The more recently read books have rough dates associated with them. The older ones… I forget exactly when I read those.
A Short History of the 20th Century, Geoffrey Blaney (020071121)
One book, one century. Geoffrey Blaney doesn't cover it all, but what he does cover he covers well. Written in a narrative style, as opposed to an analytic/why-did-it-all-happen style, Blaney's writing is engaging, readable and littered here and there with acerbic little comments and quotes.
Africa's shrift is short. On the one hand that's reasonable - the course of the 20th century wasn't influenced enormously and proximately by Africa and this is only one book. On the other hand it's not. What happened there may not have often changed the course of life in Europe or America, but it is still an interesting and fascinating history in its own right. Similarly, Asia and South America were largely discussed only in terms of how they related to Europe.
But no book can be perfect and this one is very good. It “chunks”, groups and orders each part of the history it covers in a natural and memorable way, it provides a very good summary and it makes me want to read more, especially “why”. For just one book, covering an entire century, that's not bad.
Stalingrad and Berlin, by Antony Beevor (020071106)
In a sense, it's not surprising that these two books ended up on this list. Antony Beevor is a very good writer, clear and easy to read. He makes the often dry subject of history vivid and fascinating but by the by his work is as unbiased as possible. And the battles for Stalingrad and Berlin. The shape of the modern world fell out of World War 2, and these two battles shaped World War 2 and its aftermath.
So there's the historical context, and it's a really good read. But Antony also puts an intimate face on a conflict that is all too often all about the numbers and the technology. He brings home the horror and despair the German forces must have felt at Stalingrad and at Berlin, the inhumanity of both sides, the mutual rape. And there are the little facts which quieten. Arbitrary execution and rape across vast swathes of both countries. Letters written by Germans who died in Stalingrad but which were never delivered, the only record of their existence a quote in the censor's notebook. Corpses were dug up out of the ground during new construction in Stalingrad for decades after the war ended.
In one battle the defenders won, in the other the defenders lost, for some definitions of “won” and “lost”. Different roles, different circumstances, different times - but the battles share eerie parallels. Antony Beevor writes plenty that is good, but these two books are his best and by reading one you'll see the other in a new light. It is said that history teaches us the mistakes we are going to make. If we look for the patterns and connections between superficially different histories perhaps we can scry it more accurately?
The Time Trap, by Alec Mackenzie
If your only going to read one book on time management, then this should be it. It solidly grounds the problem of managing your time - which, as Alec points out, is simply the problem of managing yourself - in a very neat framework. Alec then goes on to address the 20 biggest time wasters, their causes and how you can fix them. It does focus extensively on how your assistant can help you, which isn't a huge boon to all us peons without assistants, but to dismiss the book because of this would be a grievous mistake.
The Personal Efficiency Program, by Kerry Gleeson
Not quite up there with the Time Trap, but none-the-less this book is still very good. Has some excellent ideas on organisation and work flow, and a much more philosophical bent to it - the origin of the very good saying “DO IT NOW”. Hence you can read this review now, because it's done and written - not sitting in my todo pile.
How To Lose Friends & Infuriate People, by Jonar C. Nader
This is a very interesting book… it's also a very difficult book. Difficult to come to grips with - commonly used words are completely redefined - and difficult to agree with. There are parts of it that I've read three or four or more times, and yet still not fully understand (and you thought Soros was tough!). Yet I've learnt so much from this book! Nader writes on motivation, leadership, vision, courage, and organisational behaviour, just to list four or five. It's one of those books that doesn't really have any boundaries - it's a management book, it's a self-development book, and it's definitely an interesting book! The totally different perspectives it presents are worth considering, even if you do end up disagreeing with them. Read this book, not so that you can nod your head at how wise the author is for sharing your point of view, but for the enlightenment you experience as you at least understand, perhaps even adopt, a radically different world view.
The Power of Focus, by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt
I'll be honest with you… this book isn't really about the power of focus. Focus makes up only a small fraction of what the book is about, even though each chapter is entitled 'Focussing Strategy No x'. That said, I don't write reviews for my website on books I think are less than absolutely outstanding, and about 80 to 90% of what I read I never bother to even think of writing a review for. So clearly, the book is fantastic, at least to my way of thinking, simply be warned that it's not really a book about focus. It's more a book about, as you may have guessed from the example chapter title, strategies for reaching your goals and dreams in life, and it offers 10 very specific, very applicable strategies that build on each other, of things you can do or learn or change to improve yourself. What's really handy about this book is that it isn't just 250-odd pages of twittish advice like 'Give up bad habits'. It gives that advice, yes, but it also gives you concrete steps to help you achieve that particular piece of advice. And it's this that makes the book so useful - you're given a road map, one which is easy to understand, if not always easy to follow, and so you can and do make measurable changes. The ultimate measure of a self improvement book is simple: Does it help you to improve your self? Trite, but I think a point many writers of such books miss. The Power of Focus doesn't, it has it as a singular goal, and consequently, not only is it a very good book, it is a very useful book.
Personality Plus, by Florence Littauer
One of the things I like most about reading books that are ostensibly written to help you get along with others - in this case, understanding their personalitys - is that you often learn far more about yourself than you plan to in advance. Personality Plus fits this pattern to a fault. I came away from it with a much greater understanding of why I act the way I do, and why some things motivate me to action, but others just make me yawn. And I feel that it's made me a little more appreciative of others too, and why they don't always respond to what would make me respond, and how I can alter my own actions, just in the slightest way, to make them much happier and much more satisfied. This, I think is valuable learning, not because it lets you manipulate and change other people - I'd give most people a lot more credit than to think they are that easily fooled - but because it allows you to change yourself in such a way that they are happy and you are happy - a nice win-win situation, and one which will take you a lot further than any cheap manipulation will.
Lateral Thinking, by Edward de Bono
You have to love a book with this on the back cover: Thinking is a skill; it can be developed and improved if one knows how. It's not the easiest read in the world, but it is a very practical book. Written mostly as a manual for teachers who want to add some lateral thinking exercises to their classes, it takes only a little ingenuity to convert the exercises so one can undertake them alone. As important as the exercises though, de Bono makes a good case as to why lateral thinking is important, and simply by distinguishing it from 'creativity', de Bono makes it more likely that we'll realise and use lateral thinking when appropriate, as I've found myself when faced with some challenging problems over the last couple of days.
The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, by Richards J. Heuer, Jr. (020080316)
This book is legitimately, freely available at the above link, but just because its free does not mean it is worthless! It's not a book about psychology, and it's not a book about intelligence, in the sense of “how well someone thinks”. But it is a book about intelligence analysis, intelligence being the thing that the CIA collects, and it is about the psychology that lies behind this process. So if you don't read the title carefully it might seem a bit misleading, but the book is neatly structured, and engaging to read. In fact the level of detail would be excruciating, if it weren't for the writing.
Heuer methodically steps through all of the biases and easy or systematic mistakes people make analysing intelligence. These include the causal and the base rate fallacy, falling prey to confirmation bias, and others too. And he outlines techniques that can help us avoid these problems, as well as ways of comparing the merits of different hypotheses in the case of partial and erroneous information. Which is certainly very interesting if you're an intelligence analyst with MI6, but it has currency in the wider world too. Imagine that I'm buying a car. Which one should I get? I certainly cannot learn every important fact about every car, and even if I could it would be a waste of time. I'll rely on reviews and the opinions of others. Likewise, I cannot know exactly what I will need the car for in the future, although I can probably make a good estimate. One with a non-zero probability of being spectacularly wrong. A convertible might be best for me now, but three unexpected pregnancies later I might have changed my mind. In short, we never make important decisions with full and error-free information, and we are always personally biased one way or the other before we even begin. This book can help us act more rationally in these situations, which means it can help us in all of the important situations.
The Black Swan, by Nassim Taleb (020080511)
I'm really in two minds about this book. On the one hand, it's brilliant. On the other, it's circular.
Black Swan is beautifully written, fun and engaging to read, and Nassim Taleb explains some very subtle ideas clearly and without fuss. Black swans, an almost subconscious fear of them, are what pulled me out of the markets, and trying to avoid the narrative fallacy he rightfully decries is why I started working on Sage. A short while ago I couldn't have explained all of this to you, all I had was a vague feeling. That feeling is now a conceptual argument I can grasp and explain. I think something similar probably happened for Ash with his trading as well. Comments bro?
So that's the good. The bad is that the philosopher in me thinks his argument is circular. This doesn't mean he's wrong, or that the concepts he outlines aren't useful, but I think it undercuts the support he offers for his position. For reader's reference, the narrative fallacy is our habit of building neat little stories which explain why things happened, even though there is good evidence that these stories are usually incomplete and wrong. What caused the current liquidity crisis? That depends on who you talk to, but most people tell a story which involves subprime mortgages. This story is almost certainly not complete, many other factors will have played a role as well, and it could even be wrong. The subprime fallout may well be a consequence, rather than a cause.
In a chapter ironically entitled “The Narrative Fallacy” he argues that elders have held senior positions in society simply because they've been around long enough to have seen more of the rare events and know what to do when they happen. That's a narrative but it's probably fine. It's hard to talk without using a narrative. However, Nassim Taleb “was excited to find out that [the status of elders] also holds true in the animal kingdom: a paper in Science showed that elephant matriarchs play the role of superadvisors on rare events”.
Say what? Who do what? There are elephant matriarchs? That play the role of superadvisors on rare events? In a book which argues against narrating and Platonically conceptualising our world I suddenly felt like I was running in circles. You can't argue against narratives or justify the techniques people use to limit the effect of the narrative fallacy by using a narrative! In particular, one using elephants is just silly. Understanding ourselves and other people is hard enough. The behavioural and social structures of other species are inscrutable. We can always tell stories about packs of dogs and herds of elephants and how they work just like human social structures, but those stories will always be wrong.
What's more they'll be untrue in exactly the way Nassim Taleb describes the problem of induction. Imagine that you're a turkey which gets fed by a human every day for 1000 days. You'll grow increasingly confident that humans are there solely for your betterment. On the 1001st day, when you're most confident, you get beheaded and turned into a roast. A herd of elephants might have members that behave like a supermatriarch most of the time, but they aren't supermatriarchs. Concluding that they are is making exactly the same inductive mistake as the turkey. This sort of problem resurfaces a few times in the book. To be fair though, it's probably unavoidable. So where, in the end, do I stand? Which hand do I favour?
Nassim Taleb has identified a very real kind of problem, one which we almost always ignore. For that reason alone you should read this book. What's more, in a funny twist, the fact that he has to make the mistake to explain the mistake only emphasises its subtlety and prevalence. And it's well written and so forth. Read it.
How to Solve It, by George Polya (020081003)
At first glance, this book is a book about how you solve mathematical problems. This first angle on it is definitely valuable: it offers really good advice on how to approach a mathematical problem when you don't know how to solve it. The approach (the types of steps you need to take, and suggestions on how you can take those steps) also generalises in a very straightforward manner to non-mathematical problems. This makes it even more useful, and Polya spends some time discussing this generalisation.
The second angle is just as valuable. Polya spends a lot of time writing about how to teach people to solve mathematical problems. If you can be your own teacher then “How to Solve It” is not just a list of ways you can solve problems. Instead it becomes a guide to independently self-teaching and internalising those techniques. Much handier.