Reading is my favorite way to indulge my curiosity. I’ve read some terrific books lately. When I pulled together this list of five that you might enjoy as well, I realized that several of my choices wrestle with questions.
What made Apple tick during the era of Steve Jobs? What made Jony Ive the designer he’s today? How to approach difficult conversations as a manager? I usually try to read a mix of non-fiction & fiction books throughout the year. There’s nothing better than a great novel as your afternoon read. If you’re looking for something to read over the next few months, you can’t go wrong with:
The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo / Business
There are a ton of management books out there but nothing like Julie’s book. What I love most about her writing is her ability to explain topics and ideas about management in an accessible and fun way, even for people with no management experience.
During my read, I kept a lot of notes about management in general, how to approach difficult conversations and more. I found this book to be useful for managers and individual contributors alike. I loved the illustrations throughout the book.
You can find Julie’s book here
Jony Ive by Leander Kahney / Biography
When you think of Apple, the first thing that comes in mind is the iPhone. After that, it’s Steve Jobs. Many folks though associate Apple with Jony Ive and understandably so because Jony’s career at Apple is beyond extraordinary. He and his team designed the most iconic products of the history of personal computing such as the iMac, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro among other products. Many people don’t know much about Jony Ive. He’s a private person and doesn’t like to talk about his family or his childhood in public.
So this biography was something phenomenal for me to read. I enjoyed the pace of the book, and I loved how much attention Mr. Kahney puts on explaining Jony’s obsession with attention to detail and his ability to create a ton of prototypes when designing a product even from an early age. It was an inspiring read and learned a ton about Jony Ive and how he operates at Apple. I created a twitter thread back when I read it and included my favorite parts of the book.
You can find Leander’s book here
Currently I’m reading the biography of Jony Ive by Leander Kahney. I’m continually impressed by his work ethic, talent and attention to detail.
— Agis Tsaraboulidis (@agisilaosts) April 9, 2019
Since you can’t find so many info about him on the internet this book describes exceptionally well his childhood & then life at Apple.
Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda / Business
I was looking forward to reading this book months before it became available to the public. One of the reasons why it’s because the author of the book is an engineer who worked on products like Safari, iPhone and the Apple Watch. It’s kind of different if you consider that the authors of the other books about Apple are either executives who worked there or journalists.
Through Ken’s book, you can get a pretty good idea what it was like to work at Apple during the era of Steve Jobs. This book’s a page-turner. I enjoyed learning more about the processes Apple used to build products like the iPhone & iPad. Another aspect of the book that caught my attention was Ken’s emphasis on prototypes and demos. Engineers created dozen of prototypes to test different ideas before they finished working on a product and ship it to customers.
If you’re working in tech, this is a must read about how to build products with empathy and care for your customers. I wrote down a bunch of notes, and I’m going to use what I learned through this book in my current and future projects. Last but not least it inspired me to be a better engineer.
You can find Ken’s book here
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman / Fiction
I picked up this book without knowing what to expect. It was such a phenomenal read, to the point where I couldn’t put it down. This book is fresh; it’s funny, sad and unpredictable at the same time. While reading it, I was an emotional rollercoaster. The book’s about loneliness, with a beautiful, joyful ultimate message. What I loved most about it is how different it is from other books of it’s genre. I highly recommend everyone to read it.
You can find Gail’s book here
The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose / *Semi-Fiction
Before reading the Museum of Modern Love, I didn’t know anything about Marina Abramović or her performance at MOMA: The Artist is Present. I enjoyed this book because it’s thought-provoking. Throughout the novel, the author asks beguiling questions about the nature of art, life, and love and finds a way to answer them. The author’s fusing fact and fiction in a unique way. I never read something similar before.
It’s about a lost man in search of connection - a meditation on love, art and commitment, set against the backdrop of one of the most significant art events in modern history, Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present.
You can find Heather’s book here
*Semi-Fiction = Inspired by real-life events
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That was the list of the books I read recently and can’t stop talking about them. How about you? Are you into reading? If so what book(s) caught your attention, and you enjoyed reading during the spring? Feel free to tweet me @agisilaosts and let me know.