A good 4% of 2019 have already passed, so it’s about time to have a look back to 2018! I managed to review 14 books (which, annoyingly, is one less than 2017). I managed to gain more readers (thank you so much, how do you keep finding me?). I managed to not break the site, although a lot of improvements didn’t happen. I still have a lot of plans for the site, but plans are cheap. Maybe this year?

Best book reviewed in 2018

There were three books with the highest rating for this year, The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Thinking in Bets. All were important readings for me, all are somewhat controversial. My best book reviewed this year is Thinking in Bets, as it manages to use the simple concept of betting against yourself in ingenious ways to improve decision making. Recently in the news I read that bookmakers and betters are a lot better and faster in predicting election results than polls are. They lose money if they are wrong.

Best book published in 2018

Well, obviously this is Thinking in Bets again, so let’s talk about the honorable second place which is When. Among all the self-help books advising you what to do or how to do something, When answes the question of when to do something. Timing is even more important than we like to think, and this book taught me to schedule anything involving decision-making – be it a business meeting, a major purchase or a surgery – in mid-morning. Or, at the very least, not in the afternoon.

Most surprising book reviewed in 2018

Here I cannot decide between two books, so they can just share the title: Digital Darwinism manages to actually add something new to the digitalization debate, that has not been said a billion times before. Also, it succeeds in riding the edge between bleak, cataclysmic foreboding and overjoyous hype. Careers for Dummies, on the other hand, is a career advice book that was actually fun and interesting to read, even while not on a job hunt. And that is clearly something I did not expect.

So, one more year gone, one more step into a future full of opportunity. Let’s all make 2019 the best year ever!