Top Books I Read in 2021 & Recommend

• Eric Weiner’s The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers (2020) is a distillation of the teachings of 14 great philosophers. The insights resonate with a fresh vibrancy for our problems today.
• Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) will open your eyes to the quirky and error-prone ways in which you can be influenced in ways you don’t suspect. A showcase of the innate biases of the mind and unthinking approaches to decision-making.
• Jeff Immelt’s Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company (2021) is the former General Electric CEO’s narrative of the collapse of the once-mighty company. Immelt owns up his many mistakes with a certain self-awareness and offers a then-in-time rationale for his significant decisions.
• Greg Chapman’s The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate (1992) elaborates the notion that people express love differently, and people feel loved in different ways. It’s a convenient formulation, and it’s simple and relatable.
• Clayton M. Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life (2012) is an entreaty to applying the principles of management business to our personal lives. Christensen’s reflections on pursuing fulfillment and standing up for your beliefs chord with many.

See also my book recommendations from 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.

The five books I reread every year are Benjamin Graham’s Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor, Phil Fisher’s Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive.

You may be interested in my article on how to process that pile of books you can’t seem to finish and my article on how to read faster and better.

I wish you enlightening reads in 2022. Recall the words of the American philosopher Mortimer J. Adler, who said, “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”