Notes

* = books I especially liked.

? = books I felt weren't worth my time.

“read alongside second translation" means I alternated somewhat between translations and read some paragraphs by both translators, for breadth of interpretation.

Business & Management

* Good To Great, Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, Collins

* The Tipping Point, Gladwell

* Blink, Gladwell

* The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni Book Summary

* The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Covey

* The One Minute Manager, Blanchard & Johnson

The 21 Indispensable Qualities Of A Leader, Maxwell

jack, Straight From the Gut, Jack Welch (up to pg 247)

Winning, Jack Welch (up to pg 190)

First, Break All The Rules, Buckingham & Coffman

Now, Discover You’re Strengths, Buckingham & Coffman

Execution, Bosidy

Lean Thinking, Womack & Jones (up to pg 94. Tedious but important topic.)

The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush, Tompson & Ware (yeah yeah, I know)

The Deadline, Demarco

Communication

* How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie (a classic)

* Body Language, Pease & Pease

* The Emotional Inteligence Quick Book, Bradberry & Greaves Book Summary

Be Quiet, Be Heard, Glaser & Glaser (One really good nugget for me. Before having a difficult conversation with someone, especially a subordinate, ask him if he’s OK with having the conversation. I’ve always gotten a yes, and then he’s bought in as a partner in the conversation.)

Speak Up With Confidence, Kent (on public speaking)

How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere, Larry King

* The Elements of Style, Strunk & White

The New Oxford Guide To Writing, Kane

On Writing Well, Zinsser

Woe Is I, O’Conner

Reading And Writing, Davies

Marriage/Partnership & Parenting

(I'm not too drawn to this genre, as I prefer to leverage the fundamentals of communication and spirituality to all parts of my life. On the other hand, some specialization where necessary is a good thing. My wife bought the first two books for me, and I bought the third for her, and enjoyed the third quite a bit myself.)

If Only He Knew, Smaley

? Dad The Family Coach, Simmons (One good story. Otherwise not that useful.)

* Get Out of My Life, but first can you take me and Cheryl to the mall?, Wolf. (Skimmed. I should read it straight through. Great book if you're struggling with your teenager not meeting your expectations. Gives a balanced look at the issues, and very insightful. I should have read this book 8 years ago to help in my children's earlier teen years.)

Neuro-Linguistic Programming

(The early, fundamental books on NLP carry in my view some fascinating and quite useful models for understanding oneself and others.)

* Frogs Into Princes, Bandler & Grinder

* The Structure of Magic I, Bandler & Grinder.

* The Structure of Magic II, Bandler & Grinder.

* Instant Self-Hypnosis, Blair.

My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales Of Milton H. Erickson, Rossen (in progress)

Patterns Of The Hypnotic Techniques Of Milton H. Erickson, M.D., Volume I, Bandler & Grinder (in progress)

Therapeutic Metaphors, Gordon (in the queue)

Introducing NLP, Oconnor & Seymour (Reference)

Classics, Russian

* War and Peace, Tolstoy, English translation by Maude & Maude (One of my all time favorites.)

* Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky, English translation by Pevear & Volokhosnsky (Anyone thinking about perpetrating a violent crime should first read this book.)

? Brother’s Karamazov, Dostoevsky, English translation by Pevear & Volokhosnsky (I kept waiting for the story to get really good. It never did for me. Too many pages in that case.)

* Dead Souls, Gogel, English translation by Reavy (very clever story line)

Classics, Spiritual

* The Holy Bible, New International Version, Zondervan. (Read straight through, alongside Old King James version. Recommend follow-up with Bible Study Fellowship, Israel and the Minor Prophets, weekly, year long Bible study, to map out and understand the old testament.)

Confessions, St Augustine, English translation by Chadwick (read alongside Knopp.)

* The Holy Quran (English translation) Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Read straight though. Beautiful writing.)

The Teaching of Buddha, English Translation, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (up to pg 242.)

The Book of Mormon (up to pg 160)

Classics, Other

The Iliad, Homer, English translation by Fagles

The Odyssey, Homer, English translation by Fagles

Don Quixote, Cervantes, English translation by Putnum (up to page 440. Read alongside Jarvis)

The Count of MonteCristo, Dumas, English translation by Buss.

Goeth’s Faust, English translation by Kaufmann (read alongside Farrell and alongside Atkins.)

Macbeth, Shakespeare (Watch Shakespeare’s plays before or while reading the text.)

Othello, Shakespeare

Hamlet, Shakespeare (2/3 through. Will finish it sometime.)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain

The Old Man And The Sea, Hemingway

The Art Of War, Sun Tzu

? The Prince, Machiavelli, English translation by Donno. (Tedious reading. One good nugget is all I got. Same nugget was in one of Jack Welch's books.)

Humor

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Adams (Good humor. English usage isn’t nearly as good as Pratchett.)

The Disc World Series, Pratchett (Humor, fantasy, parody. Master of English usage.) Reading the books in order:

The Light Fantastic
Equal Rites
Sourcery
Wyrd Sisters
Pyramids
Guards!Guards!
Eric (Foust)
Moving Pictures
Reaper Man
Witches Abroad
Small Gods
Lords and Ladies
Men at Arms (in progress)

Carry On, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (up to story 7)

Science Fiction

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

* Dune, Herbert

Only You Can Save Mankind, Pratchett

Fantasy

The Hobbit, Tolkien

Poetry

Leaves Of Grass, Walt Whitman (up to pg 118)

Miscellaneous

* Night, Eli Wiesel

* Bravo Two-zero, McNab

* Stop The Ride, I Want To Get Of, Courtney

* Just For Fun, Linus Torvalds & David Diamond (on the creation of Linux)

* Steven Jobs, The Journey Is The Reward, Young

The Kimono Mind, Rudofski

Dave Barry Does Japan, Barry

* Brining Down The House, Mezrich

* Helter Skelter, Bugliosi & Gentry

The New Centurions, Joseph Wambaugh

Choirboys, Joseph Wambaugh

A is for Alibi, Grafton (had to try one)

Hobbies

* Become Your Darts, Orav (Very fun, how-to book on competitive steel tip darts.)

Fun-dart-men-tals, Harris (best book on the arithmetic of darts)

* The Coastal Kayaker, Kayak Camping on the Alaska and B.C. Coast.

* Sea Kayaker Deep Trouble, Boze & Gronseth (must read for serious sea kayakers)

Sea Kayak Navigation Simplified, Moyer.

The Basic Book of Sea Kayaking, Hutchinson.

The Bomb Proof Roll and Beyond, Dutky.

* the Mental edge, Baum. (Up to pg 94. Applies NLP to sports performance.)

* Competitive Shooting, A.A. Yur Yev, English translation by Anderson (This book changed my life in a small way in terms of applying repetition and mental focus to self-improvement. A key idea is that with repetition, more and more activities become wired and under control of the subconscious mind, and the conscious mind is freed up for awareness and command of the bigger picture. I used to shoot NRA Pistol 50 ft target, and IPSC action Link Men Link Women.)

The ABC's of Reloading, Grennell You Can't Miss, Shaw The Combat .45 Automatic, Wilson & Bane The Colt .45 Automatic, A Shop Manual, Kuhnhausen 45 Auto Custom Touches, Nye Ruger .22 Automatic Pistol, Long

* In The Gravest Extreme, Ayoob (not exactly in the sport target shooting genre, but an important book for any firearms owner.)

* Underwater Hunting and Gathering, California Edition, Sheckler

Sturgeon Fishing, Leonard

Bunch of other fishing books that I've since sold. They didn't help me much. After all that reading, the fish still usually outsmart me!

Play Winning Chess, Seirawan

Winning Chess Tactics, Seirawan

More chess books than I care to admit, and fewer pages read in most than I care to admit.

* The Mule Alternative, Stamm (We keep other people's mules and horses on our 3.5 acre pasutre, and used to finish off beef cattle. We never did buy our own equine, probably a good thing. I understand a lot now about equine behaviour, but never put the riding knowlege to much practice. My daughter took more to dance and karate, and my son to skateboarding. My son and I built a 24' x 18' x 4' half pipe in the shop, actually. We did leave a little room for hay ;).

The Backyard Horseman, Rude Horesekeeping On a Small Acreage, Hill * Becoming an Effective Rider, Hill * Pack'n In On Mules and Horses, Elser & Brown Western Horsemenship, Shrake Your Horse, Chapple * Safe Horse, Safe Rider, Hass

Raising a Calf for Beef, Hobson

Bunch of books on masonry, fences, landscaping, raising farm animals, that I've since sold.

Cooking

Home Coffee Roasting, Davids

The Joy of Wokking, Martin Yan

Christianity

(I feel the need to explain where I'm coming from. At my core I’m agnostic. I do accept the Christian faith, on faith. I don’t push my thoughts on others, and I’m very open to others beliefs. As I said, at my core I’m agnostic.)

Mere Christianity, Lewis (A couple of good thought experiments about morality and love.)

* Screwtape Letters, Lewis (Very creative approach to the topics of sin & temptation. Written as letters from Satan to his angels.)

The Jesus I Never Knew, Yancey

The Ragamuffin Gospel, Manning

The Problem With Pain, Lewis

Where is God When It Hurts, Yancey

Close to His Majesty, Needham

Mother Teresa, The Authorized Biography, Chawla

* Evolution, A Theory In Crisis, Denton (excellent book on the topic.)

* The Fingerprint of God, Ross (excellent book on the topic.)

* A Christian Approach to Muslims, Detke (Excellent book on the topic. Main message is don't expect debate to convert Muslims to Christianity. Recommends that Christians demonstrate love and forgiveness in their own lives and in their interactions with others.)

The Purpose Driven Life, Warren (Could be summed up in one word. Give. I've come to believe that that's the whole point in Christianity.)

? Decision Making and the Will of God, Friesen (Tedious. Read the first half. Browsed the second half. Could be summed up as, “Don’t make decisions that aren’t consistent with God’s commands. Be sensible within those bounds.”)

Buddhism

? Wrestling With The Ox, Ingram. (Theological. Tedious. Didn’t do much for me.)