I first read Extreme Ownership not long after its release just over a decade ago. I can’t recall exactly how I came across Jocko Willink for the first time, though I strongly suspect it was through a guest appearance on a podcast.

Last summer I had a well overdue catch up with an old friend and colleague visiting from Australia. On the train back home, he asked about the book I had with me (I can’t actually recall which one it was now) but also mentioned that he’d just finished The Tao of Coaching.

Whenever I head into town, I tend to drop into the local Waterstones and pick up a book without necessarily having one in mind. The Art of Winning by Dan Carter was one I picked up on a such a visit and what a find it turned out to be.

Some book titles don’t quite do justice to the depth of what’s inside, and Robert Greene’s The 33 Strategies of War definitely falls into that category. By the time you reach the end, it feels as though far more than thirty-three strategies have been explored.

No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer has appeared in my recommendations several times over the past few years, but despite adding it to my wish list, I only got around to reading it recently.

Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven was probably a long-overdue read for me. Not because I’d failed to appreciate its message, but because I’ve been listening to McRaven’s 2014 University of Texas at Austin commencement speech for years as part of my morning training routine.