I read 29 books in Q1 of 2005. I have broken SOME of them down into Must-Reads and Good Reads. Amazon links and the full list appears, as always, on the left side of my blog.
Must Reads:
1. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity – by Larry Lessig – Essential to understanding rights management around new media.
2. Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire – by Michael T. Kaufman – Excellent biography of the most influential private citizen in the world.
3. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations – by James Surowiecki – Oodles of anecdotes, especially around behavioral economics, that are actionable and interesting.
4. Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life – by Steven Johnson – The best practical explanation of neuroscience and neurofeedback that I’ve read.
5. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim – by David Sedaris – Makes the utterly mundane hilarious and witty.
Good Reads:
1. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell
2. The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures – by Frans Johansson – Interesting ideas about the emergence of great insights.
3. Joel on Software – by Joel Spolsky – Some great essays on software development.
4. The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead – by David Callahan – Read the first 150 pages and don’t prepare to receive a cookie cutter solution to America’s serious integrity problem.
5. Hard News : The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media – by Seth Mnookin – for journalism junkies only.
6. The Accidental Asian : Notes of a Native Speaker – by Eric Liu – Explores the blurring of the color lines. What does it mean, exactly, to be “Asian-American”?
7. The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Strategies for Products That Win – by Steven Blank – An excellent exploration of the customer development process.
8. Never Eat Alone : And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time – by Keith Ferrazzi – Some nice networking tips.
9. Race Matters – by Cornel West – Highly academic look at African American race relations in America.