My Favorite 10 Books in 2020
By: Richard Nacke
Tags: Book Recommendations

Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash

Despite or maybe because of Corona, 2020 was the year I fell in love with reading a lot of books again. Since I always find it extremely interesting to see what other people read and value book recommendations a lot, I decided to also compile a list with the ten books that impacted me the most in 2020, for anyone interested.

In fact, I got to know most of the books on this list through recommendations. Hence, what were your favorite books? Please let me know in the comments or via DM — I am looking forward to reading them in 2021 :-)

My favorite 10 books that I found most impactful across all genres were (in no particular order):

Drive (Daniel H. Pink): I got to this book through the recommendation of Vas Narasimhan (CEO of Novartis) on LinkedIn — He described it as one of the most influential books he uses to reshape the culture and leadership at Novartis. Amazing insights into what motivates people and an absolute must-read for everyone who does or wants to lead people (and build an organization) in the future. Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl): Frankl was both a survivor of the Holocaust and one of the most influential psychotherapists of the 20th century. His account and reflections of his three-year tenure in concentration camps vividly call to mind the horrific crimes conducted during that time and offer impactful insights into the nature and meaning of life. This book really shook me, gets to the core of human life and made me realise how important it is to have a purpose. Status Anxiety (Alain de Botton): I am a great fan of Alain de Botton and his series “School of Life”. Out of all his books I have read, Status Anxiety convinced me the most: It offers a compelling insight into how the concept of status historically evolved and solutions to this zero-sum game. Probably a good read for everyone that has not reflected about his/her behaviour on Instagram. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (Eric Jorgensen): Naval is most famous for his Twitter account and podcast appearances. In this book, Jorgensen summarizes Naval’s most important advice on both wealth and happiness from his tweets and podcasts. While I find his advice sometimes too simplistic and contradictory, it made me reflect a lot about the fundamentals in life and can be a good guide for everyone making professional and private decisions. Also briefly touches on the subject of status. The book is available for free online as a PDF. How to change your mind (Michael Pollan): The most influential book I read in 2020. Before reading it, I was very much governed by the negative stigma surrounding psychedelics and unaware of their great potential in treating mental health disorders. Pollan offers great accounts on the history, neuroscience, and potential in psychotherapy of psychedelics and also shares his own experiences taking LSD, Psilocybin and DMT. Having struggled myself with mental health in the past, I think it is time to reassume the research conducted in the 50s and 60s and make psychedelics available to patients again. Must-read for everyone interested in mental health and spirituality. Why we sleep (Matthew Walker): I have been tracking my sleep with an Oura ring for more than a year now. And yet, I think I only grasped the relevance of sleep after reading this book. I think everyone (including me) underestimates how important sleep is (more powerful than diet or exercise) and overestimates how much they sleep (probably too little). Consultants should probably avoid this book ;-) The Biohacker’s Handbook (Olli Sovijärvi, Teemu Arina & Jaakko Halmetoja): Great coffee table book that does not only look good, but also poses as a great guide for anyone interested in biohacking and looking to optimize their life in the areas of sleep, nutrition, exercise, work, and mind. Easily digestable, great illustrations and actionable insights. They also share valuable hacks for free on their IG and FB page. 80/20 Triathlon (David Warren & David Fitzgerald): No pareto principle here, but the essential message that 80% of your endurance training should be easy and only 20% hard. If you want to get serious about endurance sports, this book is a great start and guide. I used the zone calculator, exercises and training plans included in this book during my Ironman preparation and could see their strong efficacy on a week-to-week basis. Available for triathletes (80/20 Triathlon) and runners (80/20 Running). If you additionally want to nerd out on training and particularly fat and carb metabolism, I recommend checking out the videos of ProBike Academy on Youtube (Principles apply to most endurance sports). The Secret Race (Daniel Coyle & Tyler Hamilton): This was the book that I could just not lay aside this year and finished in less than 24 hours. Tyler Hamilton describes his life as a professional cyclist in the 1990s & 2000s and how he, his former teammate Lance Armstrong, and the majority of the peleton doped while lying to the public. The stories offer great insights into a) pro cycling, b) Lance Armstrong’s character and c) the chasms of the human being. Must-read for cyclists and even non-cyclists that I recommended this book to found it very exciting. Das Schönste was ich sah (Asta Scheib): I originally read this book in 2018, but decided to re-read it this year since I loved it so much. It is the touching and dramatic story of the life of one of my favourite painters, Giovanni Segantini (You can find two of his best artworks in Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin and Kunsthaus, Zürich). The book made me reconsider again what’s important in life and the privileges our generation enjoys. Bonus: “What is the future of food?” (David Friedberg on the FutureFood Podcast): This is probably the most interesting podcast I listened to in 2020. David is the founder of The Climate Corporation, AgTech’s first unicorn, and deeply influenced my view on the food sector and the investment thesis that I developed throughout my Master’s Thesis. Definitely interesting for anyone wanting to get a glimpse at how both food production and distribution may change in the (not so) distant future. Many of the technologies underpinning his vision are already in development.

Thanks for making it to the end of the list — I hope you may pick up some of the books outlined above and am looking forward to your feedback and recommendations.

Merry X-Mas and all the best

Richard