I’ve decided to take the 100 book challenge for 2010! You can find all the details here. This is a great idea to encourage reading.

January 2010

1. Boneshaker – Fairly good story. Not fantastic but might make a good movie and cool that its placed in Seattle.

2. Freedom (TM) – This is the sequel to Daemon by Daniel Suarez and an awesome awesome scifi book. Highly recommend and both books are in my top 5 for best sci fi of the decade.

3. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson – Hilarious book about traveling in Australia and Bill’s random thoughts. My step dad recommended it and it was just great writing, I’m going to buy all his other books as soon as they release them on Kindle. I literally was laughing out loud, plus where else do you find out that Australia has 12 foot long earth worms???

4. My Life in France – Great book about Julia Child, had some nice commentary on politics between generations that I enjoyed. She had a very interesting life and the food all sounds amazing, as well as being in France to watch them rebuild.

5. Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing – Not bad, I would recommend to someone who hasn’t done a lot of modern marketing, esp in the Twitter age.

6. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking – Great book, highly recommended! Humans are so weird in that we have a great ability to take an instant snapshot of something that is so useful and also analyze, the problem seems to be which we choose and how we decide on each. The conclusion one researcher reaches is that for straight forward decisions go with analysis, and with complicated multi variable problems we should trust our Gut more. Very very interesting. I also like the bit on providing screens in the court room, understanding how our brains work and tricking them to operate how we want, over the failed assumption we can change so many years of evolution and trained thin slicing.

February 2010

7. The Truth Machine – A great SciFi book on the possibility of creating a machine that could perfectly tell if anyone is lieing, the affects on civilization and a little personal story about the creator. I really enjoyed it, quick read, well price and entertaining!

8. Long After Midnight at the Niño Bien: A Yanqui’s Missteps in Argentina – A great book about the Tango and Argentina during the last financial crisis. Very interesting stuff on the history of Argentina and the Tango and just a good travel story.

And this is why I love going on vacation, I read tons of books :). I read 9 books in the last 4 days.

9. A Short History Of Nearly Everything – This book is a national treasure and should be ready by every high school or junior high student. It makes science just so awesome and awe inspiring, I love love love this book and going to be buying a lot of copys for friends. Fantastic!

10. MetaGame – A really interesting SciFi book about religion/god and a future reality where everything is structured around “games”. That doesn’t do the book description but it was a very fun book.

11. Origin – A fun book about the interesting conundrum of what do you do if you actually find the devil buried in a coffin… Part horror, part scifi… Just a fun book and I love it because nobody would publish it so the author shelved it and later released it on the Kindle, fantastic story of how the Kindle is going to revolutionize the book business!

12. Pirate Latitudes – This is a Crichton book and one they found in his notes after he died. And for good reason as its not as good as any of his others, just a fun pirate book.

13. Drive – I really liked this book and it does it’s best to explain what drive’s us after you take care of the basics and money. It isn’t all about money and it is time we adjust our system to understand that for business and for education. Great thinking book!

14. Julian Comstock – Great scifi book about the time after the fall of oil. Just a good scifi read and nothing too spectacular.

15. Wireless – A collection of short story SciFi stories by Charles Stross. This made me realize how much I dislike short stories, I’m about char development, not concepts in most cases. Good stuff but I did have to skip one story which was just too weird and not well done.

16. The Ghost Writer – Fantastic thriller and just great book! Very fun read and it is going to make a great movie!

17. Brisingr – Book 3 in a fantasy series I started reading a long time ago. This is the best one yet as I believe the author was 12 years old for the first one, he has come a far way and although they are pretty cliche it is a great concept a very fun read!

18. Outliers: The Story of Success – Pretty good book that was very thought provoking. Basically trying to debunk the notion that things happen without a multitude or reasons when it comes to people we identify as business geniuses or geniuses. Very good stuff on education I hadn’t heard before too.

19. Purple Cow By Seth Godin – Might be good if I hadn’t heard it all before, but then again I do online marketing. So this book is probably a good read if you haven’t and want to learn more about it.

20. Atrocity Archives – Just a fun scifi book where religion can be explained by science and the main character works for the department that has to keep religion and demons in check in the world. Although this is a secret so only they know that math can explain it all.

21. At The Mountain Of Madness by HP LoveCraft – A giant when you hear about SciFi, I finally had some time to read this one. It was very very very good and I can see why it blew some people’s minds back in the day. Highly recommended if you like more literary scifi than popular.

March

22. Founders At Work – Well written book about tech pioneers and how they got their companies started, challenges, and a lot more. I hope the sequel does more modern founders, book was great but I really don’t care about some of the 1970s.

23. Blood Done Sign My Name – A distributing true story about race relations in the USA and specifically on the killing of black boy in North Carolina that helped spark a more violent movement. This was written by a kid who was just a boy in the town at the time and really well written. I learned a lot, some of the more violent aspects of the movement I didn’t know about so this was a great read.

24. Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide – A very entertaining book about being a Safari Guide. Awesome stories about just things in the “bush” and I learned never to pick up snakes or run from lions. Good lessons right?

25. The Folded Knife – An awesome book that is incredibly well written about the rise to power of a very Roman leader. The book was a bit odd in that it all ended very abruptly and without much closure. But still a great book and you really feel for the character. Although the ending was like a Michael Crichton movie, short and without much thought to it.

26. Stones to Schools – A book EVERYONE should read, the sequel to 3 Cups of Tea and just an amazing story of what Greg’s charity is doing for the world and what we should be doing to change it.

27. The Gathering Storm – The 13th Wheel Of Time book and it was great, just wish it had wrapped up the series. Two more books left and I can lay this awesome series to rest. This is the first book since the death of the author Robert Jordan, I thought the new author did well and will be able to follow the spirit of his writings.

28. Give Us Credit by Alex Counts – Great book with practical examples on Yunus’ micro bank in Bangladesh and how it has worked in Chicago. Very interesting read and it is really interesting to see the effects credit can have to combat poverty, tempered by the fact banks like this fact a lot of possible problems.

29. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen – A fantastic book (hopefully I don’t get my man code pulled for that one) and I highly recommend. A great read about a neurotic women cooking her way through Julia Child’s cookbook and just a great story about her life.

30. The Ipcress File – Written in 1965 it is a decent book but hard to follow in a few ways.

31. ReWork – A great book by the guys from 37Signals, all stuff I’ve heard before and a lot of common sense but it was very well put and good for most people to read.

April

32. Shutter Island – Good read but didn’t like the ending too much. Twisty and written to be a movie.

33. Eat, Pray, Love – I had to read it, decent book and very entertaining. Some good travel stories too.

34. Start With Why – Decent book with a great premise, one that if a lot of companies could do it would really help them in their markets I imagine. Decent read and very quick.

35. The Long Man – A fantastic book about a gun toting alchemist, I absolutely loved it and can’t wait for the next one. Just ordered the first one in non Kindle form which speaks to how good it is!

36. The Point Man – The first book in the series that was the previous book the Long Man, absolutely fantastic of magic, science, and guns. Love love love it!

37. The Apocalypse Door – Bought this on Amazon off a recommendation, not a very good book. Plot doesn’t really make sense, characters are one dimensional, and book is boring. Plus the action scenes are just confusing and badly written.

38, 39, and 40. The Deed Of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. A fantastic book that is actually 3 books bundled into one big one since they have been published for some years. I strongly recommend you read this, great character and great story telling! One of the best fantasy books I have read since Wheel Of Time.

41. The Prince Of The Marshes – A great book on someone who was basically a governor for a few years in Iraq for the British during the transition period. Very interesting and not terribly optimistic.

42. The Coming Population Crash – A fantastic book on the mistakes we have made with Eugenics and some of our false predictions that we are all going to die. Plus some great insights into the future in terms of a population that will get very large and then start getting smaller as people have less kids. Highly recommended and I learned a lot!

May

43. King Solomon’s Mines – Great book, a classic story!

44. Relentless – The Lost Fleet Book 5 – A great series I’ve been working through, just a solid fun space Sci Fi series and its really starting to get good as they finally made it back to their home sector and now can face a bigger challenge.

45. The Ark: A Novel by Boyd Morrison – A solid junky fun action novel with a religious twist (which I love). Good stuff and I like it even more because the author was discovered after releasing his book through the Kindle, then he was signed to a publisher. Cool stuff!

46. The Quiet American by Graham Greene – A great book that I really enjoyed, I highly recommend it! About a British journalist, an American “agent”, and a woman in the early phases of Vietnam. For me it just emphasized the failure of American foreign policy during that period and over the last 60 years since WW2, mostly in our inability to look for long term solutions that require patience.

June

47. The Lost Fleet: Victorious – Book 6 of a 6 book series, it ended well and was a great read. Hope there are more with same characters as really want to know what happens after.

48 and 49. Right Ascension and Declination by David Derrico. Solid adventure science fiction, space battles, alien invaders, really entertaining! Good vacation reads!

50. Space Prison, The Survivors – A fantastic psch story mixed in with some scifi, a quick fun read!

51. The Martian General’s Daughter – Not a great book but interesting twist to take Roman history and play it out in space. Ok read but not recommended as a bit slow and seemed lost to produce any excitement.

52. War by Sebastian Junger. This is one of the most amazing books I have read in the last 5 years and is a must read. It is wonderfully written and shows what drives the soldiers in the worst position in Afghanistan and what they encounter from day to day. Both telling the story of the men there, and trying to figure out how people survive those levels of stress and adrenaline. So good I’m going to order a few copies to send to my family.

53. My Father, the Captain: My Life With Jacques Cousteau – A great book about an amazing man, written by his son. I might grab another version just to learn more about the time diving and less him, but great read!

54, 55, 56. Book 1, 2 and 3 of one of the best fantasy series I’ve read in a long time. The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings. The first book started a bit slow but the next thing I know I’m in love with the characters, and unlike a lot of books in this genre, they are deeply flawed, funny, and human. The ending is a bit dark, but then so is humanity.

57. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson – A well written book on who Shakespeare was and debunking a lot of bad info out there. We really don’t know much about him. Best part of this book was just what it was like to live in that age, pretty crazy with all the plagues and so on. Glad I don’t live then.

58. Starship: Mutiny by Mike Resnick. Book 1 in a 5 part series, just a good fun entertaining book. Saving the other 4 for when I get to a beach! Hoping to get to a more serious book soon but these have been very relaxing!

59. Lamentation by Ken Scholes – A fantasy book with a lot of politics, strategy and interesting universe. Pretty good for his first book, going to grab the second!

60. Dominant Species – A really good mystery sci fi book, plus throw in some evolution and some other crazy stuff. Quick fun read…

July

61. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell. A serious book I found at the house I’m staying and was really really surprised how amazing it was. I don’t see how anyone could think this is his worst book as it was about the living conditions of depression era England and then an analysis of the class structure. Very very interesting especially his worries about the growth of fascism which at the time had just taken hold in Germany. Highly recommended read! I’m order his down and out one as well since it was so good.

62. Inca Gold by Clive Cussler – I haven’t read this in a few years and picked it up used to read in South Africa, great book once again with a character that is a mash between Bond, a marine engineer, and just cool. Very entertaining story too.

63. Guerra by Jason Webster. A very well written book from someone who has been living in Spain for 10+ years and who starts learning about the Spanish Civil War. This book is half history, half him traveling in modern day Spain to sites most of the country would rather forget. I learned a ton about the Spanish Civil War that just blew my mind, for some reason we never touched on it in high school or college. Highly recommended! I’m going to grab his two other books on Spain too as he is a great writer.

64. Treasure by Clive Cussler. I hadn’t read this one in a long time so I grabbed a cheap copy and it is one of his best works. Just a fun adventure story about finding what one man salvaged from the library of Alexander. Great stuff!

65. Crusader Gold by David Gibbins. Absolute shit, hard to read, hard to follow the plot, don’t read this book. I only finished it because I have a problem giving up on a story.

66. Witchfinders: A Seventeeth Century English Trajedy – A really crazy book on the history of the Witch trials of the 17th century in England. Very interesting, and even scarier when you find out how many people are killed for being witches in Africa last year…

67. 68. The Warded Man and The Desert Spear by Peter Brett. An amazing series and I can’t wait for the third one! Maybe the best SciFi series I have read this year and very very original. It shifts around at first between the three major characters but as the strings come together it makes a lot more sense!

69. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh. A fantastic book by the guy that built the culture around Zappos, I learned a lot from this book and highly recommend it for anyone in the service industry (or biz in general).

70. Speak Human: Outmarket the Big Guys by Getting Personal – A fantastic book is one of the best 2.0 marketing books I’ve read, highly recommended and good to see what we have been doing at Site5 is recommended. Plus learned a few new tricks!

71. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding – I learned a lot from this book, a lot of good nugget of information. But don’t read it if you are not super into marketing, how to build a really big brand in a segment, and that junk, as you might get bored.

72. Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets Of Building A Five Star Customer Service Organization – Amazing stuff, really well written and very very interesting. Like the fact that at high end hotels every employee is given $2,000 to make sure customers are made happy, just by giving this responsibility they don’t spend it but they do take the extra step.

73. Shit My Dad Says – A hilarious book and a good one for a fun read, guy can actually write too.

August

74. The King’s Coat – A fun adventure book based on a little bit of historical action and mostly around the character Alan Lewrie. Pretty good and I might try book two.

75. What Works In Girls’ Education – A great book I found off a reference in another, very interesting collection of summaries on studies basically showing that aid/school/etc to women as a much larger benefit to society.

76. Smart Pricing: How Google, Priceline, and Leading Businesses Use Pricing Innovation for Profitability – A super detailed look at pricing and what it should allow for in a business. Great read and some really amazing stories from history and modern times. Should help you come up with some great ideas of course.

77. Starship Pirate Book 2 – Fun fun fun, and with a title like this how can’t it be amazing? Can’t wait for book 3 and 4. Basically a story of a man who mutinies, has a ship, becomes a pirate, a mercenary, and then starts a rebellion.

78. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves – A fantastic book and highly recommended, shows a nice history of how pessimism and this constant fear of change have produced exaggerations time and time again. If you get tired of hearing how global warming is unstoppable, or how we won’t have any water in years, or how civilization is crumbling read this book. Amazing to hear the same things being said over history.

79. and 80.0 Starship: Mercenary and Starship Rebel by Mike Resnick. Just a great fun space action series about a brilliant captain and his eventual rise from a mutineer to pirate to mercenary to rebel etc. I believe there are two more books in the series and I’m looking forward to them!

81. Fagship – Starship book 5 – The last in a series of 5 books, highly entertaining and a great read. Cheers to Captain Cole and his crew :).