To get a sense for some of the books I’ve read, please peruse my Books category. You can also interact with my reading and my reading library by scanning the list of books that I’ve reviewed in this blog.
Here are the kinds of books I enjoy:
- Software architecture, practices and patterns
- Design in general and software design in particular
- Photography – collections, techniques (especially digital)
- Fictional novels – spy, drama, mystery, etc. (e.g. any spy novel by Daniel Silva–see my posts concerning several of his books)
- Topics related to the fields of architecture and engineering (i.e. fuel personal beliefs concerning convergence, learning from history, mining patterns from other disciplines, etc.)
I credit my Mom with my love of reading–some say I’m a voracious reader. She was an eighth grade teacher for 16 years, focused on English, History and Spelling, among other disciplines. A lot of my ability to communicate well (or so I’m told) comes from her influence.
At some point I’d like to provide a visual map of book/paper/article associations (e.g. this person recommended X, after reading Y I discovered Z, etc.).
Book reviews
I’ve reviewed the following books in my blog, most of which I have in my library. Those books I especially recommend are in bold.
27-Jul-2009 -In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing04-Jun-2009 -Subject To Change: Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World10-Jan-2009 -Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple)04-Dec-2008 -Outliers: The Story of Success19-Aug-2008 -The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google26-Jan-2008 -Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant (prelude)27-Dec-2007 -The Myths of Innovation16-Sep-2007 -Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder06-Aug-2007 -Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything22-Apr-2007 -Mind Set! Reset Your Thinking and See the Future05-May-2007 -The Machine That Changed the World19-Feb-2007 -The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary09-Sep-2006 -From Ruby to Java: Things Every Manager Should Know24-Aug-2006 -Beautiful Evidence29-Jul-2006 -The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More18-Feb-2006 -The Success of Open Source23-Jan-2006 -Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution07-Oct-2005 -Extreme Programming Explained, 2e28-Aug-2005 -Emotional Design – Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things27-Jul-2005 -The Design of Everyday Things20-Jul-2005 -The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century (prelude)10-Jul-2005 -Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America04-Jun-2005 -Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age04-May-2005 -Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America19-Apr-2005 -The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference25-Mar-2005 -Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking09-Mar-2005 -Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency (which also references The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management)
05-Feb-2005 -A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction15-Jan-2005 -The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork – Embrace Them and Empower Your Team24-Nov-2004 -Design Rules – Vol. 1: The Power of Modularity05-Nov-2004 -Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web07-Aug-2004 -Every Second Counts03-Jun-2004 -Software Factories: Assembling Applications with Patterns, Models, Frameworks, and Tools (i.e. a reference, not a review, to be fair)04-Apr-2004 -Now, Discover Your Strengths27-Mar-2004 -Deliver Us from Evil16-Jan-2004 -Oh, the Places You’ll Go!06-Jan-2004 -Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth16-Dec-2003 -Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right14-Dec-2003 -Arrogance: Rescuing America From the Media Elite