Mostly for my own documentary benefit every year I recap the books I read. Below is the 2011 edition. You can find previous editions here: 2009, 2010.
If you are like me, I bet you’ll appreciate being exposed to stuff to read. Five stars means YOU MUST READ. One star means do not waste your time. Other ratings mean you may or may not like it…
| Title | Author | My Rating | Comments |
| Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) | Suzanne Collins | ***** | The whole hunger games trilogy is simply great. |
| Freedom™ | Daniel Suarez | ***** | Sequel to Daemon. Fantstic stuff. |
| Ghost in the Wires | Kevin Mitnick | ***** | Probably the best book I read in 2011. Fantastic. |
| Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) | Suzanne Collins | ***** | The whole hunger games trilogy is simply great. |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | ***** | The whole hunger games trilogy is simply great. |
| WIRED | Douglas E. Richards | ***** | A really, really great read. Fun twists and turns. Brain boggling ending. |
| Zero Day: A Novel | Mark Russinovich | ***** | A fantastic cyber-thriller from a 1st time author. Mark knows his sh**. |
| Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers | Alexander Osterwalder | **** | GREAT framework for business model planning |
| Gridlinked | Neal Asher | **** | Fast paced. Solid SF. |
| Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft | Paul Allen | **** | Super interesting. |
| Immune (The Rho Agenda : Book Two) | Richard Phillips | **** | Great series. |
| Knights of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book Two) | Lawrence P. White | **** | Fun, intriguing, trilogy. |
| Last of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book One) | Lawrence P. White | **** | Fun, intriguing, trilogy. |
| Long Eyes | Jeff Carlson | **** | Set of short stories. A few will blow your mind. |
| Monsters | Jeff Carlson | **** | totally worth 99 cents. fun short stories. |
| Nikon D7000 Digital Field Guide | Thomas | **** | Really useful having on your Kindle (or Kindle enabled smartphone). |
| Plague War | Jeff Carlson | **** | 2nd book in seriesI really enjoyed this series. |
| Plague Year | Jeff Carlson | **** | 1st book in series. Worthy. |
| Plague Zone (Plague Year) | Jeff Carlson | **** | 3rd book in series. Fantastic stuff. |
| Reamde: A Novel | Neal Stephenson | **** | Not his best book, but a great read |
| Seeker (An Alex Benedict Novel) | Jack McDevitt | **** | |
| The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Law, 3rd Edition | Dauchy, Craig E., Constance E. (Constance E. Bagley) Bagley | **** | Buy this book. Read it. |
| The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery | Tony Hey, Stewart Tansley, Kristin Tolle | **** | I miss Jim Gray. |
| The Frozen Sky | Jeff Carlson | **** | I’ll now read anything by Carlson. |
| The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses | Eric Reis | **** | Every ‘starter’ should read this book. |
| The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia | C.S. Lewis | **** | A classic. |
| The Mandel Files, Volume 1: Mindstar Rising & A Quantum Murder | Peter F. Hamilton | **** | Just about everything Peter F. Hamilton writes is worthy of a read. This is no exception. |
| The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda : Book One) | Richard Phillips | **** | Great series. |
| Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist | Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson | **** | Solid. I learned a bunch. |
| 7th Sigma | Steven Gould | *** | Solid beach read. Good concept. Brain boggling ending. |
| Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming | Peter Seibel | *** | Fun reading about some of my hero’s stories. |
| Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days | Jessica Livingston | *** | Great insights into some of the most famous “startups” |
| Full Share (Solar Clipper Trader Tales) | Nathan Lowell | *** | If you like Heinlein, you will like Lowell’s stuff. Read the whole series. |
| Fuzzy Nation | John Scalzi | *** | Going to be a classic. |
| Half Share (Solar Clipper Trader Tales) | Nathan Lowell | *** | If you like Heinlein, you will like Lowell’s stuff. Read the whole series. |
| Heat Wave (Nikki Heat) | Richard Castle | *** | Sexy crime novels are not normally a genre I read. But this was a great beach read. |
| Out of the Black | Lee Doty | *** | i enjoyed it. Amazon reviews nailed it. |
| Quarter Share (Solar Clipper Trader Tales) | Nathan Lowell | *** | If you like Heinlein, you will like Lowell’s stuff. Read the whole series. |
| Ready Player One | Ernest Cline | *** | Lived in the 80’s? You’ll love this! |
| Robopocalypse: A Novel | Daniel H. Wilson | *** | Fast & fun. I for one welcome our new robotic overlords. |
| Rule 34 (Halting State) | Charles Stross | *** | 4 stars for the idea but 2 for execution |
| Steve Jobs | Walter Isaacson | *** | Disappointing, in the end. |
| The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security | Kevin Mitnick | *** | |
| The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything | Guy Kawasaki | *** | Disappointing, compared to The Macintosh Way |
| The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught | Jack Campbell | *** | Solid (if somewhat mindless) space opera. |
| The Lost Fleet: Victorious | Jack Campbell | *** | Solid (if somewhat mindless) space opera. |
| Against All Odds (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 7) | Thomas DePrima | ** | I’m going to read the whole series. Just because. |
| Castle Vroman (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 6) | Thomas DePrima | ** | I’m going to read the whole series. Just because. |
| Designing for the Social Web | Joshua Porter | ** | Whatever. Not even sure why I bought this, much less finished it. |
| Milor! (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 5) | Thomas DePrima | ** | I’m going to read the whole series. Just because. |
| Submarine Warriors > The Enemy Beneath | Rob Tiffany | ** | Pre-teens might like it. |
| Trader Vyx (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 4) | Thomas DePrima | ** | I’m going to read the whole series. Just because. |
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Really nice list with goof comments, however, I think that “In the Plex” by Steven Levy should be on that list.
But I didn’t read In the Plex. How can it be on the list if I didn’t read it?
I just meant that “In the Plex” is a very good book for anyone interested in technology. It was not meant to offend you or anything like that.
Gotcha. I didn’t understand. Now I do. Thanks; I’ll add it to my list of books to read.
Charlie, check out Shantaram. I think you will like it.
Thanks. On my wishlist now.
Dave Eggers wrote a couple of really good books I read recently: Zeitoun, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius…that and Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez are all great, if you are looking for books for your list!
You
might want to check out “Wool” (Hugh Howey) — great book