thinkfetti

What I am reading now:

• Sharon Daloz Parks, Leadership Can Be Taught. Lessons from Ronald Heifetz’ leadership classroom at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
• Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living. Though I’ve read it before, it’s clearly time to again. In chaotic times, sanity is not likely to come clothed as logic…

Recent reads:

April 2007
• Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings. Translated by Andrew Hurley.
• Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading. Heifetz is the author of Leadership Without Easy Answers.
• Alan Watts, The Tao of Philosophy, Tao: The Watercourse Way, and Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life: Collected Talks, 1960-1969.

March 2007

• Franz Johansson, The Medici Effect. The impact of interdisciplinary activity on creativity and innovation.

January 2007

• Duncan J. Watts, Six Degrees. Layperson’s introduction to social network science.
• Daniel Mason, The Piano Tuner. A finely-wrought novel. I recommend it, although not based on how it made me feel on finishing it.
• Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist. I was traveling, and this book didn’t even make it to my “What I am reading now” list…it went very quickly to “Recent reads” because it went by so quickly. It is always interesting to me how the truths of stories transcend the truths of logic (kind of the way the real problems in life do not lend themselves to solutions rooted in logic).

December 2006
• Allan Ginsberg and Eric Drooker, Illuminated Poems. Welcome to the present impact of beat poetry. This one merits rereading soon.
• David Allen, Getting Things Done. The subtitle is apt: “The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” I have one blog entry on this so far, and will post another with a “how’s it going?” update.
• Rick Levine et al., The Cluetrain Manifesto. The web’s impact on business and how markets are returning to what they used to be: conversations.

November 2006
• J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians. Nobel prize-winning author on imperialism and the complexity of being human. Outstanding, devastating, generating hope.
• Mat Callahan, The Trouble with Music. How commercial interests create “anti-music.”

The waiting list (and on hold):

• J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
• Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism
• Peter Barnes, Capitalism 3.0
• Daniel J. Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music
• Stanley R. Rich and David E. Gumpert, Business Plans that Win $$$
• Rollo May, The Courage to Create
• William Lidwell et al, Universal Principles of Design
• Guy Deutscher, The Unfolding of Language
• Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Bi-lingual edition.
• Jeff Kelley, editor, Allan Koprow: Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. Kaprow is best known as the inventor of “happenings.”
• Mark Oakley, Managing Product Design.
• Tom Peters, Re-imagine!.