Books to Read – January 2012

I usually pull most of the books I recommend each month from my current reading list.  Last month, however, was a particularly bad month for reading for me.  I seemed to get in a rut of books I didn’t like and had a hard time getting out of it.  That is, until the last week and a half or so.  I only have three books on this month’s list, but all of them are very much worth a read.

Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rarely do I read a book that so gets ahold of me that I have pages of notes after only being half way through it.  Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are certainly two of them.  Emerson’s essays on self reliance are simply brilliant and will push you into uncomfortable questions about yourself.  This group of essays has been republished by Seth Godin’s Domino Project and I can’t recommend this reading any higher.  It’s January’s must-read.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

This is my first time reading the classic by Orwell, and I have found it to be both very entertaining and creative as well as prescient to our modern age as well.  Although the book was clearly focused on the gaping holes in Communist ideology (and practice), there are a remarkable number of practices in modern government that are played out in the drama on Animal Farm.  The self-importance, privilege and self-proclaimed aristocracy practiced by Napoleon and the pigs of Animal Farm will sound entirely too familiar.  This is a very easy read (I read it in about two or three hours), but well worth it.

The Litigators by John Grisham

I have been a fan of John Grisham from his first books.  He always seems to release a new book around this time of the year, and I usually end up reading it not long after.  The Litigators is an entertaining, easy-to-read story in the Grisham tradition of the small firm taking on the machine.  In this case, it’s toy manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies that play the villain, but it’s still classic Grisham fare.  If you are looking for something to read to relax, this is a good book to pick up.

Thanks as always for the feedback.  I am reading a book this month recommended by one of the regular readers, and am looking forward to reviewing it next month.  Until then, happy reading and happy new year!