100 Books in 2018: Economics, Politics and Habits (Part 1)
Part 1 of my 100-book reading challenge — economics and inequality, political tribalism, productivity habits, leadership biographies, and capitalism.
In mid-2018, I made a decision: stop reading whatever algorithms pushed to the top of my feeds.
Social media articles and hot takes weren’t cutting it anymore. I needed depth, different perspectives, and ideas that would actually stick.
With audiobooks and dedicated reading time, 2018 became my best year of reading and discovery. (And yes, listening to audiobooks counts as reading — here’s Daniel Willingham’s take if you’re skeptical.)
The 100 books clustered into distinct themes. Along the way, I developed a new appreciation for history and found a system for discovering books I actually enjoy.
💡 One lesson: Be skeptical of bestsellers and Bill Gates recommendations. We have very different tastes.
📊 Economics, Inequality, Debts and Crashes
Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century started my reading avalanche. Once I finished it, I kept digging into economic history and recent crises.
📚 Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Edwards’ American Default was an eye-opener — I had no idea the US technically defaulted on its debt during FDR’s administration in the 1930s. This event features in Scott Nations’ A History of the United States in Five Crashes.
📚 American Default 📚 A History of the United States in Five Crashes
Adam Tooze’s Crashed provided the perfect closing — a historian’s holistic timeline of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Yanis Varoufakis’ Adults in the Room complemented it with an insider’s view of Greece’s negotiations with the European troika.
📚 Crashed 📚 Adults in the Room
⚠️ Tooze’s warning stuck with me: not everything that caused the 2008 crash has been fixed. The next one might be worse.
🏛️ Political Tribalism and The Age of Trumpism
Francis Fukuyama’s books were a revelation. After enjoying Acemoglu’s Why Nations Fail, I tracked down Fukuyama’s work — which Acemoglu references constantly.
📚 Why Nations Fail 📚 The Origins of Political Order 📚 Political Order and Political Decay
These are books I’ll return to many times. Fukuyama also released Identity in 2018, exploring identity politics in the wake of Brexit and Trump.
📚 Identity
I read too many Trump books in 2018. By year’s end, I was sick of the topic. The notable ones: Identity Crisis and Bob Woodward’s Fear.
📚 Identity Crisis 📚 Fear
💭 The conclusion from most sources: Trump has the emotional intelligence of a five-year-old. But somehow the world kept turning, so maybe things will work out.
Madeleine Albright’s Fascism provides a framework for spotting how fascist leaders rise — drawn from her experience as professor and Secretary of State under Clinton.
📚 Fascism
Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America offers comfort: America has survived worse. The country will come out bruised but likely unscathed.
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” — Abraham Lincoln
⚙️ Tweaking The Daily Grind
Five books shaped my daily habits for 2019. Read them in this order:
1. Atomic Habits by James Clear
Practical and inspiring. My reading success in 2018 came from building atomic habits around reading. Clear gave me a smarter framework to improve them.
2. Deep Work by Cal Newport
How to be “in the zone” while working or practising habits. Newport’s research (he’s a computer science academic) into sustained concentration is fascinating.
3. Grit by Angela Duckworth
The mental attitude needed to be an accomplished learner. Talent matters less than persistence.
📚 Grit
4. It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Fried & DHH
From the founders of Basecamp — two people with superhuman emotional intelligence. Essential for sustainable work-life balance.
📚 It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
5. Give and Take by Adam Grant
The personal philosophy of giving more to get more from life.
🎓 The Leaders, The Contrarians
📖 I spent much of 2018 reading memoirs and biographies. My conclusion: effective leaders are contrarians with compassion.
Power without empathy never produces good leadership — no matter how rich or rhetorically gifted.
The life story of Chip Gaines (discovered by chance) was surprisingly compelling. I developed new admiration for Theodore Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, John McCain, James Comey, and Satya Nadella.
Non-American leaders like Lee Kuan Yew, Jack Ma, and Muhammad Yunus have different qualities, but the contrarian traits remain evident.
📚 Principles (Ray Dalio — though I suspect he hides his less admirable qualities) 📚 The Restless Wave (John McCain) 📚 Lion in the White House (Theodore Roosevelt) 📚 Banker to the Poor (Muhammad Yunus) 📚 Lee Kuan Yew 📚 Capital Gaines (Chip Gaines) 📚 A Full Life (Jimmy Carter) 📚 Alibaba (Jack Ma) 📚 A Higher Loyalty (James Comey) 📚 Hit Refresh (Satya Nadella)
Note: All these books were written by men. I’ll make a conscious effort to read more by female authors in 2019.
💰 Greed and Capitalism
Two 2018 books tell incredible tales of ego-driven greed:
📚 Bad Blood — The Theranos scandal 📚 Billion Dollar Whale — The 1MDB heist
🎬 Both will become Hollywood films. Both show how far people will go for vanity.
Mariana Mazzucato suggests remedies in The Value of Everything. She makes a compelling case to question who actually creates value in the economy. Is it entrepreneurs copying Silicon Valley? Glorified bankers? Or do governments deserve more credit than they get?
Continue to Part 2 for history, behavioural economics, AI, and fiction.
More reading lists: