Once again the rigors of the week, prevented me from getting the article I wanted done.  Rather than missing another post, I present to you my reading list for 2008…
I am a pretty avid reader….of sorts. It may be more accurate to say that I like to read frequently, but am picky on what I read. I always have a book that I am in the middle of reading, be it a novel or the rules to a game. Reading is a big deal at my house, we have a family reading time just before 8pm, where the whole family, including my 3 year old son, sit and read (though mostly he just flips pages, but its a good start), I read every night before bed (and often fall asleep in my book), and I often steal time to read while in the bathroom (its one of the only truly quiet places in the house). In any case, I typically just drift from book to book, without any serious thought of what I wish to read, so I decided this year that I would organize a reading list to ensure that before 2008 ended, I had gotten some good reading done.

So here is my list….

Thirteen (by Richard K. Morgan)– Morgan has become one of my favorite new authors in the past few years. I fell in love with Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies. Thirteen is Morgan’s latest book, and unrelated to the other three. I enjoy Morgan’s writing, and his feeling for technology and the issues that new technology present is excellent. The book is about Genetics, and well I have a soft spot in my intellect for all things DNA.

Spook Country (by William Gibson)– I have been a Gibson fan, since I first got my hands on Neuromancer in high school. Since then, I have read all of his books. Spook Country is one of his near-future books, like Pattern Recognition. I miss some of the more sci-fi writings, but I love the way that Gibson uses his characters and interweaves his storylines, with the last few chapters of the book being the coalescing of the threads into one cohesive ending. I also enjoy Gibson’s prose, his descriptions, and his ability to mix the high-tech and the gritty is excellent. This will likely be the first book I start reading.

Modern20 (by Chuck Rice)– The first game that I will be reading this year, will be Modern20. This is Chuck’s rebuild of the d20 Modern rules. He has some very innovative additions to the ruleset. There are also a few supplements out our out in the near future that look to make this a very fast paced and action friendly modern system.

Iron Empires Vol 1: Faith Conquers and Vol 2: Sheva’s War (by Christopher Moeller) — While I am a casual fan of comic books, my interest in reading these graphic novels, comes from my love of the Burning Empires RPG, which I played and then bought, at this years GenCon. I am very interested in reading the series that inspired the game, as well as to experience Moeller’s Iron Empires universe.  I am eternally hopeful that sometime either during or after my Demon Throne campaign, that I can run Burning Empires for my group.
Mind Performance Hacks (by Ron Hale-Evans)–I am always interested in ways to be more efficient in my day-to-day life, and any book that helps me with fine tuning my memory and thought processes is right up my alley. I bought this book as a gift for my Brother In Law last year, and when I flipped through it before I wrapped it (sorry, before Mrs. DNAphil wrapped it), it looked quite interesting.

Ready for Anything (by David Allen)– This is the follow-up book to Getting Things Done. It expands on the higher level concepts that GTD discusses. I have flipped through the book in the past, as it has been on my bookshelf for over a year. What do know is that it is not the nuts and bolts that you get in Getting Things Done but rather it looks at some of the underlying themes and philosophies that the GTD methodology is based on. That sounds good to me, as I am solid practitioner of GTD, I am ready to get into more of the philosophy of the system. It is through understanding the philosophy can one expand beyond what is taught, and really start to create. My hope is that I will be able to refine my GTD system beyond, having a really good Remember The Milk ToDo list, and be able to incorporate some of the GTD methodology into the way I think, deal with people, etc. This book combined with the Mind Performance Hacks, will hopefully help me to give my psyche a tune up.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (by PMI)– This book is one that I am reading for work. It has to do with my ever-morphing job description, that will now include Project Management. I am looking forward to learning more about this area, as I think that my own philosophy and Productivity methodologies will be a good fit for Project Management. Many people have told me there are other books that are better reads then the PMBOK, but it is one of the industry standards, and I would like to build a solid base of knowledge, so that when I read other PM books in the future, I have a frame of Reference.

From time to time I will post my progress in reading these books, as well as a small review of each book. What are you planning on reading next year? Do you keep a reading list?