Books to read in 2022
An overview of books that I would like to read in 2022, with thoughts on reading in general.
Looking forward to the year ahead, one of my goals is to read more and be more intentional with my actions. While I believe that reading is positive regardless of the book being read, there are certain topics that I would like to become more familiar with, and I think books would be a great medium to learn more.
I initially wrote a list of books that I wanted to read over the year, each book over a topic I was interested in. However, I believe it would be more effective to go over a set of topics I’m interested in, and some books to get started in each topic. This way I have more flexibility in the books I read, and won’t feel constrained to a list I compiled at the start of the year.
My objective will also be to write my thoughts on each book I read, and hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be able to look back and reflect on the books I read.
The major categories I would like to read about this year are:
- Personal Finance
- Finance and Economy
- Web3 and Cryptocurrencies
- History and Politics
- Personal Development
Although these categories are broad, I feel like will each bring value to my life in various ways.
Personal Finance
Since I’ll be moving to Seattle this year and starting my first full time job post-graduation, I think it’s a great time to learn more about personal finance. What I’m hoping to gain from these books is a better sense of how I can be more intentional with my money, and how I should save. I would also like to have a better understanding of taxes, since taxes will be something I’ll have to deal for a long time.
The books within this category are:
- I will teach you to be rich
- Tax-free wealth
- Your money the missing manual
Finance and Economy
I decided to make a distinction between personal finance and finance in general, although I feel like this line is blurring with the increase in retail investing. My objective in this category of books is to feel more comfortable and confident in how I manage my investments and potentially branching out and understanding more about the general economy. I would also like to be able to understand and potentially perform value investing by researching companies, and also look into certain quantitative investment strategy.
The books in this section are:
- Narrative Economics
- Principles
- Options as a strategic investment
- Valuation
- How money works
- The personal MBA
Web3 and Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies and Web3 have been incredibly popular in the past year. While I’ve previously dabbled in cryptocurrencies and their applications through smart contracts, the current excitement about web3 makes me want to dive deeper and understand the underlying technologies better. I’m hoping to have a better understanding of cryptocurrencies, the types of applications they enable, their underlying infrastructure and limitations and hopefully also gain an idea of where this field is going.
The books in this section are:
- Token economics
- The bitcoin standard
- Financial Services Revolution
- Blue ocean strategy
History and Politics
Growing up, I’ve never been too interested in learning history. However, I’ve recently been more interested in looking at the past to gain a better understanding of how the present came to be, and hopefully gaining a better idea of where the future is headed as well. I’ve also included the topic of politics within this section since I believe they go hand in hand together.
In this category we have:
- The righteous mind
- Guns, germs and steel
- Sapiens
- Why nations fail
Personal Development
Finally, this last section covers any books that I think will be useful in either understanding myself better, understanding others better, being more productive, or anything that has to do with adding overall value in my life, but is not included in the previous 4 sections. I would also include fiction books within this section, since anything that makes me read more will probably add value in my life and improve my personal development.
Books:
- The happiness hypothesis
- Atomic habits
- Man’s search for meaning
- How to talk to anyone
- The Productivity Project
- The 7 habits of highly effective people
- The defining decade
- Spark: The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain
Conclusion
Overall, I’ve included many books covering many topics in this post. However, they are simply meant to be a starting point to help readers research books that they might find interesting. For 2022, I hope to read and write more, and hopefully these books and this blog will help me achieve that.