I’ve seen this a couple other places (sorry, can’t remember where at the moment, or I’d link to you), and decided that I’d try to remember all the books I read last year. With all the traveling I did, I did a lot of reading on planes. Thanks to Good Reads, I at least have a starting point to jog my memory.\
h4. Fiction
- Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony by John Scalzi: A great trilogy by ficlets former blogger-in-chief.
- The Android’s Dream also by John Scalzi: This one’s not in the same universe as the Old Man’s War trilogy, but a royally good time – great pace, humor and a really good story.
- Overclocked by Cory Doctorow: I never really read science fiction when I was younger, though I watched a bunch. I started with John Scalzi since he was blogging for ficlets, and then picked this up. I loved it. The story about sysadmins after the apocolypse was awesome.
- World War Z by Max Brooks: I stayed up all night on the flight to Paris reading this. I wasn’t freaked out at all while reading it, but thinking about it later, got the chills thinking about it. This one will stick with you – a great zombie book.
- Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet by David Wellington: The first one is the best of the trilogy and each successive one is less enjoyable, but they’re a lot of fun. An interesting twist on the zombie genre.
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: I love Neil Gaiman, and this book is a great time. It’s funny, quickly paced, and has his regular wit and skill.
- Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman: This one’s uneven, because it’s all short stories, but there are a couple real winners.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling: Much better than the one that came before it, and a decent end to the series. I try not to lay too much of my own expectations for how stories should go on authors and as long as it rings true, I’m usually pretty happy. I was pretty happy by the end.
- a couple by Michael Connelly, but I can’t think which ones at the moment, which probably means I need to take a break from him since they’re all running together.\
h4. Non-Fiction - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard: This is my favorite book of the year, even though it was writting over thirty years ago. It’s a collection of essays about life and nature and contains some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read.
- Agile Web Development With Rails by a bunch of smart dudes: Yeah, I’ve made it through this one a couple times, and I should probably add…
- Ruby in a Nutshell by Yukihiro Matsumoto: If you count flipping through to jog my memory, I’ve probably read this one eight or nine times this year.
- Words I Wish I Wrote: A Collection of Writing That Inspired My Ideas collected by Robert Fulghum: A great collection of inspiring stuff. Always handy for a good quote. I’ve read this one every couple years since I got it.
- Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World by Jack Goldsmith: This was a book club book for work, and I hated it. It’s a dark and unpleasant view of the internet and government control of it.\
h4. In Progress - Wikinomics by Don Tapscott: Mr. Tapscott gave a great presentation at an AOL internal development conference over the summer and I got a copy of his book. I started it, but stuff came up, and I haven’t finished it yet.
- Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger: Another one I started but haven’t finished. I don’t like taking hardbacks on the plane because they’re cumbersome.
- Getting Things Done by David Allen: I know. I’ve been meaning to get to this one for over a year. I’m definitely not GTD.\
I know I’m missing some in each category. I’ll try to remember them and add them later.