Of the 30 or so books I read in 2016, here are the highlights. For each of these books there are at least two or three accompanying books that I will recommend in an incoming post. For example, Fahrenheit 451 pairs very well with 1984; The Looming Tower pairs well Islamism and the Future of Tolerance. And all the books on this list fit together with one another.
*Let me know what your top reads of the year were. I’m always looking to stack my reading queue!
- Fahrenheit 451
– Ray Bradbury
– Ray Bradbury
This book is often characterized as a story about firefighters who burn books. True. But, books are burned because they cause pain, because they make people think unhappy thoughts. “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.”
If you’re interested in what a politically correct, technology saturated world might go, read this book. Censorship, education, media addiction and more topics are taken on in an eerily present account of a future world.
Memorable quotes:
“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.”
“The difference between a man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is the touching. The lawn cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
“The most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom is the solid unmoving cattle of the majority.”
“I plunk the children in school nine days out of ten. I put up with them when I come home three days a month; it’s not bad at all. You leave them into the parlor and turn the switch It’s like washing clothes; stuff laundry in and slam the lid.”
“Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery.”
2. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
I often found myself rereading phrases, pages and chapters.
Memorable quotes:
“We are constantly trying to hold it all together. If you really want to see why you do things, then don’t do them and see what happens.” p.121
“There are two ways you can live: you can devote your life to staying in your comfort zone, or you can work on your freedom. In other words, you can devote your whole life to the process of making sure everything fits within your limited model, or you can devote your life to freeing yourself from the limits of your model.” p.122
3. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition
If you paid attention to the US election and are wondering how it’s possible that Trump won, read this book. Or, if you’ve wondered why people are obsessed with sports.
Dr. Cialdini exposes the tactics that marketers, dictators, politicians, salesmen and conmen use to manipulate us —and how to say ‘No’. I experienced multiple epiphanies while reading this book. Commercials, political discourse, and the world at large won’t be the same.
Plus, how to navigate the constant clamoring of attention in our digital world.
Memorable quotes:
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”
“Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment.”
“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”
4. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
This book angered me, and captivated me. If you want to be an informed citizen and to realize at once how uniformed your opinionated friends are on the topics of Islamism, Jihad, Saudi Arabia, etc, read this book.
Memorable quotes:
“Radicalism usually prospers in the gap between rising expectations and declining opportunities.”
“The legacy of bin Laden is a future of suspicion, grief, and the loss of certain liberties that are already disappearing from memory.”
5. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
This book, along with Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, is one that I often open to a random page and read for inspiration when the Resistance is strong.
Memorable quotes:
“Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”
“The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.”
6. Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur
Memorable quotes:
“It’s a big world. You can loudly leave out 99% of it. People in that 1 % will come to you because you have shown how much you value them.”
“Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.”
Audiobook Recommendation
7. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Memorable quotes:
“If you are deliberately trying to create a future that feels safe, you will willfully ignore the future that is likely.”
“If you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you’ll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.”
“The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.”
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