I started reading a lot more fiction last year, although I still read enough non-fiction. I picked up the habit of reading on my kindle and thought I’d share some of the non-fiction books I read.

Who Moved My Cheese (Johnson Spencer & Kenneth H. Blanchard)

My excellent colleague and great friend, Georgie Smallwood reminded me of this book. I read it many years ago, when I first stepped into consulting. A great and short business novel focused on characters going through change. You meet the little people, Haw and Hem as well as the mice Scurry and Sniff. Each represent a part of our own persona and how we view change.

A powerful story that is particularly useful in an ever-changing world.

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users (Guy Kawasaki & Peg Fitzpatrick)

A book full of tips and tricks with how to deal with social media. You can tell the company that employees Kawasaki was definitely a sponsor in this book. Take the advice with a grain of salt. It’s a short book, full of practical advice about how to use social media. The tips are obvious but could be useful for some. Although published in 2014, the book already shows it’s age (e.g. Google+ closing down in 2019)

Tesla: Man Out of Time (Margaret Cheney)

A fascinating biography of a visionary person who I didn’t know too much about. Several points jumped out for me during this book. During Tesla’s lifetime, it seemed like there were a lot of innovations and research. Each finding resulted in many patents – very different from today’s open source world.

Tesla had an amazing array of discoveries, many of which are still not understood today. Many of his papers disappeared with his death. He also didn’t share many details with others, having had bad experiences with others.

The author portrays Tesla with a rich and vibrant character. Not only did he have the quirkiness of the inventor. He also had the flamboyance of a socialiate and showman. For someone in his time, and the number of experiments, he lived to quite the ripe age (87!)

This book gives you an insight into many of the amazing predictions Tesla made. It also gives you an idea of how much impact he had on society with the inventions he also created and shared with the wider world.