Alan’s Favorite Books of 2019

At the end of each year I think back over all the books I read over the prior tenth of a decade and share my favorites. In 2018 I put together my list and ended up with 10 special books. In 2019 I ended up with 6 meaningful books, two of which changed my perspective and my life going into 2020. I had originally put together this list of books in January of 2020, but never got around to publishing it (2020 was the lost year for my blog). So here is my list of the most interesting, exciting and even life changing books that I read in 2019.

The two books that changed my life

2020 ended up being an unprecedentedly challenging year for me, like most of us. Luckily for me, I read two amazing, life changing books near the end of 2019 that, unbeknownst at the time, would prove invaluable for me in maintaining my mental and physical health, and my drive to overcome some specific challenges I faced in the coming months. 

The first life changing book was The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin.

This book really resinated with me and turned out to be very important to my professional development and sanity, as it explored and contextualized an issue I was personally grappling with and have always and honestly, still continue to struggle with. The book coalesced a spattering of ideas and solutions I had actually been toying with in my own brain, laying it out in a clear and practical manner.

I sometimes struggle with finding purpose in my work and finding motivation for achievement beyond monetary rewards, and this was especially prevalent in the fall of 2019. This would have been a terrible mind-space with which to go into 2020 given the known challenges I was facing, I was up for a promotion which was a stressful and anxious process, and the unknown challenges that the COVID virus would bring to all of us. 

Seth Godin’s book provided a helpful framework in which I could view my professional life and really any “work” or project I attempt. The thesis of his book is that you should treat your work as a form of art; by bringing creativity, exploration, human connection to your work, and taking on ambiguous challenges, you turn work into artistic endeavors, which is vital to success in all industries. Every thing you do at work should be done to share with others and create interpersonal value. This makes it art.

He acknowledges the challenge of this and the personal bravery it can take to adopt this mindset, specially since most of us not “artists” in the traditional sense. But he shows that this mindset is vitally important in today’s world, not only for increasing your own enjoyment and purpose of work, but potentially more so for creating value in the marketplace and for attaining achievement in whatever field you are in. He asserts that the old industrial model is breaking down, that conformity and conservatism no longer lead to personal or economic comfort. The most scarce and appreciated skill is creativity, with a human focus. 

I took this book to heart. I tried to come to work each day filled with creativity, striving to take on ambiguous projects, further develop my interpersonal relationships and focus my achievement on creating something unique and useful for my customers. This mindset was helpful in taming anxious or negative self talk and perfectly aligned with my company’s north star: being customer centric. In the difficult times I came across in 2020, I kept coming back to the thesis of this book to help me realign and focus on the right priorities and ideas. I am so thankful I stumbled across this book just before I really needed it. 

The second book that changed my life and helped me survive 2020 was Tim Ferriss’ 2nd book, The 4 Hour Body.

I have been a devote follower of Tim Ferriss since finding his podcast back in 2014 and reading his first book “The 4-Hour Workweek”. I had read many of his blog posts about the ideas in his 4-Hour Body book, but had yet to actually get my hands on a copy. My sister gave it to me as a gift for the Christmas of 2019 and I devoured the book, finishing the whole thing over the next few days. 

The book is a powerful exploration of the idea of Minimal Effective Dosage (MED), focused towards achieving fitness, health and other body based goals. It is based on Tim’s personal experiments and interviews/consultations with many world class doctors, athletes, and coaches. It is a fascinating read, with interesting antidotes and is crazy easy to use to help achieve amazing results!

I found the idea of MED to be very powerful ,not just in the body realm, but in all areas of life. In addition, I took 3 chapters/ideas from the book and implemented them in 2020, along with dabbling with some other ideas in the book. Starting in January 2020, I started the Slow Carb Diet, moved the core my weight lifting to be kettle bell swings and followed the 5k to 50k training plan (to prepare for a twice canceled climb of Mount Whitney-first due to COVID then due to an earthquake!). These challenges made me feel great, I got into amazing shape, lost a lot of fat, gained muscle and strength, and felt so much healthier. They also turned out to meld well into my COVID lockdown life in 2020. 

Reading this book right before 2020 started was amazingly fortunate. The challenges I took on from the book kept me focused on staying active, healthy and fit. When the restrictions and stress of COVID came full force in late March, the MED aspects of this book were incredibly helpful. It is much easier to stay on track with diet and exercise plans when they require the minimal effort and you are achieving noticeable results!

To get a quick and better sense of the power of the book you check out the book website: https://fourhourbody.com/ or you can watch the first 20-25 minutes of this video which explains the highlights of the book:

Other great books I read in 2019

The only amazing fiction book I read in 2019 was The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton.

Michael Crichton has been one of my favorite authors for a while, with one of his books making my list in 2018 as well. I had never heard of The Great Train Robbery before someone on a podcast I was listening to recommended it. I was excited to find another Crichton novel to explore and I was not disappointed, getting totally lost in the detailed story of an 1850’s heist and the crazy characters that make up the crew. This book almost feels like non-fiction with all the historical references and cultural tidbits of 1850’s England woven into the tale. I truly loved reading this book and recommend it to everyone for a captivating escape. 

Non-Fiction 

There were three other great non-fiction books in read in 2019. 

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

This is not only a Climbing genre classic that ignited new intrigue into “modern” climbing of Mount Everest, but is largely considered one of the best non-fiction books ever. It is a beautifully written, first hand account of a famous deadly climbing season on Everest. I was late the party on this one, having heard it referenced in the climbing world for a long time, but not actually sitting down to reading it. I found Krakauer’s storytelling captivating and emotional, while the actual story is truly insane. It is a must read for any fan of non-fiction writing. 

Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste by Bianca Bosker

This was a really fun read. I love wine, as anyone who knows me or reads my blog can attest. And I love learning about different aspects of wine culture. This book dives deep into the world of sommeliers with some side trips into rare wines and the future of wine science. I really enjoyed the concept of this book: a wine novice throwing herself head first into the wine world to write a book about the learning process of becoming a sommelier and the culture she found among her contemporaries. It was so fun to read and as a wine lover, I found it so very interesting to learn more about some of the parts of wine I only have glimpsed at from a distance. 

Last on the list is another great Tim Ferriss book: Tribe of Mentors. 

It is not a book in a traditional sense, but a collection of responses to a dozen or so poignant questions that were collected from some of the most influential and high achieving individuals of our time. I enjoyed flipping through this book, finding nuggets of interesting ideas, tips and advice from the amazing contributors. To be honest this book is not as good as his last book, “Tools of Titans”, but I did find the format useful, as it is easy to just read a few random responses, and find something intriguing. I ended up taking away some amazing things from this book, including some great books to check out for 2020 and beyond. 

As it is already January 2021 when this post is published, I will soon be sharing the awesome books I found in 2020!

Cheers!

Alan Evans