Bookworm Friday: Five Books Recommendations by Ioannis Aligizakis

In this series, we ask our William Hill colleagues to share their favourite book recommendations and tell us what specifically they learned from them. Today we present 5 recommendations from Ioannis Aligizakis.

On a daily basis, Ioannis is Head of InfoSec UK & International.

When I am not serving as the primary point of contact between Information Security and the UK & International business functions, I love anything that is tech and media related. I enjoy watching technology trends and trying to understand how tech works and how it will shape the future of humanity. By all means, I will try anything new from crypto coin mining, financial investments to metaverse implementations—a casual gamer who lives at Leeds City Center and when I have free time from my hobbies, I study for my MBA ;-)

Jay Shetty, Think Like a Monk
This book is part of my coffee table collection, and I am not afraid to say that it changed my life and how I perceive things. The book is developed in three parts. 1. Let Go 2. Grow 3.Give Each piece contains actions that will help you build your personas, pushing you to try the best and embed a monk mind into your way of thinking. The book is highly actionable, contains exercises, quizzes, quotes and facts that will blow up your mind.

Vishen Lakhiani, The Buddha and the Badass
One more book on my list targeted personal development. The author will try to shake your priorities both at work and in your life. You think that your personal life is not connected with succeeding in your career until you start reading. It will teach you the secrets of stealth leadership, help you stick to your values and how they affect your decisions, and teach you how to bring your ideas into reality.

James Clear, Atomic Habits
How the brain works and how it has been evolved over the years never really bothered me until I read this book. Suddenly, I understood why I was overeating and why it was difficult for me to stick to a programme. I was leaving things for the last minute, and I was always late for my meetings (both personal and corporate). Not anymore, at least not all the time ;-) If you are a procrastinator, read the book, and the author will explain everything backed up by scientific researches. I enjoyed the book so much that I ended up reading all the sources.

Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game
Typical Simon Sinek book long read that probably Simon would have been able to deliver in fewer pages. Those were my thoughts in the first half of the book. Until I reached the second half that he started describing the negative impact of the "Shareholders Value" and the concept of "Ethical Fading". It helped me to understand how financially driven companies operate.

Sylvain Neuvel, The Themis Files (trilogy)
I admit that I am cheeky here, and I propose you a trilogy and not one book. It's my new favourite science fiction trilogy which I hope that soon we will be able to watch at the cinemas. Is strong on its own, and it keeps your stress levels high, making you want to read the next book. Mysterious artifacts found buried worldwide that when connected all together, we have a giant robot that is there to do what? Who planted the artifacts there even before our existence? The writer manages to excellent deliver the plot without being afraid to make tough decisions.