I like to get as many of my books as first ed or with a really neat cover, and Ayn Rand is nearly impossible to find used. I read half of fountain head and moved and lost my copy. I love Gladwell.
Been hitting the sci fi hard:
Machine of Death: A collection of stories about people who know how they will die, edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki
Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Ender In Exile, Speaker for The Dead, and Xenocide all by Orson Scott Card (I read Enderâs Game as a kid, but never any of the follow ups, halfway through Xenocide now)
Next up is Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges⌠I read a lot when I travel, and Iâve been traveling a lotâŚ
I am currently reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
on the pile:
Evil Plans by Hugh McLeod
the book by Michael J FoxâŚcanât remember the name of it and it is at home
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
a bunch of othersâŚbut canât think of them at the moment
Been reading a lot lately.
In the last week or so:
Childrenâs Hospital
Chris Adrian
Published by McSweenyâs, so you know itâs excellent. Itâs long though.
Beatrice and Virgil
Yann Martel
Guy who wrote Life of Pi. Interesting, a bit odd.
Fever Chart
Bill Clotter
Another one published by McSweenyâs. Really good. Read all 305 pages in a day - hard to put down.
Now reading -
Motherless Brooklyn
Jonathan Lethem
Half way done. Good, modern type detective story⌠will probably finish tonite.
R
The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
The Tao of Wu by RZA
great one⌠âthe book that launched a thousand companiesâ. (It has some intimidating thickness however)
I just finished âthe secret life of software objects.â it was OK
Building Stronger Brands
Predictable Magic
Echo the thoughts on Crawfordâs Shopclass, I read last year and found to be very thought provoking.
Anyone have suggestions for some kick a$$ new Sci-Fi?
Examples of books that have caught my imagination:
Enderâs Game
Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars
Neuromancer
Pattern Recognition (probably on the top as one of the most Design Relevant fiction novels)
Diamond Age
Asimov (can you pick just one?)
The list is much bigger, but that gives you an idea of what captures me.
I tried reading Virnor Vingeâs (sp?) Fire Upon the Deep but couldnât get more than 100 pages in. should I try again?
enderâs game is classic⌠plus I think theyâre finally making a movie of it soo. As a sci-fi buff, Iâd recommend that one if you havenât read it yet
I read all of On the Beach by Nevil Shute on the plane back from Portland. That book puts you in a very somber mood to say the least. 
Also just finished Brave New World for the first time. Next up on the list is Animal Farm and A Clockwork Orange. Yes dystopian/post-apocolytic novels share a soft spot in my heart.
I adore anything written by Borges. Iâve carried his Collected Fictions novel with me ever since high school.
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Brave New World is pretty fantastic. In that vein have read âAnthemâ by Ayn Rand, â1984â, âFahrenheit 451â and the grand daddy of all of those âWeâ Yevgeny Zamyatin⌠written in 1921 and then banned, it predated 1984 by 27 years and walks the same themes but is even stronger in my opinion.
Just picked up The Instructions by Adam Levin.
Another McSweenyâs publication. I flew through the last two books I was reading, so now looking for something more substantial. At 1030 pages, I think this should last me for a little whileâŚ
R
Haha, right before I finished Brave New World, I re-read Fahrenheit 451 (one of my all-time favorites), read 1984 for the first time and began We. Seems like weâre on the same literary wavelength.
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Very creative humor, Iâm loving every single line of it.
I call the genre âdowner sci-fiâ , super depressing but usually worth it. Iâve noticed a lot of bookstores starting âclassic sci-fiâ sections which is cool.
Not sci-fi but I you like a good downer, try a Kafka novel⌠That was a step too far for me.
Another great story of the sea; Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.; first published in 1840.
I read it about fifteen years ago and saw it reviewed in Sundayâs Wall Street Journal; âthe life of a common sailor at sea as it really isâ. A true story, a documentary really, experienced by the author, most of it takes place in âmy back yardâ so to speak ⌠the California coast between San Diego (Dana Point) to SF; San Pedro, Santa Barbara, Nipomo (near Pismo Beach) San Simeon, and north.
âPilgrimâ sailed from Boston in 1834 bound for the California coast, via Cape Horn, to trade for steer hides. Technical in nature (with regard to commercial sailing craft of the era) and overflowing with observations of daily life both afloat and ashore in early pre-American California.
John McPheeâs âSilk Parachuteâ - I thought heâd be writing about base jumping, but alas no. Lacrosse essay looks very promisingâŚ
Iâm reading Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
Great read and I canât wait to finish it so I can check out the TV show on HBO by the same name.
Iâm reading it too, itâs great. I have HBO so I am trying to stay away from it when it comes on but I am excited to watch it.
I also saw Midnight in Paris this weekend and itâs inspired me to go back and read some old classics. The basis of the movie (a woody allen movie) is an american writer in the present walks though paris at night and finds himself in 1920âs Paris w/ Hemmingway, the Fitzgeralds, Dali, Picasso⌠Itâs a really good movie.