Books I've read in 2019 so far

2019 was a good year for me. I bought more books and actually read more than I did the year before. Little by little, I’ve come to realize how important it is to feed my mind with books. This shift in mindset was partly thanks to some productivity content I found online and a few impactful books I read earlier.

That said, I do have one small regret. I didn’t reach my reading goal. Every January, I aim to read 50 books, but I haven’t quite made it yet. Still, I’m proud of the progress I’ve made. Small steps really do add up, and I can see that I’ve improved compared to last year, which is something to celebrate.

I don’t think reading automatically makes someone successful, but I do believe that most successful people make reading a habit. People like Bill Gates and Barack Obama dedicate time and money to books because they understand the value of learning. I’ve also come across a statistic that says 85 percent of self-made millionaires read at least two books a month. They make the most of their time and use every opportunity to learn something new. It’s easy to overlook how just five minutes wasted each day can turn into over 30 hours lost in a year, time that could have been spent reading. That’s time that could have been used to finish a few books.

So, here’s a list of the books I read in 2019. If I couldn’t find the English title or if the book is by a Vietnamese author, I’ve included the original Vietnamese title instead.

1. Miracle Apples - Takuji Ishikawa
2. Becoming - Michelle Obama
3. Bill Gates - James Wallace & Jim Erickson
4. The little book of Hygge - Meik Wiking
5. Lagom - Niki Brantmark
6. Goodbye Things - Sasaki Fumio
7. Dan Sha Ri - Hideko Yamashita
8. L'art De La Simplicité - Dominique Loreau
9. What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 - Tina Seelig
10. The Art Of Simple Living - Shunmyo Masuno
11. Let It Be Easy - Tolly Burkan
12. Minimal ni Kurasu with Mujirushi Ryohin - Michelle
13. I've Been Thinking - Maria Shriver
14. Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari *
15. The Universe In A Nutshell - Stephen Hawking *
16. A Brief History Of Time - Stephen Hawking *
17. George And The Big Bang - Lucy Hawking & Stephan Hawking *
18. Nguoi Toi Gian - Pham Quynh Giang
19. Chuyen Tau Mot Chieu Khong Tro Lai - Kien Tran
20. Duong Ve Nha - Dinh Phuong Linh
21. Toi, Tuong Lai Va The Gioi - Nguyen Phi Van
22. Thuat Noi Chuyen Hang Ngay - Hoang Xuan Viet
23. Beyond Mars and Venus - John Gray
24. A Monk's Guide To A Clean House and Mind - Shoukei Matsumoto
25. Barking Up The Wrong Tree - Eric Barker *
26. Zero Waste Home - Bea Johnson
27. Ikigai - Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles
28. Bearing The Unbearable - Joanne Cacciatore
29. 我喜欢这个功利的世界 - 咪蒙 (Song Thuc Te Giua Doi Thuc Dung)
30. The Science Of Money - Brian Tracy & Dan Strutzel
31. Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book For Smart People - Ken Watanabe
32. Elon Musk - Ashlee Vance
33. The Rainbow Troops - Andrea Hirata
34. Educated - Tara Westover
35. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
36. Khoi Nghiep Ban Le - Tran Thanh Phong
    * I'm still reading and will finish them before 2019 ends.

On Laziness, Learning, and Showing Up Anyway

Sometimes I get stuck in a loop of being lazy, unmotivated, and procrastinating just like everyone else, I guess. When that happens, I usually turn to YouTube productivity videos or scroll through articles on Medium to feel inspired again. It’s like tricking my brain into thinking, “Yeah, we’re doing something useful now.”

Today I read another Medium article about productivity. The author recommended practicing certain skills every day to improve yourself: learning how to learn, writing, public speaking, meditation, building habits, negotiation, mathematical thinking, coordination, and flexibility. Sounds like a lot, right? But it made sense and it got me thinking.

Out of all those, “learning how to learn” really stuck with me. I’ve always studied when I had to, like for a test or a deadline, but I never really thought about how to learn better. Lately I’ve been overwhelmed by how much I need to learn in a short time, and it finally hit me—wow, I actually don’t know how to study efficiently. How did I go so long without realizing that? Then I remembered the 10,000-hour rule from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers—you don’t need to be super smart, you just need to put in the time. Practice enough, and you’ll eventually outperform people who rely on raw talent but don’t try. That idea gives me hope!

One of the habits I’m starting with is writing. Partly because I want to improve, and partly because IELTS writing is killing me. I always freeze and have no idea what to say or what side to take when it comes to Task 2. So here I am, writing this, hoping that doing it regularly will help me think faster and express myself better. Even this post took forever and gave me a bit of a headache, but at least I showed up.

So now I’m slowly building new habits: writing more and being more intentional with how I learn. I’m curious to see how I’ll feel after a month of doing this stuff consistently. We’ll see if I actually become one of those who “have their life together” or if I just end up with more drafts. Either way, it’s a start.