What will you read in 2023, and Why?

For the last 10 years I’ve set up a ritual every November - I choose an “umbrella-like” theme for my next year’s reading list. This helps me focus what to read for an entire year. At first, this started out as a simple mechanism to get more out of reading, but it garnered so many benefits quickly it became an annual event. I am in a high-tech field that moves super fast. To stay relevant and aware, I needed to invest in my own practice. Focus was a mandate. Now, it is an annual life ceremony… and it goes beyond my career ...  

... and it has been advantageous… 

By nature, an introvert, after the third year of “theme picking” I noticed I was much more confident to “say” something in a group setting, particularly if the stakes were high and I was outranked at the table. I gained a quiet confidence about my points of view after a year of preparation. Reading became my go-to thinking stimulant with this hefty return on investment. Every year I gained:

• A confident state of “being prepared”
• A wider world view
• A broader sense of global / technical forces
• An understanding of technology’s impact on human beings, for good and bad

Here are the First 20 Books for my 2023 Reading Plan on "Discipline".

1. Thomas M. Sterner: The Practicing Mind
2. Ryan Holiday: Discipline is Destiny
3. Bert De Munck: Learning on the Shop Floor / Historical Apprenticeship
4. James Suzman: Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots
5. Adam Grant: Think Again
6. Tony Fadell: Build
7. Scott Allen: Do the Hard Things First
8. Kevin Behan: Your Dog is Your Mirror
9. Thorbeck Dewey: Rural Design
10. Mike Ritland: Navy Seal Dogs
11. Mark Rashid: Life Lesson from a Ranch Horse
12. Barry Green: The Inner Game of Music
13. Temple Grandoin: Visual Thinking
14. The Secret Tatooist: How to Tattoo - Getting an Apprenticeship
15. Ken Nelson: Designing Workshops
16. Nikki Highmore Sims: How to Run a Great Workshop
17. Rebecca Stobaugh: 59 Strategies to Boost Cognitive Engagment
18. Christof Zurn: Music Thinking Jam Cards
19. Michelle K. Johnston PhD: Seismic Shift in Leadership
20. Stephen Wunker: Costovation: Innovation that gives your customers what they want…

If you give "theme reading" a try, let me know what you get for that investment!

Andrea Sutton