30 December 2011

Books of 2011

The annual rundown of "books I read this year":

AUTHORTITLE
Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith with Carlye AdlerThe Dragonfly Effect
Romeo AlaeffI'll Be Dead by the Time You Read This: The Existential Life of Animals
Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager with n+1Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager
Stephen BakerFinal Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything
Nicholas BateInstant MBA: Think, Perform and Earn Lika a Top Business School Graduate
Ken BlanchardLeading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations
Anthony BourdainKitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Richard L. BrandtOne Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com
Natalie Canavor and Claire MeirowitzThe Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing
John CassidyHow Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities
Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. FowlerConnected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
Cathy N. DavidsonNow You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work and Learn
Cory DoctorowWith a Little Help
Nancy DuarteResonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences
Judy DuttonScience Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch...and What It Takes to Win
Douglas EdwardsI'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59
Michael EllsbergThe Education of Millionaires: It's Not What You Think and It's Not Too Late
Jasper FfordeOne of Our Thursdays is Missing: A Novel
Joshua FoerMoonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Christopher J. Frank and Paul MagnoneDrinking from the Fire Hose: Making Smarter Decisions without Drowning in Information
Paolo GiordanoThe Solitude of Prime Numbers: A Novel
Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James MacanufoGamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers
Seth GodinPoke the Box
Paul Hammernes and Margaret Moore with John HaasOrganize Your Mind, Organize Your Life: Train Your Brain To Do More in Less Time
Tony HsiehDelivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose
Walter IsaacsonSteve Jobs
John KayObliquity: Why Our Goals are Best Achieved Indirectly
Martin LindstromBrandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy
Paul La MonicaInside Rupert's Brain
Adelaide Lancaster and Amy AbramsThe Big Enough Company: Creating a Business that Works for You
Jeanne Liedtka and Tim OglivieDesigning for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers
Matthew E. MayThe Shibumi Strategy: A Powerful Way to Create Meaningful Change
Hugh MacLeodEvil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination
Mark MagnaccaSo What? How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience
Scott Nicholson (ed.)Write Good or Die: Survival Tips for the 21st Century
Al PittampalliRead This Before Our Next Meeting: The Modern Meeting Standard for Successful Organizations
James O'RourkeThe Truth about Confident Presenting
Alexander Osterwalder & Yves PigneurBusiness Model Generation
Dev Patnaik with Pete MortensenWired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy
Scott PattersonThe Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It
Michael W. Preis with Matthew Frederick101 Things I Learned in Business School
Steven PressfieldDo the Work
Oliver Pötzsch and Lee ChadeayneThe Hangman's Daughter: A Historical Novel
#quakebook2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake
Tom RachmanThe Imperfectionists: A Novel
Garr ReynoldsThe Naked Presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides
Jeff RyanSuper Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America
Tim SandersToday We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence
Paul J.H. SchoemakerBrilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure
Adrian Slywotzky with Karl WeberDemand: Creating What People Want Before They Know They Want It
Peter TaylorThe Lazy Project Manager: How to be Twice as Productive and Still Leave the Office Early
Richard TemplarThe Rules of Work, Expanded Edition: A Definitive Code for Personal Success
David ThorneThe Internet is a Playground: Irreverent Correspondences of an Evil Online Genius
Jerry WeissmanPresenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story
Dan ZarrellaZarrella's Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design and Engineering of Contagious Ideas

Obviously, I did a lot of reading this year, spurred on mostly because of my Kindle. On balance, I think it was a good spread of material that found its way to me this year. Granted, the bulk of my reading list is composed of business books (and all that this implies), and yes, there were a bunch of clunkers (there always are), but there's also some truly exceptional stuff in the mix, too (likewise). Oh, I should also mention: fiction!

The best book I read all year was Moonwalking with Einstein. Runners-up would be I'm Feeling Lucky and Evil Plans.

As always, if there are any books out there you'd like to recommend, please do. My 2012 reading list thanks you in advance.

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