For the avid readers out there here are a few round ups of the best business books released in 2006:
- Tom Peter's Notable Books 2006
- Fast Company: Best Business Books of 2006 Slideshow
- Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2006 (free registration)
- Business Week's Best Business Books of 2006
- Amazon's Best Business Books of 2006
As always, I end the year with a large stack of half-read books. I read a few chapters, get distracted, start something new, and sometimes months later, resume where I left off. I am an author's nightmare and a publisher's delight. Amazon loves me, too.
Here are my personal favorites for 2006 (not necessarily published in 2006, but I read them this year):
- The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger (Princeton University) by Marc Levinson I was predisposed to like this one because my father is a retired maritime attorney and from my office window I watch container ships cross San Francisco Bay. Levinson credits the container as the primary enabler of globalization – see my previous post.
- The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (Hyperion) by Chris Anderson. This one was the only book that made every one of the lists cited above. It is engrossing – see my previous post.
- The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Penguin Press) by Michael Pollan. Not a business book per se, but a fascinating exploration of the food industry. I guarantee that it will change your eating habits and grocery store purchase behavior.
- The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Thomas L. Friedman. I read this as I was reading the container book and the two went together perfectly. Friedman's triumph is to foster a sense of urgency – hurry, a new era is upon us and you are missing out!
