This time last year I was about to embark on an MBA. While I enjoyed the course initially very quickly it was showing signs of not delivering to my expectations so I made a tough decision to withdrawal.
One thing I highlighted when I withdrew was that I have always read extensively and while I needed to read a huge amount during my studies what I was reading was being dictated to me – while not essentially bad I didn’t have time to read what I really wanted to.
Anyway to cut a long story short, while I have occasionally posted about the books I have read I haven’t posted about them all so I thought I’d list my recent reading – excluding a dozen or so novels!
I don’t necessarily recommend you read all the books below but I have certainly found all of them quite interesting, even some that weren’t quite what I expected (Global Citizens for example)
Every Bastard Says No – The 42 Below Story
– Justine Troy & Geoff Ross
Trade Me – The Inside Story
– Micheal O’Donnell
What the Dog Saw
– Malcolm Gladwell
A simpler Time – A memoir of love, laughter, loss and billycarts
– Peter Fitzsimons
The Brand Gap
– Marty Neumeier
Zag
– Marty Neumeier
Fletchers – A Centennial History of Fletcher Building
– Paul Goldsmith
The Design of Business – Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage
– Roger Martin
Making Ideas Happen – Overcoming the Obstacles between Vision and Reality
– Scott Belsky
Getting Real
– Jason Fried, Heinemeier David Hansson, & Matthew Linderman
Rework
– Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
The Fry Chronicles – An autobiography
– Stephen Fry
Global Citizens – Our vision of the World is Outdated
– Mark Gerzon
Think Twice – Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition
– Michael J. Mauboussin
Wired for Thought – How the Brain is Shaping the Future of the Internet
– Jeffery M. Stibel
Think Twice also reinforced my own thinking with regards specifically to business books. You can’t simply read a book and follow the steps outlined to become successful. Successful people take what they read/learn and apply it with their own thoughts and ideas. I enjoy reading what has wokred (and not worked) for various people and companies but I don’t attempt to apply these ideas verbatim.