The Most Important Books I'm Reading in 2021

The ‘Three Crowns’ tower over the Bay of Biscay during a winter storm — shot from Biarritz, France (Dec 2020).

This is a roundup of the most important books I’ve planned to read in 2021. I’m sharing it now to give you some more ideas about what to read this year. You will notice that there’s all kinds of book genres in it - from novels to self help by way of psychology. I believe it is always beneficial to expand my horizons for it cultivates creativity. Often our best ideas come from associating different things in our mind, almost by accident, but the larger the range we give our minds, the larger the range of ideas will be.

If you have read a book in this list or have a recommendation to make for other fellow photographers, leave it in a comment below.

Here we go:

1. Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality
   I added Awareness after hearing about it on the Tim Ferris Podcast who himself got it recommended by wealth manager Peter Mallouk. What drew me into this book is the promise of expanding my horizons and finding more happiness within myself.
   

2. The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide
   My partner at Wildist Laura Schmalstieg has been adamant about having the entire team do the Enneagram test. I finally took it and discovered a lot about others and myself that I didn’t expect to find. I added this book after Theron Humphrey recommended it. He added that “Enneagram is not a typology, people are not numbers” and this is only book that gets that right.
   

3. Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future
   I knew of Peter Thiel from being one Paypal’s founders but never really dove into his approach to startups. I recently found his Stanford speech called Competition is for losers which goes totally against the more popular and iterative “Lean Startup” approach.
   

4. The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals―and Other Forgotten Skills
   As an avid reader of Alastair Humphrey’s books, blog and newsletter I discovered Gooley’s workshop and his writings. Added this one to the list because as an outdoor photographer I’m always looking for new ways to see, hear and feel nature.
   

5. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
   Added this book after reading about it on Ryan Holiday’s best books of 2019 roundup. The promise of this book matches my personality— I’m curious about a lot of things and this book seems to offer ways to better channel that curiosity.
   

6. Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil
   This book made it to the 2021 list early on. During the early stages of the pandemic I went deep into Olive oil research because its an ingredient that I use everyday. I wanted to know more about where it comes from and what makes a quality oil vs a terrible one. Most of the virtual rabbit holes I followed lead to the authority on the subject, Tom Mueller. It was only natural that I read his book.
   

7. The Maine Woods (Thoreau)
   Some of Thoreau’s sentences have to be read a few times to really appreciate their subtleness. While I’d hate that in an educational book, I quite enjoy that in novels/autobiographies. It’s rewarding. After reading ‘Walking’ and ‘Walden’ by the same author I added this one and a ‘Winter Walk’.
   

8. A Winter Walk (Thoreau)
   

9. The Call of the Wild
   Listing all of the people who said I had to read this book would take too long. I kept putting it off because when too many people recommend something I see that as a bad sign - as a pretentious frenchman, I like finding lesser known stuff, to cultivate a ‘different’ way of seeing - but this year I gave in. Hope it delivers!
   

10. Nature (Emerson)
    Added this one after seeing it quoted in conversationist Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac.
    

11. Meditations: A New Translation
    Another Ryan Holiday recommendation — The Daily Stoic is one of my favorite books in 2020 and I added this one to get closer to the source of the Stoic movement.
    

12. Dove
    My friend and fellow filmmaker RJ Bruni has good taste in books. He raved about ‘Dove’ so I put it on this list. Apparently one of the greatest adventure novels ever written.
    

13. Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries
    After breaking my wrist on a motorcycle crash I could not use it for at least 3 months. I thought it was going to be horrible but it turned out to be a positive experience. I gained wisdom in knowing that it ‘could be way worse’, and also new skills, like opening jars using a dexterous combination of right hand twisting and left elbow ‘gripping’… A year has passed now and I can cycle again but it still left me wondering what it would be like to recover from a worse injury. The pragmatic in me is preparing for it with this book that ultra runner Mike Foote recommended.
    

14. Men to Match My Mountains: The Monumental Saga of the Winning of America's Far West
    I live in the American West most of the year and I kick myself every other day for now knowing more, besides the writings of Lewis & Clark, about its conquest. I might also spark new ideas for a photo story.