Reading List, 2012

1. Invisible Engines - How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries, Evans & Hagiu & Schmalensee A good look at "two-sided platforms", such as credit cards (which need both users and merchants) and operating systems (which need app developers and end-users).


2. REAMDE, Neal Stephenson -- 1/27. Long, and very Stephenson. Thriller, not sci-fi, loaded with action and plenty of thought. Loved it.


3. You Are Not So Smart, David McRaney -- 2/26. Excellent "Psychology 101" book for those of us who never took psychology. Strongly recommended, as is his blog


4. Double Homicide, Jonathan and Faye Kellerman -- 1/27. Two novellas by a married pair of crime-novelists, collaborating for the first time. Both murder mysteries/police procedurals and both quite good.


5. Borderlands 3, anthology -- 3/22. First published 1992. There are several gems here, and several stories where I saw the "surprise" coming from the first page. I know I can do better than most of these contributors (but probably not better than Poppy Z. Brite's contribution, even as it was not one of her best).


6. The Magic of Reality, Richard Dawkins, illus. Dave McKean - 3/25. This is actually a children's book about science and skepticism. The subtitle for this book is "How We Know What's Really True". The illustrations are as quirky as you'd expect, and true to the science on every page.


7. You Suck! A Love Story, Christopher Moore - 4/26. Sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends, there's some troubling behavior (was that sex aconsensual?) but the characterization is brilliant. Unhappy about the ending, but I can see why he did it.


8. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino Post-modern meta-book with 10 false starts and a loopy framing sequence which somehow manages to work.


9. Interworld, Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves A young boy who can walk between dimensions encounters an army of... himself.


10. Lords and Ladies, Terry Pratchett A Discworld novel. Featuring Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".


11. The Island of the Color-Blind, Oliver Sacks Non-fiction. Achromatopsia is absurdly prevalent on the Pacific island of Pingelap. Meanwhile, on Guam ("Cycad Island"), people born before 1952 are subject to a mysterious neurological degeneration.


12. Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson