Don's 2012 Book Page
On this page you will find the book(s) I am currently reading and the books I have have finished in 2012.
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To see the books I read in 2011, click here.
To see the books I read in 2010, click here.
To see the books I read in 2009, click here.
To see the books I read in 2008, click here.
To see the books I read in 2007, click here.
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To see the books I read in 2006, click here.
To see the books I read in 2005, click here.
To see the books I read in 2004, click here.
To see the books I read in 2003, click here.
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You can see the books at the Barnes and Noble or Amazon web site by clicking on the picture of the book on each entry. This will open in a new window.
The books I am currently reading:
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The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
Date Started: February 20, 2012
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Mindfulness Solution
by Richard D. Siegel
Date Started: October 4, 2011
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Books I have Completed This Year
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The Halo Effect
by Phil Rosenzweig
Date Started: February 5, 2012
Date Completed: February 20, 2012
On the cover of this book, The Black Swan author Nassim Nicolas Taleb is quoted as saying, "One of the most important management books of all time." But don't most books on business have some prominent expert quoted on the cover saying that? Well, I have always thought that The Black Swan was one of the most important business books ever, so I thought maybe I should take note. Actually, this book was on a list of books published on the Harvard Business Review blog sometime back that was reported to be the "must own and must read" list of business books. So, I have a strong recommendation from Taleb and HBR and I was not disappointed. As I finished it this afternoon I commented to Laura that this may be the best book on management and business I have ever read and God knows I have read plenty. Rosenzweig blows holes in the hypothesis and principles that many other books on the topic have presented and I now have a much better understanding of why my (and many others') "search for excellence" was unfruitful; why so many of our organizations that we "built to last" don't last and why we have been pushing our organization from "good to great" for years, only to remain mired in mediocrity. Yes, this is an important book and one that will forever change the way I read business books going forward.
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Betterness: Economics for Humans
by Umair Hague
Date Started: February 1, 2012
Date Completed: February 4, 2012
I bought this book, or rather this essay based on tweets I had seen concerning it and how it states a new style economy the author calls "betterness". Much of what he started with agreed with much of what I have read lately concerning this rethinking of the purpose of business but about 3/4 of the way into it I almost tossed it aside due to its in-your-face-presentation, specifically concerning mission and vision statements about some major modern corporations. But, I stuck with it and when I read and re-read his comparisons to those companies who have adopted a more socially conscious model it began to make sense. I now see what Hague is trying to say and this certainly dovetails with Branson's book I had just finished.
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Screw Business as Usual
by Sir Richard Branson
Date Started: January 14, 2012
Date Completed: February 1, 2012
I was surprised by this book. When I read the review of it in The Economist I thought it might be a good read and I was thrilled when I received it as a Christmas gift from my son and daughter in law. I thought it would be more about how to change the inner workings of a specific company. Rather, it is more of a serious of stories showing how companies large and small have changed their goals so that enhancing shareholder value or other profit making motive is no longer the primary motive. Sir Richard Branson presents the cases of many companies and NGOs that are not only making money but adding value to their employees, customers and nations. Many of the initiatives are green in nature and show that a company can be environmentally and socially conscious and still prosper. This is a theme that is becoming more and more prevalent in business and leadership these days and one that is starting to resonate more and more with me as I unlearned what both an undergraduate and MBA program and 30 years in business have taught me.
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Orthodoxy
by G. K. Chesterton
Date Started: December 25, 2011
Date Completed: January 14, 2012
This book as seen as one of the classics of
theology and I might add it is certainly a
classic of philosophy as well. Chesterton
was obviously one of the deepest thinkers on
Christianity of his time, and maybe one of the
top in all of history. For such a short book I
had to take my time with it to get into its
depths and also to get for it exactly what
Chesterton was trying to say. This is
certainly one I will need to go back to again.
His examples of the paradoxes of christianity
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No Shortage of Good Days
by John Gierach
Date Started: December 19, 2011
Date Completed: January 14, 2012
This book was a gift from my dear friend
Dr. Carlton, a retired physician and
excellent fisherman. What a truly great
gift! The stories about fly fishing that John
Gierach shares here are just plain fun to
read. The stories of fishing for many
different types of fish in a wide variety of
locations are interspersed with witty
thoughts about food, life and relationships.
Of course Gierach has the perfect job: he
fishes a lot and then writes about it, so I
must admit just a bit of envy here. But as I
read, sometimes in front of the fire while
the wind howled in a blizzard outside, I
found myself going back to the many
fishing excursions of my life, of hiking into
deep canyons in search of a big brown or a
creel full of brook trout. These are some of
my fondest memories and are memories of
times that surly shaped my life. Thanks Dr.
Carlton for the most excellent gift. Now,
spring cannot come soon enough.
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