This is part of my annual review series that I publish each year, where I review my goals, adventures, business, and favorite books read, among other things. Over the course of the year, I read about one book a week. Here is the list of the top 10 books that I read in 2018:

10. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan

I had no idea that psychedelic research had such a heyday in the 50’s and 60’s in America. I love everything Pollan writes, and psychedelics are such a trendy topic right now – I was happy to find such a well researched book on the topics. I appreciated how Pollan shared his own experiences with compounds like LSD, magic mushrooms, and frog poison.

9. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

This book made trees and forests even more beautiful for me. Wohlleben is a German forester who has spent decades working with trees and studying the health of forests. I was delighted to learn the current scientific evidence behind what I already knew – that forests are special. I learned that trees are much more like humans than you might think – trees can communicate using sounds vibration (tree voices!), they live with their children and support them to grow strong by sharing nutrients and communication – (electrochemical impulses that are not unlike our nervous system), and can even warn each other from impending dangers.

8. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

Roosevelt was more than just a president – he was an adventurer! This book details his time out west, in combat with the roughriders in Cuba, and early political career leading up to his election as president. Roosevelt wasn’t just a politician, he was a naturalist, an author, and a fitness enthusiast. This book won the pulitzer prize, and was selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time.

7. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose

This book about the Lewis and Clark Expedition is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time and an appropriate July 4/Independence Day read. I loved having a personal connection to various locations along The Corps of Discovery’s route: St. Louis, Montana, Lolo National Forest, and the Columbia River. This is a pretty massive read, but flows well. It was astounding how nearly everything worked out for them over the course of the three year journey – nobody died or got lost, even when the party split into several groups in unknown territory. If you are the politically correct type, you will notice some pretty big difference in how Lewis relates to the Indians along the route.

6.Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life by Tyler Gage

This book was so much fun to read. Not only is Tyler the founder of a successful tea/energy drink company in Runa, but he has amazing skill as a writer (gage has a degree in literature). I’ll be interviewing Tyler later this month and I was reading this book with an eye to what types of things I could use to pull out a deeper story. My favorite part was the story of Tyler and his team trying to move their headquartes away from a Zoo in the middle of the night only to be surprised and held hostage by a one of his own consultants and a group of Ecuadorian militants. This is a business, spirituality, ethnography, and adventure book all wrapped into one.

5. Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon by Dr. Joe Dispenza

Given my training as a scientist, I often approach new age spiritualism with some skepticism, so having someone like Joe Dispenza who brings scientific rigor to spiritual questions is just what I need. This book goes deep into neuroscience and quantum physics and how we can apply these disciplines to heal ourselves, permanently rewire our brains, and change our DNA.

4. Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers and Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip by Jim Rogers

When I discovered the work of investor Jim Rogers aka, “The Indiana Jones of Investing”, and I was blown away by his investing, literary, and adventure achievements. I had to get him on the podcast right away. Here is the interview: Jim Rogers | Adventure Capitalist: Investing Around the World on Two Record Setting Road Trips

I read both his adventure books in preparation for the interview, and both are worth reading. Start with Investment Biker, which took place a decade before Adventure Capitalist. There is so much in these books: 60 and 110 countries visited on the two road trips, two world records for longest road trip, driving through war zones, crashes, street food, bribes, etc, along with Roger’s keen eye for and investment that is like “Picking money up off the ground”. Reading these actually makes investing seem much easier and more straightforward – it made it seem reasonable to ask: “How might I invest in a place on it’s way up?” and get an investment idea that you can actually go and do.
 

3. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

This book left me with a ton of deep philosophical questions at the turn of every page. Harari says humans are striving for “bliss, immortality, and divinity,” and we are using technology to drive this progress. Of particular note was his suggestion of “Dataism” as a religion, and how a certain subset of elite or wealthy may use technology to become an entirely new superhuman species. This book also helped me think of our current preference for  “following our intuition” as a system of guidance is only just our current frame of reference for making decisions.

2. The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder by Peter Zeihan

When my friend Mitch recommended this book to me, he said it was the most important book he had read in a decade, and it totally blew my mind. Accidental Superpower explained more things about why the world is the way it is politically than any other source I have encountered. For example, the real reason why the US went to war in Iraq, Vietnam, and Korea. Why places like Africa and Mexico have such a hard time getting their act together, and why Russia always seems to want to take over other countries. The follow up book – The Absent Superpower: The Shale Revolution and a World Without America is equally good, 2 years more recent, and goes deeper in certain topics.

1. The World‘s Most Travelled Man: A Twenty-Three-Year Odyssey to and through Every Country on the Planet by Mike Spencer Bown