It’s every book-historian’s dream: a full record of everything, at the very least all the books, a person’s read. I started keeping track in 1997 I think, in a good old fashioned paper notebook, and have kept track online since 2005. The most recent years I haven’t been as diligent sadly, life sometimes got in the way and I’m reading a combination of digital and physical books, making it harder to keep track somehow.

Books read in 2014

• Ian Kershaw, ‘Hitler’ (****). Well-written, engaging, fascinating. Yet painful and not a page passed where I didn’t wish someone had just shot him.
• Naomi Steiner, ‘7 Steps to raising a bilingual child’ (***-).
• Peter York, ‘The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line’ (***)
• Jeffrey Schwartz, ‘You are not your brain’ (****-)
• Steve Leveen, ‘The Little Guide to your Well-read Life’ (***-)
• Will Schwalbe, ‘The end of your life book club’ (***)
• Christopher Morley, ‘The Haunted Bookshop’ (***1/2)
• Simon Garfield, ‘On the map: why the world looks the way it does’ (***)
• Robin Sloan, ‘Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore’ (***-)
• Jane Nelsen et al, ‘Positive Discipline’ (****)

Books read in 2013

• John Lanchester, ‘What we talk about when we talk about the Tube’ (****-)
• Brene Brown, ‘The Gifts of Imperfection’ (****-)
• Tracy Beckerman, ‘Lost in Suburbia: a momoir’ (**)
• Asha Dornfest & Christine Koh, ‘Minimalist Parenting’ (***)
• Reid Hoffmann & Ben Casnocha, ‘The Start-up of You’ (***)
• Matthew Amster-Burton, ‘Pretty Good Number One’ (***1/2)
• Mrs Moneypenny, ‘Mrs Moneypenny’s Careers Advice for Ambitious Women’ (***)
• Carol Dweck, ‘Mindset’ (****)
• Ruth Reichl, ‘Comfort me with apples’ (****1/2)
• Ruth Reichl, ‘Garlic and Sapphires’ (****1/2)

[am pretty sure there are some books missing on here]

Books read in 2012

• Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A Life (****)
• Suzan Jeffers, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (***)
• Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor (***+)
• Sandra Aamodt & Sam Wang, Welcome to your child’s brain (***)
• Anne Scott, 18 bookshops (***+)
• Various, Stop what you’re doing and read this (****-)
• Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness (***+)
• Julian Barnes, A life with books (****)
• Peter Carey, Wrong about Japan (***)
• Sara Roahen, Gumbo Tales. Finding my place at the New Orleans Table (****)
• Linda Furiya, Bento Box in the Heartland. My Japanese girlhood in whitebread America (***+)
• H.M. van den Brink, Spain body and soul (***+)
• Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride (****)
• Christopher Goto Jones, Modern Japan: a very short introduction (***+)

Books read in 20011

• Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus (****)
• Charlie Connolly, Attention All Shipping, a journey around the shipping forecast (***)
• Oliver Sacks, The Island of the Colourblind (***)
• Pascal Mercer, The Nighttrain to Lisbon (***)
• Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, Innovate the Pixar Way (**-)
• Jason Glaspley with Scott Kveton, From idea to web startup in 21 days: creating bacn.com (***)
• Charles Handy, The Search for Meaning (****)
• Charles Handy, Myself and Other More Important Things (***+)
• Anna Quindlen, Being Perfect (****)
• Umair Haque, The New Capitalist Manifesto (***+)
• Jane Jacobs, The Life and Death of Great American Cities (****)
• Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere, This Is Not The End Of The Book (***+)
• Erlend Loe, Naive.Super.
• Jonathan Fenby, The Penguin History of Modern China (****)
• Paul Theroux, Riding the Red Rooster (****)
• Lewis Buzzbee, The Yellow-lighted Bookshop (***)
• Peter Sims, Little Bets (***+)
• Paula Weideger, Venetian Dreaming (***)
• Johan Wolfgang Goethe, Italian Journey (****+)
• Andrew Graham Dixon, Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (***+)
• Dan and Chip Heath, Switch (***+)
• Scott Belsky, Making Ideas Happen (***)
• Edmund de Waal, The Hare with the Amber Eyes (****)

Books read in 2010

• Dan Pink: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (****)
• Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project (****-)
• Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From (***)
• Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel (****)
• Audrey Niffenegger: The Night Bookmobile (***)
• Donna Tartt: The Secret History (***)
• Joseph Persico: Nuremberg : Infamy on Trial(****)
• Cees Nooteboom: Roads to Santiago(****)
• Gertrude Stein: Paris France(***)
• Susan M. Weinschenk: Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? (***)
• Annabelle Ruston: Artist’s Guide to Selling Work (**)
• Louisa Buck: Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector’s Handbook (**)
• Elizabeth Kostova: The Historian (***)
• Edward Winkleman: How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery (How to Start & Run a) (***)
• Sarah Thornton (Author): Seven Days in the Art World (Paperback) (**)
• Ali Smith: The Accidental Part of my Penguin series. I must be almost halfway through the 36 by now, I think. (**)
• Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall: A Novel (Man Booker Prize) Great read. I’m not always a fan of historical novels, they can be a bit tacky and written with hindsight, but I loved this one. Tudor rocks! (****)
• Simon Schama: A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? – 3000 BC-AD 1603 v.1 (Vol 1) In an attempt to do some catching up on my English history. Bought at the great Oxfam store on Portobello Road. (***)
• Niall Ferguson: Empire How Britain Made the Modern World (****)
• Margaret Eleanor Atwood: Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (CBC Massey Lectures) (***)
• Marina Lewycka: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (***)
• Paul Theroux: Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown He’s grumpy, cynical, and sometimes a little too self-obsessed, but I couldn’t stop reading. (***)
• John Gottman: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (***)
• Michael Morpurgo: War Horse Moving. The world seen through horse’s eyes. War is senseless. (****)
• Susan Hill: Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home How can I resist a book which has one of my favourite books in the title? (****)
• Marisha Pessl: Special Topics in Calamity Physics Read this in the Dutch translation, in a Dwarsligger version. (****)
• Kevin McCloud: Kevin McCloud’s Grand Tour of Europe Accompanies the TV series. (****)
• Ryszard Kapuscinski: The Shadow of the Sun A wonderful way to go a little way to fill the huge gap which is my knowledge of Africa. Great book, lots of insight into culture and written with such compassion. (****)

Books read in 2009

• Tom Peters: Design (Tom Peters Essentials) (***)
• Pema Chodron: The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness (****)
• Robin Lane Fox: The Classical World (***)
• Daniel H. Pink: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need There is no plan. That’s it. (***)
• Charles Nicholl: Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind I have to admit, mr Nicholl got on my nerves. I almost threw this book down, but didn’t. The subject’s too interesting. And there is something to be said for a biographer with a view. Maybe we just have different tastes. (***)
• Nick Hornby: The Polysyllabic Spree Reading about reading. And books. Yeah. (***)
• Alberto Manguel: The Library at Night Libraries are special. Especially your own library. Even more so at night. (***)
• V. S. Ramachandran: Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind More on memory, more in storytelling form than Kandel’s book, which makes it a good complement. (***)
• Eric R. Kandel: In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of MindFabulous combination of the science of memory and how it evolved over the past century and Eric Kandel’s personal story. (****)
• Karen Armstrong: The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness (****)
• Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers: The Story of Success Gladwell as always the master story teller. Most people remember the 10,000 hours rule, I thought the social/cultural background bit was even more interesting. (****)
• Richard H. Thaler: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness If you need a little nudge to read this book, consider this it. Great examples of how a little choice architecture can improve people’s lives. (***)
• Haruki Murakami: Norwegian Wood In an effort to read local whilst in Japan, I read this on the plane back from Japan. But good nonetheless. Maybe even better read on the plane back than whilst there. (****)
• Alex Kerr: Lost Japan (Travel Literature) (Lonely Planet Lost Japan) Great insight into Japan, even if a tad morose sometimes (things used to be better. they always are) (***)
• Janelle McCulloch: La Vie Parisienne i love other people’s love for Paris. charmingly designed cover too. (***)
• Keri Smith: How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum see the world around you. really see it. look again. utterly charming. (****)
• Tom Kelley: The Ten Faces of Innovation: Strategies for Heightening Creativitymore on innovation (****)
• Roger L. Martin: Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking second read, still as relevant as on the first read (****)
• Arthur Gogatz: Business Creativity: Breaking the Invisible Barriers much food for creative thought (***)
• Paul Auster: The New York Trilogy (Green Integer) (****)
• Steven Pressfield: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles (***)
• Susan Jeffers: Feel the Fear … and Do It Anyway (r) (***)
• Stephen Baker: The Numerati how maths and stats and sifting-through-data is taking over the world. good introductory read to the topic. (***)
• Tal Ben-Shahar: Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillmentgood positive psychology book; reminded me that I need to do more of these exercises (****)
• Jane Green: Bookends: A Novel Two women starting a bookshop in West Hampstead, my old stomping ground… how could I not pick this up and read it? (**)
• Dan Ariely: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisionsi’m endlessly fascinated by why we do the things we do, and prof ariely has done some fascinating research into why we behave irrationally sometimes. highly recommended (****)
• Arianna Huffington: On Becoming Fearless…in Love, Work, and Life (**)
• Jonathan Coe: The Winshaw Legacy: or, What a Carve Up! part of my penguin celebrations set (****)
• Anna Quindlen: Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City (National Geographic Directions) where imagined and real london collide (***)
• Daniel L. Schacter: Searching For Memory: The Brain, The Mind, And The Pastgreat, if slightly dated I suspect, introduction to what’s what in the area of memory. (***)
• Judith Martin: No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice the venetophile’s ultimate venice book. (****)
• Julia Cameron: The Sound of Paper: Inspiration and Practical Guidance for Starting the Creative Process good for kicking me up the behind and getting said behind in gear for my MADS project (***)

Books read in 2008

• Gregory David Roberts: Shantaram Read whilst in Delhi (***)
• Ankush Saikia: Jet City Woman bought in delhi, read on the plane back. (**)
• Rita Charbonnier: Mozart’s Sister: A Novel Read it in Dutch version, in magazine form. (***)
• Marty Neumeier: The Brand Gap: Expanded Edition (***)
• Harry Mulisch: TWEE VROUWEN Free gift from the Dutch public libraries. Great story, told by the master himself. (***)
• Robert Brunner: Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company D-school principles for b-school people, from the d-school perspective. (***)
• Paul Auster: The Brooklyn Follies: A Novel I miss NYC (****)
• John Berendt: The City of Falling Angels (***)
• Elizabeth Berg: The Year of Pleasures: A Novel (***)
• Anna Gavalda: I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere Wonderful collection of short stories. Bday gift to myself. (****)
• William Boyd: Any Human Heart (****)
• Pat Barker: Regeneration Haunting, dazed, confused, masterpiece. (****)
• Eckart Wintzen: Eckart’s Notes A book in the form of a Moleskine notebook, by one of Holland’s most succesful and most extraordinary entrepreneurs (sadly died recently), what’s there not to love. (****)
• Rob Stenders: Stenders Leesvermaak Rob Stenders is one of my favourite DJs ever, and when I got word he’d written a book about his experiences, I had to have it and read it. Most important takeaway: heros are people too, as are DJs. (***)
• John Rickards: Winter’s End Good solid thriller (***)
• Claire Tomalin: Jane Austen: A Life Claire Tomalin is hands-down the best biographer I’ve ever read, she doesn’t disappoint with her life of Jane Austen (****)
• Meg Rosoff: How I Live Now What would happen if a war broke out in the UK right now? Harrowing, frightening and spine-chilling. (***)
• P.D. James: A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries) London-set escapism of the highest order, witty, intelligent, engaging. (***)
• Marian Keyes: The Other Side of the Story (Penguin Celebrations) Bad cold. In bed. Not well enough to get up and go about normal life, not sick enough to sleep 20 hours in a row. This was perfect. Kept my mind of sneezing and my runny nose. (***)
• Nick Hornby: How to be good The first of my Penguin Celebrations series I’ve finished (***)
• Rebecca Solnit: A Field Guide to Getting Lost Need to get lost more (***)
• Jennifer New: Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art Must get some basic drawing skills soon (****)
• Rebecca Solnit: Wanderlust: A History of Walking Used as startingpoint for my MA research (***)
• Merlin Coverley: Psychogeography (Pocket Essentials) Introduction into psychogeography (***)
• Cali Ressler: Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke—the Simple Change That Can Make Your Job Terrific So who said 40 hours was the optimal workweek? Why is work not more like uni? (****)
• Pierre Bayard: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read It talks about books a lot. For a book about how to talk about books you haven’t read. (**)
• Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations Good stuff. It’s all very common sense, but it takes insight to point out why things are common sense. If you’re interested in why Flickr rocks, and what impact technology has on society, this is a good read. (****)
• David Lynch: Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity A peek behind the scenes of David Lynch’s mind. (****)
• Tomas Eloy Martinez: The Tango Singer This book found me. It expresses much more eloquently than I ever could what I felt when I was in BA in 2001. Mesmerizing. (****)
• Kevin Jackson: Fast: A Take-away Journey Through London Food. London. Fast. Very nice. I want to do a project like this one day. (***)
• Nick Hornby: 31 Songs What’s the next best thing to listening to music? Reading about music, especially when it’s passionate and skillful and most of all straight from the heart. (****)
• Daniel Gilbert: Stumbling on Happiness The brain is a wonderful and wondrous thing… and Daniel Gilbert writes about it like no other. (****)
• Glenn Reynolds: An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths is it a book? or a collection of expanded blogposts? picked this up for MADS, it gave me some useful pointers for our project. (**)
• Nick Hornby: High Fidelity: A Novel In the spirit of all things mixtape related. Damned I wish I could write like this: “I lost the plot for a while then. And I lost the subplot, the script, the soundtrack, the intermission, my popcorn, the credits and the exit sign.” (****)
• John Irving: A Prayer for Owen Meany Hot damn. I wish I could write like this. Or plan a book like this. (****)
• William McDonough: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make ThingsEvery once in a while I read a book that changes how I view the world. This is one of them. (****)
• Daniel H. Pink: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the FutureThe MFA is the new MBA. Well, maybe not quite, but thought it might be appropriate to read this again now that I’ve started the MA in Design Studies. (***)
• Roger L. Martin: The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking ‘The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise’ F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read it, you won’t regret it. (****)
• Susan Seligson: Going with the Grain The world of bread in a book, enthusiastically narrated by Ms Seligson. Shame about the haphazard editing in certain places. (***)
• Chip Heath: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die Why do you remember some things but not others? (****)
• Anna Quindlen: Being Perfect The LBS library (Lord knows why) has a copy, and I couldn’t help myself, I read it again after first reading it last year. (****)
• Jon Kabat-zinn: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life Classic work on meditation and mindfulness. Loved it. (****)

Books read in 2007

• Ken Garner: The Peel Sessions: A Story of Teenage Dreams and One Man’s Love of New Music My life wouldn’t be the same without him (****)
• Michael Norton: The Everyday Activist What are you waiting for? Go out and change this place for the better! (****)
• Billy Sothern: Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City Passionate and moving tribute to NO. (***)
• Martha Beck: Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic(***)
• John Sutherland: The boy who loved books Read by the girl who loved books (****)
• Jonathan Haidt: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom Best book on the subject I’ve read so far. (****)
• Matthieu Ricard: Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill A buddhist view on happiness. Highly recommended. (****)
• Sebastian Faulks: On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel I cried. (***)
• James Webb Young: Technique for Producing Ideas Short read about how to produce ideas. A classic. (***)
• Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex: A Novel Loved it. (****)
• Anais Nin: Henry and June: From “A Journal of Love” -The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin (1931-1932) (***)
• Sue Grafton: S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) (***)
• Charlotte Greig: A girl’s guide to Modern European Philosophy (**)
• Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin: A Novel Atwood doing what she excels at: writing brilliant novels. I loved this one. Couldn’t put it down, and didn’t want it to end and wanted it to end at the same time. (****)
• Sarah Dunant: The Birth of Venus: A Novel 3.5 stars. Read it in one go. Absolutely mesmerizing. (***)
• Pearl S. Buck: The Good Earth Took it with me to Turkey, really liked it; it has a very addictive quality over it. (***)
• Marshall Goldsmith: WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE: HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE BECOME EVEN MORE SUCCESSFUL If you’re an MBA: read it. Sensible advice. (****)
• Marc Levy: Just Like Heaven Read the Dutch translation in magazine form on the plane. Be prepared for the glaze to jump off your teeth. Or cry. Depends on how romantic you are. (**)
• Bram Stoker: Dracula (Penguin Popular Classics) Wow. I would never have picked this up myself, but the kind folks at Penguin gave it to me, for which I send them a big hug. What a good book. Riveting read and comes highly recommended. Keep garlic close. (****)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (Penguin Popular Classics) Masterpiece. Loved it. (****)
• John Sutherland: How to Read a Novel: A User’s Guide I’m addicted to books about books. They are my great book-passion. Bought this second hand, read it on the Tube to and from work, what a marvelous book. Made me smile every other page. (***)
• Ori Brafman: The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations Biology was never my strong suit, but this is a very interesting read. How come a leaderless organisation is brought to its knees by a bunch of anarchists? If you want to find out, read this. (***)
• Andrew Keen: The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s Internet is killing our cultureFood for thought. Is Web2.0 killing cinema, TV, book- and music-stores and journalism as we know it? And if so, is that a bad thing? Antidote to The Long Tail. (***)
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway ‘In people’s eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June.’ (***)
• John Maeda: The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) Absolutely brilliant. If you have any interest in design at all, read this. (****)
• Jerry Wind: The Power of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business If you’re curious about mental models, this is a great introduction. Don’t be put off by the title, it’s quite an interesting read. (***)
• Maria Dahvana Headley: The Year of Yes Going off on tangents here, there and everywhere, but very amusing. (***)
• Barbara De Angelis: Are You the One for Me?: Knowing Who’s Right and Avoiding Who’s Wrong 3.5 stars (rounded up). Sensible advice. More people should read this. (****)
• Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own If you want to write well, you need examples of good writing. And this was very good (****)
• Richard Layard: Happiness: Lessons from a New Science Written by an economist, it can be a bit, well. economic, but nevertheless an interesting read. (***)
• Martha Beck: Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live If you’re trying to find out what you’re supposed to do with your life, get a hold of a copy of this book. It is not your average self help book, it rocks! (*****)
• P.G. Wodehouse: Leave It to Psmith Read it for CPM. (***)
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Read it last year too, definitely got more out of it the second time around. (***)
• Joan Bolker: Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis I should have read this book 10 years ago, it would’ve made my life so much easier. Don’t expect technical advice on outlines etc, but expect to read about building a writing habit. Great inspiration. (*****)
• Rosamund Stone Zander: The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life Read this last year, read it again, more carefully this time, for the upcoming CPM course. (***)
• Adriaan van Dis: Indische Duinen One of the modern classics of Dutch literature. Liked it. Eat Indonesian when reading it. You’ll appreciate the book that much more. (***)
• David G. Meyers: Intuition. Its powers and perils. MOB but more coherent. Highly recommend this to anyone who wants to find out more about the good, the bad and the ugly of intuition. And get some investment tips on the way. (****)
• Anna Quindlen: Being Perfect Brilliant little gem. (****)
• Louis Begley: Venice for Lovers (Armchair Traveller) Perfect for Venice-loving armchair travellers. (***)
• Alberto Manguel: A Reading Diary. A Year of Favourite Books. The kind of book you can read and re-read and discover something new every time. (****)
• Andy Andrews: The Traveller’s Gift Far-fetched, but good if you need a kick up your proverbial b**t. (**)
• Michael J. Silverstein: Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer Read this in conjunction with Trading Up, and I liked this one better. Great examples, easy read. (***)
• Marlena de Blasi: A thousand days in Venice I’m an incurable romantic. With a soft spot for Venice, this is the perfect armchair traveler’s book. (****)
• Geoffrey Moore: Dealing with Darwin Used my Product Innovation course as an excuse to finally read one of Moore’s book and I was impressed. It won’t get your creative juices flowing but will help think about innovation in a sensible and logical way. (***)
• Annette Simmons: The Story Factor I believe life is a story. All of it. Simmons agrees with me, but infinitely more eloquently. (***)
• Chris Barez-Brown: How to have kick-ass ideas Great book, with excellent creative ideas to get your thought process kick-started. (****)
• Kenneth H. Blanchard: The One Minute Manager Takes about 30 minutes to read, but probably many more minutes to implement. (***)
• Michael Silverstein: Trading Up: The New American Luxury Well written and researched, Silverstein and Fiske tackle a phenomenon that I think will continue to grow: trading up. Too bad all the examples are American and no examples are offered of companies who tried trading up and couldn’t make it work. (***)
• Lynn Altman: Brand It Yourself: The Fast, Focused Way to Marketplace MagicPractical ways to help you think when creating a brand, interesting food for thought. (***)
• Robyn Waters: The Hummer and the Mini: Navigating the Contradictions of the New Trend Landscape Trends and countertrends, but very much last year’s trends (**)
• Jon Steel: The Perfect Pitch My recommendation: read it. And do something with what’s in it. Save the planet from useless powerpoint presentations! (****)
• Margaret Atwood: Cat’s eyes Loved it, cannot recommend it highly enough. Margaret Atwood is a wonderful writer and this is a masterpiece. (*****)
• Clotaire Rapaille: The Culture Code How etnography and psycho-analysis can bring you to one word for a culture. Good and thoughtprovoking read. (***)
• Arthur Japin: Een schitterend gebrek Love lost, Casanova, tragedy. It has all the ingredients for a great book, which wasn’t too bad a read. (***)

Books read in 2006

• Karen Romme: Calimeromarketing. Waar kleine bedrijven groot in kunnen zijn. Marketing for freelancers and small businesses. Was drawn to it by the title, but it was basically a poorly written rehash of material that others have written about before and have done a better job. (**)
• James McBride: The Color of Water Loved it. It’s the life story of a man who was born in a family with a white ex-Orthodox jewish mum and a black dad. Moving and incredibly well written. (****)
• Twyla Tharp: Push comes to shove Wanted to read Ms Tharp’s autobiography after reading her book ‘The Creative Habit’. (***)
• Jeffrey Eugenides: The Virgin Suicides Read a review of Sophia Coppola’s latest film, mentioning she had made a movie based on this book, which was supposed to be un-film-able. So I had just had to read it. (***)
• Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit Loved it. Ms Tharp outlines what she does to keep the creative juices flowing. My favourite ideas from the book: discipline, scratching for ideas and keeping a log of ideas. (****)
• Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird Wow. This is one of those books I was scared to read since everyone that talks about it, loves it. So really it can only disappoint when you read it. But this didn’t. I absolutely fell head over heels for this book and highly highly recommend it. (*****)
• Steve Leveen: The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life As a book-a-holic and books-about-books collector this was a must-read, but I have mixed feelings. Kinda like cotton candy. A lot of fluff, not a lot of substance. (***)
• Jon Steel: Truth, Lies and Advertising Loved it. Highly recommended if you’re interested in marketing, advertising and/or planning. (****)
• Lama Sury Das: Awakening the Buddha Within A good general introduction to Buddhism and its main tenets. ***1/2 (***)
• David Ogilvy: Ogilvy on Advertising At times outdated, at times highly relevant, but always irreverent. ***1/2 (***)
• Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a young poet Loved it. I bought a lovely secondhand copy at Elliot Bay in Seattle, and loved reading this book. Highly recommended! (*****)
• Truman Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany’s Loved it! (****)
• Chris Anderson: The Long Tail Went to a lecture by the author in NYPL, this is the first book I ever got signed Loved the ideas in it, but you can tell it was a magazine article first: the books feels like a set of article, not a coherent whole. Can highly recommend, if you read one business book this year, this has got to be it! (***)
• Vince Flynn: Term Limits I try and read local whenever I travel, and this was definitely local to DC, but it was like junk food: it’s alright when you eat it, but you feel crap afterwards. (*)
• Sara Nelson: So many books, so little time Interesting read for a book-a-holic like me. (***)
• Robert James Waller: The Bridges of Madison County I cried my eyeballs out… (****)
• Benjamin Markovits: Either side of winter Interesting, especially living in New York, but not entirely believable… how can a 16 year old girl have the same inner voice as a 57 year old man? (***)
• Lionel Shriver: We need to talk about Kevin Harrowing, well-written, frightening, makes me think, can highly recommend it (4.5 stars, but this thing won’t let me put in 4.5, so I rounded up). (*****)
• Ophelia Field: The Favourite. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough Too technical a biography, about a very interesting character in English history. (**)
• Lauren Henderson: Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating (**)
• Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger: The Cluetrain Manifesto Great book, a must read for everyone who’s interested in the theory behind all this Web2.0 stuff. Or if you just want a different view on marketing. Can highly recommend. (****)
• Jack Canfield: The Success Principles There is absolutely NO modesty in this book. At all. But it has some good ideas here and there. Be prepared to wade through a lot of bragging. (***)
• Helene Lerner: Smart Women Take Risks Mwoah. Not terribly impressed. But a nice read after a long day’s work in the office. (**)
• Nigel Risner: The IMPACT code English guy trying to copy US self help gurus, fairly unsuccesfully. Go to the orginal sources, they’re much more bang for your buck. (**)
• Anna Quindlen: Imagined London Interesting topic (London in literature), especially for a book-and-London-lover like me. At times brilliant, but mostly too distant. Would recommend Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff instead. (***)
• Sahar and Bobby Hashemi: Anyone can do it The brother-sister duo that set up Coffee Republic in the UK give away their start-up secrets. Good read. (****)
• Srikumar Rao: Are you ready to succeed Precursor to my CPM course. Actually read this on holiday in Paris, forgot to record it earlier. (****)
• Adam Gopnik: Paris to the Moon 3.5 stars. Perfect for a romantic sod like me. How can you not fall in love with Paris? (****)
• Dembitz & Essinger: Breakthrough Consulting Moderately interesting. (***)
• Cecilia Inglis: Cecilia I picked it up because my grandma’s name was Cecilia. Interesting if not riveting read. (**)
• Emanual Rosen: The anatomy of Buzz Interesting concept, how to create word-of-mouth marketing. Easy read. (***)
• Malcolm Gladwell: Blink I wish I could write like this… well written, great topic, can highly recommend it. Typepad doesn’t give 1/2 stars, but I rate this 4.5 stars. (****)
• Viktor Frankl: Man’s search for meaning I cried as I read this on the plane. How can people be so cruel to each other? And how do people keep their sanity going through such suffering? (****)
• Thomas Friedman: The World is Flat It’s a rare thing to finish a book and be inspired to go out and change the world. I loved Friedman’s writing style, engaging and inspiring. (****)
• Michele Lovric: The Floating Book Venice, books and lots of allusions to lewd acts. What can I say… (**)
• Naomi Wolf: The Treehouse This book and I had a rocky start, and Ms Wolf irritated the h*ll out of me with her haphazard and uneven organization of chapters, but it grew on me and ended up making me cry. Lifelessons usefull for everyone. (****)
• John Man: Gutenberg Fascinating account of how printing was invented, complete with P&L statement in one of the appendices. (***)
• Julia Cameron: Letters to a young artist Excellent advice on life, not just for artists. (****)
• Helene Hanff: Q’s Legacy I’m a big fan of Helene Hanff’s ‘84 Charing Cross Road’ and this is something of a sequel. If you love London and are an incurable romantic, this is your book! (****)
• Hale Sofia Schatz: If the Buddha came to dinner A different take on food, but I had a hard time connecting it to Buddhism. (***)
• Jeremy Wright: Blog Marketing More practical how-to than high-level ruminations, ideal if you’re thinking of setting up a corporate blog and want to know the ins and outs. (***)
• Natalie Goldberg: Writing down the Bones More inspirational than how-to book, well worth reading if you need a gentle nudge towards writing. (***)
• Hugh Hewitt: Blog Didn’t like it at all, it was like finding the occasional tiny nugget of useful information amongst a mountain of self-glorification. (*)
• James Surowiecki: Wisdom of crowds Well-written and researched, giving plenty food for thought. The first and theoretical half I found more interesting than the second half. (****)
• Natalie Goldberg: Wild Mind. Living the writer’s life You’re a writer and you’re stuck? Pick one of the exercises in Ms Goldberg’s book and you’re on your way again. (****)
• Deirdre McCloskey: Economical Writing, Second Edition Great pointers for all writers, economic or otherwise. (****)
• Robert Scoble, Shel Israel: Naked conversations (***)
• Eileen C. Shapiro: The seven deadly sins of business (***)
• Tom Kelley: Ten Faces of Innovation Loved this book, gives a great peek in the IDEO-kitchen. (****)
• Jeffrey Steingarten: It must have been something I ate (***)
• Sarah Turnbull: Almost French (****)
• Honore de Balzac: The wrong side of Paris (****)
• Daniel Pink: A whole new mind See also Dan Pink’s blog athttp://www.danpink.com/ (***)
• Mindfulness: Ellen Langer (***)
• Wally Olins: Wally Olins on Brand (***)
• Graham Harding and Paul Walton: The Bluffer’s Guide to Marketing (***)
• Shira P. White: New ideas about new ideas (***)
• Joan Didion: The Year of Magical Thinking (***)
• Carl Honore: In praise of slow (***)
• E.M. Forster: The Hill of Devi, being Letters from Dewas State Senior (***)
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow (***)
• Graham Alexander and Ben Renshaw: Supercoaching (***)
• Stephen Covey: The 8th Habit (**)
• Jinny Ditzler: Your best year yet (***)
• Sarah Ban Breathnach: Something More (**)

Read in 2005 (partial list)

• Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The unequalled self ****
• Iris Murdoch, The sea, the sea, ***andahalf
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, ***+
• Charles Handy, The Elephant and the Flea, ***-
• Ramon Stoppelenburg, Let me stay for a day, ***, see also the website
• Mira Kirschenbaum, The gift of a year, ***- (read it in Dutch translation)
• Faith Popcorn, Evelution. The eight truths of marketing to women, **
• Jack Welch, Jack. Straight from the gut, **andahalf
• Glenn van Ekeren, 12 Simple Secrets of Happiness at Work, ***andahalf
• Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, the Trilogy of Four, ****-
• Monica Ali, Brick Lane, in Dutch translation, ***+
• Steven D. Leavitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics, ***
• Po Bronson, What should I do with my life, *****-
• Kate Walbert, The gardens of Kyoto, **1/2
• Martin Seligman, Authentic Happiness, ****-
• Damien Keown, A very short introduction to Buddhism, ****
• Herminia Ibarra, Working Identity, ****1/2
• Michael Ray, The highest goal, ****-
• What if, Sticky Wisdom, ****1/2
• Kulananda and Dominic Houlder,Mindfulness and Money. The Buddhist Path of Abundance, ***1/2
• Rosamund Stone Zander, The art of possibility, ***
• Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, ***1/2
• Michael Ray and Rochelle Meyers,Creativity in Business, ****
• Robin S. Sharma, Leadership wisdom from the monk who sold his Ferrari, ****-
• David Starkey, Six Wives. The queens of Henry VIII.***
• Kim Knott, A very short introduction to Hinduism**1/2
• Paul Brunton, Search in Secret India***1/2