I am writing this post today instead of my typical Percussion Education Weekly Reads. I have been on the road a lot the past couple of weeks. It is an adjustment for me and my family and we are learning how to make it work. Being on a plane or in the gym, I get to read more and I have read some great books this year. This week’s post is going to feature some of these books. It is a collection of non-fiction, business and fiction books. I hope you have the opportunity to pick up some of these and read them. For a complete list of the books I am reading/have read, check out my GoodReads profile.
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
This is a quick read and a highly inspirational book. If you want to check out his blog to get an idea about his writing style, click here. Definitely worth the read for any creative person.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss.
I have become a huge fan of Tim Ferriss’ podcast. He interviews a wide variety of people and talks about how they became successful in their field. I always learn something from each podcast and I generally end up buying one or two books during the podcast. I listened to his book as an audiobook and ended up buying the book so I could check out all of the links. The premise of the book is work smarter and there are valuable tips and tricks throughout the book.
The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer got a bad wrap by being successful on Kickstarter and then not paying her musicians to perform with her. This story was blown out of proportion and I feel she does a good job talking about it in this book. The premise of this book is to not be afraid to ask people for help. If you have created a following and a good community, people will support you. The book is part business, social media, and autobiographical and has a lot of tips and stories of how she became successful. I was happily surprised how much I enjoyed this book. I was unaware of her before I read this book and now I regularly listen to her albums.
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh.
I listened to this on a road trip to Fresno and it made the trip go by quickly. The book is split into three parts: background, his company (Zappos) and strategies for business. Anyone can learn from the corporate culture he talks about in this book. I can’t wait to go to Las Vegas and take a tour of the corporate offices of Zappos.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
An excellent historical fiction book that is the story of two people (a German boy and a French girl) and their struggles during the war. The book was well written, the characters were interesting and I loved that it was based on the history of the war. Not only that, but it also won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Read it now 🙂
Ok, so there’s my top 5 books I have read this year. What have you read? Please leave your suggestions below.
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The photo in this post is used under the Creative Commons License: Attribution – NonCommercial – No Derivs 2.0 by Alex Watkins on Flickr.com.
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