Books I’ve Read Over the Last Year

Posted byDaveGrigsbyPosted inGeneral, Good Podcasts, Good Reads, Inspiring People, Interesting Things, Lessons From Work, Random Thoughts, Thoughts on LifeTags:, , , , ,

I was listening to a podcast yesterday, and was amazed by the volume of books the speaker (Glenn Beck) had read this year. Now, if you don’t like what Glenn has to say, that’s fine. But you have to give him credit- he runs a billion dollar business, has radio and tv commitments, has church commitments, family commitments, and does speaking engagements. How he had the time to read, in his words, 4 pages worth of books is amazing to me. So I thought I’d look at the books I’ve read, and try to set a goal for 2019. So here is the list of books I’ve read:

  • The Coming Storm by Michael Lewis
  • On Killing by Lt. Col. David Grossman
  • Ghandi and Churchill by Arthur Herman
  • Them by Ben Sass
  • The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
  • Red War by Vince Flynn
  • The Templars: the Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors by Dan Jones
  • The Coddling of the American Mind* by Jonathon Haidt and Greg Lukianoff
  • Killing the SS by Bill O’Reilly
  • Addicted to Outrage* by Glenn Beck
  • With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa* by E.B. Sledge
  • 12 Rules for Life* by Jordan Peterson
  • Freedom’s Forge* by John McDonough
  • Grant by Ron Chernow
  • The Source by James Michener
  • The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
  • Sphere by Micheal Crighton
  • Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
  • Spymaster by Brad Thor
  • The Return of George Washington by Edward Larson
  • The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
  • The Third Door* by Alex Banayan
  • Building a Story Brand** by Donald Miller
  • A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
  • World Without End by Ken Follett
  • The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  • A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
  • Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
  • Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
  • Catch Me if You Can by Frank Abignale
  • Learn Better by Ulrich Boser
  • The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer
  • First Counsel by Brad Meltzer
  • The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer
  • The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer
  • Control by Glenn Beck
  • The Turing Exception by William Hertling
  • The Last Firewall by William Hertling
  • A.I. Apocalypse by William Hertling
  • Avagadro Corp* by William Hertling
  • Play Bigger* by Kevin Maney, Christopher Lochhead, Dave Peterson, Al Ramadan
  • Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper
  • Blue Fishing* by Steve Sims
  • Origin* by Dan Brown
  • Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens
  • Extreme Ownership* by Jocko Willink
  • The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan
  • The 10x Rule* by Grant Cardone
  • How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzwiel
  • Homo Deus* by Yuval Noah Harari
  • Sapiens* by Yuval Noah Harari
  • Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Stefan Rudnicki
  • Defying Hitler* by Sebastian Haffner
  • Boomerang by Michael Lewis
  • Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
  • 13 Hours by Mitchell Zuckoff
  • The Red Circle by Jon Bailey

Books with the * denote that I really liked them. ** means I REALLY liked them.

The books I think that challenged be the most are the ones by Yuval Noah Harari. I really enjoyed Building a Story Brand by Don Miller, and would put it in my top 5 business books, along with Friction by Jeff Rosenblum.

In full disclosure, I’ve listened to most of these books- I have read read a couple of them, but for the most part, Audible and Overdrive have been my go to’s for listening to most of the books. It makes it a lot easier to multitask, and read when I’m doing other menial tasks such as driving, waiting in lines, or doing yard work. Those two apps are life savers!

In addition to those books, I listen to podcasts, and have a few that I really like:

  • The Glenn Beck Program, especially his Saturday podcast. He is doing interviews with people from all over the spectrum, and I think it is amazing. Check that out if you’re not interested in anything else he talks about. 
  • The Tim Ferriss Show
  • The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe
  • The Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan
  • The Order of Man by Ryan Micheler. I like the Tuesday and the Friday shows the best. 
  • Common Sense by Dan Carlin
  • HardCore History by Dan Carlin

I try to remain up to speed on my scripture reading, but I’ll be honest, that takes a lot to motivate me to do. I can be strong for a few days, but then I get busy, or lazy, and skip it. Then a few weeks later I’ll try again. Maybe one day…

So for 2019, my goal will be to read at least a couple of chapters of scriptures daily, as well as at least the same number of books (63) that I did this year. I’m going to finish Churchill and Ghandi by the end of the year as well, so I guess that means 64. And, because I like the podcasts I listen to, I’ll keep listening to them as well. 

What books do you suggest? Are there any that have been transformational for you?

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