My reading habits changed this past year, which sent off silent alarms when preparing to write this annual blog.

What books can I showcase?!?!?! I asked myself. Generally, this year-end blog features my favorite business books published in the current year. I’ve not only read them but I’ve also often already reviewed them online.

For 2024, I bought lots of books, digital and dead tree. (I’m not counting. Books are one of my pleasures.) And I read some of them plus many older books already in my library.

The books I read weren’t just older, generally published within the past six years. They were on broader range topics and from more genres, not just business. Neuroscience. Values. Biographies and autobiographies. Fiction. This realization had seeped into my awareness mid-year, but not to extent that I realized my 2024 reading patterns would prompt me to write a totally different year-end book blog!

So what’s the message of this blog? My three lessons learned from experience are:

1.Read books.

Reading books is good for you! Reading or listening to books can expand your knowledge, improve your vocabulary, increase your focus and concentration, improve your memory, help you become more empathetic, and help you reduce stress, especially when you’re reading fiction. By escaping into a book, you’ll disconnect from your daily stressors and can even improve your sleep. (To learn more about the science, you can read this article, which includes additional resources.)

2.Choose books that you want to read, not should read. Two of my favorite reads this year were Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Philip Gefter and Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy by Charles Busch, the actor, playwright, and drag legend. These new books appealed to my love of playwrights, theater, and movies, which have minimal direct application to my leadership coaching and consulting work. And I finally read Michael Walsh’s turn-paging 1998 novel, As Time Goes By, a prequel/sequel to the movie Casablanca. I’m advocating for the novel to be filmed.

3.If the subject interests you, read about it even when you think you’re knowledgeable. Within a three-week span last May, I devoured these two new books Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America by Sheila Luthra and The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America by Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer. The authors are journalists who cover health policy, especially reproductive rights, and their reporting, storytelling, and writing skills are outstanding. I learned much more than I expected to. And as a result, I have an even greater appreciation for some of the individuals featured in the books, many of whom I’ve worked with for a number of years.

Undue Burden focuses on the individual stories of those seeking and delivering health care in a post-Roe world; The Fall of Roe describes the 10-year plot to overturn Roe v. Wade. The common theme: reproductive health care should be basic health care as well as basic human rights. But they’ve been politicized and so many people, especially women, are suffering.

And another sub-lesson coming out of number 3; go deeper into topics that continue to interest you. The book Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work with Resilience, Creativity, and Connection—Now and in an Uncertain Future by Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin Seligman was one of my 2023 favorites.

Their point of view is that the workplace, with its automation, globalization, and downsizing, threatens our mental well-being. To respond and help us adapt to the future, we need to rely on our own psychological powers to counter the threats. Interestingly, our ancestors who were hunters and gatherers honed these powers centuries ago. But more recent generations suppressed them during industrialization.

Gabriella, the lead author, is offering a series entitled Coaching for a Tomorrowmind: Building Essential Skills for Performance in Uncertainty through the Institute of Coaching starting in February. I’ve signed up as it’s an easy way to discover more about the book and how to apply its lessons.

What are you reading or listening to that you recommend? Please share!

Happy New Year! And happy reading!