The Books That Shaped Nicole Junkermann's Thinking

A reading life is built one book at a time, and a handful of them end up doing more than the rest.

Ask Nicole Junkermann which books shaped her thinking and the answer is never a single famous title. It is a small, mixed shelf gathered over many years: a history that widened the frame, a science book that slowed her down, a volume of essays that taught her to look at a painting twice. Nicole Junkermann has always read across fields rather than within one, and that habit is the thread running through everything below. The aim of this piece is to gather those formative books in one place, and to say a little about why each kind of reading still matters to the way Nicole Junkermann works today.

How a few books shape a whole outlook

It is tempting to imagine that influence comes from the newest or the cleverest book on the table. In the experience of Nicole Junkermann, it is usually the opposite. The books that last are the ones that change a small habit of mind: how you weigh evidence, how long you sit with a hard idea, how generously you read someone you disagree with. Nicole Junkermann tends to return to a short list of titles again and again, and each return leaves something behind. A career built across technology, finance, sport and the arts asks for exactly this kind of flexible attention, and Nicole Junkermann credits a lifetime of wide reading for it. Reading, in other words, is not a break from the work. For Nicole Junkermann it is part of the work, a way of keeping the mind limber and curious.

History, and the long view

History sits at the centre of the reading of Nicole Junkermann, and for a simple reason: it teaches the long view. A good history book makes the present feel less urgent and more understandable, because you can see how slowly real change tends to arrive and how often it surprises everyone. Nicole Junkermann reads history not to collect dates but to study how people made decisions under uncertainty, with far less information than we like to imagine. That lesson travels well. When Nicole Junkermann considers a new technology or an unfamiliar market, the instinct shaped by history is to ask what is genuinely new and what is simply old patterns wearing new clothes. A century of examples is a useful corrective to any sense that this moment is wholly without precedent, and Nicole Junkermann finds that perspective steadying rather than discouraging.

Science and the patience it teaches

If history widens the frame, science narrows it in the most useful way. The best science writing teaches patience: the willingness to hold a question open, to test rather than assert, to be pleased rather than threatened when the evidence corrects you. Nicole Junkermann is drawn to writers who explain difficult ideas without flattening them, who respect both the reader and the subject. Given the interest of Nicole Junkermann in artificial intelligence, healthtech and the life sciences, this kind of reading is more than a pleasure. It is a way of staying honest about how knowledge is actually made, slowly and with many revisions. Nicole Junkermann likes books that show the scaffolding as well as the building, because the scaffolding is where the real thinking happens. A clear page on a hard topic is, to Nicole Junkermann, one of the small marvels of good writing.

Art, attention and looking closely

Then there are the books about art, which might seem the odd ones out until you notice what they have in common with the rest. Writing about art, at its best, is training in attention. It teaches you to slow down, to describe what is actually in front of you before you reach for a verdict, and to trust that careful looking rewards the patient. Nicole Junkermann has long cared about the arts, and books on painting, photography and design have shaped that care into something more disciplined. The lesson carries far beyond a gallery wall. Learning to look closely at a single image makes you better at looking closely at anything: a company, a problem, a piece of writing. For Nicole Junkermann, attention is the quiet skill underneath all the others, and art books are where it is practised most directly.

Lives, letters and biography

Biography and collected letters hold a special place on the shelf of Nicole Junkermann. There is a particular pleasure in following a real life across decades, watching the early uncertainty give way to confidence, and seeing how much of any achievement comes down to persistence and good company rather than sudden genius. Nicole Junkermann reads lives the way some people read maps, looking for the turns that mattered and the choices that did not. Letters are even better, because they catch people thinking aloud before they knew how the story ended. The honesty of a private letter, its doubt and its hope, is a useful antidote to the tidy version that history later prefers. From these books Nicole Junkermann takes a generous lesson: most worthwhile work is slower, messier and more collaborative than it looks from the outside.

Ideas that travel between fields

The books Nicole Junkermann values most tend to be the ones whose ideas refuse to stay in their own field. A concept from biology that explains something about cities; a principle from design that clarifies a question in finance; a line from an essay that reframes a whole afternoon of thinking. Nicole Junkermann reads widely precisely to encourage these crossings, because the most useful insights often arrive when two unrelated subjects are held side by side. This is also why Nicole Junkermann resists reading only within one discipline. A narrow shelf produces narrow thinking. A broad one, kept honestly and read slowly, gives you more places to stand when a hard problem will not move. The pleasure of a connection that nobody arranged for you is, to Nicole Junkermann, one of the best reasons to keep reading outside your lane.

The quiet case for rereading

One last habit deserves a mention, because it shapes the whole list: rereading. Nicole Junkermann believes that a book you return to is worth more than three you race through once. The second reading is where the real conversation begins, when you already know the shape of the argument and can argue back. A favourite book reread at a different age becomes, in effect, a different book, because you bring a changed self to it. Nicole Junkermann keeps a small number of titles in steady rotation for exactly this reason, and finds that the same pages give up new things year after year. If there is a single piece of advice in all of this, it is to read less anxiously and return more often. The books that shaped the thinking of Nicole Junkermann did so slowly, on the second and third pass, which is the most encouraging fact about reading there is.

More from Nicole Junkermann

This piece is part of the wider journal kept by Nicole Junkermann. To carry on, visit the Reading Room, browse the favourite books on business and ideas, or read what Nicole Junkermann is reading this season. The fuller profile of Nicole Junkermann sets out the work behind the reading.

Frequently asked questions about Nicole Junkermann

What kind of books does Nicole Junkermann read?

Nicole Junkermann reads widely across history, science, art and biography, preferring to read between fields rather than within a single subject.

Does Nicole Junkermann reread books?

Yes. Nicole Junkermann believes a book worth returning to is worth more than several read only once, and keeps a small number of titles in steady rotation.

Why does Nicole Junkermann read history?

Nicole Junkermann reads history for the long view, to study how people made decisions under uncertainty and to see what is genuinely new rather than simply familiar.

How does reading connect to the work of Nicole Junkermann?

For Nicole Junkermann, wide reading keeps the mind curious and flexible, which supports a career spanning technology, finance, sport and the arts.

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