“The literary man re-reads, other men simply read.”
                                                                                  – C. S. Lewis

I once heard my friend Bob Shank say that five years from now, the person you are then will be determined by the books you’re reading today.   That made an impression on me, and whenever I pick up a book, I think about this idea.

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx

Given the investment of time and attention required to read, comprehend and retain, it is not surprising that books would have such influence.  As a result, to be the best version of himself a man should definitely read books — but he should make it a point to read really good books.

I have a backlog of books I haven’t yet gotten to this year, but here follows a list of my favorite books read in 2014:

• Live Like A Narnian by Joe Rigney — If you’re a fan of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, this book extracts some of the character traits worth emulating, and does so without quenching the joy of the original stories.  In addition to reminding me again why I love Lewis’s stories so much, it made me want to sit down and read them again.
• Evernote Essentials by Brett Kelly — I’ll admit it: I love Evernote, and I think you should use it, too.  Kelly’s ebook is an entertaining instruction manual written in a conversational style.  I haven’t even implemented all of the suggestions, but reading this book made Evernote even more useful.
• How The World Sees You by Sally Hogshead — Marketing expert Sally Hogshead explains the science of fascination, specifically the attributes that can make each one of us fascinating.  Part of this book is an explanation of the 49 personality archetypes that are discerned from the author’s Fascination Advantage online assessment.  (For the record, my primary advantage is Power and my secondary advantage is Innovation, making me a Change Agent.)
• Drucker & Me by Bob Buford — Bob Buford, author of the leadership classics Halftime and Game Plan, tells the story and shares the lessons he learned from his friendship with the father of modern management, Peter Drucker.   We should all have such mentors.
• 10/10/80 Living: A Practical Roadmap for Financial Success by E. John Wood — If you didn’t come into the world with a good grasp of money management, this book lays out a simple plan for mastering your money.  As the title suggests, you’re encouraged to give ten percent (the Biblical tithe), save ten percent, and live on the rest.  This is easier to say than to do, so Wood explains how to set up — and live on — a budget.
• Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day by Todd Henry — The author of The Accidental Creative lays out the rationale for delivering our best — in terms of effort and results — by slaying what he dubs the seven deadly sins of mediocrity.  The title is inspired by Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem “The Voiceless” in which Holmes wrote: “Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them!”  Henry says we need to plan to go to our graves with all our latent gifts fully expressed.

As you can see, I need to make time over the holidays and next year to read more fiction.  Even so, I have quite a stack to read or re-read, including Tony Robbins’ newest book, Money: Master the Game, and one of my favorites, Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy.

So how about you? What book or books made an impact on you in 2014?  Add a comment below and tell what made them your favorites for this year.