I'm fascinated by people's reading lists. (Share yours!) I asked Assemblymember Juan Arambula what's on his nightstand right now because he's a voracious reader -- about 100 books a year. He said, "the budget." That's it.
I've got half a dozen books going all the time! (Short interest span!) "The Speed of Trust" by Stephen R. Covey, and Rebecca R. Merrill is on my nightstand at the moment. Very good. I'm listening to an audio book on organizational change by John P. Kotter of Harvard Business School and Dan. S. Cohen called "The Heart of Change: Real Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Kotter also wrote "Leading Change." The nut graph of this book is that real change happens when people feel differently about their organization, not when they think differently.
While cruising the blogs for the Wednesday blogging bits column the other day, I came across this list from the Freakonomics guys, who posted this as part of a Q&A interview with Newt Gingrich:
"
The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker - I have read this book once a year for the past 30 years and still learn something new with each reading. It is single best guide to being effective I have every come across.
"The Godfather" by Mario Puzo
"Shogun" by James Clavell
"Advice and Consent: A Novel of Washington Politics" by Alan Drury
"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara
"All the Kings Men" by Robert Penn Warren
"The Third Wave" by Alvin Toffler
"Lincoln by Gore Vidal, Lincoln at Cooper Union" by Harold Holzer
"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
"The Eloquent President" by Ronald White
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn
"Leadership" by Rudolph Giuliani, "The Turnaround" by William Bratton and Peter Knobler, and "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis — these three books explain metrics-based management, a key to 21st century government, which I write about in "Real Change."
C'mon, you've got a minute. What's on your nightstand?
(In no particular order)
Fresno State - 2008 Softball - Media Guide / Stats
Intro to Christian Theology (Wiley/Culbertson; Beacon Hill Press)
The Fall of the Roman Empire, Peter Heather
My Grandfather’s Son, Justice Clarence Thomas
Founding America; Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights
ESV Holy Bible
The Official Rules of Baseball Illustrated, Dave Nemec
Baseball on the Brain, Purdy
Jesus, Mean & Wild, Mark Galli
The Attributes of God, A W Tozer
Off the Wall:Death in Yosemite by Michael P.Ghiglieri, The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams and Travels in Alaska by John Muir.
Freakonomics, Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg and Facts and Fallacies of the Economy by Thomas Sowell - a must read. Also, 2 suspense novels.
Beautiful Boy, David Sheff
Forgotten Bread, David Kherdian
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
Essential Saroyan, William Justice
Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach
Fascinating to learn what others are reading...it's like a sneak peak into their soul.
I am listening to "Infidel," a fascinating autobiography by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was born in Somalia and later became a Dutch lawmaker. Hirsi Ali is very critical of the position of women in Islamic societies.
And right now, I actually have a book on my nightstand -- I'm rereading a series I enjoyed growing up, the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, about friends growing up in Minnesota in the early 1900s.
Next on my list is Barack Obama's "Dreams of my Father." It isn't available through the library in an unabridged format, so I'll actually have to read that one too.
Just finished: "Adverbs: A Novel" by Daniel Handler. He's Lemony Snicket, too. But this is not that.
Just started: "End of California," by Steve Yarbrough.
On deck: "Tender as Hellfire," by Joe Meno.
If you really like reading list and want to share with friends, check out: http://www.goodreads.com
WOW Juan reads 100 books a year? That's amazing, even for someone with a literature background like his. I'd be happy if I could finish 20 in a year.
I'm glad someone mentioned My Grandfather's Son, that was an outstanding book.
Here's the latest fiction I've read: Declare (Tim Powers), Speaker for the Dead (Orson Scott Card), Worlds Without End (Ken Follett).
Non-fiction: right now I'm on The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb), and just bought Economic Facts & Fallacies (Thomas Sowell).
"Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana" by Anne Rice,
"A Darkness More than Light" by Michael Connelly and "Acacia" by David Anthony Durham, a Fresno State creative writing professor.
Sort of an eclectic pile: I read everything, cereal boxes, milk cartons, produce boxes, legal briefs, technical books and magazines--but the following list I lifted from my nightstand and carried to my computer table. In its entirety, though I just Finished "The King of California" for diverting fun;
Alas Babylon, Pat Frank
No Country for Old Men, Cormac MCarthy
The Book of General Ignorance, Lloyd and Mitchinson
Vanity Fair, April, March 2008
The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943, Morrison
The Assault on Reason, Al Gore
The Fall of the House of Bush, Craig Unger
Sword Song, Bernard Corwell
The Dead of Winter, Bill Warnock
The Log from the Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck
The Gunter Grass Reader
I frequent the superb Auberry Library, three are on loan from them just now. Thanks Fresno County!!
a spanish/english dictionary," "highway 99",(valley poets),book of Zen meditations, selected writings of James Hillman, "Lessons from the miracle doctors",by Jon Barron,the life and times of Jonathan Swift"(published in 1910). Drumming at the edge of magic",by Mickey Hart, "Letters to a young patriot" by Naomi Wolfe,(the most important book published in this century), "The name of the rose" by Umberto Eco,(yes, I read fiction),the periodicals cluttering up the bedside include, "Lyme times", "the stanger" (a Seattle rag), "fresno Alliance", a stack of Nat'l geographics, including some from the '50's, "Harpers" "The Nation"," "Smithsonian"," Golf digest" and an issue of "country gentleman" from 1936....and "100 hundred years is not enough" by John Mccain, forward by Victor Davis Hansen...(ahem, just kidding about that one)
Boy, lots of interesting lists! Here are
some of my recents:
The Great Gatsby
The Eustace Diamonds
The Canterbury Tales
Julian Stockwin's Thomas Kydd series
Just finished-Winter of our Discontent, Steinbeck
Reading- Reading Judas (the Gospel of Judas and the shaping of Christianity, Elaine Pagels
On deck-The Learners, Chip Kidd (author of Cheese Monkeys)
I'm going back to school so reading for fun is having to take a back seat...rats!
The Innocent Man by John Grisham
The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker
Thomas Jefferson Biography