2011 in Books

At the end of last year, I set a goal of getting through 36 books for this year. I exceeded that, completing 44.  They were pretty evenly divided among formats: 15 audio books, 12 e-books, and 17 in printed format. Interestingly though, the breakdown by format was not evenly distributed among topic areas. (e.g. all the fiction I read was in e-book format, where the bulk of the business books were in print). Of those I read in e-book format, most were consumed on the Kindle app on iPad, occasionally syncing and reading on iPhone.


For next year, I'm setting a goal of 48 books. I also want to plan my to-read pile a little better (e.g. some of the audio books I read were random picks at the library as I was under time pressure before a trip), and to be more willing to give up on books that aren't living up to expectations, rather than slogging through them.

As with last year, I'm grouping by topic. One asterisk for recommended books, two for highly recommended. Links are to my reviews, which in turn have links to Amazon or other place to buy.

The summary on recommendations is as follows: My favorite non-fiction book of the year is The Master Switch which I recommend everyone read, and Super Sad True Love Story is my fiction pick of the year. I'll also recommend Escape Velocity if you work at any company of over a hundred employees in which you want to effect change.

Business

• The Master Switch (**)
• Escape Velocity (**)
• Business Model Generation
• Resonate
• How to Lie with Statistics
• Evil Plans
• Poke the Box
• The Whuffie Factor
• Panic
• Liars Poker
• Linchpin
• Do The Work
• Age of Persuasion
• The Undercover Economist

Politics/History

• The Assault on Reason
• 1776 (*)
• The Ascent of Money (*)
• Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
• Outrageous Fortunes
• My Life
• Edward Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism (**)
• Republican Noise Machine
• Havana Nocturne
• Churchill (*)
• The Age of Gold
• Team of Rivals (*)
• Alexander The Great And His Time (*)
• The Next Decade

Culture

• Life
• The Art of Living According to Joe Beef
• The Wave (*)

Technology

• We, Robot (*)
• Best of Technology Writing 2010
• You are not a gadget
• The Filter Bubble (*)

Fiction

• Super Sad True Love Story (**)
• Rule 34
• Ready Player One
• Reamde
• Paintwork (*)
• The Technician (*)
• Anathem (*)
• The Tomorrow Project (*)

Graphic Novels

• SVK (*)