My Reading List of 2018

“I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world. I’m saying it helps.” — Walter Mosley

Books are great companions, they keep you company, they are friends, smart friends, they entertain, educate, provoke your thoughts, expand your horizon, keep you thinking, stretch your mind, heal you, pick you up and push you forward.

There is a Latin expression: liber medicina animi [a book is the soul’s medicine]. That’s what books have been to me.

I’m flattered when I get mail or inbox asking me for a list of helpful books for 2018. I keep losing my list, so I decided to post it here for all time.

For some books I have written my reviews and for others I have included Amazon links so that you can read what others think of each tittle.

The following is a list of books I read in 2018 in no particular order:

1. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
2. Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark
3. Lead with Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis by Jeffrey A. Krames
4. Minimalism: Living a Meaningful Life, Second Edition by Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Milburn
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
6. Dark Continent my Black Arse by Sihle Khumalo
7. Almost Sleeping My Way to Timbuktu: West Africa on a Shoestring by Public Transport with no French by Sihle Khumalo
8. Bold: How to go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
9. Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
10. The Wizard Crow by Nguni wa Thiongo
11. Golden Gate Bridge: History and Design of an Icon by Donald MacDonald and Ira Nadal
12. The Storyteller’s Secret by Carmine Gallo
13. The Road to Character by David Brooks
14. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
15. Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown
16. The Shack: Where Tragedy confronts Eternity by Wm. Paul Young
17. The Last Slave Market: The Incredible Story of John Kirk: The Man Who Ended the East African Slave Trade by Alastair Hazell
18. Mafia: The Final Secrets by Bill Bonanno and Gary B. Abromovitz
19. Life Wisdom by Zig Ziglar
20. Coconut by Kopano Matlwa
21. The Age of Magic by Ben Okri
22. Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
23. Part of the Plan by Sanele Zulu
24. Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
25. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
26. Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it) by Salim Ismail, Michael S. Malone, Yuri van Gets
27. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
28. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
29. Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work by Steven Pressfield
30. The War of Art: Winning The Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield
31. Braving the Wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone by Brene Brown.
32. All Marketers are Liars [Tell Stories] by Seth Godin
33. This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See by Seth Godin
34. Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie
35. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
36. Time Talent Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag & Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power by Michael Mankins and Eric Garton
37. Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen
38. The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care by Clayton M. Christensen
39. The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gresersen and Clayton M. Christensen
40. The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty by Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon
41. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
42. Abundance Without Affluence: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen by James Suzman
43. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
44. How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made The Modern World by Steven Johnson
45. Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson
46. The Hard Thing about Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
47. Quiet Power: Growing Up As An Introvert In a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
48. The Irresistible Introvert: Harness the Power of Quiet Charisma In a Loud World by Michaela Chung
49. Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life by Martin Meredith
50. Find Your Why: A practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek
51. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
52. Make Your Idea Matter: Stand Out with a Better Story by Bernadette Jiwa
53. Meaningful: The Story of Ideas that Fly by Bernadette Jiwa
54. Kasipreneurship: Building legacies from Spaza shops by Lucas Moloi
55. The Shrink by Brigitta Zwani

A book a day, keeps ignorance away.