8 Essential Summer Holiday Reads

Summer holidays are the perfect time to relax and settle into some reading after a busy year. For those still looking, here is a list of books and an interview I really enjoyed this year. Enjoy and feel free to share!

1. I Have a Message for You by Matan Rochlitz. An incredible story about 92yro Holocaust survivor Klara Prowisor, having to leave her dying father to escape Auschwitz. Decades later she received a message from him.
2. Flat Out Far Out by Libby Blomfield. The adventures of Max, the Jack Russell, travelling with his humans in a retro caravan to a Dinosaur dig in Winton, QLD. A kids book written by my stepmother Libby, illustrated by my Dad David.
3. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. The Songlines details an exercise of researching the Aboriginal song and its connection to nomadic travel and the footprints of the Ancestors. Having seen many songlines, I really enjoyed it!
4. Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler. Part travel journal, part history lesson, part Viking tale, Ghost Empire tells the story of the demise of Constantinople, once the greatest city on earth.
5. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Gnaw on a rib bone and read all about the famous and lesser known Viking gods.
6. Poor Charlie’s Almanack, the Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. The Bible – must read. Munger is vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway so knows a thing or two about value investing.
7. The Startup Way by Eric Reis. A practical, no BS guide to applying entrepreneurial methodologies into new and established companies, to grow, generate scale and drive innovation. Aside from Charles Munger, Eric Reis is one of the only “business authors” I follow.
8. Relentless Strike by Sean Taylor. A detailed account of how the various American Special Forces were formed. Recommended to me by an ex-Australian SASR mate, he said “I don’t know how they got that information, but it’s pretty accurate!” Plenty of acronyms and detail but an interesting read.