My Year in Books in 2016

Originally posted on Medium on January 3, 2017

According to Goodreads, I finished 28 books in 2016 for a total of 7,910 pages. The shortest book I read was Thich Nhat Hanh’s Work and the longest book I read was George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords. My most popular book was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and my least popular book was Adisa Banjoko’s Bobby, Bruce, and the Bronx: The Secrets of Hip Hop Chess.

I signed up for Goodreads in the summer, so I’m hoping I forgot some books and read more than 28 for the year. My goal for 2017 is to read 52 books. I encouraged my students to sign up for Goodreads and to track their reading on the site. I wanted a different way to encourage independent reading.

To me, what matters the most in the reading process is inspiration. A sign of a powerful book is one that makes you think differently about the world, to see things in a new light. A powerful book causes you to live differently, to live in a more inspired way. Even if it’s just one idea, one quote, or one word that illuminates something in you.

With that being said, here are the books that I read in 2016 that I enjoyed the most, in order of the time I read them:

Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Pavel Tsatsouline, Kettlebell- Simple and Sinister

Gabriel Wyner, Fluent Forever

George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Ken Robinson, Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education

Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

Michael B. Horn, Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation To Improve Schools

Matt Zoller Seitz, Mad Men Carousel: The Complete Critical Companion

Alan Sepinwall and Mark Zoller Zeitz, TV: The Book

Francisco Jimenez, Breaking Through

Joe Hyams, Zen in the Martial Arts

Joe De Sena, Spartan Fit!

Here are the other books I read, which I also enjoyed and learned a lot from:

Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Daniel T. Willingham, Raising Kids Who Read
Perle Besserman, Crazy Clouds: Zen Radicals, Rebels, and Reformers
Adisa Banjoko, Bruce, Bobby, and the Bronx: The Secrets of Hip Hop Chess
Carol Dweck, Mindset
Thich Nhat Hanh, Work
Josh Waitzin, The Art of Learning
Gary Snyder, The Real Work
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Joe De Sena, Spartan Up!
John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Jack Maguire: Waking Up: A Week Inside a Zen Monastery
Miguel Ruiz: The Four Agreements
Mark Divine: The Way of the SEAL
Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist

It was definitely motivating and helpful to track the books I was reading for the first time. Here’s to another year of reading and opening up new worlds in 2017!