Mitch tagged me with his book meme.
- What is the last book you read, the book you are currently reading and the next book you plan to read:
Last: Why Business People Speak Like Idiots, Fugere et. al.
Currently: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcom Gladwell
Next: Breads from the La Brea Bakery - Nancy Silverton's
- In no particular order, what are your five favorite works of fiction:
- 1984, George Orwell
- Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
- Illusions, Richard Bach
- 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
- My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett
- In no particular order, what are your five favorite non-fiction books:
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini -- see also sales parable
- Trust Us, We're Experts, Stauber and Rampton -- I've been a skeptic of the news ever since reading this and Toxic Sludge is Good For You.
- Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh
- Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Marion Cunningham et al.
- The Miles From Nowhere, Barbara Savage
- Who are your five favorite fiction writers:
- William Shakespeare -- Same comment about longevity. In contrast, I can't stand any of Tom Clancy's older stuff.
- John Grisham -- though the guy can't write an ending, he's great at hooking me in for 2/3 of the book
- Arthur C. Clarke, before Cradle. Nearly everything since feels like it's Gentry Lee.
- Robert Heinlein
- Max Barry -- writes marketing fiction for the sake of writing fiction
- Who are your five favorite non-fiction writers
- Michael Palin
- Simon Singh
- Christopher Kimball -- I like the Cook's Illustrated series for the humor and research. He also wrote The Kitchen Detective
- John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton -- I don't agree with all their stuff, but their research is a good model for journalists.
- Philip Greenspun -- arrogant and self-absorbed, but his text is entertaining; funniest technical book ever.
- What books have you read more than once: I have kids; therefore, the list is infinitely long. Favorites include the books above. I've also started rereading a lot of the western "classics" from high school, finding that most are actually enjoyable now that I don't have to write a book report on them.
- What autographed books do you own, and who signed them: Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike." Al Franken's "Lying Liars" (when he spoke at Amazon). David Gautschi's "Net Markets." Robert Malmgren's "Land Buyer's Guide" Terry Pratchett's "Eric."
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