Books of 2012
Posted January 16, 2013In 2012, my voracious appetite for reading and learning had reached new heights. Without setting any direct goals for reading, I began the year consuming book upon book upon book and kept a running record of what I had read so at year’s end I could look back on it all and see what I had discovered.
I inadvertently almost averaged a book a week and ended the year with 42. According to Siri, I have discovered the meaning of life.
The List
| Number | Book | Author | Finished Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mindfire | Scott Berkun | January 2nd |
| 2 | The Irrefutable Laws of Leadership | John Maxwell | January 4th |
| 3 | Smashing Design Book, Volume 1 | Multiple Authors | January 7 |
| 4 | Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card | January 8 |
| 5 | HTML5 for Web Designers | Jeremy Keith | January 9 |
| 6 | Card Sorting | Donna Spencer | January 25 |
| 7 | Speaker for the Dead | Orson Scott Card | February 5 |
| 8 | Mobile First | Luke Wroblewski | February 6 |
| 9 | The Elements of Content Strategy | Erin Kissane | February 12 |
| 10 | Web Form Design | Luke Wroblewski | February 23 |
| 11 | Design is the Problem | Nathan Shedroff | March 8 |
| 12 | Xenocide | Orson Scott Card | March 12 |
| 13 | Storytelling for User Experience | Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks | March 19 |
| 14 | Mental Models | Indi Young | April 10 |
| 15 | JavaScript Patterns | Stoyan Stefanov | April 10 |
| 16 | The Rails View | John Athayde, Bruce Williams | April 15 |
| 17 | Prototyping | Todd Zaki Warfel | April 17 |
| 18 | Designing for Emotion | Aaron Walters | April 19 |
| 19 | The Little MongoDB Book | Karl Seguin | April 21 |
| 20 | Rock, Paper, Scissors | Len Fisher | April 25 |
| 21 | Search Analytics for your Site | Louis Rosenfeld | May 15 |
| 22 | Happiest Baby on the Block | Harvey Karp | May 16 |
| 23 | Smashing Book, Volume 2 | Multiple Authors | June 2 |
| 24 | Emotional Design | Donald Norman | June 14 |
| 25 | Remote Research | Nate Bolt and Tony Tulathimutte | June 16 |
| 26 | Freedom, Money, Time and the Key to Creative Success | Mark McGuiness | June 16 |
| 27 | In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day | Mark Batterson | June 21 |
| 28 | Smashing Book 2.5 | Multiple Authors | June 24 |
| 29 | A Tour of the Calculus | David Berlinski | July 13 |
| 30 | The Starfish and the Spider | Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom | July 18 |
| 31 | Rocket Surgery Made Easy | Steve Krug | July 19 |
| 32 | Brainbox | Christian Cantrell | July 19 |
| 33 | The Epoch Index | Christian Cantrell | July 28 |
| 34 | A Whack on the Side of the Head | Roger von Oech | July 30 |
| 35 | The Shape of Design | Frank Chimero | August 9 |
| 36 | Next Christians | Gabe Lyons | August 9 |
| 37 | Candide | Voltaire | August 19 |
| 38 | The Optimism Bias | Tali Sharot | September 14 |
| 39 | Sun Stand Still | Steven Furtick | September 25 |
| 40 | Quantum, Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality | Manjit Kumar | November 9 |
| 41 | Babel No More | Michael Erard | December 3 |
| 42 | Out of Our Minds | Sir Ken Robinson | December 19 |
I find it interesting to review what I gravitate towards after the fact to discover where my interests lie. Standout books for this year that I have added to my recommended reading list are as follows:
Favorite Books of 2012
The Ender’s Game series by Orson Scott Card.
I am a big fan of the science fiction variety. The world and characters Orson Scott Card created in the Enderverse will stay with me for a long time to come.
Rock, Paper, Scissors by Len Fisher
Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp
In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson
The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
The Optimism Bias by Tali Sharot
These words brought to you by Dustan Kasten. A friendly, bearded, husband, father, and user interface engineer living in Charlotte, NC. Considers himself quite partial to React.js these days. Find @iamdustan on Twitter