Top Books of 2020

There’s been a lot of time for reading this year. Below are my top books of 2020.

Mental Health
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.

Research shows that people who have recently bought a self-help book bought a self-help book in the last 18 months. Similar to other aspects of health we are constantly trying to “achieve something” rather than embracing the uncertainty of life and what we are as humans we try to be happy and this leads us to being miserable. The Antidote explores this idea and hopefully will be the last “Self-Help” book you read. 

Physical Health
Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy.

My whole life I’ve worked out to be stronger and in the last 2 years I finally hit a couple of my strength goals, 300 pound bench, 400 pound squat and 465 deadlift. However, building muscles is a weird thing, I definitely don’t look that strong since I wasn’t training for size I was training for strength. This next year I’m switching it up since I’ve never trained for size before to see what happens. Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy by PhD Brad Schoenfeld is the book I’m going to base my training off of. Very detailed and more like a textbook. 

Nutrition
Fat Loss Forever
(great book, but hate the clickbait title.) 

First off, why couldn’t they have picked a better title. Maybe Nutrition 101: The Truth about Diets and How You Can Take Control. That would have been a much better title based off of the book. This books walks through the different myths of multiple diets and also explains the why and how of people getting results with fad diets. It also dives into a lot of the research behind dieting and why some are successful while others aren’t and why so many people gain back weight after going on a diet. Lastly it goes over how you can develop your eating habits/nutrition while also enjoying the foods you like in a healthy non-restrictive way.

Sexual Health
Come As You Are

Where to start…

For a lot of people in the US and the world, penis, vulva, vagina are “bad words”. However, when it comes down to it those words should be the same as hand, ear or neck. They’re body parts. In parts of the world where we are shamed by the human body domestic violence and sexual abuse increases rapidly. Come As You Are dives into the fallacies taught about sexuality and the human body and explores ways to take control of your experience. While this book is catered to women, I’d also recommend it if you’re in a relationship with a woman. If the first sentence scared you this book might be a little much for you and you could probably benefit from reading it. 

Productivity
Deep Work

We are distracted constantly. Those of us who are able to make being less distracted a priority, accomplish more. That takes prioritizing, hard work and discipline. Deep Work dives into the why and how of why we feel like we can’t ever seem to get moving forward with our projects, goals. The importance of setting boundaries and prioritizing projects without distractions. Reading this book was very beneficial for me and has changed the way I work.