Steve Sjogren’s Favorite Books of 2022

Best Books of 2022.

As the saying goes, “readers are leaders“ as well as the reverse of that, “leaders are readers.“ In light of the stack of books I’ve gone through this past year, here are half a dozen standouts.

I am a lifelong introvert and so I tend to live in my head more often than not. What’s going on with our internal rumblings drives the outside of our lives. For a good rethinking of how the internal shapes our face to the world around us pick up Chatter.

Yes, this is a book about time usage and longevity but takes on the topic from an overall view of the time we each have over a lifetime as divided into weeks. If you live out a currently common lifespan in the U.S., you will hit around 4,000 weeks in total. I value my time and have read a number of books on wise time management and ways to cheat with greater efficiency, but I find my attempts at efficiency can be nerve-racking. Long-term goal setting is the key to each of our current points of progress. Take the long view with me, and the day-to-day stuff will fall into place.

There are many factors that go into shaping us into the sum total of where we find ourselves today. Gabor draws attention to ADD issues and their effect on children and adults — I found that helpful as an ADD human. He goes far beyond that application angle into the many unique issues that shape each of us uniquely.

This was one of those books that I underlined something on about every page. Not only those with ADD will benefit from this, but I also recommend it to anyone who is dealing with an emotional hiccup that is difficult to make sense of.

If you find personality studies helpful and interesting such as the Meiers- Briggs Inventory, you will get a lot out of the Enneagram as a personality discovery tool. The diagram used to illustrate the types might be a little weird looking, but you will find it helpful.

Marie Kondo does a great job of setting up a mindset and a bit of a system for living free of the influence of visual clutter. If you are a naturally busy person who doesn’t think in terms of neatness as the priority, this title may be just what you could use as the new year comes.

Diana Butler Bass has become a helpful voice to many in recent years among those processing their assumptions about the faith to get to dig deep enough to own our own faith versus merely parroting what’s mental but not present in the heart.

Some might take offense at questions she presents to weigh the status quo of Christianity but to tell you the truth, I have arrived at most of her conclusions long ago, even as a new believer years ago.