| 10. Tiny Experiments – Anne-Laure Le Cunff | |
| What I learned: | |
| Coming soon | |
| 9. The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle | |
| What I learned: | |
| I honestly avoided reading this book for a long time, even when it was mentioned in so many of the other books I’ve read over the years. There’s something about the title that makes it sound a bit too much like spiritual self-help nonsense, and I already feel a little bit guilty about reading so many “self-development” books. But then my daughter asked me to buy it for her because she wanted to read it, and I decided that it would be a nice thing to share with her, and so I caved in and read it. And, well, it wasn’t for me. It’s exactly the spiritual self-help nonsense that I feared. It’s about seven hours of the author telling you that you are overthinking and that nothing but the present exists, and I get it, but for some reason, it becomes obnoxious and preachy. Probably the main reason is that the entire book is worth about one sentence: Live in the present. | |
| 8. Time Surfing – Paul Loomans | |
| What I learned: | |
| Coming soon | |
| 7. The Obstacle is the Way * – Ryan Holiday | |
| What I learned: | |
| Having read this book about five times, this latest one was the time when it probably had the most impact on me because of some personal circumstances, that is, losing my job. As that happened, I started to internalise the main idea behind the book: every obstacle is an opportunity. And that’s how I decided to see it, and it helped a lot in reinforcing the idea that change, even when it’s not triggered by your own decisions, can be the source of something very positive for you. | |
| 6. Not the End of the World – Hannah Ritchie | |
| What I learned: | |
| I personally believe that you don’t have to be optimistic or pessimistic about the state of the world in regard to climate change and the future. I believe in just doing the right thing because it’s the right and because it’s my duty, and that’s that. This book is an attempt to take an optimistic outlook on the whole situation and, well, if you need that sort of hope, you might enjoy the read. The way she presents it, however, feels pretty weak to me. She argues that we should be optimistic because there’s never been a better time than this, and because things are improving all the time. Except, to me (at least in terms of climate change) it’s as if past generations were driving towards a massive cliff in a beat-up, noisy, uncomfortable, old truck, and the author argues that now we are driving in a super smooth, super comfy Mercedes. The end result is the same though: We are still driving towards the cliff and, although we may be slowing down a bit, we’ll eventually hit the end of the road and have a catastrophic crash. | |
| 5. A Poison Like No Other – Matt Simon | |
| What I learned: | |
| This book is just bad news. There’s no two ways about it. Micro and nanoplastics are EVERYWHERE, and you might think “Yeah, I know”, but I didn’t know how bad it was until I read this book. You are eating and breathing plastic every day, and it’s all bad for you, as you would expect. And the worst news is that there’s no stopping this any time soon because plastic is everywhere. So by the end, I ended up wondering who this book is for, and the honest answer is that I don’t know, because probably not a lot of people need to learn that much about microplastics given there is no escaping them. | |
| 4. Think Again – Adam Grant | |
| What I learned: | |
| The premise of the book is a very simple concept: to rethink your ideas and beliefs. Basically, whenever you think you are right about something, think again, because very often (or always), you don’t know what you don’t know, also known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. And that’s about it, really. Do you need to spend some seven hours reading the book to come to that conclusion? Probably not. Then again, maybe I’m wrong. | |
| 3. Ultra-Something – Brendan Leonard | |
| What I learned: | |
| Unlike other books about running I’ve read in the past, this one can probably exclusively be appreciated by people who run, especially if you run ultras, and especially if you are a fan of Semi-Rad. I can’t say there was much to learn for me, but I really enjoyed the running anecdotes and humour combined with random scientific facts and historical references. | |
| 2. The Daily Dad * – Ryan Holiday | |
| What I learned: | |
| I’ll just copy what I wrote below: I read this book every year now. It’s one page per day for 365 days. It takes about a minute a day, and a couple more if you spend a bit of time meditating on the topic you just read about. What’s not to love? What’s there to learn after having read it for like four years in a row? Well, everything, really. | |
| 1. The Daily Stoic * – Ryan Holiday | |
| What I learned: | |
| I read this book every year now. It’s one page per day for 365 days. It takes about a minute a day, and a couple more if you spend a bit of time meditating on the topic you just read about. What’s not to love? What’s there to learn after having read it for like four years in a row? Well, everything, really. | |
(*) Re-reading