The Best Used Books in My Library

20 September 2010

Posted in Blog & Book

Last week I finished the last minor boring details of my book. One of my many mind-numbing tasks was to cross-check all references (in the body text) with the bibliography (at the end.) Yes, I know. I should have used a way to automate this before I started writing. But I didn’t. Boohoo. Shame and pity on me.

Anyway, that’s how I got to understand (for the first time) which books I have actually used most often during the last 1.5 years. And that’s how I noticed that there’s a big difference between liking a book and actually using it.

So… these are the 24 books I have used most often, while writing my own book. Maybe you find some of them as interesting (and useful) as I did.

references	book
15	Waldrop, M. Complexity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
13	Stacey, Ralph D. et.al. Complexity and Management. New York: Routledge, 2000 (a).
11	Cohn, Mike. Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum. Reading: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2009.
9	Augustine, Sanjiv. Managing Agile Projects. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, 2005.
9	Gleick, James. Chaos. Harmondsworth Eng.: Penguin, 1987.
9	Kelly, Kevin. Out of Control. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
8	Arrow, Holly et.al. Small Groups as Complex Systems. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2000.
8	Corning, Peter. Nature's Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
8	Miller, John H. and Scott E. Page. Complex Adaptive Systems. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
7	DeMarco, Tom and Timothy Lister. Peopleware: 2nd Edition. New York: Dorset House Pub, 1999.
7	Highsmith, Jim. Agile Project Management: Second Edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2009.
7	Poppendieck, Mary et.al. Leading Lean Software Development. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2009.
7	Thomas, Kenneth. Intrinsic Motivation at Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2000.
7	Weinberg, Gerald. Quality Software Management. New York: Dorset House Pub, 1992.
6	Hackman, J. Leading Teams. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
6	Lewin, Roger and Birute Regine. Weaving Complexity and Business. Mason: Texere, 2001.
6	Mitchell, Melanie. Complexity. City: Oxford U Pr, N Y, 2009.
6	Poppendieck, Mary et.al. Implementing Lean Software Development. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2007.
6	Rothman, Johanna and Esther Derby. Behind Closed Doors. Raleigh: Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2005.
5	Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2002.
5	Lewin, Roger. Complexity: A Guided Tour. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
5	Reinertsen, Donald. Managing the Design Factory. New York: Free Press, 1997.
5	Solé, Ricard et.al. Signs of Life. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
5	Testa, Louis. Growing Software. San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2009.

Interestingly enough, I find the list a bit surprising. I had thought other favorite books of mine would have ended up on top. But apparently, some books are only appealing and memorable, while others are more useful and durable.

If you want to see my full list 215 references to books and articles, I’m afraid you will have to wait just a little while. It looks like my own book will be in the stores by the end of December. 🙂

(picture by luiginter)

Jurgen is an experienced author, trainer, and speaker. Why don’t you hire him to add some spice to your company event or seminar?

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