Year 6 with my public reading list. Find the last editions here: the 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 diverse reading list with summaries, insights, stats, and recommendations for those years and the current edition fills up here: 2026
Generally speaking: Having read a book is NOT an endorsement.
2025 was a work year, there were a few highlights on the personal development area but it was mostly about work, work, work and it is reflected in my necessary reading and also the stats. The year was about „tech bro thinking“ touching the horrors of the „dark enlightenment“ ideas. „Growth“ in a world where there a very limited areas where I can imagine 10x growth to be beneficial and general „more success stuff“. Hence this time it
I said enough about being intentional to not over-proportionally read books written by white, cis, heterosexual men. Not to dismiss their perspective, as I‘ve had my fair share of it, but to hear their perspective in a appropriate proportion – which is apparently not an option when reading about success as there only seems to be a white, cis, male version of it.
Do you have tips, authors, or books you think I should read or how to do the stats better? Please send me a message!
berta @ herrberta.art
The stats for 2025
- Everybody else/white, hetero cis-Men 24/16
- Art or Graphic Novel/Non-Fiction/Fiction or Poetry 6/24/10
- Paper/e-reader/Audiobook 7/5/28
- The language I read/ heard the book in German/English 20/20
- Work related/ personal interest: 12/28
My 2025 favorites
- Christa Reimann: As I have the pleasure of knowing her personally the two books she has published are even more chilling testament of the intensity and a the same time normality of the horrors war brings. „Lauschgesichter“ is about her childhood memories in a bombarded Hamburg while in „Matricule 92290“ she tells the story of her husband in the foreign legion and how they met. Again beauty and horror exist in the same moment ans life unfolds.
- Two work related recommendation are Eliyahu M. Goldratt – the goal: There‘s a graphic business novel version of the book explaining the theory of constrains in a concrete example. Easy to read and insightful as while the knowledge is obviously there the believes that the book questions seem to be alive and kicking. Stephen M. R. Convey – Speed of trust is the other work recommendation. It‘s written in a for my annoying tone, but the basis is insightful. It even provides checklists on the elements of trust to test one self and improve. Even if one only build trust for money if the trust is build on these necessary pillars the trust is earned.
- Tahsim Durgun – Mama, bitte lern Deutsch: I am grateful for this book as it grants me a look into the lives of people who were always there as long as I can remember but with whom I rarely ever had real encounters back then. Which is something I try to improve and I see improvements to.
- Bonus: I did a 3 day course on economic theory: Neo-liberalism, Keynes and Marx which I highly recommend as these are easy to understand concepts which underly everything and therefore are essential knowledge I learned about very late.
- 2025 was also the year I met Amenti for a 3 day course on self-exploration which really showed how our minds are a limiting factor which we can control but usually controls us.
Books read in 2025
- Lisa Jasper, Naomi Ryland, Silvie Horch (Hrsg.) – Unlearn Patriarchy
- Seanan McGuire – Lost in the Moment and Found
- Peggy Elfmann – Meine Eltern werden alt
- Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda – The Night Eaters
- Elisa Macellari – Kusama
- Jamil Zaki – Hope for Cynics
- Christa Reimann – Matricule 92290
- Aminder Dhaliwal – Woman world
- Seanan McGuire – Mislaid in Parts Half-Known
- Christa Reimann – Lauschgesichter
- Stephen M. R. Corvey, Rebecca R. Merrill – Schnelligkeit durch Vertrauen/ Speed of Trust
- Sarah Knight – Get Your Sh*t together
- Thomas Willberger – Don’t fail
- Peter Modler – Mit Ignoranten sprechen
- Joschka Fischer – Über den Abstieg des Westens (Interview)
- Seanan McGuire – Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear
- Gene Kim – The Unicorn project
- Eric Ries – The Lean Startup
- Charles Duhigg – Supercomunicators
- Peter Thiel, Blake Masters – Zero to One
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés – The Late Bloomer
- Gene Kim – The Phoenix Project
- Joschka Fischer – Joschka Fischer is not convinced
- Eoin Colfer – Illegal
- Becky Chambers – A Psalm for the Wild-Build
- Tara Brach – Lass den goldenen Buddha in dir strahlen
- Becky Chambers – A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
- Marty Cagan – Inspired
- Marty Cagan – Transformed
- Judith Bildau – Raus aus dem Hormonkarusell
- Tahsim Durgun – Mama, bitte lern Deutsch
- Xiran Jay Zhao – Heavenly Tyrant
- Sachiko Kashiwaba – The Village Beyond the Mist
- Marty Cagan – Empowered
- Walter Moers – Das Einhörnchen, das rückwärts leben wollte
- Thích Nhất Hạnh – Einfach miteinander
- George Tabori – Autodafé
- Walter Moers – Die Insel der tausend Leuchttürme
- Eliyahu M. Goldratt – Das Ziel (Business Graphic Novel)
- Léonie Bischoff – Anais Nin