The best books I have read in the past couple of years have included (not in any particular order):
* The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Whereas Dawkins approaches the subject as a scientist, Hitchens does so from a historical perspective. Both were excellent with Dawkins being stronger on the lack of evidence for a deity and Hitchens on the social maladies resulting from the belief in one.
* Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man by Christoper Hitchens, another in the Books that Shook the World series. For a man who was influential in drafting both the American and French constitutions, that he’s not better known today is incredible.
* P. J. O’Rourke’s On the Wealth of Nations which distils the wisdom of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations including the fundamental principle that wealth derives from a man’s free trade of his labour.
* The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century by Ross Dunn analysed Buttuta’s own account of his 25 year travels from his native Morocco, through the middle east, Arabia, Persia, India and possibly China.
* Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali which documents her years growing up in strife-torn Somalia and eventually to being an MP in the Netherlands parliament.
* The Vertico Years by Philip Blom which covered the years 1900 to 1914 – both interesting and very readable.
* Old Souls by Thomas Schroder – who presents a number of carefully researched cases that provide strong evidence for reincarnation.
* Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs (The Left Bank World of Shakespeare & Co.) by Jeremy Mercer, a wonderful account of this bookstore run by a man totally devoted to the love of books and reading.
* German history since 1789 by Golo Mann, a very thorough, comprehensive history of this major European country.
* Cultural Amnesia by Clive James, although I haven’t finished the 100 odd essays in the book, James’s incredible breadth of reading and literary style and wit make most of those I have read gems.

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Life is short read more books is interesting;i will pick up “the seven spirutual laws of success” after completing “the power of now” which iam reading now, give a try if you haven’t read .

I am a very eclectic reader and find a great many books outside the area of training and development. Here are a few of the books that I have read or am reading and what I like about them.

The first book is Steven Pinker’s “The Language Instinct.” This is a fascinating book. Dr. Pinker’s theory is that language is hard-wired into humans and his book explains how humans acquire language skills, how language works, and how it changes. If you really want to understand why and how we are able to verbally communicate, this is a book for you. I will warn you, however, that you must be able to understand the jargon of language (such as predicate, ellipsis, lexical entry) in order to get more out of this read.

The next book is Thomas Cahill’s “How the Irish Saved Civilization.” It describes the conditions in Europe after the fall of the Roman empire and shows how western civilization slipped slowly into the dark ages at the end of the “Pax Romana.” This is the story of how a Celtic slave is converted, becomes St. Patrick, and helps lead Western Europe into an age of writing and books. This book is totally engaging, very detailed, and paints very interesting portraits of many Celtic historical characters. If you enjoy history as I do, this is a great book to read.

The Predictioneer’s Game, by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita. He uses Game Theory to strategize decision making.

Information Design Workbook by Kim Baer The focus on solutions makes this a must-read.

I just finished reading Human Performance Models Revealed in the Global Context by Victor C. X. Wang and Kathleen P. King. Each chapter discusses human performance problems in light of regional and national cultural and political factors. It was an interesting read.

Thank you for sharing your personal reading list with me. I am excited to add these to my 2010 reading list. I will compile this list and put it on the blog next week.

Once again, I thank you for all your inputs in making my reading for 2010 meaningful.

Happy reading.

Ayesha
Ayesha Habeeb Omer, Ph.D
Chief Operating Officer
CommLab India
No. 30, Second Floor, Sarvasukhi Colony,
West Marredpally, Secunderabad-500026, INDIA.
Twitter account: @ayesha_commlab

I have read numerous history books as this is my passion and I could recommend quite a few. Still, if history is not your “cup of tea”, I have read other types of books which apply to leadership, relationships, and inspiration.

Leadership
“Developing the Leader Within” by John Maxwell
“The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John Maxwell
“1776″ by David McCullough
“The Great Bridge” by David McCullough

Relationships
“Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferazzi
“The Speed of Trust” by Stephen H.R. Covey

Inspiration
“The Alchemist” by Paulo Cuehlo
“Mother Teresa” by Narvin Chawla

There are others and I can add them later. All of these texts are well written and promote thought on part of the reader.

Hi Ayeesha,

Thanks for your reading list….I have read a lot of these and some are very good.

This year I have read quite a few books, the following which I recommend heartily for anyone in the technology business.
Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers (A classic which is still current; a book which launched a thousand books, including Crossing the Chasm, Tipping Point and many others. n.b. In the 5th Edition, the author refutes the existence of a Chasm to be crossed…its down to poor marketing and positioning and a lack of understanding of how to sell early adopters, which is picked up and answered in the following book)
Why Killer Products Don’t Sell, Gotts and Rowsell, this book picks up on themes from D of I and applies them to the buying process…buyers behave differently according to their risk profile, which means we need to sell differently depending on the maturity of our product….you can read a review on my blog.
Talent is Overrated, by Geoffrey Colvin, On the importance of deliberate practice, I wrote a blog called Sales Talent is Overrated, which explains that improvement in performance in sales is about deliberate practicing of technique (out of your comfort zone,and getting feedback from experts in order to improve at anything).

The Nature of Technology by Brian Arthur is an ontology of the nature of technological evolution. A brilliant argument and important insight for anyone in the technology business…this will help you figure out what to do next.

Plan B 4.0. Lester Brown, This is about saving the planet. Plan A has not worked, so we are on rev. 4.0 of Plan B and the best minds in the World have contributed to this book. Buy this and read it for your kids and for their kids and then take action.

My holiday reading is The Master and his Emissary, by Ian McGilchrist.

Happy reading…and Happy Holidays!

All the best,
Mark

I have additional books on leadership, Inspiration, and history.

Leadership
“Principle Centered Leadership” by Stephen Covey
“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Inspiration
“The Art of Possibility” by Ben & Rosamund Zander
“The Journeys of Socrates” by Dan Millman
“The Passion Test” by Janet Atwood

History
“Rising from the Rails” by Larry Tye

I would recommend reading biographies or autobiographies. It is motivating and great learning in itself.

Good point Kamini and widely regarded as the best biography in the English language is Melbourne by Lord David Cecil. It is a terrific book about the English Prime Minister whose wife, Lady Caroline Lamb, became the lover of Lord Byron.