The Power of Books

I fell in love with books at a young age. Over the last few years, however, I intensified the habit. That had a powerful impact on my personal and professional growth. It doesn’t matter how busy I get; I will read. It’s is one of my non-negotiable habits.

Why? Because we are what we read, just as we are what we eat. As a writer and public speaker, this is even more important, as the African proverb says – A wise man fills his brain before emptying his mouth. My goal is one book per fortnight. In between, I read several articles from Wired, New York Times, New Yorker, HBR, Bloomberg, Financial Times etc. 

Among several book I read over the last six months, here is my top ten recommendations.

1.   Mindset | Dr Carol Dweck

2.    Atomic Habits | James Clear

3.   The Hard Thing About Hard Things | Ben Horowitz

4.   Dare to Lead | Brené Brown

5.   Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life | Anne Lamott

6.   Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World | Carl Newport

7.   Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth | John Doerr

8.   Can't Hurt Me | David Goggins

9.   Innercise: The New Science to Unlock Your Brain's Hidden Power | John Assaraf

10.  The Power of Habit | Charles Duhigg

Many people rarely read books. The say they don’t have time. But when I ask them to reflect on the time they spend on TV, social media, and other frivolous things, they realise they are probably not as busy as they think.

Some argue they make up by reading blogs and LinkedIn posts. But books have breath and deeper context you will never find in a one-page blog.

Paul Brunson rightfully summed this way better than I would have done, “Books take you so deep into the narrative in a way you can’t get from blog posts – and it’s the narrative that gives you context. The context is like glue – there are little bits of concepts that are dropped in. And then there’s context, which binds the concepts in your mind. The challenge for people who read the ‘top 10 ways’ articles is that, while they come away with the tips, they don’t have the context. Therefore, they don’t know how to apply those tips in multiple scenarios – the tip comes at face value, but there’s no depth to it.”

Successful people are avid book readers, the evidence is as clear as day. Warren Buffet advises, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” When asked how he learned to build rockets, Elon Musk says, ‘I read books.’ 

Reading books expands your perspectives, sharpens your knowledge, makes you wiser, instills discipline and most importantly, can help you discover yourself.