What TNW is reading (week 13)

Ah, welcome welcome.

I see you enjoyed last week’s edition and are back for more. Well we won’t disappoint. For the uninitiated (go back and start at post one, please) the team at TNW has made a New Year’s Resolution to read a bit more. So every week, a select number of our team will share with you what’s currently living on their nightstand, or saved in Pocket, or is sitting in that browser tab begging to be read.

This week our team explore how to manage relationships better, a juicy bit of crime fiction set in South Africa, how to organize your thoughts and feelings through writing and a good old fashioned literary tome on family and responsibility. Happy reading.

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time – Keith Ferrazzi

In this book Ferrazzi shares how building and maintaining social relationships is the biggest key to success in both business and your personal life.

Besides his own stories on how he grew up, he discovered that successful people maintain powerful relationships and how he learned to use this in his life. There are a ton of interesting anecdotes about people who excel in building relationships – like former president Bill Clinton.

What makes this book great is the way he breaks down the process of building a strong network of your own, just like he did. The book isn’t about hand shaking, small talk and collecting business cards at conferences. It’s about building long lasting relationships that can be beneficial and empowering.

Koen Leemans, SEO Analyst

Devil’s Peak: A Novel – Deon Meyer

Deon Meyer is a renowned crime thriller writer from South Africa. I’ve read some of his books, they are easy to read, exciting and well written.

The stories take place in South Africa, with troubled individuals in a violent world. That’s an appealing setting (to read stories on) and Meyer enriches it with in-depth description and development of his characters.

Devil’s Peak is a book from his Bennie Griessel series. Griessel is an alcoholic detective, juggling his personal life and murder investigation. To be honest, it’s not as thrilling as some of his other books. The heavy switching of the story lines was a bit off putting to me, and the finale was not as majestic as I had hoped. Still, a very nice book.

You should read some Deon Meyer if you have not done so yourself, you might learn some Afrikaans from it as well.

Otto Rottier – Senior Back-End Developer

This is how you write – Matthew Trinetti

I’ve always wanted to write more. I think it’s a very good way to structure your thoughts and recap on your work or daily life. But actually ​doing it​ seems to be a very big step for me. I come up with new excuses every day (busy day, tired, headache, no topic in mind) and my notebook is left empty.

This insightful piece by Matthew Trinetti gives you great tools for just starting to write. Answer a question, don’t wait until inspiration strikes you, and stop listening to that jerk in your head. I’m sure you’ll be smiling at your freshly written piece in no time.

Yasmin Veenman, Marketing Manager of TNW Deals

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

This is a classic and also a clichê, but in my opinion, a mandatory clichê.

I read it for the third time and once again I was hypnotized and I could still pick up details that I hadn’t noticed before.

Macondo, the city that the story evolves around, acts like a special and complex character that guides you through the tale of the Buendia Family, mostly the patriarch José Arcadio. You are transported by the narrative woven by the genius Gabriel García Márquez, who uses metaphors, national-myths and historic facts to mirror in Macondo the history of his beloved Colombia.

Read about seven generation of the Buendia and their misfortunes, question the inescapable repetition of history in Macondo and dare yourself not to get lost in the genealogical tree of this family.

Get lost in this amazing book. Sorry, a clichê again.

Eliz D’Agostin, Brand Ambassador

This is a #TNWLife article, a look into the lives of those that work at The Next Web.