Reading

In my post Things I have learned from my past jobs, I discussed how I have tried to keep up the habit of reading computer and business related books on a regular basis. I have managed to keep this habit up quite well. My reading lately has been primarily business and computer books, with a few other fiction and non-fiction books for variety. For example, in 2005 I read 36 books, of which 13 were business related and 14 were computer related. In 2006, I read 29 books, of which 12 were business related and 5 were computer related.

I used to buy many books and I still buy a few, but I primarily try to get books from the library now. The Calgary Public Library has an excellent selection of computer and business books to choose from which has made this easy.

I try to take notes on all of the computer and business books I read, especially if they come from the library, so I can remember the most important information from them. I will post some of these summaries in future posts.

My favourite books from the past two years have been:

2006

• Implementing Lean Software Development – Poppendieck
• The Success Principles – Canfield
• The Essential Drucker – Drucker
• What Customers Want – Ulwick
• Becoming A Technical Leader – Weinberg
• Domain Driven Design – Evans
• Blue Ocean Strategy – Kim
• Lean Software Development – Poppendieck
• The Tipping Point – Gladwell
• A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bryson
• Good to Great – Collins

2005

• Agile Management for Software Engineering – Anderson
• The Innovator’s Solution – Christensen
• The Simplicity Survival Handbook – Jensen
• Crossing the Chasm – Moore
• The Humane Interface – Raskin
• The Innovator’s Dilemma – Christensen
• Re-imagine – Peters
• The Goal – Goldratt
• The Fifth Discipline – Senge
• Head First Design Patterns – Freeman
• Now: Discover Your Strengths
• Beyond Software Architecture – Hohmann
• Refactoring – Fowler
• Agile Software Development – Martin