Friend of mine (Kelly) asked what my favorite top five books of the year were. Then somebody else asked me the same thing. Then another person. Okay, I get the message.
Problem is, it’s difficult to list just five. And it’s even more difficult to figure out how to rate them. One book might be beautifully written, while another less so but far more thought provoking. And it’s hard to compare fiction with, say, a book of history. Even though I tend to read books that focus on either contemporary trends or history, I try to diversify. Once a month I pick up a book on a topic I know nothing about (currently reading “Born to Run”, which is interesting but not really my thing).
Anyway, with the caveat that it’s tough to list five favorites from the 52+ that I read this year, here’s my top five:
Most thought provoking was “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The basic premise of the book is that you can’t predict anything; life is random. So dismiss all those economists, television pundits, investment advisors, politicians, and PhD experts. Expect the unexpected. I’m not sure I agree with everything here, but I do like how the book challenged preconceived ideas and called for people to live out of the box.
Best of the history books was “1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West” by Roger Crowley. It provides a balanced background on the seeds of distrust between Islam and Christianity. I enjoyed the details about how superior technology finally beat the incredible city of Constaninople. Definitely makes me want to visit Istanbul. A good companion book to read with this would be “Empires of the Sea”, also by Crowley.
Best religious book was “The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity” by Soong-Chan Rah. Now, I didn’t agree with everything in this book, but I absolute agree with the central premise of the book: the Church is changing and needs to fully embrace the diversity that is sweeping through. It is both challenging to a white guy like me and a breath of fresh air.
Most interesting book was “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell knows how to tell a story and build a conclusion from that story. I’ve got no idea if his findings are correct, but so what? It’s a fascinating study of how some of us become “successful” and others do not, and the underpinnings of that success are almost always circumstances beyond our control (like hockey players being born early in the year, or tech gurus being born in the mid-50’s)
Finally, the book that was just plain fun to read for me personally was “The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty” by Julia Flynn Siler. I’ve worked in a family business all of my life, so I’m a sucker for books that recount the story of a family owned and operated business. This one was especially fun because it is local (Napa), about something I love (wine), and filled with that strange combination of ambition, love, jealousy and forgiveness that only seems to happen within a family business. There were times the story dragged (I don’t really need to know about somebody’s divorce settlement) but most of the time it is filled with stories of high finance, family dynamics and the impossible goal of creating the perfect wine. This is the one book I’d tell D’Aun about each evening as we had dinner; she probably felt like she’d read it too. I just loved it.
Lots of books on my 2009 list were just as good as the ones above, but hey, I was asked to list five. So there you go.