Future Anthem's 2022 recommended reading list

What do The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Range by David Epstein, and Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler’s Stick Man all have in common?

The answer is that this eclectic trio are all titles on Future Anthem’s New Year recommended reading list.

At our end of year team gathering before Christmas, we decided a fun way of embracing our different backgrounds would be to – literally – share our beloved books.

Each person nominated their favourite and gave a reason for it. We then bought all the books and our head of HR distributed them to another person they thought it best matched with.

Brazilian novelist Coelho’s international bestseller was chosen to highlight the ‘transformative power of our dreams’, while the fascinating Range offers ‘a great view on why the world needs more generalists and the value it brings to problem-solving'.

As for Donaldson and Scheffler’s classic children’s picture book, as our colleague put it, ‘How could you not love this one?’.

The full, 20-strong selection is a mixture of new finds and old classics. It covers a smorgasbord of personal tastes and is perfectly representative of the diverse Future Anthem workforce.

From our resident coffee lover came the recommendation of James Hoffman’s The World Atlas of Coffee to learn more about all aspects of the industry and ‘get more out of each bean’.

Other non-fiction selections include The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, chosen by its nominee for bringing them closer to the world of analytics, and Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which allowed the reader to ‘build a mindset based on personal responsibility’ in their personal and professional life.

Then there was This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay, which was ‘absolutely hilarious’ and especially recommended for any reluctant readers.

Those who favoured fiction included suggestions for Celia Owens’ Where the Crawdad’s Sing, a ‘wonderful read that is superbly sad and uplifting in the same breath’, Anxious People, the funny page-turner by Fredrik Backman, as well as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which really needs no introduction.

We hope you enjoy our collective reading list – join us throughout 2022 for more idea and knowledge sharing.

The 2022 recommended reading list in full: