It feels like I’m accomplishing something just by reading. In 2017, I’m going to be more proactive about actually applying ideas from what I read. ↩︎
  3. People seem to frequently recommend novels for audiobooks. That’s how I was first introduced to them. Actually it was my coworker in 2008 recommending books on CDs. I never gave it a shot. ↩︎