“I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world. I’m saying it helps.” — Walter Mosley
Books are great companions, they keep you company, they are friends, smart friends, they entertain, educate, provoke your thoughts, expand your horizon, keep you thinking, stretch your mind, heal you, pick you up and push you forward.
There is a Latin expression: liber medicina animi [a book is the soul’s medicine]. That’s what books have been to me.
I’m flattered when I get mail or inbox asking me for a list of helpful books for 2018. I keep losing my list, so I decided to post it here for all time.
For some books I have written my reviews and for others I have included Amazon links so that you can read what others think of each tittle.
The following is a list of books I read in 2018 in no particular order:
- Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
- Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark
- Lead with Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis by Jeffrey A. Krames
- Minimalism: Living a Meaningful Life, Second Edition by Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Milburn
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Dark Continent my Black Arse by Sihle Khumalo
- Almost Sleeping My Way to Timbuktu: West Africa on a Shoestring by Public Transport with no French by Sihle Khumalo
- Bold: How to go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
- Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- The Wizard Crow by Nguni wa Thiongo
- Golden Gate Bridge: History and Design of an Icon by Donald MacDonald and Ira Nadal
- The Storyteller’s Secret by Carmine Gallo
- The Road to Character by David Brooks
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown
- The Shack: Where Tragedy confronts Eternity by Wm. Paul Young
- The Last Slave Market: The Incredible Story of John Kirk: The Man Who Ended the East African Slave Trade by Alastair Hazell
- Mafia: The Final Secrets by Bill Bonanno and Gary B. Abromovitz
- Life Wisdom by Zig Ziglar
- Coconut by Kopano Matlwa
- The Age of Magic by Ben Okri
- Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
- Part of the Plan by Sanele Zulu
- Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
- Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
- Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it) by Salim Ismail, Michael S. Malone, Yuri van Gets
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
- Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
- Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work by Steven Pressfield
- The War of Art: Winning The Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield
- Braving the Wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone by Brene Brown.
- All Marketers are Liars [Tell Stories] by Seth Godin
- This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See by Seth Godin
- Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
- Time Talent Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag & Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power by Michael Mankins and Eric Garton
- Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen
- The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care by Clayton M. Christensen
- The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gresersen and Clayton M. Christensen
- The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty by Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon
- Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
- Abundance Without Affluence: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen by
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
- How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made The Modern World by Steven Johnson
- Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson
- The Hard Thing about Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
- Quiet Power: Growing Up As An Introvert In a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
- The Irresistible Introvert: Harness the Power of Quiet Charisma In a Loud World by Michaela Chung
- Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life by Martin Meredith
- Find Your Why: A practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek
- The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
- Make Your Idea Matter: Stand Out with a Better Story by Bernadette Jiwa
- Meaningful: The Story of Ideas that Fly by Bernadette Jiwa
- Kasipreneurship: Building legacies from Spaza shops by Lucas Moloi
- The Shrink by Brigitta Zwani
A book a day, keeps ignorance away.
rochemamabolo 
A powerful list. Bit by bit, we are creating a reading nation – and I love it.
Thank you for taking the time to write that list, Roche. My questions is: what’s the secret to be able to read a total of 55 books in a year? (I’m a slow reader and like to fully absorb and contemplate on what I read before moving to the next one, especially the more complex ones like Harari’s, for example).
I usually carry a book wherever I go, and I read every time there is a chance, while waiting for the Gautrain, in the train, when I go to places where I have to wait in queues, e.g. License Department or Home Affairs queues… But I get a lot of reading done before I sleep, I usually read an hour before I sleep. There are days where I would dedicate the whole day to reading, usually on Saturdays or holidays, which means I can finish one book in one day, if I start from 0800 to 18:00. I’m a fast reader as well, but with Harari’s books, I find myself having to reread certain paragraphs because he decodes complex topics. When I was doing my MBA, we had a speeding reading class as part of personal development, it help a bit. You can read fast and still remember the message of the book. It was easy at the beginning, but after a while you get the hang of it…. But I also don’t waste time reading a books that are not interesting, if after chapter 3, the book doesn’t keep me going, I drop it.