Jesse Koepke

2022 brought with a mix of business and time management, and just one book of fiction. I’ve been in a bit of a rut for fiction, so that number has dwindled over recent years. I did find that I’m enjoying reading historical books.

1. 1/17: Predictable Success, by Les McKeown
2. 3/3: Anything You Can Image: Peter Jackson & the Making of Middle-Earth, by Ian Nathan
3. 3/5: The Marvel Studios Story, by Stephanie and Charlie Wetzel
4. 6/23: Time Management in 20 minutes a day, by Holly Reisem Hanna
5. 7/25: Refuse to be Done, by Matt Bell
6. 7/29: Writing Vivid Settings, by Wayne Hall
7. 7/30: Grace over Grind, by Shae Bynes
8. 8/2: The Fine Art of Small Talk, by Debra Fine
9. 8/8: Warm Email Prospecting, by Ed Gandia
10. 8/22: Summary of Blair Enns’ Winning Without Pitching Manifesto
11. 8/25: The Accidental President, by A. J. Baine
12. 8/27: Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, by Stacey Brown Randall
13. 9/10: The Money Nerve, by Robert Wheeler
14. 9/14: Find More Money, by Art Rainer (skipped over the middle portion)
15. 9/23: The Cold Email Manifesto, by Robert Indries and Alex Berman (stopped when they got to team outreach)
16. 10/10: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by JK Rowling (I actually stopped 50 pages from the end because we watched the movie and it’s a fair bit different than the book.)
17. 10/14: How to write fast, by Sean Platt and Neeve Silver
18. 11/07: Speed Reading, Ryan James
19. 12/18: How to turn down a billion dollars, the Snapchat story, by Billy Gallagher

So without further ado, here’s what I read in 2022.

Favorite Books

Anything you can imagine

This is the definitive account of how the Lord of the Rings movies were made. At some point I realized the book was going to go day by day through the production—and I decided I was ok with that. It was fascinating on multiple levels: as a huge fan of the books and films, as a fantasy writer, and as an editor/film person.

The Marvel Studios Story

I’m also a huge fan of Marvel and Disney, so this short book was a lovely read after my wife gave it to me for Christmas. It stopped short of the final awe-inspiring Phase 3 and conclusive avengers films, so now in my list is Joanna Robinson’s book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios.

The Accidental President

As a screenwriter looking for great stories, I’m finding the corners of history to be fascinating. I heard a mention about Harry Truman’s first few months as president and found Baine’s book on the subject. There was so much more to the story than I imagined, and I loved every bit of it.

Generating Business Referrals Without Asking

As a small business owner, I often rely on referrals from happy customers. Randall’s approach was simple, non-intrusive, and best of all showed how to do it without asking for favors.