Books to Read – April 2012

After a couple of months away due to laziness, the monthly Books to Read list is back.  There are some good ones in this month’s list.  I hope you enjoy them.

Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin

Sorry, no picture for this one.  If you have read this blog regularly, you know that I am a Seth Godin fan.  He thinks about the world in ways that are truly unique and inspire me to be better.  Stop Stealing Dreams is Seth’s poke at how to re-engineer education in the United States.  This is a favorite topic of mine, and Seth as usual does a great job of laying out the problem domain.  As with a lot of Seth’s books, this is a collection of “blog post” kind of chapters.  It’s meant to ask a lot of questions but not necessarily provide the answers.  This book is full of rich content, and it’s free to boot.  No excuse not to read it, and then share it with someone else.  This book is April’s must-read.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

I am noticeably late to this book series.  This book was first published back in the early 90’s.  Ender is a young boy recruited by the government to fight off the next attack of the Buggers, an alien race hostile to humans.  Ender is the product of years of genetic and social engineering.  In a world where only two offspring are allowed, Ender is a “Third”.  He is the chosen one, the commander that is the last hope to defeat the Buggers.  Together with his brother and sister, they chart a course to remake the world, though they are doing it in very different ways.  As with many books, I will read through this one again at some point.  Everyone in my family has read it as well.  It’s a challenging and thought-provoking piece.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

This was another recommendation by a friend, and again is a book that I am really late to the party on.  For those of you that enjoy the struggle of finding meaning in a disposable world, or enjoy reading about personal journey, this is a great book.  A classic father-son tale, this book explores life philosophy in the context of driving and fixing / understanding a machine, as well as the understanding of how things work.  This book appealed to my inner tug that there is a deeper current to pay attention to in the vicissitudes of life.

Mindfire by Scott Berkun

Scott Berkun is one of my favorite writer / bloggers.  Scott worked at Microsoft in the heyday of the company and has since punched out and written a few books in addition to his blog.  Mindfire is a collection of his best essays on a number of topics.  I find his writing insightful and provocative, and this book is meant to be read in small chunks.

That’s it for this month.  It’s good to be back.  Let me know what you think of this month’s selections.