I’ve been reading a bit more lately since I got my Kindle a couple of months ago. It has proven to be a good purchase as it’s been getting more than its fair share of use. My favorite aspects of the Kindle so far are its size, ease of use (especially while reading in bed), ability to quickly look up the definition of a word, and jotting down quick notes for things to look into later or remember. I really, really wish it was back-lit though. I got a nice light for it but it’s still far from great. The e-ink is nice from the power consumption side but I can’t say I’ve noticed it being much easier to read or anything. I’d definitely give a back-lit device a try if it also delivered a reasonable battery life (unlikely to try the magical iPad though–too much magic for me I think).

Anyway, here’s a quick summary of the books I read over the last month and a half.

Bringing Nothing To The Party by Paul Carr. This one was a fun read. It focuses on Carr’s ride while doing the startup thing and is filled with plenty of humor, insight into the internet startup scene, and a deeper than expected look at a guy who felt he couldn’t pass up the pursuit of becoming an entrepreneur. This was the first book of the batch I read so it’s not all that fresh anymore (my memory isn’t all that…um, what was I saying?) but I remember really being pleasantly surprised by the honesty that came through towards the end. That topped it off for me and made it a much more impactful book than I had expected. This guy is a true character and probably a great one to share a beer or two with.

Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. This one consists of a collection of interviews with the folks behind many successful startups (new-ish and old) such as TiVo, PayPal, Flickr, and Apple. It was interesting to see some of the common themes shared by many of the companies such as how they almost all ended up doing something substantially different from what they originally set out to do. I go back and forth in thinking the book makes succeeding in startup land easy to an impossible long shot but it’s clear that these folks all enjoyed the ride in the end. Inspiring stuff.

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty. While it’s unlikely one would know from my writing, I have a thing for grammar and writing books. It took me till long after it got me grades to get into them but so it goes. While I don’t retain a ton of the stuff I learn in these types of books, it’s still always satisfying to permanently pick up a few things. This book in particular is probably as interesting as the topic could get. Some of the memory tricks suggested aren’t all that easy to remember and it definitely hits a low point when it briefly turns into Internet for Dummies but the majority of the book is great and you’re guaranteed to pick up a few good tips.

One Strategy by Steven Sinofsky and Marco Iansiti. This book is made up of blog posts off of Sinofsky’s internal Microsoft blog with commentary and additional thoughts from Iansiti. I really found this one interesting though, being a Microsoft employee, I’m clearly closer to it all than folks outside the company. It covers the time Sinofsky took over the Windows team and set out to build and deliver Windows 7. I think it offers a pretty deep view into how things work, albeit from a pretty high level, at Microsoft and covers what was surely a pretty challenging project to run. It’s ironic that it took me a book I had to pay for to get me to read something I could have read for free but I’ve now subscribed to the internal blog and will definitely keep up this time around.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It would be a stretch for me to say I really enjoyed this one. It had a few high points and I can’t really feel like it cost too much to read considering it was a two-nighter to go from (virtual) cover to cover. A definite quick read but a bit heavy on the sappiness for me. Morrie was a pretty cool dude though.