How Many Books Could a Bookworm Chuck, if a Bookworm Could Chuck Books?
Henry Miller claimed in The Books in My Life that the most literate people he knew had probably read around twenty or thirty thousand books. Easy to do without TV. I've been journaling all my reading for six years and I have around 300 titles recorded. The most books I'd read in one year prior to this effort was 74, so I figured it would be a good challenge to shoot for a hundred. I ended up at 116 and I'm glad I was persistent in my reading in 2006 as I was able to cover a great variety of topics. I kind of read myself sick, though, and started 2007 by taking my sweet time to finish Les Miserables, in which I'd had a bookmark since 1999! I continue to be a little more deliberate this year and I don't have a specific goal, but the pace is picking back up; I see something I want to read every day!
Nonfiction
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Edition 001)
Egan's writing becomes plodding at points, but I found the subject matter here enthralling.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/22/2008) 
![The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410FGAGYGPL._SL75_.jpg)
The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
This book makes me want to move to India and start a backend technical services company! It's incredibly well-researched and optimistic but too one sided for me. You mean there are absolutely no drawbacks to globalization Mr. Freidman?
Amazon Price: $12.00 (as of 11/22/2008)
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
This is a very thorough, well-researched account of the run-up to the most recent invasion of Iraq. It makes a strong case that the administration ignored advice from seasoned military professionals on many occasions.
Amazon Price: $18.45 (as of 11/22/2008)
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States)
This is an insightful, exhaustive account of the Civil War. If you want his unique conclusions about the nature of the war, though, you can read the last two pages and skip the other eight hundred!
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Great Depression: America 1929-1941
So what caused the Great Depression? Who knows!? There's no easy answer, so don't look for it here. I was especially fascinated with the portrayal of Herbert Hoover. He was quite the American hero and probably a sucker for giving Coolidge someone to replace him when he knew it was it time to go, but not the anti-Christ of economics many would now have you believe.
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 11/22/2008)
On Writing
An inspiring, accessible book with a wide range of practical advice.
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 11/22/2008)
Famous Romans [Audiobook] by Fears, Profess J. Rufus Teaching Company
Was it cheating to include an audiobook or two? I say "no" because they were more time intensive than print material. Anyway, this was a great experience. Professor Fears brings the battles with Hannibal to life along with the rest of ancient Rome.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
The Exact Same Moon: Fifty Acres and a Family
A comforting account of adoption.
Amazon Price: $10.40 (as of 11/22/2008)
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
I'm somewhat annoyed by the cheapness and condescension of "repackaging" academic research for laymen, but this was an interesting book.
Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
Here's a crazy idea: speak the truth to your customers in an authentic voice and listen when they talk.
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 11/22/2008)
On Intelligence
A fascinating summary of neuroanatomy and exposition of the author's cortical function theory, the "memory-prediction framework."
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
The author makes a strong case that capitalism's many failures out side the west have been caused by an absence of property rights and title exchange systems. This absence prevents the citizenry from tapping their greatest source of capital - their land and homes.
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management
Drucker reminds us to separate the art of management from the practice of business.
Amazon Price: $12.21 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Verbose, complex, difficult to read. I'll Let the author explain - "portrays scientific development as a succession of tradition-bound periods punctuated by non-cumulative breaks." Got that?
Amazon Price: $10.40 (as of 11/22/2008)
How to Read and Why
Bloom gives a tour of his favorite literature and explains what may be gained from certain readings of same. His assertions are refreshing and his style excellent.
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 11/22/2008)
How to Read a Book (A Touchstone book)
Great for people who want to get the most out of their reading.
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 11/22/2008)
Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution (Collins Business Essentials)
Encourages readers to focus on process instead of function.
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 11/22/2008)
Understanding Jack Kerouac (Understanding Contemporary American Literature)
An excellent explanation of the Duluoz legend.
Amazon Price: $34.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
Complete Idiot's Guide to Project Management with Microsoft Project 2000 (Complete Idiot's Guide)
Comprehensive introduction to the principles and methods.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind
Fascinating and richly written. Focuses a little too much on da Vinci's failures.
Amazon Price: $12.24 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition)
This is supposed to be the layman's Security Analysis but it's pretty dang exhaustive on its own. Zweig's modern examples are much appreciated.
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
Investment Titans: Investment Insights from the Minds that Move Wall Street
Amazon Price: $24.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Little Book That Beats the Market (Little Books. Big Profits)
There's some good stuff here about using ROI to analyze a company and evaluating the shares of merger or acquisition candidates. Now we just have to hope nobody reads it!
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
Investing in Real Estate, 5th Edition
A comprehensive, responsible treatment of the subject.
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, 4th Ed.
Humble, clever, and surprisingly approachable.
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
Five Laws of Library Science
There's more here about rural Indian literacy efforts than I needed to know, but you can't be a librarian and not have read this.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Entrepreneurial Librarianship: The Key to Effective Information Services Management (Information Services Management Series)
Dry at times but clear about establishing the essence of entrepreneurial librarianship as risk taking.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Learn Library Management (Library Basics Series, 6)
Good book, but introductory in nature.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Creating the Customer-Driven Library: Building on the Bookstore Model
What I like here is that there are no radical redesigns called for. We can do a lot to make our libraries better at surprisingly low cost if we employ some creativity.
Amazon Price: $38.00 (as of 11/22/2008)
Creating the Agile Library: A Management Guide for Librarians (The Greenwood Library Management Collection)
Some of the material here was not exactly ground shaking, but it was a nice primer on making your library an organization which embraces and profits by change.
Amazon Price: $68.00 (as of 11/22/2008)
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
Amazon Price: $11.56 (as of 11/22/2008)
Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well
If you've been riding for long, you'll already know the best lesson in this book, which is that caution and good judgment are your most valuable tools. Worth reading to learn about the delayed-apex cornering technique, though.
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 11/22/2008)
Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (P.S.)
Amazon Price: $11.16 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
Lots of people get caught up arguing about when we'll run out of oil, it will happen, though, probably in my lifetime. What this book postulates is that we are in some major trouble if we don't prepare for the transitional period.
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 11/22/2008)
Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR
The author doesn't seem to make an effort to really understand the sport. If you've ever been to a race, you know the amazing spectacle of Cup racing and you'll be left wondering what this guy's problem is.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm
Charming, but Laskas is better when she's writing the "moving to the country" book than when she's writing her memoir.
Amazon Price: $10.40 (as of 11/22/2008)
Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix
Comprehensive, objective portrait but I would have liked more coverage of Jimi's music and more insight into his psychology.
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 11/22/2008)
Making Your Small Farm Profitable: Apply 25 Guiding Principles/Develop New Crops & New Markets/Maximize Net Profits Per Acre
Emphasizes adding value through processing and exploiting niche markets. Excellent book.
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Contrary Farmer (Real Goods Independent Living Book)
A wonderful book about the advantages of pastoral economics and self reliance.
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
Kaplan GMAT 800, 2006-2007 (Kaplan Gmat 800)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Kaplan GMAT 2006, Comprehensive Program (Kaplan Gmat)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
Amazon Price: $24.39 (as of 11/22/2008)
Getting Started in Technical Analysis (Getting Started In.....)
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/22/2008)
How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett: Profiting from the Bargain Hunting Strategies of the World's Greatest Value Investor
Good, but could have used some further practical instruction.
Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 11/22/2008)
In Cold Blood
The story is riveting but the writing does not hold up.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/22/2008)
Six Questions of Socrates: A Modern-Day Journey of Discovery Through World Philosophy
Amazon Price: $11.96 (as of 11/22/2008)
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Not that "great."
Amazon Price: $17.99 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
An excellent piece of writing about an interesting episode in American history.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/22/2008)
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Living to Tell the Tale
The elements of magical realism are clearly present in the ancedotes and impressions of the author's childhood.
Amazon Price: $21.56 (as of 11/22/2008)
Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holmes, Whose Grotesque Crimes Shattered Turn-of-the-Century Chicago
A suspenseful account of Holmes' dastardly exploits.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age (Finish Rich Book Series)
Of limited value.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/22/2008)
Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
For long stretches, I laughed out loud at every sentence.
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 11/22/2008)
Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas
Not as funny as the above-listed title.
Amazon Price: $16.50 (as of 11/22/2008)
Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death
Misses any opportunity for humor, persuasion, or insight.
Amazon Price: $18.21 (as of 11/22/2008)
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
The good Chuck: funny, insightful, sometimes meaningful.
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 11/22/2008)
The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint
Mostly idiotic but interesting in places.
Amazon Price: $23.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Accidental Library Manager
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends
Amazon Price: $24.00 (as of 11/22/2008)
Fiction
Europe Central
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
The Night Country : A Novel
I may well read this one again, it was so original and haunting.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
In the Night Room
A fragmented, hard-to-follow story that fails to reach its full potential.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Maus : A Survivor's Tale : My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began/Boxed
"Here my troubles began." That's the guy's description of his arrival at Auschwitz. The will to live exercised by Holocaust survivors is given wondrous voice in this masterpiece.
Amazon Price: $19.73 (as of 11/22/2008)
No Country for Old Men
This was my first Cormac McCarthy book and remains my favorite by a wide margin.
Amazon Price: $17.79 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 11/22/2008)
Out: A Novel
A circle of Japanese girlfriends is examined as they swirl around one member's murder of her husband. "Pretty good."