A long-term goal is to read through my entire library of books, cover to cover before my oldest child goes to college. To do this, I need to read a little more than 30 books a year! It is not impossible but definitely takes a system and intentionality on the front-end so that I spend very little time deciding what book to read next once I am finished reading another – and to make sure I am not tempted to read the latest popular literature. There is not anything wrong with reading the books at the top of the bestsellers lists but I have a very specific set of over 500 books that I want to read in my life which will take focus. Some of the books I have already read but of the 500 or more I would like to read, a little less than 400 of them I want to read or revisit in the next 13 years. If you would like to know a little more, you can read more about my list of essential books, my method for choosing books to read, or my general philosophy on knowledge and reading on a variety of subjects.
You can also skip all of that and take a look at the books I am planning to read in 2021! Most of these I am reading for the first time, but a few I am rereading.
The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt (1958)The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln (1863)The Sabbath: It’s Meaning for Modern Man by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1951)The Use of Knowledge in Society by Friedrich Hayek (1945)A New Guide to Rational Living by Albert Ellis (1961)- The Dhammapada (400 B.C.)
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu (500 B.C.)
The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money by P.T. Barnum (1880)- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1955)
How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber (1996)- I and Thou by Martin Buber (1923)
- Politics by Aristotle (350 B.C.)
- The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis (1949)
- Progress and Poverty by Henry George (1879)
- The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge by Beatrice Chestnut (2013)
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (180 A.D.)
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – that the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki (1997)
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight (2016)
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1952)
- Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (1968)
- The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius (524 A.D.)
- Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (1849)
- The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine by A.W. Tozer (1948)
- The Great Crash of 1929 by John Kenneth Gailbrath (1954)
- Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders K. Ericsson (2016)
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1936)
- The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success by Darren Hardy (2010)
- Black Box Thinking: Why Some People Never Learn from Their Mistakes – But Some Do by Matthew Syed (2015)
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
- Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka (1992)
- Pensees by Blaise Pascal (1670)
- Crito by Plato (385 B.C.)
- Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (1942)
There it is! It feels ambitious when I look at the length of some of these books and think about needing to read 1 book every 11 days… non-stop. However, there are shorter books on this list as well so hopefully it will even out!
What books are you planning to read this year?