I’ve read books in English, French, and Arabic. Both fiction and non-fiction.
Mostly, I’ll post here non-fiction English books. At least, the ones that I can recommend and might be relevant to most of you.
Also, I’ll skip the books that I read but don’t remember much of them. I spent a decade reading without taking notes. Please don’t do like me. It’s such a waste.
This section is only meant to spark your interest in books. So I’ll only write my impressions and three notes from the books. For more details, summaries and reviews, you can find them on Amazon or any other source.
For a faster research, you can click on any tag below to find the books of your interests.
Meditations
A New Translation by Gregory Hays
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is about converting knowledge to action. The Roman Emperor keeps reminding himself of the same few truths, and thus, strengthens his soul against the challenges of everyday life to respond in the best manner possible. To learn more, check my wisdom article "Meditations: The Wise Emperor and His Inner Fortress".
Three notes from the book:
1- You could be good today. But instead, you choose tomorrow.
2- It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.
3- External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them.
The Psychology of Money
Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness
Morgan Housel
The way we manage money doesn't depend only on our technical skills, but on our personal history, emotions and behaviors. Learning about these things can give you a better understanding of your behavior with money. And who knows, it might save you from future troubles too. Through simple writing and short stories, Morgan Housel makes sure that every we'll get the lesson.
Three notes from the book:
1- The more extreme the outcome, the less likely you can apply its lessons to your own life.
2- There is no reason to risk what you have and need for what you don't have and don't need.
3- "Enough" is realizing that the opposite—an insatiable appetite for more--will push you to the point of regret.
Outliers
The Story of Success
Malcolm Gladwell
I read The Tipping Point after reading Outliers. From a writing perspective, Outliers is far better. It is fluid with a dose of suspense. You don't see from the beginning how the different chapters are connected to the main idea, which keeps you captivated. For the rest, based on the story of many successful people, Gladwell shows what it takes to be successful. Also, you'll understand why some ingredients of success are not replicable.
Three notes from the book:
1- Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.
2- Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.
3- It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.
Essentialism
The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Greg McKeown
If you are the kind of person who has 10 priorities per day, then you need to read Essentialism. This book is not about getting more things done. It's about doing the few and essential things in a better way.
Three notes from the book:
1- If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will.
2- Have you ever felt the stress that comes from simultaneously holding two contradictory beliefs: "I can't do this" and "I have to do this"?
3- For a type-A personality, it is not hard to push oneself hard. Pushing oneself to the limit is easy! The real challenge for a person who thrives on challenges is not to work hard.
Delivering Happiness
A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Tony Hsieh
I bought this book when I was interested in companies' culture. Even though I never used Zappos (they don't operate in Canada), I found the story of their growth fascinating. Something I always believed: the companies that assist their employees in their growth and learning do greatly. The story of Zappos is the proof.
Three notes from the book:
1- Our philosophy has been to take most of the money we would have spent on paid advertising and invest it into customer service and the customer experience instead, letting our customers do the marketing for us through word of mouth.
2- What is the best way to build a brand for the long term? In a word: culture.
3- Without continually growing and learning both personally and professionally, it's unlikely that any individual employee will still be with the company ten years from now.
Crucial Conversations
Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
This book helped me manage emotionally charged situations. I don't always do it well. But now I have more tools to succeed than I had before. An essential book to have as crucial conversations can happen every day, at work or at home.
Three notes from the book:
1- Crucial conversations: A discussion between two or more people where (1) stakes are high, (2) opinions vary, and (3) emotions run strong.
2- The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.
3- There's an intermediate step between what others do and how we feel. There's always an intermediate step because actions themselves can't and don't cause emotional reaction.
Tribal Leadership
Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright
This book is about creating a killer company culture. Anyone in teams will find precious insights in this book. The authors identified five stages a tribe must go through to move from bad to excellent.
Three notes from the book:
1- People at Stage One are despairingly hostile, and they band together to get ahead in a violent and unfair world...People operating at Stage Two use language centered on "my life sucks"...The Stage Two talk is that they've seen it all before and watched it all fail.
2- The theme of Stage Three, the dominant culture in 49 percent of workplace tribes in the United States, is "I'm great". Or, more fully, "I'm great, and you're not"...The gulf between "I'm great" (Stage Three) and "we're great" (Stage Four) is huge...In fact, the full expression of the theme is "we're great, and they're not".
3- Stage Five's T-shirt would read "life is great"...Their language revolves around infinite potential and how the group is going to make history--not to beat a competitor, but because doing so will make a global impact.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Follow Them and People Will Follow You
John C. Maxwell
No one does the 21 laws well. But if you need to lead a team, this book can be insightful. It has an evaluation that will help you identify your strengths, what you can turn into strength, and the weaknesses you don't need to waste time on them.
Three notes from the book:
1- The bottom line in leadership isn't how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others.
2- When people respect you as a person, they admire you. When they respect you as a friend, they love you. When they respect you as a leader, they follow you.
3- You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion...The heart comes before the head.
Indistractable
How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
Nir Eyal
This book goes into the psychology of distractions and gives practical solutions to overcome them. Nowadays, being indistractable is a superpower. If you want to achieve your goals and get the most out of your time, this book can help have back your focus.
Three notes from the book:
1- Being indistractable means striving to do what you say you will do.
2- All motivation is a desire to escape discomfort. If a behavior was previously effective at providing relief, we're likely to continue using it as a tool to escape discomfort.
3- You can't call something a distraction unless you know what it's distracting you from.
Atomic Habits
An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
James Clear
Learning about habits improved my life dramatically. Once you understand how habits work, you can break down any long-term goal into tiny daily habits. Whatever you want to achieve, it becomes easier by understanding the psychology behind habits.
Three notes from the book:
1- Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.
2- The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.
3- The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do.
