The books I read in 2022
Over the past years (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), I’ve been writing about the books I read and what I learned from them.
In 2022, I read 32 books (my goal was 30) on topics like business, science, and food to decision-making and productivity.
I started the year with the goal of reading more about decision-making and science. I looked for the best books on decision-making (great source: Five Books) and tried to understand which books on science, more specifically on tech transfer and building biotech companies, could give me a good understanding of the industry.
But I realized early on that I prefer to pick books on what I’m interested in at the moment. Fortunately, decision-making was definitely on my radar, and science a little bit less, but I made some good progress that will continue in 2023.
Top recommendations
In 2022 I read some amazing books. It was extremely hard to select a handful of top recommendations.
Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine by Robert H Lustig
This was probably the most important book I read this year. It’s about the impact processed food and sugar have on our health and quality of life. It gives a good overview of the evolution of thought process over the years and how BIG Sugar and BIG Pharma control the narrative, making us sicker year after year. Just go read it.
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall
This was the book I recommended the most this year. Both my parents and several close friends read it, and we had fascinating discussions about geography and its impact. I thought I understood the world’s geography well, but this book helped me realize how little I knew about the Middle East, India, and Pakistan and the mistakes of the post-WWII.
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
Last year I read “Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World” by the same author, and after some friends recommended it, so I decided to go ahead and read Humankind. This is a fantastic book about how humans are naturally good, contrary to popular belief. Chapter after chapter, example after example, the author provides a compelling case for our good nature and the attempts over the years to tell us otherwise.
How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices by Annie Duke
This was the second most important book I read this year. As I mentioned above, I wanted to learn more about decision-making, and this book it’s perfect for that. Definitely a book I’ll re-read in 2023.
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
Great book about company culture and a different way of doing things. If you are building a team, this is a great read.
If you want to check the other books I read, check out my Goodreads Challenge 2022.
In 2023, my goal is to read more than 8000 pages. I decided to change the goal from the number of books to the number of pages to create an incentive to read long books. As I write this post, I’m reading two books, The Dream Machine and The Power Broker, which together have close to 2000 pages.
Please feel free to email me your book recommendations. I’m always looking for great books to read.
To see what I’ve read in the past and what I’m reading now, follow me on Goodreads.
