All the books I read in 2011

Following my post for 2010, here’s a list of all the books I read last year.

To be honest, the ones that have made the greatest impression have all been since I came away on sabbatical, particularly:

• My indecision is final – The riveting story of Goldcrest Films is a tale of passion, talent, folly, project management and cash-flow. Surprisingly, the drama’s created by the last two in this list.
• Malcolm X – A life of Reinvention, Manning Marable – This was Marable’s life’s work (he died just three days before the book was published). It’s a fascinating and exhaustive reappraisal of Malcolm X’s life and legacy. Although Marable is clearly an admirer, he wants to get beneath the myth. He uses as his foil Alex Haley’s co-written autobiography, exploring, probing and trying to fill gaps in its account and any retrospective appropriation or projection due to the break-neck pace of Malcolm’s political evolution in the few years before his early death. I’m sure there are inaccuracies in Marable’s book too, but it’s not only an amazing scholarly work, it’s a compelling account of one of the most fascinating and important figures in 20th century human rights activism.
• Le Freak – Nile Rodgers. I thought I came from a messed up family, but Nile Rodgers takes the cake. A brilliant, often hilarious tale of rags to riches, riches to debauchery, debauchery to near death and back. All this from the man responsible not only for the amazing work of Chic, but also Diana Ross’s diana, Madonna’s Like a Virgin and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance.
• Backroom Boys - Francis Spufford. This was the one book that I re-read (I felt I rushed it first time round). It’s a rip-roaring account of British scientific and engineering boffinery since the first world war (Concorde, the GSM phone network, early video games et al.). If you’re used to reading about or working in or around the arts, and needed to confirm that non-artistic creativity is every bit as exciting and life-changing, I’d recommend this book.

Apologies to Horace Truebridge who recommended and raved about it, but once again, the only one I didn’t finish was the solitary novel in the list, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. This novel-reading blind-spot is definitely a fault of mine. 

• Chief Cultural Officer, Grant McCracken
• The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Anchor
• Your Brain At Work, David Rock
• What you need to know about Project Management, Fergus O’Connell
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey
• Meditation for Beginners, Jack Kornfield
• The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, Twyla Tharp
• A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series), Christopher Alexander
• Switch: How to change things when change is hard, Chip Heath, Dan Heath
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, David Mitchell
• Fun Inc.: Why games are the 21st Century’s most serious business, Tom Chatfield
• Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal
• Economics and Culture, David Throsby
• The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan, John Mullins
• Future Shock, Alvin Toffler
• Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, Clay Shirky
• My indecision is final, Jake Eberts and Terry Ilott
• Backroom Boys, Francis Spufford
• The Fry Chronicles, Stephen Fry
• Malcolm X – A life of Reinvention, Manning Marable
• Sweet As… Garth Cartwright
• Le Freak, Nile Rodgers