J. Timothy King’s Blog

What Should I Read Next?

When Pam Slim posted a link to a summer reading list of small business books then said, “I will not buy one more book until I make it through the stack on the edge of my bathtub,” that rang true for me. Happiness is a cup of Earl Grey, a book, and a bath.

As you know, I’m currently reading . Despite all the interruptions I’ve had while reading this book, I’m almost done. But I honestly don’t know what book to read next. Maybe someone else can help me out. Here’s the stack of books on the edge of my bathtub. Two stacks, actually. One for fiction and the other for non-fiction.

Non-fiction:

• How to Stop Worrying & Start Living by Dale Carnegie. (I started it after reading How to Win Friends & Influence People, but then I got sidetracked.)

• The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball by Scott Gray. (Another freebie from InBubbleWrap.com. I think it was the “complete outsider” bit that caught my attention. It wasn’t the baseball part.)

• The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. (I’m a story geek as well as a computer geek and a wanna-be wine geek.)

• What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey. (One day I’ll write about how leadership is about grace.)

• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. (Want to know the true story of Thanksgiving? Just don’t tell your kids, or else you’ll get a talking to by the principle!)

• Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics by Doug Bandow. (Doug Bandow is a fellow at the Cato Institute, and his articles and talks have caught my attention.)

• Calendrical Calculations: The Millennium Edition by Edward M. Reingold, Nachum Dershowitz. (Okay, I’m not actually going to read this. But it is on my shelf, a very expensive book that I never even cracked open. Yup, there’s a story behind that.)

• Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. (This was given to me as a gift. I would never have bought it for myself. But it might give me ideas for a series of 21’st-century Zorro-esque stories I’ve been writing, or trying to write.

You’ll note, there are no computer books. (Except for Calendrical Calculations.) That’s because there are none on my bookshelf that I haven’t read. (Except for Calendrical Calculations.)

Fiction:

• The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares. (Having loved the movie and mildly enjoyed the first book.)

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. (No, I’m not a teenager. I just act like one sometimes.)

• Dancing on the Edge of the Roof by Sheila Williams. (She has a really inspiring story, by the way. Left a top executive job to remake herself as a novelist. Talk about following your passion!)

• Battlestar Galactica: Destiny by Richard Hatch and Brad Linaweaver. (One day I’ll post my list of ten reasons why the new Battlestar Galactica is not the best show on TV.)

• Dragon’s Kin by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey. (I haven’t read any of the others in the series.)

• The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner. (I loved the movie. I haven’t read any of Mario Puzo’s novels.)

• Cat in an Orange Twist by Carole Nelson Douglas. (This is what happens when I step into Barnes and Noble’s with a gift card and happen to walk through the discount section.)

• Northern Lights by Nora Roberts. (And this is what happens when I’m in the discount section and I get desperate for something, anything to read.)

That’s what’s on my book shelf, more or less, that I have not yet read. What should I read next?

-TimK