Books I've read 2008-2009 By an Amazon.com customer | |
 | The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson Buy new: $18.67 / Used from: $3.78 it's just okay. Chases too many rabbits and not enough on core |
 | Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $5.45 I like to read things that stand the test of time. This is one of them |
 | The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch Buy new: $13.08 / Used from: $0.01 Book that helps keep things in perspective. I think almost everyone is familiar with |
 | Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin Buy new: $14.25 / Used from: $8.89 Disappointed I couldn't join one of Seth's Tribes but is about web 2.0 type stuff. |
 | The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $2.52 |
 | Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? by Seth Godin Buy new: $23.10 / Used from: $0.01 |
 | Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin Buy new: $17.13 / Used from: $1.60 First Godin Book and still favorite |
 | Free Prize Inside / Purple Cow by Seth Godin Buy used from: $5.01 |
 | The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness by Steven K. Scott Buy new: $11.80 / Used from: $4.29 Importance of Diligence in one's life. Little disappointed not enough focus on the "religious" parts of Solomon |
 | The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $15.23 Hated this book. Thought it was all about outsourcing your life and doing NOTHING with it |
 | Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $5.30 Great Book. Now if I could just do a better job of implementing but work life has changed as a result |
 | Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler Buy new: $16.49 / Used from: $5.00 The power of the "default" option.. |
 | Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely Buy used from: $3.74 Why will you not sell your super bowl ticket once it's in hand, and other behavior that doesn't make sense. |
 | The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $4.10 Random theory. Some of this was a little over my head but good stuff nonetheless |
 | Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li Buy new: $19.77 / Used from: $3.15 From Forrester so it's kind of "corporate" but it is about social media and I think corporate needs to start getting it or get left behind |
 | Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott Buy used from: $1.79 Didn't like it as I thought there wasn't a lot new here. |
 | The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $5.38 really good book that changed my idea of collective intelligence |
 | Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $6.99 Another oldie but goodie. He couldn't see the internet age in this book but caters to my disdain for most televison |
 | Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life by Alan Deutschman Buy new: $10.87 / Used from: $3.75 Expansion of a fast company article. Is it possible to change? If so how? Spoiler Alert: mainly though accountability |
 | When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $2.24 Great book on "eggheads" who think they are smarter than everyone else. Sometimes we should stick with the basics |
 | The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs Buy used from: $0.07 Non Believers quest to live out the Bible in a literal sense. I thought it was interesting to see from someone who didn't and still doesn't believe |
 | Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell Buy new: $10.19 / Used from: $0.01 While I didn't agree with a lot of this book it really challenged my believes on things |
 | 1776 by David McCullough Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $0.01 Little too long for me but yet it's obvious this country was built on and by special people |
 | Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 by Michael R. Beschloss Buy new: $6.38 / Used from: $2.24 Only time will be able to judge how presidents did because at the time almost all had their share of controversy. |
 | The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization by Tom Kelley Buy new: $17.66 / Used from: $7.51 IDEO is a really neat company. But the book didn't ever really resonate with me. |
 | Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres Buy new: $15.54 / Used from: $2.48 All about Business Analytics and how geeks can solve all the worlds problems. I liked it but wonder really how many times people can get the correct inputs? |
 | Winning by J. Welch Buy used from: $1.98 What you would expect from Welch. Not bad but very old school thinking |
 | The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle Buy used from: $1.67 One of my favorites. How quickly we forget what life was like Pre-google. |
 | On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins Buy new: $11.43 / Used from: $4.89 From the guy who invented the palm trying to rewrite the "book" on AI. Not bad, little to much information on the brain b/c it doesn't interest me as much as it does the author |
 | The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell Buy new: $10.87 / Used from: $1.68 I liked it. Galdwell does a good job of trying to come up with what makes things go. |
 | Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Buy new: $10.87 / Used from: $3.21 I didn't like this book as I thought it was too much "follow your gut" Not sure I even finished it. |
 | Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $7.80 I've referred to this book several times when trying to figure out how to make an idea memorable |
 | For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women by Shaunti Feldhahn Buy new: $10.19 / Used from: $5.95 Great book for trying to understand a wife. I listened to part of this book with my wife and asked her "is this really how you think" when she just laughed I knew I should pay attention |
 | Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham Buy used from: $0.01 I like the idea of Focusing on people's strengths and should be done more. However, in practice I think this book isn't really something people could do and was just a "popular" management book. |
 | Crashing Through: The Extraordinary True Story of the Man Who Dared to See by Robert Kurson Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $0.01 Fantastic. This author is great at story telling true story of a guy who was blind all his life and his journey to sight |
 | Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 just amazing story but not a lot of life lessons in it also see Crashing through from same author |
 | Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach Buy new: $8.24 / Used from: $1.11 Very educational, honestly had no idea what happened when people donated their body to science. |
 | How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $4.36 Under the heading there's nothing new under the Sun these tactics still work today. |
Listmania!
