My 10 favorite non-fiction books 2017

My reading in 2017 has helped me make (a little) sense of the world this year. Here are my 10 favorite non-fiction books, in alphabetical order by author.

Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book

Originally published in 1940,  readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.

David Allen, Ready for Anything

Based on Allen’s highly popular e-newsletter, Ready for Anything offers readers 52 ways to immediately clear your head for creativity, focus your attention, create structures that work, and take action to get things moving.

Jose Berengueres, Sketch Thinking

Sketch Thinking is a collection of 36 tips and 7 group activities designed to help you build sketching skills specifically targeted to visual communication for workshops. The core principles of Sketch Thinking are: (i) Draw fast, (ii) Sketch ‘people feeling something’ rather than objects, (iii) Storify your message.

Jonah Berger, Contagious

This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share.

Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There in Sales

The authors name 16 bad habits in all, and they provide proven techniques for reversing their negative effects by putting them to rest for good. There is no profession that depends more on good relationships than sales.

Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself.  A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side.

Austin Kleon, Show Your Work

why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery—let others into your process, then let them steal from you.

Daniel H. Pink, To Sell Is Human

To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. The book reveals the new ABCs of moving others (it’s no longer “Always Be Closing”), explains why extraverts don’t make the best salespeople and shows how giving people an “off-ramp” for their actions can matter more than actually changing their minds.

Simon Sinek, Start with Why

Start With Why shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired.

Alan Weiss and Marshall Goldsmith, Lifestorming

We often don’t realize how much of our natural default is established by others. This book shows you how to take a step back and compare your life today with the future you want — and build a plan for changing track toward constant evolution and growth.

To all my subscribers, friends and clients…

Thanks very much for your continued interest, and support for my work. I wish everyone a happy festive season and a fantastic 2018.

To all my subscribers, friends and clients…