This year has afforded me a lot of time to pick up another old habit: reading. In previous years with a much busier city lifestyle, my level of reading took a backseat to most things, just like running.
With all the time now, I've maintained supreme discipline in commitment to the betterment of myself. I focus this in two areas: maintaining health (running / eating right) and reading (feed the mind).
I've been fortunate in maintaining momentum on this effort this year, all things considered. Here is a list of books I have finished or currently reading this year so far that I recommend:
- Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
- The Rust Programming Language
- Salt: A World History
- Symfony 5: The Fast Track
- Object Design Style Guide
- Accelerating Development Velocity Using Docker: Docker Across Microservices
- Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
- Confessions of an Advertising Man
- Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired and Secretive Company Really Works
- Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs
- The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People
- Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art
- Thinking Fast and Slow (in progress)
- Outliers (in progress)
- The Phoenix Project (in progress)
- Code Complete (second read)
This isn't a complete list by any means, I left off reference books (technical and cooking), educational books (music, math), and various video game history books of which are numerous. I have plenty of books on hand left to go through, and many more on deck on my Amazon list.
I recommend any of the above titles, but above all, I recommend that you read. Read anything. Just don't make it entirely internet based (articles, news). Find some subjects that interest you, look them up and grab them on Amazon, eBay, Craigslist or whatever is convenient for you.
Disconnect and pick up a physical book!