Best Books of 2011

Reported books completed this year. The very favorites @ the bottom:

1. Nasar, Grand Pursuit
2. Wills, Rome & Rhetoric
3. Brooks, The Social Animal
4. Sisson, Mark, Primal Blueprint. A fine guide to primal living. Highly recommended.
5. Kissinger, On China
6. Baumeister, Willpower
7. Lukacs, Hitler & Stalin
8. Davies, No Simple Victory
9. McCall-Smith, The Sunday Philosophy Club
10. Lukacs, The Hitler of History
11. Faber, 1938, Munich: Appeasement & WWII.
12. Diggins, Why Neibuhr Now
13. Parks, Teach Us to Sit Still
14. Taintor, Collapse
15. Phillipson, Adam Smith
16. Lukacs,The Future of History
17. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven
18. Armstrong, Karen, The Spiral Staircase
19. Armstrong, The Case for God
20. Frye, The Double Vision
21. Wills, Biography of Augustine's Confessions
22. Overy, 1939: Countdown to War
23. Bacevich, Washington Rules
24. Cowen, The Great Stagnation
25. Foer, J., Moonwalking with Einstein
26. Morris, Why the West Rules--For Now
27. LeCarre, Our Kind of Traitor
28. Taubes, Why We Get Fight & What We Do About It
29. De Vany, The New Evolution Diet
30. Simmon Schama, The American Future: A History. Not having reviewed this earlier was a major mistake on my part. A fine look at the American past and the American now, which points us to the American future.
31. Ferris, Tim, The Four-Hour Body. Very interesting reading based on self-experimentation. Lots of interesting investigations & tips.

Okay, 31 books that I finished this year. The favorites among favorites? Tough, but let's say Kissinger's On China, Morris's Why the West Rules--For Now, Brooks's The Social Animal, Lukacs, The Future of History, Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase, and Parks, Teach Us to Sit Still.

Looking forward, I'm working to finish 3 fine books now: Gaddis's biography of George Kennan, a biography of the British historian H.R. Trevor-Roper, and 1493 by Charles Mann. All great reads.

Farnum Street on Best Books Not Well Known

First of all, although this particular post isn't especially representative, I should give a shout out to Farnum Street, an excellent blog site. It's an aggregator (little original material), but it harvests some of the most interesting pieces on the web about the blog's interests. What are those interests? The blogger describes his project:

I'm a no-name guy who started Farnam Street back in 2009 with the goal of posting the best articles from around the internet that relate to psychology, behavioral economics, human misjudgment, persuasion, and other subjects of intellectual interest.

If you're in my business (advocacy & living life on Earth), you'll likely find something relevant to your life and work here.

As to this post, I can't pass by a good book list. How do I know it's a good list? Because I've read some of the books on it: Tuchman's The Guns of August, Richardson's Mind on Fire, Manand's Metaphysical Club, and Campbell's Grammatical Man. All of these were excellent books. So, a fun list to consider.