What I Read in 2024

Here’s a link to the some of the books I read in 2023. This year was a good year, I read more pages this year than I’d ever done in a while, if not in any calendar year at all. I read voraciously as a child and used to finish a book in two days so perhaps one of those childhood years take the award for most pages read in a calendar year. But this year takes the crown for the most impactful pages read. I came into this year wanting to read more fiction and diversify my reading a bit, I think I succeeded in bringing diversity and could have read much more but given everything I did this year, I’m still proud of myself. I will review about ten of the books I read below. Let’s get into it!

My Mind Is No Longer Here – Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

I started with fiction to get me in the mood (sadly, this was the only fiction I completed this year). My copy of this book was autographed by the author and it had been sitting on my shelf for a while as I spent the last couple of years doing more non-fiction. While there was some red flags with the timeline in the story, the plot was poignant enough especially with the new wave of japa. It’s become obvious that running away from the country has been Nigerians’ default way of responding to the problems faced locally and the way authorities respond is to further impoverish economy so fewer people can afford japa costs but it’s never stopped no one. They’d rather sell their lands and inheritance to fund the exodus. The wave is also further strengthened because it looks like the japa migrants from 2-3 generations back all had success stories and became successful, matter of fact, some of today’s rulers belong to that category. The current President schooled and worked in the U.S, same with a host of Governors. When people see these success stories, it further emboldens them to keep chasing this greener pasture. The book follows four random men who are connected by a joint dream. I loved the simple language of the story and the plot twist at the end. I loved that no one could have predicted Osahon’s ending or that Chidi would eventually go back to school or that Haruna would be Donatus’ benefactor and that story is so reminiscent of Nigeria today. Despite the challenges, you can create gold if you think in decades and not months.

Leaving The Tarmac – Aig Imoukhede

This year was a sad year for those in Nigeria’s banking industry as they lost a titan in Herbert Wigwe. When I saw the news of Herbert’s death, I immediately started reading everything online about him, I wanted to understand the man deeply and understand what made him successful. Herbert did not write a memoir but he had a close friend and business partner who walked every path with him and that man wrote a book about their story. So I read the book. Aig details the story of how they audaciously bought a bank in their 30s and I learnt a great deal about partnership in business. I loved it so much that I developed a course in finding the right business partnerships. One key theme in the book was about knowing when to hand over to the next person; Fola Adeola (Aig and Herbert’s mentor) handed over to Tayo Aderinokun at GTB, Aig himself handed over to Herbert handed over to Roosevelt. Very clear line of succession. There was also a lesson in sales; target big-ticket clients because it’s the same energy you’d expended don a small ticket client but double the income.

Africa Rise and Shine – Jim Ovia

Sticking to the Nigerian Banking theme, I loved Aig’s book so much that I then got a bunch of other books about the Nigerian banking sector. I ended up reading only one of the new books; Jim Ovia’s. Jim founded what is arguably Nigeria’s biggest bank by market cap (now dethroned) and he essentially ran in with an iron fist unlike the Access guys who had a partnership system. Jim Ovia is a somewhat elusive man and doesn’t maintain a social profile like his other peers so this was a good way to know more about him and his upbringing. I liked the story of how he went from being a computer engineer to running a bank and still not abandoning the same engineering principles that opened his eyes. At its peak, Zenith was cut out from the rest, it was a different bank and broke new frontiers but they haven’t had a smooth succession since he left and it’d be interesting to see if he writes another book about this.

There was a Country – Chinua Achebe

The Biafra War remains one of the saddest episodes in Nigeria’s history. It’s sad because all round; pre-war, during the war and post war. Nigeria continues to suffer from the aftermath. This book was Chinua’s personal tale of the war as someone who was heavily involved at the very top and you could see the pain as he wrote. The war was sad, but it’s worse that Nigeria has not learnt or evolved from the war. There was no single benefit to the Igbos from the war, matter of fact, it brought them more enemies, Nigeria remains heavily fractured across ethnic lines and the Igbos continue to be antagonized. Fifty years after the war, and splinter groups continue to agitate for the Nation that once was. Biafra is a sad tale, a tale of a people who chose to fight back and lost and continues to lose this till day. Biafra is a tale of the young innocent children who starved to death because they were denied aid, it is the story of all the old igbo men who carry the pangs of pain of a hope they saw vanquished in their hey days. This book made me displeased all over again about a war that should have never happened in the first place.

The Pursuit of God – A.W. Tozer

The first time I read this book was about 15 years ago and I decided to re-read it this year as part of my journey with the heavenlies. Tozer offers very practical steps on how to find God, but he takes his time to explain what and who God is and describes the various characteristics of his presence of you can know when you have found him, and of course, you cannot find him in one encounter so in consistent encounters. He talks about the manifest presence of God and how to key into that realm. I liked his paradox of love which is that when you find God, that is actually when the real pursuit starts. A life that is in pursuit of God must make no mistake about it, there is no sacred or secular distinction, all parts of your life must be geared towards the pursuit.

Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell starts this book by talking about Sandra Bland. It’s a very sad tale about someone who died and had no reason to. I particularly liked this book because it brings to the fore, something we often overlook. Our need for human interaction and our desire to hide that need so we don’t seem desperate. How many people walk up to strangers to ask for friendship, very few. This is a good book to read if you want to understand people and improve your social interactions.

The Revenge of the Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell

There’s a reason why Gladwell is my favorite skinny Canadian (he calls himself that). I doubt that there’s anything Gladwell has written that I haven’t read or know about. In the first Tipping Point, Gladwell uses stories to show how social epidemics spreads, one of the interesting things about Gladwell is how he never shies away from querying his own works. Gladwell once had a debate with Matt Taibi where he was thoroughly destroyed and he did a Podcast episode dissecting his poor performance. It takes a confident man to do that, so there’s no surprise that 25 years after the first book, Gladwell revisits his assertions with new stories to investigate how epidemics spread. I got this book within a week of its release and it did not disappoint. This book was centred around the American Opiod crisis and I have used the examples he gave about “the magic third”, which is the number of a new trait you need to infuse in a community to change the entire community. This was well detailed and researched. Gladwell strikes again.

The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel

This was such a good book and I’m surprised I didn’t read it sooner. I doubt that anyone that reads this book and applies just 10% of the gems in it would see their finances grow. This is a good book for anyone looking to learn how to grow and sustain their wealth. The book was about money but I learnt so much about history and this book actually influenced another post of mine about significant events in history. I also loved how Morgan emphasized the patient capital of wealth; many people want to be like Warren Buffet but how many people can mimic his staying power? If you want to build wealth, you need to have a long term view, wealth is rarely built in your 20s. Step by step.

This year, 2025, I will look to read more than I did in 2024 of course. I want to dabble into some classics, some technical things around science and engineering and then dabble into romance and love. I will let you guys know how that comes along.

Miracle.