World Book Day 2022: Star reads

Fun fact: World Book Day was created by UNESCO in 1995, to celebrate books and authors and encourage young people to discover the pleasure of reading. This in turn encourages a love of reading throughout people’s lives, with all the benefits it brings, including a boost to your mental health.

Reading regularly is an excellent way to learn new things, see the world from different perspectives, escape your everyday routine, spark your own creativity and even to recharge after a busy day at work.

However, selecting reading material presents a bit of a challenge, with quite literally millions of titles to choose from. So, in honour of World Book Day 2022, we thought we’d curate a selection of books for you from our Leadership Team’s favourite titles they’ve read in the last 12 months. It's a short, digestible list, but one that we hope will get you excited for your next bookish adventure!

Superscript's favourite reads of the last year

• The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F--k by Mark Mason
• The Sports Gene by David Epstein
• A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris
• Cribsheet by Emily Oster

Read on to find out about each of these titles and why our Leadership Team members picked them.

Happy reading! 📚

The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle

Chronicling 12 months of what Boyle calls ‘freeconomic living’, The Moneyless Man serves as a diary of an unusual experiment in which he attempted to live for a full year without spending any cash, through foraging seasonal foods, engaging in skill-swapping schemes and using compost toilets in order to live an economical and environmentally friendly life.

I first came across Mark Boyle in an episode of Ben Fogle’s ‘New Lives in the Wild’. ‘The Moneyless Man’ is the story of a fascinating social experiment told with great humour. At a time when we’re increasingly facing issues relating to global sustainability, this book feels even more relevant now than it did when it was first published back in 2010.

— Henry Newby, Partnerships Director

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F--k by Mark Manson

In The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F--k, professional blogger Mark Manson has created a cri de coeur against the idea that life is improved by relentless positivity. For Mason, it is the struggles in life that give it meaning and knowing what to care about and what to let go can be a way of living a healthy, adjusted life without a constant pursuit of happiness.

Thinking about what, when and how much effort to apply to different aspects of your life is powerful, and being able to actually act on that in practice is enlightening. This of course takes time and practice. I think many people might naturally arrive at some of the conclusions outlined in this book, but it's a powerful thing to have your thinking reinforced with some structure. This book gives you that.

— Cameron Shearer, Chief Executive Officer

The Sports Gene by David Epstein

In The Sports Gene, investigative reporter David Epstein considers the question of nature versus nurture in the field of sporting excellence, blending scientific research data and interviews with experts and athletes. By probing scientific theories and dispelling long-held myths and misconceptions about athletic ability, Epstein creates a powerful, albeit at times controversial, argument for understanding sporting achievement.

I’ve always been into sports and exercise, and as a diminutive, just over 5ft tall woman, I knew I would never make for a successful basketball player. However, I somehow manage to outrun much taller men in a sprint; this made me curious about understanding what affects athletic performance. I found the book to be informative, thought-provoking and a great read if you want to understand which sport you can perform well in, and the influence your genes have on this.

— Mai Fenton, Chief Marketing Officer

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris

Published in 2021 as a follow-up to his celebrated first volume of personal diaries, Theft By Finding, A Carnival of Snackery once again finds American humourist David Sedaris in reflective mood, passing comment on the world around him and the characters that inhabit it over a period of several years.

It’s a book with notes of his diary of the last 10 years and it succeeds in reminding you about how you experienced the past decade, through all the world events he mentions and explains his experiences of. As always, I think Sedaris is super funny and even lough-out-loud hilarious at times.

— Annabel Mekelenkamp, Operations Director

Cribsheet by Emily Oster

Authored by economics professor Emily Oster, of Brown University in the prestigious Ivy League of American colleges, Cribsheet is a data-driven guide to decision-making for parents of early-years children. Frustrated by the layers of conflicting advice for new parents, Oster employed her analytical powers to debunk common myths of parenthood, on subjects ranging from breastfeeding to sleep training and potty training to language acquisition.

Not exactly my most thrilling read of the year, but certainly the most important for me. I became a dad in 2021, which has been a fantastic experience. However, No one leaves hospital thinking that they're 100% prepared for parenthood, but this book really helped. There are so many schools of thought about what is ok and what isn't ok when caring for a newborn. In my opinion, this a must read for any new parents!

— David Dickson, Head of SuperscriptQ