This article is part of a series of blog posts entitled, “What’s Xenium Reading?” To find out more about this series, click here. This week’s post features Brandon Laws, Marketing Manager at Xenium.
Prior to about six years ago, I was never a big reader. For whatever reason, I wasn’t interested in reading throughout high school and college. There were two key motivators for me to start reading: 1) continue to learn and improve on my own time since school would no longer be an option, 2) I have many people around me who encourage reading and love to themselves. Since that moment six years ago, I have read anywhere from 20-35 books per year, mainly non-fiction with an emphasis on business, economics and leadership related topics. I have even included a little fiction now and again in order to add some variety, and I enjoy tracking my reading process on my Goodreads account. Here’s a few of my favorite recent reads:
Unmarketing by Scott Stratten
This book is all about reaching your target audience using new and old methods of marketing. I am always interested in how I can become a better marketer, and a book like this provides me with some insight on the progress we’re making as marketers. Unfortunately, most marketing books are outdated by the time they are published because technology and methods of marketing change so fast, so I rarely pick up marketing books and instead opt for blogs and whitepapers. This book, however, is rife with content and has taught me a few things about growing an audience.
Dust (Silo #3) by Hugh Howey
Dust is part three of what has been an amazing series by Hugh Howey, an independent author, who took a short story and turned it into a full series and gained quite a loyal readership. Dust begins with people living in huge, underground silos. It wasn’t always that way, and we later learn why. Although I am not quite finished with Dust, both Wool and Shift (parts one and two) kept me up at night wanting to find out what happens next! It’s a great story and I highly recommend it!
I am typically not a fiction reader, but this was right up my alley. As someone who believes strongly in freedom, rights, and free markets, the rigid societies depicted in dystopian novels are morbidly fascinating to me, as they represent everything I never want to see in a society. Other favorites of mine include 1984, Atlas Shrugged, and The Hunger Games series.
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
We can all learn more about how to be more vulnerable, right? I admire the people I know who are completely transparent and authentic on a regular basis, which is what led me to pick up this book. Daring Greatly is all about being authentic, showing empathy, and not being afraid to put your true self out there for the world to see. The information in this book has helped me strengthen relationships at work and at home. See more from Lacey Halpern on Brene Brown’s work.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

I had to see what all the hype was about this book! Lean In has been wildly popular for the past year or two, and I finally got around to reading it recently and wasn’t disappointed at all. What I most appreciated about this book was that the author gave some insight to what being a woman leader is like. It was nice to hear a perspective we often do not read in books. The biggest takeaway for me was the idea that the entire family unit has to work together to be successful. This book isn’t just for women, but really anyone who has a family and works in business.