One book per month

After the previous article related to the amount of reading, I took in some action points on myself with the purpose of reading more. And I did. 2017 was the year I read more books on my free time than ever before. So much reading, that even my wife bought me an electronic book reader for my birthday (much appreciated)! Although reluctant at the beginning, I adore the electronic book, as it puts away most of the excuses for me to read (it is too dark, I am tired, the font in the book is too small, the book is too heavy to travel with, etc). As part of this generation, I am absolutely pleased with instantly being able to buy many books. Although it might sound foolish, reading in a language that is not the official language of the country you live in, makes finding interesting reads in bookstores complicated.

You can find the (heterogeneous) list of 12 books that I managed to read in 2017 at the end of this article. As you can suspect, for 2018 I had the new years resolution to repeat (or even extend) the mark of one-book-a-month. Reading is one of the three new years resolutions of 2018 (together with others related to health/sports and family).

What I read was actually driven by interests. After starting with Thinking fast and Slow (based on colleague recommendations) and The chaos imperative (also based on recommendations from connections), I followed the thread of some of the authors (Sway,The Spider and the Starfish) and some of the topics (Freakonomics). I also had completely different genres in the mix, including reading 1984 (which was a long time in my read list) and more practical day to day topics (a description of the live of the Dutch traditions by a foreign writer - The Undutchables) that might come in handy. Also some work related topics, including leadership and problem solving (thanks for lending me the book Rik).

Out of all the reads of 2017 I would definitely keep three in the top list and officially recommend them. Two of them I still did not mention so far. The patient will see you now by Eric Topol (recommended by an ex colleague) is a highly recommended book for those of you in contact with healthcare. It is an impressive collection of facts and figures, in the form of a readable and entertaining argument showing and relating interesting ideas: how Gutenberg's press revolutionized learning and literacy, how healthcare systems and medical professionals are dysfunctional and how technology can tremendously make a revolution in health equivalent to what literacy did for mankind. This book resonated with me in many aspects, including the personal contact I had with multiple healthcare system in multiple countries (with really poor patient satisfaction) and the professional relationship with new technology for healthcare and well being (including recent rounds of discussions with doctors about technology).

The second book to keep in the top list, and highly recommendable, is Christensen's Competing against Luck. I already read the Innovators Dilemma back in 2016 (bought it in San Jose's airport as entertainment for a long US to Europe flight) and was attracted to this new book from the author. Christensen explains his theory of how products would need to be seen as what they are used for and not for what they are. This makes extreme sense to me (read the book) and it also resonates with the day to day work in technology development (and healthcare). Customers do not buy drill bits because they want to own them, but because they need a hole in a wall. So competition is not only the other manufacturers of drill bits, but also a handyman who installs your lamps or hangs your pictures, the chocolate box you will bring to your neighbor if he makes the hole for you, or other fixing tools in the wall. Same concept is applied throughout the book to heterogeneous products such as milkshakes, vitamin juices, local newspapers, corporate companies etc. Maybe the book would provide more detailed information and examples of how companies used his theory to find their fitting in the market.

Third of the top three books, Thinking fast and slow, by Kahneman, needs no introduction.

 I already started with the list of 2018, with 3 books already read, one in progress and 21 candidates in the (web based) wishlist of my e-book provider. 

I hope you enjoy(ed) reading!!

List of books read in 2017

• Thinking fast and Slow - Daniel Kanheman --
• The chaos imperative - Ori Brafman and Judah Pollack
• Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
• Sway (the irrisistible pull of irrational behabior) - Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
• The spider and the starfish - Ori Brafman and Rod A Beckstrom
• 1984 - George Orwell
• The patient will see you now - Eric Topol 
• The leadership handbook - John Maxwell
• Geography of genious - Eric Weiner
• Are your lights on (how to figure out what the problem really is) - Donald Gause, Gerald Weinberg
• The Undutchables - Colin white and Laurie Boucke
• Competing against luck -- Clayton Christensen 

This article presents my subjective view on a topic. This does not represent the thinking of my employer, previous employers, my customers or any other affiliation I might have or have had in the past.