I Read 52+ Books in 2020 – Here Are My Top 10 (19)
“You bragging???”
Of course, why else would I write this long-ass post?
For value? Please.
Anywayz, my "brilliant" idea flew in like such:
“Oh hey I’ll just read 52 books this year, that’s like...a book a week. Ez. Lockdowns. Coronavirus. Cardi-B. Mancave. Han Solo.”
Perfection, I thought.
A walk in the park, I thought.
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SUMMARY? - Can skip this
1. Learned a ton but I’m never doing this shit ever again. Not touching another book for at least half a year. Maybe until next winter. I’d rather read 5-10 really good books per year MAX and spend the majority of my time researching and finding great books instead.
This is a massive time sink, ye have been warned if ye choose to someday do the same.
2. Don't be like me, set better goals than “Read XX books” etc.
Why are these goals downright dense? Because they are, generally speaking, directionless. You’re not practising your reading ability and/or comprehension.
You do this to learn.
Instead, go for something like “I’ll read 52 books in order to learn/master X” or “I’ll run 100 campaigns on Zuckerbook in order to learn the intricacies of X vertical.” Or some such advice.
Sprinkle in some purpose.
These books were all hand-picked carefully but my lack of overall purpose made this a massive, annoying, hair-pulling daily chore trying to fit this in alongside every other crazy shit that happened in 2020.
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STATZ
This is STM - learn to post yer stats, bro.
This is over at Bezzy Boi land on the Kindle. There are a few books I stumbled upon by pure luck on Google. Plus a few physical copies tucked in me drawers.
It all adds up to 52+. I don’t know how many exactly, and at this point, I don’t want to. 56-57?
(Speaking of Bezzy Boi – cheeky 'ole Shishev may or may not [slowly] be working on a little something-something for STM nooblets)
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THE BOOKS
Some of these books took forever to read. E.g. A 100-page book can take 15+ hours if you read to learn.
Or you can breeze through a couple of hundred pages in an afternoon if it’s written easy -- ye can speed read with complete comprehension.
Anywhomz here goes, in no particular order.
The topics? Marketing, advertising, psychology, business, self-improvement, philosophy etc.
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1. Breakthrough Advertising - Eugene M. Shwartz
I believe this guy's an official reseller: https://breakthroughadvertisingbook.com/ – $125 is practically nothing for this.
This book is most relevant to what we do here on STM. If you are in the business of marketing and advertising and if there’s one book you should read your entire life, this is it.
This explains why and how angles work. The meat of all advertising.
This explains why Ad World’s campaigns work so well.
Why the spin to win sweeps landers work.
Why the questionnaire landers work.
Why advertorials work so well.
Why even innocent-looking "brand" campaigns can work extremely well, contrary to what we performance marketers think.
Why good creatives and a good product are the key catalysts and you don’t really need much more to build a successful campaign/business, but also what makes truly great advertisers push an extremely oversaturated product and/or creatives to the winning end with great angles. Hint: it’s hard and takes a long time. This is where true advertising mastery lies and why so few understand it.
This book is BY FAR the clearest explanation of advertising I have ever seen. Nothing comes even REMOTELY close -- I have read all of the advertising books, classics and new alike. Most know what great advertising constitutes of, but don’t know how to put it into words. They can do it but they don’t exactly know how they do it -- just through sheer experience.
Don’t know why I haven’t read this thus far. It’s worth every single penny x 1000.
Boot the wifu away, kick the kids out, throw yer favourite cat in the deep blue.
This is yer new baby. Yer new obsession. Yer new religion.
Give 'er a kiss, tuck her in bed each night, take her to fancy dinners and read her at least 3 times...per day.
Might as well take the top spot of all-time-favourite book, leaving Joe Sugarman in second place. It's that fucking good. Go buy it, or steal it, or Google it by accident - whichever way ye can get yer shifty affiliate hands around her waist.
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2. The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results – Stephen Bungay
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Action-Le...dp/1857885597/
I found this book to be absolutely brilliant but one of the most difficult to read. Not because of the writing style but the depth of its content -- it’s highly deceptive.
It took me forever (the longest of all books on my list) to read the first time, and I then had to go through it a second time, and I then spent many days later buried in constant thought about these concepts and their application to both life and business. I even skipped sleep a few times.
This is a leadership book.
It’s all focused around von Moltke and the Prussian Army’s war strategy.
And, unfortunately, around bits of the extreme effectiveness of the Blitzkrieg. And a real core, a similar strategy based on von Moltke’s teachings is being used in the US army today...unfortunately.
The key concept poorly abstracted by Shishev is this:
When you don’t have any one brilliant individual leading (e.g. crazy-eyed CEO or Napoleon) you want your army’s branches (freelancer, small crew, company, etc.) thinking and acting for themselves individually to the best of their abilities, but with the core goal and final direction/destination in mind. And you being able to effectively and clearly communicate said goal.
It’s an art and a science, but it’s crazy effective.
It reveals just how you have to communicate and give out orders and direction.
It also reveals why being agile is so critical. (hint: “agile teams”)
This book connects so many dots it’s scary.
After you read this, then go read this exact translation of Sun Tzu’s The Art War right away and yer eyes shall be opened even wider. This book’s on the list later down and I explain why and how it had a direct, IMMEDIATE and massive impact on my life - no I’m not exaggerating.
After the Art of War go read this - Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business - OODA loops, Google it.
These two books and many others on this list are mega closely connected. But ye need to read slowly, understand, learn and then spend untold hours thinking and pondering how they apply to you or your business.
Revelations, if ye may.
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3. Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat – Michael Masterson
https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Fire-Ai...dp/111908685X/
My favourite business book thus far.
Oh, how I wish all “business” and “entrepreneurship” books were written like this.
There’s none of the typically repulsive “badass motherfucker” CEO-style words of “hype-wisdom” here or the dry, dull writing in others.
This is a clear, humble, extremely well written, informative and eye-opening guide/process on the 3 stages on how to take a company over to $100 million.
This guy has developed dozens of businesses to hundreds of millions in a myriad of industries - not just this digital IT shit but all sorts of stuff. A true “serial entrepreneur”.
From an Amazon review: “This book is excellent for quite a few reasons.
The biggest reason is how Masterson lays out the path from direct response master and jack of all trades to the point where one is managing each segment of their 9 figure business. It will show you what to focus on and where the most common pitfalls are. There is very little fluff. In fact, many of his recommendations are quite specific compared to most business books.”
Core concepts are speed and agility (primary keywords ye should take notes of).
It’s in the name “Ready -> FIRE -> Aim” - meaning, go out there, test stuff FAST, copy others, then re-aim etc.
Speed and agility top everything and I have not yet seen this ever fail me. These 2 bad boys will always leave your competitors in the dust.
Don’t be intimidated by the numbers if yer a newbie -- these concepts apply for going from $10/day to $100/day to $10,000/day. It’s all the same principles, the numbers don’t matter in the slightest.
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4. The Win Without Pitching Manifesto - Blair Enns
Are you in the services business?
This is The Bible.
89 pages.
12 proclamations.
12 proclamations you should be able to recite in yer sleep.
If you’ve been in the services business long enough, you will know these.
If you’re new – read, re-read and re-read again.
And again.
Diagnose before you prescribe.
You’re the expert.
Gain the upper hand.
Be selective.
Ditch shitty presentations -- go for conversations instead.
Charge more.
This is the way.
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5. Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable (Tim Grover Winning Series) – Tim S. Grover
This right here is a book by Tim Grover – this is the guy who trained Michael Jordan.
I mean, look at this face:
Does this face look like the face of prey to you?
Nay.
This is the face of a killer.
This is what Tim Grover talks about in his book – you are either killer or prey.
It’s a super intense book and it goes to show just how extremely competitive and dedicated Michael Jordan is. Among other high performing athletes too. Everyone was intimidated by this guy. He was constantly “in the zone”.
Grover calls this, being a “Cleaner”.
There’s even a chapter named: “When You’re a Cleaner...You Don’t Compete with Anyone, You Find Your Opponent’s Weakness and Attack”.
Everyone has a “dark side”, Tim Grover, describes. And why you must embrace it.
Interesting stuff.
And there’s nothing wrong with chasing after the next goal. And aiming even higher.
Never being satisfied.
It’s what fuels these guys.
Have you seen, for example, how many bloody pages the most successful follow alongs on STM have? Relentless.
I rest my case.
(PART 2 BELOW)
I have started this for 2021. 4 books a month :-) I was thinking to put the list in the forum for those who want to exchange about the books.
(PART 2)
6. Man’s search for meaning – Viktor E. Frankl
https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-M...dp/1416524282/
This is a tough read on the meaning of life.
Based on Viktor Frankl’s experiences in Nazi death camps this is about coping with suffering and finding purpose and meaning.
The first part of the book tells in gruesome detail what it was like in Auschwitz and death camps.
I had to put the book down quite a few times.
How one human is capable of causing such wicked acts on another human is truly frightening.
The second part is Frankl’s “logotherapy”.
Finding meaning in life boils down to a few things:
By creating a work or doing a deed. Or just generally doing good work etc.
By experiencing some thing or encountering someone. I’m guessing that’s why so many people here love to travel.
By our attitude towards suffering.
Great book, but a mega tough pill to swallow.
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7. Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone – Mark Goulston
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Listen-D...dp/B00TRF2LJW/
A great book about communication.
This guy, Dr. Mark Goulston – psychiatrist, business consultant, coach etc. – shows you how to listen effectively.
Extremely useful not just in business but also in life, in general.
You can get a crazed Karen from foaming at the mouth to puppy eyes quite easily.
Section one and two are about the core rules and cover how all of this really works.
Making people feel valuable, making the other person feel “felt”, moving from “Oh Fuck to OK” etc.
The last sections have some really sneaky tricks like empathy jolts, reverse plays, asking “do you really believe that?” (calms down a super angry person instantly, have tested, works like a charm), gambits, etc. – tons more.
This is going to have an instant impact on your communication.
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8. Principles: Life and Work – Ray Dalio
What? Ye though my list wouldn't have this?
A billionaire’s principles for life and work means ye can learn a lot.
Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest (and most profitable) hedge fund in the world.
This pretty much covers anything related to rational thinking.
Ye have to seek truth -- that’s the best way to make decisions.
Let go of yer ego, yer emotions and any blind spots etc.
He speaks of identifying problems and not showing any tolerance towards them.
Having clear goals.
Sysmetizing everything.
He speaks of his idea meritocracy – a system of a group of people that’s about radical truth and transparency, disagreement and believability-weighted decision making (meaning whoever has higher believability/experience gets a heavier “weight” etc.). Age, prestige etc. doesn’t matter.
This all means showing your thoughts clearly, disagreeing, and showing radical transparency where everyone sees the entire picture and information.
This is all applicable to yer affiliate campaigns too – if you stick too long and get emotionally attached to a losing campaign, what happens? Ye lose more. Trust the data.
Maybe it doesn’t apply to every single type of business, maybe it doesn’t apply directly to creative problem-solving service businesses, but when there are numbers involved this is good stuff.
I personally love the radical transparency and truth bits -- they help you think a lot more clearly about any situation. Applicable to anything. Especially to affiliate campaigns.
Also, he has a cool TED talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_dalio_...best_ideas_win
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9. Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale – Paul Smith
Self-explanatory.
How to craft a good story and how to sell with it.
Book has tons of practical examples you can borrow.
Crafting a narrative, chugging in challenge, conflict and resolution and finally throwing in the “sale” or “lesson”.
It has roadmaps, templates and a list of sales stories at the very end.
Too useful in way too many cases to have been left out of this list – yer landers, yer ads, ...newsletters, meetings, calls etc.
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10. #10 is 3 Books Instead of 1. Bamboozled!
Remember I mentioned we’ll talk about philosophy and great wise men before us over at “The Art of Action”?
Here be the wise books.
Keep in mind, these are extremely short but are the most difficult to read out of all of the books listed thus far.
It’s not even close.
Took me forever to read all of them – grasping the concepts and seeing how they apply to everything took a shitton of Googling, videos and digging. And re-reading.
But they’re must-reads for a number of reasons.
Philosophy and psychology should be 100% mandatory throughout school and university.
And throughout a person’s life, if ye ask me.
Seeing how Lady Corona brought forth people’s true ignorance levels, it’s both quite frankly utterly terrifying how people cannot think for themselves but also soothing at the same time -- because this means one thing for us MRKTRs – easy moneyz. And it also means it’s only going to keep getting easier from this point on.
These have all been sold out...a few times over. FYI
Anywho, on to the books:
The Art of War – Sun Tzu
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006J85T1W/
Go grab this specific issue of the book right here, it’s the best translation.
This is something ye should read right after the other books mentioned earlier.
The Art of War has had a direct, immediate and massive impact on my gaming skills – you think I'm kidding? I’m crushing every single soul in Heroes of the Storm and I started doing so immediately after I finished the book, literally the first game I played after I put down the book.
It has also had a direct impact on my ability to come up with creative angles.
And another direct impact on my life.
War is trickery and deception. Finding weak spots. Surprise. Guerilla warfare. Etc.
There’s also the concept of Cheng and Chi. Cheng = frontal attack, chi = flanking/surprise. But cheng can also be chi and vice versa.
But how does this apply to anything outside of war?
Let’s think.
Let’s say cars – you expect a car, let’s say some new model Merc, to ride smoother than ever.
You get in, and your expectations are met – rides like a cloud, comfy, packed with tech, great interior, pretty etc. (Cheng)
But then you throw it around a track and it turns out they’ve added a little “feature” where you can pretty much effortlessly and predictably drift this thing, whenever you choose to. (Chi)
Or Toyota’s new Rav4 that has been crushing it with sales – you expect this to have their legendary reliability (go read The Toyota Way ASAP, amazing content on production lines and epic efficiency).
But then you get in and the little thing has some punch - 220hp, but also insane fuel-economy (Chi) for an SUV. And it suddenly ticks so many boxes. Sales explode.
Surely ye can think of some marketing examples where this applies. Or more video games.
This book has so many lessons it's mind-boggling. It's especially applicable to business. But ye need to think long and hard and do yer research.
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Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
(Not sure why but the one I bought currently redirects to a mega shitty translation. You need to do some digging to find decently translated ones, else ye risk not grasping a single thing, or being misled by crappy interpretations).
Just go read this. Make sure ye find a good translation though.
Priceless life advice by the Philosopher King himself – Marcus Aurelius.
Stoicism covered A-Z but not only.
Seriously – nothing to add.
This is timeless.
Just. Read. It.
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
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The Book of Five Rings – by Miyamoto Musashi
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NDLBGT2
One of the greatest samurai ever - undefeated - Myamoto Musashi describes Japanese swordsmanship and martial arts.
This is, and ye have been warned again, one of the most difficult books on this list. The most difficult, even.
85 pages of sweat - took me 1 week to read, 2 hours a day. I re-read it a few times, Googled a lot, read a lot of interpretations and gave this many days of thought and I still don’t fully grasp the concepts within. Not to mention exactly how to apply said lessons to everything in life.
It be tough but rewarding.
The book has literally no bullshit in it but is hard to grasp.
It’s all about practice, practice, practice in order to achieve mastery, rather than by reading. Struggle and practice.
(Run campaigns, fail, don’t assume, don’t just lurk about STM and read success stories or absorb knowledge...etc.)
See here
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That about wraps it up -- these books have had the most impact on me. Maybe ye like them, maybe ye don't. But you should definitely look into reading if you already haven't.
Originally Posted by jeremie
Great stuff @shishev! 
Will definitely add some of these on my read list.
Additionally I also bought "Psychologie der Massen" (Psychology of the masses), "Gewohnheiten ändern - Der richtige Weg" (Change habits - the right way, that book is pretty bad) and "Trump - The art of the deal".
Still need to read most of it.
Originally Posted by shishev
@jeremie I would happy to contribute to your post with the stuff I'm currently reading through.
@shishev thanks for this list, you've put up some work man. I'm happy to see Breakthrough Advertising so high, this is a nugget I want to treat myself with in the near future.
Holy shit. Thanks for reading all those books for me! Now I don’t need to bother 
I would like to pick up maybe two (ready fire aim and the other one) of those someday when I feel like reading again.
Your comment about quantity over quality is absolutely right. Find a few good books you can read over and over instead of just mindlessly reading every book you see recommended by Tim Ferris, Naval Ravikant, and Vanilla Ice.
Or.
Just find one really good book and take ages to read through it. Like Black Swan or Antifragile. I’m not sure I’ve ever finished those books. And I’ve been reading them for years.
Just impulse bought Read Fire Aim, been on my to-read list for like 5 years ffs I JUST found out the guy who wrote is the head of Agora growth.
If only I bought it 5 years ago, I'd be a multi-millionaire by now.
Thanks for the inspiration, the more you learn the more earn as the saying goes.
Love this thread.
Wish I could clone myself and let some of my clones just read and suck the know-how.
Thanks for sharing, adding some of the pieces to my list as well!
Originally Posted by shishev
But seriously man, you're insane... 52 books in a year? I used to read a LOT, but not even close to what you managed to pull off, I'm impressed!
Looks like this lockdown is gonna go on for a while so I might pick the better ones from your list
Originally Posted by twinaxe
Originally Posted by plutus
Originally Posted by jaybot
I would like to pick up maybe two (ready fire aim and the other one) of those someday when I feel like reading again.
Your comment about quantity over quality is absolutely right. Find a few good books you can read over and over instead of just mindlessly reading every book you see recommended by Tim Ferris, Naval Ravikant, and Vanilla Ice.
Or.
Just find one really good book and take ages to read through it. Like Black Swan or Antifragile. I’m not sure I’ve ever finished those books. And I’ve been reading them for years.
Originally Posted by fastaj
Originally Posted by erikgyepes
Originally Posted by matuloo
But seriously man, you're insane... 52 books in a year? I used to read a LOT, but not even close to what you managed to pull off, I'm impressed!
Looks like this lockdown is gonna go on for a while so I might pick the better ones from your list
Cardi B is an orc wearing chainmail armour – she certainly yells like one.
Sometimes I start a book and just don´t get into it, then I put it back and retry it few months or so later again.
But when I have a good book I mostly read through it pretty fast.
How fast I read through a book depends heavily on how good the book is, the better the book the faster I read through it.
So when you need ages to finish a book (if ever) I would say you either didn´t find a good book for you yet or you are just not that reader in general
Originally Posted by shishev
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/445
Originally Posted by jeremie
Can´t be compared to a real paper book
Some great suggestions here guys, i am also an advid audiobook listener (as i spend a lot of time driving).
This book might be an odd suggestion but it was a super interesting read for me. It chronicles the rise of the "silk road" website. It's a part start up book, part criminal mastermind "catch me if you can" saga and some extremely valuable lessons about running a massively profitable overnight business. Some big lessons on certainly what to do and what NOT to do LOL!
Anyways, it was probably the best read of 2020 for me. I really enjoyed it!
https://www.amazon.ca/American-Kingp.../dp/1591848148
That's a good one, tucking into my Kindle bookmarks
Originally Posted by twinaxe
How fast I read through a book depends heavily on how good the book is, the better the book the faster I read through it.
So when you need ages to finish a book (if ever) I would say you either didn´t find a good book for you yet or you are just not that reader in general
Fiction goes by fast, or I don’t read it at all.
For the record, I think I read through all 40 Discworld books in a few months.
Oh wow thanks for the book recommendations! And the synopses are priceless! I've added a couple to my own list - thank you!
Wished I could return the favor by listing the books I've read - but they're all on spiritual stuff that don't appeal to most people: Spiritual healing, reincarnation, exorcism - new age stuff. (If anyone's interested - which I doubt anyone would - let me know and I'll make a really short post.)
This book has motivated me to read extensively about the holocaust - I was stuck in depression for a long time as a result. But the lessons and inspiration I got from that book were worth it. You've basically summed up those lessons in your synopsis.
Just a warning to anyone else who may be thinking about reading this book: If you're an empath or a very sensitive person, proceed with caution.
Thanks again @shishev for taking the time to write such an educational and entertaining post!
Amy
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