Book Lovers Day is celebrated on August 9th every year. So put down your phone, step away from your computer, dust off your favorite book (or power up your Kindle), and enjoy some of our team's all-time favorite reads for UX designers, product managers, marketers, executives, writers, and more.
1. Be More Pirate (Or How to Take On the World and Win)
Be More Pirate, by Sam Conniff, can be applied to your personal or professional life. It reveals the radical strategies of Golden Age pirates and updates them into clear solutions for making your mark on the 21st Century. Refreshing and engaging, Be More Pirate helps us radically rethink why we’re doing what we’re doing. Recommended by me, Steven Carr, Content Marketing Manager
2. Heart of the Machine: Our Future in a World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence
Heart of the Machine, by Richard Yonck, is a thought-provoking book that explores how emotional intelligence must be considered and integrated into experiences powered by AI. Recommended by Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer
3. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
Originals, by Adam Grant, is an interesting and quick read that reveals problem-solving solutions, how to champion new ideas, and fight group-think. Through surprising stories spanning business, politics, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea and how to speak up without getting silenced. Recommended by Ryan Johnson, VP, Customer Success
4. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Hooked, by Nir Eyal, is a fascinating read. The idea is this: if you can associate your product with people’s emotions, eventually, you can get users to come back to your app without even being prompted—simply because they’ve developed the habit. Recommended by Lara White, Senior Manager, Integrated Marketing
5. How to Get People to Do Stuff
How to Get People to Do Stuff, by Susan Weinschenk, is a great book to re-visit when you need a little insight into how people think and the importance of persuasion and emotion in design. It sits on our recommender’s desk with five different bookmarks in it! Recommended by Stephen Fleming-Prot, Content Strategist, Customer Education
6. On Grand Strategy
On Grand Strategy, by Professor John Lewis Gaddis, is a brilliant and educated tour through the history of strategy and the goals and meaning of statecraft. His core allegory of the ‘fox vs the hedgehog’ is not solely for state leaders but really applies to anyone who has to accomplish a goal with other human beings. Recommended by Joshua Marker, Staff Engineer
7. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Based on the idea that homo sapiens rule the world because it is the only animal that can believe in things that exist purely in its own imagination, such as gods, states, money, and human rights, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, is a must-read. Written with an impressive grasp of history, biology, economics, and social science, it’s worth it even if you only read the first hundred pages. Recommended by Christian Bonilla, Senior Director, Product
8. Game Thinking
Wanting to understand more about how to drive user retention and engagement, I came across Game Thinking, by Amy Jo Kim, which discusses using techniques developed in the game industry and applying those across other environments. There is much I can see myself and my team using from this set of techniques. Recommended by Fergus Kennedy, Senior Director, Engineering
9. Dryer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
Written by Random House Copy Chief, Benjamin Dryer, Dryer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, is by far the most entertaining and useful style guide I’ve ever read. Dryer gives you all the tools and inspiration you need to write with confidence and clarity. A must-read for anyone who writes anything. Recommended by Jennifer DeRome, Content Strategist
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Steven is a Marketing Content Strategist. When he’s not inserting oxford commas where they belong, you can find him shooting pool at a local dive or building killer playlists on Spotify.
