The end of the year holiday season is considered the best time for businesses to shut shops and re-look at their objectives for the coming year. The holiday season acts as a boon for many entrepreneurs, as business is a slow and this is the time when you can focus on redefining or re-engineering your business for the coming year. The time is best to rejuvenate your mind and the best way to do it is to indulge in some good read for learning and inspiration.
Here is a list of the top 5 books that will inspire you and get you geared for the coming year:
1. The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us
This landmark book is written by award winning poet and writer Diane Ackerman. The content of the book talks about the human relationship with nature and how it has radically changed the way we do things. How man is on the verge of exhausting all possible resources on planet earth. The writer takes us on an exhilarating journey through our new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating and shaping our future and that of our fellow creatures. At the end, the book allows the reader to think about the ultimate future of humanity.
2. Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
A non-fiction book written by Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker, the book is a firsthand account of the authors travel in China, where he interviewed people swept up by economic, political, and social change. This book is considered to be a vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation. A must read for all westerners as it gives a unique insight into the radical change that the country is currently going through and how it is shaping the future of business.
3. The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age
This unique book is written by documentary filmmaker and activist Astra Taylor. If you use the internet, then this book is a must read. The book analysis how the Internet changes and affects today’s culture, from journalism to music. The author lays out one of the smartest arguments about the nature and effect of technology in our digital age. This remarkable book talks about how the internet is slowly becoming the people’s platform and the ongoing changes that it is brings with it.
Or more popularly known as The Everyday Sexism Project, is a website founded on 16 April 2012 by Laura Bates, a British feminist writer. The objective of the site is to document everyday examples of sexism as reported by contributors, later adapted into a book. This bold, jaunty and ultimately intelligent book documents the verbal and physical abuse a lot of women have to put up with, predominantly by men, almost on a daily basis in the UK & US. This is a wonderful book that details the struggles that women face in everyday corporate life due to sexism/misogyny. It is eye opening and well researched.
5. Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain
Written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, this book teaches us all to think more productively, more creatively, more rationally i.e. to think like a “Freak”. The author’s argument ranges from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, the authors ultimately induce the reader to think with an open mind and come up with unique concepts and ideas.