Instead of a book review like the last two Fridays, I wanted to throw my current reading list up and get any comments and/or recommendations for other books.
Currently reading:
- The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge. I read this a long time ago…just picked up the revised edition.
- The Fifth Displince Fieldbook by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross and Bryan Smith. Recommended as a more applicable version than the original book.
- Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law by Peter Woit. This is one of those books that I read to try to keep up with the world of physics.
Currently listening to (iPod):
- Resonant Leadership by Richard E. Boyatzis and Annie McKee. I’ve seen this on a few bookshelves and thought it might be worth reading.
My “to read” List:
- Website Optimization by Andrew King. Andy King sent me a copy to read…I skimmed through the book quickly and it looks top-notch.
- The Mythical Man Month (2nd Edition) by Frederick Brooks. I read the first edition…picked up the 2nd edition recently.
- Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister. Recommended by a friend.
- Good to Great by Jim Collins. I’ve not read this one…but I’m forcing myself to do so to see what’s so ‘special’.
- On Writing Well – 30th Anniversay Edition by William Zinsser. Picked this one up on a whim…I need all the writing help I can get 🙂
As you can see, this is a pretty diverse set of books and quite a few books…I’m an avid reader and love to devour new and interesting titles.
What books are on your reading list? Any recommendations for me?
11 responses to “My reading list”
With peopleware, mythical man month and both of the 5th disciplines there is not much to add. If you like books that stretch your mind, because of the wide angles taken, I recommend one of these:
Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another by Philip Ball
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
A History of the Middle East by Peter Mansfield
The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent by Richard Florida
Great recommendations Bas.
I read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond but didn’t realize he had another book out….i’ll be picking that one up soon.
The other books seem extremely interesting…I’ll be looking into them as well.
Eric,
There are a bunch of books I’m reading. The joy of starting a new business.
I just got: Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics. I haven’t started it yet, but I’m sure you can guess the purpose.
I just finished a couple books that I highly recommend:
The New Brand World by Scott Bedbury. He was the director of marketing at Nike in the late 80s/early 90s and he describes the motivations and reasons, mistakes and success behind Nike. Then in the mid-90s he took over as the director of what was at the time a fairly small coffee shop, Starbucks. I think they had about 200 stores at the time and with a small budget and no direct advertising, he set out to make them the most famous global brand in the world. Good read.
Superclass by David Rothkopf is spectacular. It describes the emergence of the global superclasses. Think the Davos man. The 6,000 most influential people in the world. What the class means and how its changing the world.
Post American World by Fareed Zakaria. Describes how the world has changed and what he thinks will happen and why in the next 50 years.
On my list to read is Outsmart by Jim Champy.
Being the incredible geek that I am, I write summaries on books that I read. If you’re interested I could send some to you.
Andy
Hi Andy – Thanks for the recommendations…I’ll be looking into them.
‘on writing well’ is a great choice. my dad gave me a copy 30 years ago when i graduated from college, and it had a major impact on my writing career (17 years at the wall street journal, seven years at a magazine i founded and edited and now books). i think it’s the best book on writing out there.
i’ll be interested in hearing how champy’s book is. having met him and having reported on the reengineering wave that he helped launch, i’ve followed his work, and i’ve been disappointed by everything he’s done since reengineering. it seemed he was churning out books just to stay on the lecture circuit. i hope this one’s better.
as for me, i’m enjoying ‘deals from hell.’ it has some counterintuitive and seemingly very sharp insights into mergers and acquisitions. bruner is a smart guy.
i’d also recommend ‘stall points.’ it draws on a lot of research to suggest how companies can avoid the growth plateaus that afflict many businesses. it’s a bit of a dull read, and some of their stories are off–they say, for instance, that rod canion was pushed out as ceo of compaq because of dell’s success, even canion left in 1991, and dell wasn’t a major factor until the latter half of the ’90s, when the internet kicked in–but their prescriptions are smart.
Thanks Paul.
Jim Champy’s new book (Outsmart) is a good read but nothing groundbreaking. See my review here
I’ll take a look at Stall Points.
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