42itous.com

MY RATING: **** (4 out of 5 stars)

The back of the Napkin is a very useful overview of using white board drawings in presentations and to solve problems. Visual approach to problem solving has always been one of my interests, and although this book does not have the same range as Tufte’s classic books on informational design, it has a lot of very practical useful information. The tone of this small, illustrated volume is rather chatty, and very informal, which makes for a quick and entertaining (as well as useful) read. Although this was not the authors intent, many of his suggestions, techniques and ideas can easily be adapted and used to improve PowerPoint or Keynote presentations as well (of course, he suggests that letting go of PP is the way to go). Combining his ideas with electronic “smartboartds” opens up a whole range of new, exciting, instructional possibilities.

MY RATING: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

Probably the best non-fiction book I have ever read. Surprising, informative, and stunning in its conclusions. One of those infrequent, permanent, perspective changing books.

MY RATING: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

Fascinating, almost as good as Jared Diamond's book. One of very few book I have ever read in my life that has had a changing, and lasting impact on what I choose to eat. A great read, too.

MY RATING: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

Read in the spring of 2006. Outstanding, and entertaining read. An interesting juxtapposition with Gladwell's Tipping Point, which this book contradicts (on an issue explaining crime rate decline in NYC).
Since I am not an economist, I am not sure to what degree we can trust the "magic" of numbers here - there is also an underlying, and somewhat disturbing (implied) conclusion one may be tempted to draw from the reading, that any problem may be solved, and in fact is best solved, by only attending to pertinent numbers. Not sure I buy that.

MY RATING: *** 1/2 (out of 5 stars)

Fascinating, if at times unconvincing argument about an equally fascinating topic: people's ability to bring a lifetime's experience to quickly make a decision or judgment call in ... a blink of an eye. And how that works. Gladwell is an entertaining writer; this was one of several audio books that accompanied me on my trip to Asia (a total of over 45 hours on the plane over 2 weeks). Tipping point was another.

MY RATING: *** (3 out of 5 stars)

Partly read in February 2007, revisited in the summer ('07) as an audio book. An interesting, sensible book on maitaining a balance between order and organization and creativity. Some of the examples in the second half of the book are weaker than the intro. chapters.

MY RATING: *** (3 out of 5 stars)

Read in June 2007. Interesting enough to make me write a review on my blog.

MY RATING: *** 1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars)

Read in June 2007; this book is mentioned in more detail in my review of Hutchinson's book (listed above).   

Another fly-over-Asia (airplane reading) book. Not quite as good as Blink, but kept me from worrying about the plane...

MY RATING: ** (2 out of 5 stars)

Read in the summer of 2007. The central idea behind this book is interesting, and although the author "coined" the term, the actual concept it is not the author's original idea, but rather the application of Pareto's distribution laws in statistics to business environment. An article on Wikipedia sums it up nicely... The book is very thin onn substance - it would have made for an interesting article in the Altantic or Harper's (as it did in Wired magazine article in 2004), but it's not enough material and very little in-depth analysis for a book.

MY RATING: * (1 out of 5 stars)

Read in late June 2007. Disappointing enough to deserve two reviews: a detailed review on my blog, and a more polite, shorter version I posted on amazon.com (as GJ, one star rating).