The Forrest Four-Cast: December 30, 2016

Hugh Forrest

Dec 30, 2016·3 min read

Reading books makes me more creative, more imaginative and more interesting to talk to at networking events. So it pains me that I now have so little time for so few books. With this caveat in mind, these were 10 of the books that I enjoyed reading the most over the last 12 months (listed in alpha order by title).

1. #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness. Need more energy and inspiration to achieve your goals? Read Gary Vaynerchuk. So excited that he will be speaking at SXSW again in 2017!
2. Born To Run. My favorite musician has now emerged as my favorite writer. Whether he is holding a pen or strumming a guitar, the Boss has a way with words that is utterly magic.
3. The Boys in the Boat. After receiving this book as a gift a few years ago, I finally started reading it in the early summer as a way to jump-start my spirit for the Rio Games.
4. Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble. Another SXSW 2017 speaker, Dan Lyons account of dysfunctional entrepreneurial life is both tremendously funny and incredibly sad.
5. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. Erik Larson paints a fascinating (but ultimately morbid) portrait of Berlin in the early 1930s. One hopes that he is not writing a similar book about the United State in the late 2010s.
6. The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. Kevin Kelly shares his understandings of how and why tomorrow will happen as it will. Must reading for all geeks.
7. Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel. An easy and entertaining read that effectively outlines the common sense economic decisions that generally govern the world of illicit substance transactions.
8. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. Non-conformists make the world go round. Brilliant thinkers / analysts like Adam Grant make sense of the turning. See his keynote speech this March in Austin!
9. The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way. Wayne Dyer came into my life about 10 years ago — and helped me through some pretty tough times. I should re-read this book more often.
10. TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking. Trial and error has made me slightly better (and slightly more comfortable) at talking in front of crowds. This book reminds me that I still have such a long way to go in this oratory journey.

If reading is your passion, then check out all the cool Book Readings we have schedule for SXSW 2017 in Austin. Ten of the readings that I am most excited about are outlined in this Medium post from early December. Other recently-published authors at SXSW 2017 will be part of our popular Book Signing program.

Hugh Forrest tries to write four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts generally cover technology-related trends. When not attempting to wordsmith, he serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW in Austin.