Mike Lee.org - Weekly Random Rambles, Musings & Writings of Mike Lee

I used to be a ferocious reader when I was younger, slamming away a book a week (or a book a day). Then came college and I couldn't find time for reading anymore, busying myself with a bunch of jobs and student clubs instead. While I was working in London during the winter of 1999, I made a resolution to start reading again.

Here are the books I've had the pleasure of enjoying since then (along with some books that have yet to be read). Yup, I'm a total book geek.

Reading

• Organizational Behavior by Stephen Robbins
• The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (and What To Do About It) by Michael Raynor

To Be Read

• Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics by Paul Ormerod
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
• E-Myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company by Michael Gerber
• More at my Amazon.com Wish List

Read

Literary Fiction

• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
• Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• For One More Day by Mitch Albom
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel In Two Semesters by Chip Kidd
• The Nanny Diaries: A Novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
• Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella
• Turning Thirty by Mike Gayle
• Whatever Love Means by David Baddiel
• Ava's Man by Rick Bragg
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho
• Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho
• By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho
• The Fuck-Up by Arthur Nersesian
• Men And Other Mammals by Jim Keeble
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• Man and Boy by Tony Parsons
• A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
• About a Boy by Nick Hornby
• High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
• My Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• Naked by David Sedaris
• The Broke Diaries by Angela Nissel
• Shopgirl by Steve Martin
• The Pleasure of My Company: A Novel by Steve Martin
• The Beach by Alex Garland
• A Gesture Life: A Novel by Chang-Rae Lee
• The Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong Keltner
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
• A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
• Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
• Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
• Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah
• American Knees by Shawn Wong
• Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
• Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
• Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
• Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
• The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Humor

• The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry
• Big Trouble by Dave Barry
• Tricky Business by Dave Barry
• Dave Barry's Greatest Hits by Dave Barry
• Dave Barry is from Mars and Venus by Dave Barry
• Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys by Dave Barry
• Dave Barry is Not Taking This Sitting Down! by Dave Barry
• Dave Barry in Cyberspace by Dave Barry
• A Year in Van Nuys by Sandra Tsing Loh
• Depth Takes A Holiday by Sandra Tsing Loh
• Seinlanguage by Jerry Seinfeld
• Letters from a Nut by Ted Nancy
• More Letters from a Nut by Ted Nancy
• Couplehood by Paul Reiser
• Babyhood by Paul Reiser
• Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson

Thrillers

• Haunted: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
• Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
• Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
• Deception Point by Dan Brown
• Prey by Michael Crichton
• The Brethren by John Grisham
• Taking Lives by Michael Pye
• Abduction by Robin Cook
• The Paperboy by Pete Dexter

Horror

• Cell by Stephen King
• Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King
• Nightmares & Dreamscapes by stephen King
• Desperation by Stephen King
• Different Seasons by Stephen King
• Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
• It by Stephen King
• Misery by Stephen King
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Night Shift by Stephen King
• Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
• Needful Things by Stephen King
• Cujo by Stephen King
• The Best of H. P. Lovecraft by H. P. Lovecraft
• Books of Blood: Volumes 1-3 by Clive Barker
• The Damnation Game by Clive Barker
• Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz
• Watchers by Dean Koontz
• Tick Tock by Dean Koontz

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

• The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Writing

• Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
• Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course by Jerry Cleaver
• On Writing Well by William Zinsser
• Writing About Your Life by William Zinsser
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
• No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Maggie Mason

Non-Fiction

• How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman
• Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity by Sharon Moalem
• A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
• Honeymoon With My Brother: A Memoir by Franz Wisner
• Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor
• The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
• Halfway Heaven by Melanie Thernstrom
• Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich
• Guerrilla Gambling by Frank Scoblete
• Galloway's Book on Running by Jeff Galloway
• The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions by Huston Smith
• Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
• The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity by Lee Strobel
• The Gift for All People: Thoughts on God's Great Grace by Max Lucado
• Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
• Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Life Lessons

• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
• Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project by Dave Isay
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson
• Why Do I Love These People? Understanding, Surviving, and Creating Your Own Family by Po Bronson
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
• Emily Post's Etiquette by Peggy Post
• The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Psychology

• Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman
• Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman
• Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini
• Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey
• The Power of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business by Jerry Wind
• The Portable Jung by Carl Jung

Sociology & Anthropology

• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt
• The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz

Leadership & Management

• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham
• Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham
• Less is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity by Jason Jennings
• Winning by Jack Welch
• Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow by Chip Conley
• The Practice of Management by Peter Drucker
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
• Successful Manager's Handbook: Development Suggestions for Today's Managers by Susan Gebelein
• Manager's Toolkit: The 13 Skills Managers Need to Succeed by Harvard Business School Press
• The Book of Management Wisdom: Classic Writings by Legendary Managers by Peter Krass
• The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey by William Oncken
• Principle-Centered Leadership by Stephen Covey
• Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job by Otto Kroeger
• You Play to Win The Game by Herman Edwards
• The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge
• Family Wars by Grant Gordon & Nigel Nicholson

Business & Marketing

• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston
• Never Bet the Farm: How Entrepreneurs Take Risks, Make Decisions and How You Can, Too by Anthony Iaquinto and Stephen Spinelli Jr.
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
• Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don't by Jim Collins
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins
• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
• The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Friedman
• The World is Flat? A Critical Analysis of New York Times Bestseller by Thomas Friedman by Ronald Aronica & Mtetwa Ramdoo
• Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change by Clayton Christensen
• The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton Christensen
• The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• Inside the Tornado: Strategies for Developing, Leveraging, and Surviving Hypergrowth Markets by Geoffrey Moore
• Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
• Rules for Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services by Guy Kawasak
• The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle
• Dot.con: How America Lost Its Mind and Money In the Internet Era by John Cassidy
• China Dawn: The Story of a Technology and Business Revolution by David Sheff
• Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer by Michael Silverstein
• Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill
• Branded Male by Mark Tungate
• Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump
• Small is the New Big by Seth Godin
• Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin
• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
• Webonomics by Evan Schwartz
• The Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide for Running a Graphic Design or Communications Business by Cameron Foote
• The Art of War & The Amazing Secrets of Sun Tzu by Sun Tzu and Gary Gagliardi

Finance & Investing

• The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham
• The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America by Warren Buffett
• Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Taleb
• More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places by Michael Mauboussin
• 7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness: Power Ideas from America's Foremost Business Philosopher by Jom Rohn
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money, That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert Kiyosaki
• Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom by Robert Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! by Robert Kiyosaki
• The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley PhD and William Danko PhD
• The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason
• The Motley Fools Rule Breakers Rule Makers: The Foolish Guide To Picking Stocks by David Gardner and Tim Gardner
• The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing by Jason Kelly
• Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing by Kenneth Morris

Project Management

• The Software Project Manager's Handbook: Principles That Work at Work by Dwayne Phillips
• Death March by Edward Yourdon
• Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide by Craig Larman
• The Rational Unified Process, An Introduction by Philippe Kruchten
• The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook: An Implementation Guide for Process Improvement Teams by Peter Pande
• Fundamentals of Project Management: Developing Core Competencies to Help Outperform the Competition by James Lewis
• Collaborative Web Development: Strategies and Best Practices for Web Teams by Jessica Burdman
• Managing Multimedia Projects by Roy Strauss

Software Engineering

• Code Complete by Steve McConnell
• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick Brooks
• Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom Demarco
• Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules by Steve McConnell
• Applied Statistics for Software Managers by Katrina Maxwell
• Software Metrics: A Rigorous and Practical Approach by Norman Fenton

Web Design & Development

• Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization by Andrew King
• Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
• Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook by Dan Cederholm
• Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites by Patrick Lynch
• Making the Web Work: Designing Effective Web Applications by Bob Baxley
• Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience by Jennifer Fleming
• Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld
• Digital Type Design Guide: The Page Designer's Guide to Working With Type by Sean Cavanaugh
• Secrets of Successful Web Sites by David Siegal
• The Internet Design Project: The Best of Graphic Art on the Web by Patrick Burgoyne

Graphic Design

• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
• Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine by Donald Norman
• A History of Graphic Design by Philip Meggs
• Principles of Form and Design by Wucius Wong
• Visual Literacy: A Conceptual Approach to Graphic Problem Solving by Judith Wilde
• Graphic Style: From Victorian to Digital by Steven Heller
• Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward Tufte
• Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
• The Art of Typography by Martin Solomon
• Colorist: A Practical Handbook for Personal and Professional Use by Shigenobu Kobayashi
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

User Interface Design

• About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design by Alan Cooper
• GUI Design Essentials by Susan Weinschenk
• The Elements of User Interface Design by Theo Mandel
• Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques by Kevin Mullet
• Designing Business: Multiple Media, Multiple Disciplines by Clement Mok

Usability Engineering

• Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity by Jakob Nielsen
• Usability Engineering by Jakob Nielsen
• The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design by Deborah Mayhew