Today I’m sharing a wrap up of the books I finished reading the month of 2019.
January 2019 has been great in the reading department. With my reading challenge this year of 30 books, I am currently ahead of schedule. If I keep
the three books a month phase I’ll be bidding 2019 goodbye with 36 books read.
Yay! I also found a motivating way to read more pages than before which I’m
excited to share to you in a separate blog post. For now let’s focus on the book
wrap up for the month of January!
January 2019 Books Read
For January 2019, I read three books. I have a bonus book, The Bullet
Journal Method by Ryder Carroll, which I included just because I finished it on
January 1st. The books I read this month, except for the bonus, were all tech
related which was surprising since I get easily bored in the said subject.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
I consider this book as the first book read in 2019. And for being the
first, it definitely set the bar high. It was an intense masterpiece, one of
the best non-fiction business book I’ve ever read.
Bad Blood: Secrets and
Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
is an expose of Silicon Valley Startup, Theranos. Theranos was set to
revolutionize healthcare by drawing blood using finger prick technology instead
of the traditional injections. Turns out everything was a lie. A total scam
from founder Elizabeth Holmes who was once dubbed as “the next Steve Jobs”.
I first learned about the story of Theranos when I stumble upon a news
article narrating its downfall. From then, I researched
about the business from articles on Wikipedia, online news to watching Holmes’
interview on YouTube. So, yeah, I am that invested to the story even before
reading Carreyrou’s book.
I was looking forward to reading the book even though the price in Php
849. The funny thing is, when I bought my copy, it was on a 30% discount! I
only paid Php 594.30 for the book. Awesome!
Reading Bad Blood gave me so much insight on what happens inside a
startup companies. Holmes’ idea could have been revolutionary, it was just too
difficult to materialize. The sad thing was, Holmes decided to conceal the lie
within a lie. She and Ramesh Balwani, her former beau and Theranos’ COO, used
intimidating tactics to their employees and led them out of fear.
Actually now that I’m done watching Fyre Festival documentary from
Netflix (check out my January 2019 recap
for full story) I realized there are similarities between what happened to
Theranos and Fyre Festival. Both founders gave gave promises, took money but
didn’t deliver. The worst part is innocent lives got hurt in the process.
The Martian by Andy Weir
I had The Martian book for a long time but only read it this January.
I’ve watched the movie a long time ago too but I am still familiar with the
characters and the story line. I don’t really read sci-fi fiction but this
definitely got me into the said genre.
To give you an idea in case you haven’t read and watched The Martian
yet, the story follows an
American astronaut, Mark Watney, as he becomes stranded alone on Mars in the
year 2035 and must improvise in order to survive. Reading Watney’s daily
log while trapped in Mars from growing potatoes, finding the Pathfinder to his
final moments on Mars to be reunited with his crew.
Overall, this book is totally entertaining. Reading the book is as
always a different experience. I am not scientifically/mathematically inclined
but Weir didn’t bore me at all! Reading Watney’s daily log while trapped in Mars
is definitely fascinating.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
This book is so A-M-A-Z-I-N-G-L-Y written that you won't be able to
put it down. At least that's what happened to me. I picked this up from my
bookshelf just to read the first few pages and surprisingly found it hard to
let go. I finished 120 pages of it on day 1.
Ready Player One follows teenager Wade Watts as he tries to win the
most important game in the OASIS, a virtual reality simulator accessible to anyone. The
setting of the book is on 2040s and is considered as a dystopian novel much
like Fahrenheit 451 which I finished before.
I was surprised
that I enjoyed reading this book since I am not a gamer and I have no idea
experience playing games where you have a character aside from Temple Run.
HAHA. But the way the story is
written/narrated will make you feel like you are in the same world as the
character. I had such a good reading experience that I read it whenever and
wherever I can. I was able to finish it in a span of one week reading at most a
45 minutes within a day.
Ready Player One definitely deserves a spot in my best books I’ve read
ever!
Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method
Although I didn’t read it last, this is still technically part of
January since I finished it exactly on the wee hours of January 1.
I’ve been bullet journaling since 2015 and it has been helpful to increase my
productivity and keep my life organized. Except last year when I was gifted a BDJ Planner, I
technically rely on the bullet journal method for every single planning I have
to do.
This 2019 I’m back with the bullet journal
and I referenced my setup upon the valuable ideas I read in the book. I believe
whether you are new or already a seasoned bullet journal enthusiast, The Bullet
Journal Method will still have a spot on your bookshelf. It has a specific part
to introduce the system and how you can setup your first ever BuJo. The other
part is more of practical applications of the system and totally going back to
the basics of it all.
I enjoy the bullet journal method so much and I am happy to be back
with the system.
That’s it for my book wrap up for January 2019.
As you may notice I didn’t give away what I will be reading for next
month which is different from the previous book wrap ups I do. This year I am
not giving myself a fixed titles to read for the coming month and basically
just read whatever book I want to read. This way, no pressure on me to read
what I have mentioned I will be reading.
I hope you enjoyed this new format for the
book wrap up.
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