Reading in 2016 and More

2016 will be remembered as the terrible year that democracy and many pivotal celebrities died. In addition to the Biff Tannen Donald Trump election and the deaths of Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Prince, Gene Wilder, Muhammad Ali, and more, you also have Brexit, corruption in South Korea, and the Syrian crisis among other events to remind us that things aren't much better outside of the United States.

I had high hopes for 2016. Over the course of this 8-year blog, I'd started to notice a 4 year pattern of big life events. In 2008, I started dating Jasmin, learned to snowboard, and went to Japan for the first time in my life. In 2012, we got married, I was at the height of my Japanese knowledge, and we returned to the states to continue our lives. This year, at least in my own life I was able to balance out the global gloom in some ways by becoming an uncle for my brother's first child, and by making a determined stand in changing careers and taking big steps to ensure that happens.

Of course, I've also read a lot that has shaped my perspective on life. Last year I mentioned my Resolution to aim towards reading 2+ books per week, and my goal of reaching 50 books over the course of the year. Unfortunately, what with studying and focusing on reading textbooks and other materials, I did not reach that goal. HOWEVER I was able to surpass my record of 30 books in 2015. This year I hit a grand total of 31 plus 1 more that I'm about 50% through; still not anything close to impressive, but I'm making progress nevertheless. :)

1. Hunger Games (1/6/16)
2. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman (1/21/16)
3. In On It (1/23/16)
4. Future Crimes by Marc Goodman (2/7/16)
5. Masters of the Air (2/11/16)
6. Asimov's Foundation (2/17/16)
7. Catching Fire (3/7/16)
8. Frankenstein (3/28/16)
9. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (3/30/16)
10. Killing Patton (4/5/16)
11. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (5/1/16)
12. The Watchmen (5/11/16)
13. Mockingjay (5/14/16)
14. Fahrenheit 451 (5/26/16)
15. The Stand (6/6/16)
16. The Sports Gene (6/13/16)
17. Crime and Punishment (6/23/16)
18. Blink (6/29/16)
19. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (7/19/16)
20. The Kite Runner (7/31/16)
21. Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance (8/10/16)
22. Freakonomics (8/14/16)
23. The Giver (8/23/16)
24. How to Become Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (8/29/16)
25. Watership Down (9/25/16)
26. Lord of the Flies (9/30/16)
27. Dune (10/16/16)
28. The Tipping Point (10/20/16)
29. Einstein's Dreams (10/30/16)
30. Moonwalking with Einstein (11/29/16)
31. American Gods (12/12/16)
32. Started: Awaken the Giant Within

I bolded and linked the books that had the biggest impact on me. In 2017 I am looking forward to continuing my reading and have plenty of books that are on my radar. Here are a few that I have and will be diving into:

1. On Becoming a Person
2. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
3. Brain Rules
4. Superintelligence
5. Tools of Titans

I'm hesitant to set too high of a goal given that I plan to accomplish even more this year in terms of setting up my career, but I would like to beat my record for 2017. Happy New Year, and lets work towards making this an amazing year, even if just on a personal scope.