Books Ive Read
I started putting together a list of the books I've read along with basic ratings. Part of the idea is to remind myself of which ones are worth revisiting. Also, it's just fun to build the list. My rating systems is:
- 1/4 - I actively recommend against this book. Do not waste your time. - 2/4 - Someone may get something out of it, but I didn't. - 3/4 - Pretty good. Glad I read it. - 4/4 - Really enjoyable and/or educational. Definitely recommended. - 5/4 - A reminder to myself to read this book again in the future.
A caveat with these ratings is that I'm making them now even for books I read decades ago. For example, I have "On A Pale Horse" by Piers Anthony as 4/4. I read that in middle school and remember really enjoying it. No idea if it would hold up today. But, that's half the fun of lists like this.
I've got a bunch more that I'll add over time. Until then, here's the first version of the list.
| Title | Author | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | George Orwell | 4/4 |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey | Arthur C Clarke | 4/4 |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 3/4 |
| Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | 4/4 |
| All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World | Seth Godin | 3/4 |
| Art and Fear - Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking | David Bayles and Ted Orland | 3/4 |
| Art of War, The | Sun Tzu | 3/4 |
| Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Silence Dogood | 3/4 |
| Basic Woodworking | Editors of Sunset Books | 4/4 |
| Bearing an Hourglass | Piers Anthony | 3/4 |
| Being a Green Mother | Piers Anthony | 3/4 |
| Blue Ocean Strategy | W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne | 5/4 |
| Brand Against the Machine | John Morgan | 3/4 |
| Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | 4/4 |
| Cat's Cradle | Kurt Vonnegut | 3/4 |
| Catching Fire: The Second Book of the Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | 3/4 |
| Children of the Sky | Vernor Vinge | 4/4 |
| Contact | Carl Sagan | 4/4 |
| Conversion Marketing | Bryan Heathman | 1/4 |
| Crush It | Gary Vaynerchuk | 5/4 |
| Cryptonomicon | Neal Stephenson | 4/4 |
| Curve of the Future | Edward Passerini | 4/4 |
| Diamond Age | Neal Stephenson | 5/4 |
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K Dick | 3/4 |
| Don't Make Me Think - A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability | Steve Krug | 5/4 |
| Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom | Cory Doctorow | 3/4 |
| Duck Tape Marketing | John Jantsch | 5/4 |
| Dune | Frank Herbert | 5/4 |
| E-Myth Revisited | Michael E. Gerber | 5/4 |
| Ender's Game | Orson Scott Card | 4/4 |
| Enough | Patrick Rhone | 3/4 |
| Eon | Greg Bear | 3/4 |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | 4/4 |
| Fire Upon the Deep | Vernor Vinge | 4/4 |
| Forever War, The | Joe Halderman | 3/4 |
| Forge of God, The | Greg Bear | 3/4 |
| Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 3/4 |
| Four Hour Workweek | Timothy Ferris | 5/4 |
| Fourty-eight Laws of Power | Robert Greene | 2/4 |
| Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | 4/4 |
| Free Prize Inside | Seth Godin | 3/4 |
| Free: The Future of a Radical Price | Chris Anderson | 3/4 |
| Get Things Done | David Allen | 5/4 |
| Get Things Done Live | David Allen | 5/4 |
| Getting to Yes | Roger Fisher and William Ury | 3/4 |
| Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The | Stieg Larsson | 3/4 |
| Handmaid's Tale, The | Margaret Atwood | 3/4 |
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) | J.K. Rowling | 3/4 |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) | J.K. Rowling | 3/4 |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) | J.K. Rowling | 3/4 |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) | J.K. Rowling | 3/4 |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) | J.K. Rowling | 3/4 |
| Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Book 1) | J.K. Rowling | 3/4 |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) | J.K. Rowling | 3/4 |
| Have Space-Suit Will Travel | Robert A Heinlein | 3/4 |
| Head First Java | Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates | 3/4 |
| Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | 4/4 |
| How to Stay Motivated - The Goals Program | Zig Ziglar | 5/4 |
| How to Stay Motivated: Developing the Qualities of Success | Zig Ziggler | 4/4 |
| How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary | Robert L. Read | 3/4 |
| Hunger Games, The | Suzanne Collins | 3/4 |
| I Will Teach You To Be Rich | Ramit Sethi | 3/4 |
| I, Robot | Isacc Asimov. | 4/4 |
| Ignore Everybody | Hugh MacLeod | 4/4 |
| Incredible Secret Money Machine II, The | Don Lancaster | 5/4 |
| Information Dashboard Design - The Effective Visual Communication of Data | Stephen Few | 5/4 |
| Intelligent Entrepreneur, The | Bill Murphy | 2/4 |
| Lost World, The | Michael Crichton | 3/4 |
| Magic of Thinking Big, The | David Schwartz | 5/4 |
| Marketing for Millions | Canfield, Eker, Assaraf, Mandossian | 1/4 |
| Mastery | Robert Greene | 3/4 |
| Meditations | Marcus Aurelius | 2/4 |
| Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | 3/4 |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson | 5/4 |
| On the Road | Jack Kerouac | 3/4 |
| On a Pale Horse | Piers Anthony | 4/4 |
| Paradox of Choice, The: Why More Is Less | Barry Schwartz | 5/4 |
| Pep Talk, The: A Football Story About The Business Of Winning | Kevin Elko and Robert L. Shook | 2/4 |
| Postman, The | David Brin | 4/4 |
| Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby An Agile Primer | Sandi Metz | 3/4 |
| Pragmatic Programer, The: From Journeyman to Master | Dave Thomas | Andy Hunt | 5/4 |
| Purple Cow | Seth Godin | 3/4 |
| Quiet - The Power of Introverts | By Susan Cain | 5/4 |
| Ready Player One | Ernest Cline | 5/4 |
| Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself | John Jantsch | 5/4 |
| Rework | Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson | 3/4 |
| Rich Dad, Poor Dad | Robert Kiyosaki | 5/4 |
| Richest Man in Babylon | George Clason | 5/4 |
| Scanner Darkly, A | Philip K Dick | 3/4 |
| Secrets of the Millionaire Mind | T. Harv Eker | 5/4 |
| Seven Habits of Highly Effective People | Stephen R. Covey | 3/4 |
| Slaughterhouse Five | Kurt Vonnegut | 4/4 |
| Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson | 4/4 |
| Speaker for the Dead | Orson Scott Card | 3/4 |
| Starship Troopers | Robert A Heinlein | 5/4 |
| Stranger in a Strange Land | Robert A Heinlein | 5/4 |
| Stumbling on Happiness | Daniel Gilbert | 3/4 |
| Thunderstruck | Erik Larson | 4/4 |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 5/4 |
| Unemployed Millionnaire | Matt Morris | 1/4 |
| Walden; or, Life in the Woods | Henry David Thoreau | 5/4 |
| War of Art; Winning the Inner Creative Battle | Steven Pressfield | 3/4 |
| Wielding a Red Sword | Piers Anthony | 3/4 |
| With a Tangled Skein | Piers Anthony | 3/4 |
| Wind Through the Keyhole, The | Stephen King | 4/4 |
| Wool Omnibus (vol. 1-5 - The Silo Saga) | Hugh Howey | 4/4 |
| Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | Robert M. Pirsig | 3/4 |
| Zero History | William Gibson | 3/4 |
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