Category Archives: Books

Content of my reading list by amazon (part 7 of 9)

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After a long pause with the incoming weekend hopefully I’ll be done moving my reading list out of the linkedin-amazon application.
Below you’ll find the seventh part.

You can read why I’m doing this and can also the first , second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth part of the list that I’ve already published.

Monday, Jan 10 2011
The Scapegoat by René Girard
Girard interpretation of the dynamics of the human behavior is very interesting and supported well by the author.
Book recommended without any doubt.
I’ve read the italian translation.

Sunday, Dec 19 2010
Transactional Manager by Abe Wagner
I found the book a bit boring. Maybe I’ve had enough readings related to TA
OR the book is not a big deal in itself.
My wife is reading it I’ll post her feedback in the future.

Friday, Dec 3 2010
Games people plays by Eric Berne
I did not like the introduction to the italian edition, but the book is interesting without any doubt.
My mother found it interesting too as an interpretation key for the behavior of a friend of her.

Friday, Nov 26 2010
Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership by Ken Blanchard
Recommended: the time I used to read this book was invested well.
I suggest it not only to managers but to individual contributors too.
As an old Harvard Business review article stated everyone needs (at least) to manage his manager

Tuesday, Nov 23 2010
Lettera a un Bambino Mai Nato by Oriana Fallaci
Without any doubt a book that is valid now as it was 35 years ago. Maybe even more now.
Absolutely recommended.

Saturday, Nov 20 2010
Renaissance by Raymond F. Jones
Relaxing book, but nothing to write home about.
I’ve read the Italian translation.

Saturday, Nov 6 2010
On War by Carl Von Clausewitz
The Italian edition that I’ve read is actually a selection of the most philosophical chapters from ” uber die Natur des Krieges” and “uber die Theorie des Krieges”.
I’ve found the reading extremely interesting and useful.
I’d suggest the reading to anyone that’s not afraid of a theoretical and systematic approach to the subject.
The author thinking goes way deeper that the (only) one liner most people know.

Thursday, Oct 28 2010
The Art of Warfare by Sun Pin

Sunday, Oct 24 2010
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
I’m unsure whether or not having read this book will change the way I act, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen the actions of people who changed after having read it.

Wednesday, Oct 20 2010
Attracting Investors: A Marketing Approach to Finding Funds for Your Business by Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya, S. David Young
I’ve found the reading extremely interesting.
I’d suggest this book to anyone thinking about starting a new company.

Reading “Alone together” by Sherry Turkle

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I’ve started to read this book and I’ve already found something worth sharing.

In the introduction a small but key statement is made about the fact that “to feel good is not the measure of everything” and that “we can feel good for the wrong reason”.

The author is not elaborating on this as if this would be a common agreement for any reasonable person.
I agree with her position about the criteria that should not be driving the behavior, but unfortunately this is not the general case: the ethic of selecting what makes feel good (or better) is shared by a lot of people.
And what is even worse is that is becoming more and more a short-term target: select what makes feel good now

If the first 20 pages are a good indication of what is to come it will be a good book

Content of my reading list by amazon (part 6 of 9)

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A bit of acceleration today: two slices of my reading list in one day.
Below you’ll find the sixth part.

You can read why I’m doing this and can also the first , the second, the third,the fourth and the fifth part of the list that I’ve already published.

Saturday, Oct 2 2010
Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause by Philip Kotler, Nancy Lee
Very specific, may be of interest to a relatively small audience.

Saturday, Sep 25 2010
The Eternal Husband by Fyodor DOSTOEVSKY
I’ve read other works of Dostoevsky, but having read the analysis of Renè Girard about this one I was able to enjoy it more than I enjoyed the others.
Being relatively short and restricted to a limited environment and a small number of people it’s easy and quick to read.
The image of Pavel Pavlovich depicted is so real that at the end I felt sorry for him.

Friday, Aug 27 2010
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
Not bad but in my opinion there are better alternatives in hte SF to invest the reading time. I’ve read the italian translation.

Monday, Aug 16 2010
Nova Swing by M. John Harrison, Jim Frangione
I’ve found the book unbeliveably boring and hoped until the last few pages to get some surprising conclusion providing a meaning to the text but did not happen.
Looked like the chronicle of what was passing trough the mind of a LSD addicted: no real beginning, no real end, no real story.
I strongly discourage my friends to read it.

L’arte di persuadere: Come impararla, come esercitarla, come difendersene by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
Great reading, strongly suggested.
It’s not a manual or an how-to guide, but provides an interesting perspective on the subject of persuasion

Friday, Aug 6 2010
I’m OK–You’re OK Thomas Harris

Saturday, Jul 31 2010
Escolios a un texto implicito by Nicolas Gomez Davila
Great reading, strongly suggested.
I’ll keep it in reach to give a quick read to a couple of pages from time to time.
I don’t like writing on books, but this one is really taking notes with impression.
I’ve read the italian translation.

Friday, Jul 16 2010
Kotler on Marketing by Philip Kotler
Recommended

Thursday, Jul 15 2010
Ritrattino di Kant a uso di mio figlio by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
unbelievably easy introduction to Kant. Strongly recommended.

Friday, Jul 9 2010
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
I had a long travel to do and decided to take this book (the italian translation)with me.
It turned out to be an entertaining read

Content of my reading list by amazon (part 5 of 9)

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Hi,
Below you’ll find the fifth part of my reading list and, when available, the related comments I made at the time.

I did a small mistake and got 4 and 5 reversed 🙂

You can read why I’m doing this and can also the first , the second, the third and the fourth part of the list that I’ve already published on this blog.

Sunday, Mar 7 2010
The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling by James Hillman
Recommended

Kinds of Power by James Hillman
Recommended

Thursday, Mar 4 2010
Human Factors in Safety-Critical Systems by Felix Redmill, Jane Rajan
Recommended
While the title suggests this book as with a limited audience I think that every worker should read it.
The analysis of how people interacts with systems and organization can be applied to non-safety-critical scenarios too.
This knowledge will help both individual contributors and managers.

Saturday, Feb 13 2010
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr., Mary Doria Russell

Thursday, Jan 7 2010
Oscar and the Lady in Pink by ERIC-EMMANUEL SCHMITT
Recommended
At the first reading, several months ago, I enjoyed this little book but recently I discovered that I almost forgot all the content, so i decided to read it again.
I’m really happy with that decision: while the book is small and written with a very easy and light style the content of those few pages is extremely dense.
It’s uncommon to read in less than 80 pages so much about the meaning of the life and of the death.”

Wednesday, Jan 6 2010
Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque by René Girard
Recommended
I think that the book requires a fresh reading of the analyzed novels in order to provide the full benefit of the offered analysis, but at least 75% of the content can be appreciated in any case.
The value offered is not limited to a greater understanding of the literature but, as it continuously relates back to the real world, it can be at least partially applied in daily experience.
I’ve actually read the italian translation.

La vittima e la folla by Renè Girard
Recommended
The perspective that the author offers on the myth is extraordinary ad helps to see in a different light most of the recent theological thinking that describes the gospel as mostly mythical and fictions.
It’s a book easy enough for people w/o a background on philosophy or theology , but a minimum of classical greek culture would help for sure.

Friday, Oct 23 2009
Milano Calibro 9 by G. Scerbanenco
I liked a lot these short stories.
Dark as is usually Scerbanenco but with a twist of irony that is not very common in the novels
Recommended

Saturday, Oct 17 2009
Traditori di tutti by Giorgio Scerbanenco
Recommended

Tuesday, Oct 13 2009
Ladro contro assassino by Giorgio Scerbanenco
Recommended

Da servo di Pannella a figlio libero di Dio by Danilo Quinto

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For an Italian the subject is very intriguing and the book generated quite some noise in the press.

At the beginning of my reading I was a bit surprised and almost upset by the fact that the author was citing the Gospel in a book that is not a religious book.

What was even more strange is that this happened to me as I do read also religious books.
It’s like if I’ve absorbed the idea that God should not be part of the normal life hence not part of “normal” books.

The main take home from the book is a confirmation of the fact that the human beings share the same structure and have both strengths and weaknesses.
The second key point is that the power can, and very often does, corrupt.

It’s a common temptation to finger point the weaknesses of the other forgetting our own or, when not failing (yet) ourselves, believing that we resist because we’re ontologically better than the others.

L’incontemporaneo. Péguy, lettore del mondo moderno by Alain Finkielkraut

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In the past I’ve read a few articles written by Alain Finkielkraut and I’ve appreciated his point of view.
This is my fist book written by him: the subject is what got me interested.

I’ve had the opportunity to listen with great pleasure to good readers reading out loud extracts from some of the books of Charles Peguy (“Le Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d’Arc”, “Le Porche du mystère de la deuxième vertu” and “Le Mystère des saints Innocents”)
Fascinated by the content I’ve tried a couple of time to read the books myself, but without success: it looks like they don’t work, at least for me, on the page but only when listening.

This book was a great opportunity to better understand the thinking of Charles Peguy and also the reasons why he’s relegated in a small niche.
Recommended.

Original title: Le Mécontemporain. Charles Péguy, lecteur du monde moderne

Content of my reading list by amazon (part 4 of 9)

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Hi,
Below you’ll find the fourth part of my reading list and, when available, the related comments I made at the time. with a bit of editing

I continue to move from the older readings to the most recent.

You can read why I’m doing this and can also the first , the second and the third part of the list that I’ve published on this blog.

Wednesday, Jul 7 2010
The world of Null-a by Alfred E. Van Vogt
I liked it, it’s the description of a utopic world that’s an easy and relaxing reading.

Sunday, Jul 4 2010
The Horizons of Liberalism by Maria Zambrano
Recommended

Tuesday, Jun 29 2010
Lateral Marketing: New Techniques for Finding Breakthrough Ideas by Philip Kotler, Fernando Trias de Bes

Ten Deadly Marketing Sins: Signs and Solutions by Philip Kotler
Not much added value in comparison to the books of Kotler I’ve read previously, but may be related to the fact that I’m not a marketing insider.
The book is ok if the reader was never exposed to anything marketing-related

Sunday, Jun 20 2010
Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming by Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Steve Andreas
Interesting read but…
I really think that I need to see NLP in action live to set aside my disbelief about the claimed ability to generate lasting changes so quickly.

Tuesday, Jun 8 2010
Marketing Insights From A to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know by Philip Kotler
I’ve found the book quite interesting: quick to the point it gives several hints to the reader to compare the behaviors in his current environment and to further explore the marketing subject.
Unfortunately for customers and enterprises it looks like a relevant number of the managers that I’ve met in Italy so far either has not read this book or deemed the content applicable only to someone else.

Wednesday, Mar 24 2010
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis, Jonathan Lethem
Recommended light reading

Sunday, Mar 21 2010
The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg
Recommended light reading

Monday, Mar 15 2010
We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy–And the World’s Getting Worse by James Hillman, Michael Ventura
Recommended: really amusing and enlightening at the same time

Sunday, Mar 7 2010
A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism by Giulio Meotti
I’ve tried to read this book but I was unable to make it to the end.
The amount of pain and sufferance that is described is great; joining this with the knowledge of the fact that this is happening now and not in a relatively distant past made it too hard for me.
To some extent it recalled me of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s work titled “The Gulag Archipelago” but without the somewhat smoothing knowledge that is something of the past.

A Theatre of Envy: William Shakespeare by René Girard

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I’ve greatly appreciated in the past several books from René Girard, but when I was midway in the reading of this one I felt a bit bored.

I felt like if he was overkill or too slow in the covering of the comedies and on the mimetic behavior.

I moved ahead anyway and I was rewarded in the second part of the book.

The classical interpretation perspectives of the author are applied to the vast production of Shakespeare and seems quite fitting.

I would not suggest this book as a first approach to René Girard due to the size of the volume and the focus on a single area.
I recommend it to anyone with a relevant knowledge of William Shakespeare’s work.

Content of my reading list by amazon (part 3 of 9)

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Hi,
Below you’ll find the third part of my reading list and, when available, the related comments I made at the time.
Most of the books, with only a notable exception, are novels this time and cover two main authors: Agatha Christie and Giorgio Scerbanenco.
As you can see from the dates both writers got me heavily engaged.
I recommend their novels with one caveat: I’m not sure of how good the english translations (if any) of Scerbanenco are.

I continue to move from the older readings to the most recent.

You can read why I’m doing this and can also the first part and the second part of the list
In some cases I had inserted in the list also books that I had read earlier when I found them interesting.

Friday, Oct 2 2009
The Hollow by Agatha Christie

Tuesday, Sep 29 2009
Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Wednesday, Sep 23 2009
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  by Agatha Christie

Wednesday, Sep 16 2009
Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

Tuesday, Sep 8 2009

Spingendo la notte più in là by Mario Calabresi
I was a baby in Milan nearly of the age of Mario when italian terrorism was rampage.
Mario’s book helped me understand the feelings that were all around me and then I was unable to grasp.
His book is not about politics, is about men, womans and babies that were hit by the violence.
The book helps understand that it doesn’t exist a right reason for killing people.

Monday, Aug 17 2009
La ragazza dell’addio by Giorgio Scerbanenco
Scerbanenco writes love novels with the same dry style he uses for police stories: you may find it unsuitable for the subject.

Aug 2009
The man who knew too much by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Thursday, Aug 6 2009
La Sabbia Non Ricorda by Giorgio Scerbanenco

Wednesday, Aug 5 2009
Venere privata by Giorgio Scerbanenco

Tuesday, Aug 4 2009
I ragazzi del massacro by Giorgio Scerbanenco
I love police books that are located in my home town. I find Scerbanenco’s writing in this book quite addicting.

Content of my reading list by amazon (part 2 of 9)

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Hi,
Below you’ll find the second part of my reading list and, when available, the related comments I made at the time.
I continue to move from the older readings to the most recent.
Here you can read why I’m doing this while you can find the first part of the list here
In some cases I had inserted in the list also books that I had read earlier when I found them interesting.

Monday, Jul 27 2009
Il destino si chiama Clotilde: Romanzo damore by Giovanni Guareschi
Fun, entertaining and easy to read.
I strongly recommend this book to everyone.

1998
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
I bought it upon suggestion of the librarian at the same time I bought “The master and Margarita” but I’ve found Celine’s book unbelievably boring.
It is one of the few book that I did not finish and I don’t feel guilty about it.

2005
The Foundation Pit by Andrey Platonov
The book is not one of those that you can read before going to sleep to relax.
I loved it, but I don’t expect this to be the common reaction.

1998
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
I loved the book and found it quite easy for a russian author.
My wife could not make it to the end: likely something needs to trigger in the reader make the story flow.
Recommended only if previous exposure to russian writers was successful 🙂

2009
Heart Of A Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
Recommended with the same caveat of The Master and Margarita: only if previous exposure to russian writers was successful 🙂

2009
Democracy In America by Alexis de Toqueville
The reading is paused for a long time now, but hopefully I’ll go back to it with renewed passion in the future.

2009
Il padre: l’assente inaccettabile by Claudio Rise
The subject should be part of a wider public discussion.
The writing is clear and pleasantly easy for a non trivial subject; strongly recommended.
At the time of reading the book was not available in english.
You can find Claudio Risè site here; it’s only in italian.

Friday, Mar 20 2009
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The writing style is unusual but I found it addicting. I’ve read the book in a couple of days.
Recommended.

Wednesday, Jan 28 2009
Persuasion Engineering by Richard Bandler, John LA Valle, John La Valle
I’ve found it an interesting read.
As long as the contained concepts are used a an interpretation key for human behaviors, and not as the only right one, the book is worth the time to read.

2009
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
I don’t dare to say that Aristotle covered every possible relevant ethic subject, but he covered a lot more than most modern people realizes.
Reading this book requires quit a bit of focus.