52 Books In One Year (2021 Edition)

This is not a new concept, but 2021 is the year that I am committing to making this happen. With so many ways to consume books, there’s not much of an excuse anymore, so I’m documenting it here to hold myself accountable.

This includes physical books as well as audiobooks, the latter being something I can also do while I work out, walk the dogs, deliver hot sauce, etc.

What am I hoping to get out of this? More knowledge, a broader understanding of how folks think, more resources to share with others, some fun thrown in as well. Most of the list will be non-fiction, but I’ve sprinkled some fiction in to make sure I’m not taking things too seriously overall. For each, I plan on doing some version of a write-up to put my thoughts somewhere. I have a terrible habit of reading and remembering very little after a few months.

Below is the current list and while it’s completely filled out, I reserve the right to change things up. After all, there could be additional items that spike my curiosity or take precedence over what lies below.

The List for 2021

1. The 48 Laws of Power — Robert Greene
2. The Energy Bus — Jon Gordon
3. The Stranger — Albert Camus
4. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck — Mark Manson
5. The Likeability Trap — Alicia Menendez
6. Rewire — Richard O’Connor
7. Brotopia — Emily Chang
8. Sacred Cow: The Case For Better Meat — Diana Rodgers and Robb Wolf
9. Escaping the Build Trap — Melissa Perri
10. The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work — Scott Berkun
11. Outcomes Over Output — Josh Seiden
12. Inspired: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love — Marty Cagan
13. Think on Your Feet: Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Impromptu Communication Skills On the Job — Jen Oleniczak Brown
14. Bored and Brilliant — Manoush Zomorodi
15. The Politics of Coaching — Carl J. Pierson
16. Will Write For Food — Dianne Jacob
17. McIlhenny’s Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire — Jeffrey Rothfelder
18. HBR Leading Virtual Teams
19. HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including featured article “What Is Strategy?” by Michael E. Porter)
20. The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work — Peter Block
21. Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence — Daniel Goleman
22. What You Do Is Who You Are — Ben Horowitz
23. Smartcuts — Shane Snow
24. The Making of a Manager — Julie Zhuo
25. Browns Town 1964 — Terry Pluto
26. The Art of Sportscasting — Tom Hedrick
27. Bossypants — Tina Fey
28. Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them — Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
29. Work Disrupted: Opportunity, Resilience, and Growth in the Accelerated Future of Work — Jeff Schwartz
30. Delivering Happiness — Tony Hsieh
31. The Talent Code — Daniel Coyle
32. The Icarus Deception — Seth Godin
33. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage — Alfred Lansing
34. Foundation — Isaac Asimov
35. Siddhartha — Hermann Hesse
36. You Win In the Locker Room First — Jon Gordon and Mike Smith
37. Things Fall Apart — Chinua Achebe
38. The Education of a Coach — David Halberstam
39. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Thi1ngs Done — Lawrence Bossidy and Ram Charan
40. Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
41. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us — Seth Godin
42. Liar’s Poker — Michael Lewis
43. A Town Like Alice — Nevil Shute
44. The Caine Mutiny — Herman Woulk
45. Lead From The Outside — Stacey Abrams
46. Lincoln on Leadership — Donald T. Phillips
47. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk — Ben Fountain
48. A Thinking Man’s Guide To Pro Football — Paul Zimmerman
49. Finding the Winning Edge — Bill Walsh, Brian Billick, James A Peterson
50. Above the Line — Urban Meye and Wayne R Coffey
51. Chop Wood Carry Water — Joshua Medcalf
52. Eleven Rings — Hugh Delehanty and Phil Jackson

Have other thoughts on what I should read? Feel free to send me a note or add a comment below!

Other Books I’ve Heard About Over The Year

1. Out of The Crisis — W. Edwards Deming
2. The Procrastinator’s Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now — Rita Emmett
3. Point B — Drew Magary
4. Think Like a Monk — Jay Shetty
5. Rework — David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
6. No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention — Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings
7. Outliers — Malcolm Gladwell
8. The Go-Giver — Bob Burg
9. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance — Angela Duckworth
10. Leadership Is Language — L. David Marquet’
11. Laziness Does Not Exist — Devon Price
12. An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management — Will Larson
13. The Culture Code — Daniel Coyle
14. Every Tool’s a Hammer (Savage)
15. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth (Hadfield)
16. The Design of Every Day Things (Norman)
17. How to be an Antiracist (Kendi)
18. The Color of Law (Rothstein)
19. The Ghost Map (Johnson)
20. The Visual MBA (Barron)
21. The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (Hamming)
22. Think Again (Grant)
23. The Little Book of Talent (Coyle)