In 2020, I completed 25 books, totaling 8,333 pages read. I stepped up my reading by Audible, doing 15 of those books on Audible (for the equivalent of 5,188 pages audibly read). I read five books in print and another five books through the Kindle app on my iPad.
I’ve written book reviews for about most of the books I read this year – and put a hyperlink below to those reviews. I just haven’t gotten around to writing some of the other reviews. But here’s a quick synopsis of the books I’ve read broken down by category.
Living a Life of Possibility
I started 2020 with three great books that I summed up together as helping me to “Live a Life of Possibility.” (Check out that link for the review of each of these first three books). Little did I know what the rest of 2020 would bring, but I think these books helped me get in the right mindset:
Abundance: The Future is Greater Than You Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
Their Eyes Were Watching God a novel by Florida writer Zora Neale Hurston.
The HyperLocal HyperFast Real Estate Agent by my friend Dan Lesniak.
Race Relations in the United States
In addition to the book above by Zora Neale Hurston, a black author who writes a lot about the black experience in the earlier part of the twentieth century, I read three other books this year that were excellent in understanding our country’s challenging history of race relations:
The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. A fun travelogue of the author visiting various places throughout the South and uncovering a complex history for blacks and whites.
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, the autobiography of one of the greatest men in American history.
Business Books
In addition to Dan Lesniak’s book on real estate mentioned above, I dove a bit further into innovation, branding, marketing, and other business concepts this year:
Fearless Innovation by Alex Goryachev, who was the guest on my podcast earlier this year.
The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
The Business of Expertise by David Baker
The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow – a great book to learn how to grow a customer base through membership subscriptions.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield – a great book for aspiring or ascending writers!
National Review Institute authors
I also read books by some of our NRI Fellows. The first was the first featured book in our new NRI Virtual Book Club in the late spring with Richard Brookhiser; and the second is our forthcoming book for the virtual book club that will take place in January 2021 with Douglas Murray.
Give Me Liberty: A History of America’s Exceptional Idea by Richard Brookhiser
The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race, and Identity by Douglas Murray.
Be The Best
Getting our mind right is an important thing to do any year, but in 2020, it was essential.
Atomic Habits by James Clear may have been the most impactful book of the year for me.
Mind Gym by Gary Mack and David Casstevens was recommended to me by Orlando City Soccer Club player Chris Mueller when he was on my podcast. I was so intrigued with his mental toughness, I had to see what it was that helped him.
The 5am Club by Robin Sharma was one of the recommended readings in Chris Mueller’s “Be the Best” book club and it was also a hugely life-impacting book that I am sure to review again and again. I didn’t get a chance to write a review, but Chris wrote summaries on his website here.’
Biographies
I love biographies. In addition to the autobiography by Booker T. Washington mentioned above, I also read the following biographies:
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough – also one of the best books I read this year. These guys lived Atomic Habits a century before James Clear made it cool.
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon Wood.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson – a hefty, very detailed, and insightful book into one of the greatest innovators of our time.
History and Politics
Two fun history books that also weave in some political history:
The Unmaking of a Mayor by William F. Buckley, Jr., who details his run for mayor of New York City in 1965. We covered this book as part of the summer NRI virtual book club experience.
Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and then Lost it in the Revolution by T.J. English
Keep the Faith
One of the most important things of 2020 was continuing to dive deeper into my faith. A few books helped with that:
Seeing Jesus from the East – the last book by Ravi Zacharias before his death from cancer in May.
The Grand Weaver – also by Ravi Zacharias. A real gem in understanding God’s plan for each of us.
Born Again by Charles Colson.
A Year With the Mystics by NRI Fellow Kathryn Lopez. This book is a daily reflection from a different saint every day. Let’s just say it got me through 2020 in the right mindset and set my spirit on the right course each day. What a treasure that I decided to read it starting January 1, 2020.
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Another year of learning and growing and becoming stronger, thanks to reading! Let me know if you would like to do some reading and growing together in 2021.