My Favorite Books of 2015

Before 2010, for me to read a single book in the span of an entire year was rare. It had been so long since I'd curled up with a nice novel...

Before 2010, for me to read a single book in the span of an entire year was rare. It had been so long since I'd curled up with a nice novel that I had forgotten its benefits. Books, to me, were like traditional education. I didn't get along with traditional education.

I was a couple of years into entrepreneurship when I began hitting roadblocks in the business. Questions came up that I had little experience with at the time: how do I create a sales team? What does ‘marketing' mean? How do I use a financial statement when developing a strategy?

I knew that if I wanted to continue to run a business, I needed to know the answers to these questions cold. So I started reading. A lot. Five years later, I read more books than ever before, and I'm learning what resonates (or not) with my sensibilities.

Here are the books that I really enjoyed over the past year, in no particular order:

Book Title	Description
Understanding Michael Porter	Probably the most dry out of what I read this year, but the book does an incredible job of distilling several tomes from a marketing master into a digestible format.
Thinking, Fast and Slow	Learn how humans make decisions. Obama cites this book as being hugely influential in shaping his decision-making process, helping him transition from an instinctual, crisis-solving president to a contemplative deliberator.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind	I am admittedly not finished this book yet, but it's already a strong contender for the #1 spot. Sapiens contemplates the history of humanity, and highlights aspects of our DNA that form the basis of how corporations, religions, and tribes are formed. Biggest takeaway: it's not a good thing that we're the only species of human left on Earth.
Predictable Revenue	Written by the first VP of Sales at Salesforce, this book walks through how the company created a successful, scaled sales team. Some of the concepts are a bit dated at this point (I believe it was written in 2008), but it's a good primer on how to think when scaling a sales organization. It's also a good book to compare and contrast to...
The Sales Acceleration Formula	Written by the VP of Sales at Hubspot, this is a more current example of what Predictable Revenue laid the groundwork for.
Meditations: Marcus Aurelius	I liked this a bit more than Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic" as it offers more practical advice. Seneca's writings are more rooted in teaching you to love yourself, while Aurelius focuses more on how to serve others, and how to find purpose in all facets of work.
Blood Meridian	By Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men), this story is absolutely brutal. Imagine a typical Western, but with an anti-hero, and Murphy's Law running unchecked. It's a hard read in that there is very little to root for, but is so beautifully written, it really stuck with me.
Cat's Cradle	I'd never read any Kurt Vonnegut until this year, and now I'm wondering why. If I had to recommend a book that is the most fun to read, this would be it. Vonnegut writes in an over-the-top fashion that is intoxicating and hilarious, with characters that bumble through the story, making the best of bad situations. Gatsby on LSD.