My summer 2011 reading list

I saw a little while ago that Seth Godin has a summer reading list posted. Just for the sake of discussion, here’s what I’m hoping to plow through this summer:

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge

Perhaps this is outdated and/or discredited by now, as most business books become over time, but I find the notion of “learning organizations” pretty fascinating and figured I’d learn more from the source. I bought a used copy from the early 90s, written in a pre-Internet era, but it’s an interesting read. Amazon

Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal

I’m reading this to prepare for a presentation I’m giving at SIDLIT later this summer on the topic of gamification. So far it’s more big picture than some of the other things I’ve read, and less about schmaltzy markety stuff. So I like it. See her TED talk for a primer. Amazon

Crafting Rails Applications: Expert Practices for Everyday Rails Development by José Valim

I picked this up during a recent Pragmatic Programmers deal and have been looking forward to it for a few reasons. I like the idea of looking at core Rails code to become a better Rails and Ruby developer, and I’m curious to see what a book that totally co-opted the name of my insanely popular Rails blog in its name has to say. (I kid.) Amazon

Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-pop Pioneers who Launched Modern Rock by Andrew Earles

Just because they’re the greatest band ever. Amazon

. . .

I should mention that I don’t have any Amazon affiliate accounts set up or anything; the links are just for reference. Buy these from wherever you’d like. If you have or would like to read any of these, I’d love to talk about them with you sometime.

June 15, 2011. Questions or comments? Let me know what you think.