Years after receiving my last “required summer reading list” from school, I still associate summer with books. In honor of that, I’m providing a list of books you may (or may not) want to consider picking up this season.
All of these books are in the Internet and/or social networking category, they have come out in the past year, and they may be of interest to online editors. I’ve included a purchase link (usually Amazon.com), a review excerpt (or two) for each, and a Web site if the book has one.
My caveats: This is by no means a complete list, or even a list of recommendations – I’m just putting it out there. Some of these books got universally good reviews, others got mixed or poor reviews, but it’s good to know those books are out there, anyway. I’m not vouching for any of these – except The Long Tail, which I read and liked.
If you do read any of these, please tell us how it was by commenting below!
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The Giles Wareing Haters’ Club
By Tim Dowling
About
Tim Dowling's debut novel tells the story of freelance journalist Giles Wareing - nearing 40, professionally unfulfilled and distanced from his wife - who discovers a talk thread devoted to criticizing and ridiculing everything he has ever written. (Excerpted from The Guardian.)
Review
Metro.co.uk: "Dowling's novel is a fine comedy of domestic triviality, reaching laugh-out-loud funniness reassuringly often. Although ultimately disposable, for men of a certain age it will absolutely hit the spot."
The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness
By Steven Levy
About
The Perfect Thing is the definitive account, from design and marketing to startling impact, of Apple's iPod, the signature device of our young century.
Review
International Herald Tribune: "The Perfect Thing raises one big question: is it possible to spin a whole book out of such literally lightweight subject matter? Answer: yes, if you don't mind repetition and don't expect to learn anything new. The Perfect Thing is more entertaining than informative, but it makes a very satisfactory mash note. Gushing aside ("this is its universally celebrated, endlessly pleasing, devilishly functional, drop- dead gorgeous design"), it does a handy job of crystallizing and commemorating the dawn of the iPod age."
The Cult of the Amateur
By Andrew Keen
Book site/author blog: http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/
About
The subtitle is “How Blogs, Wikis, Social Networking, and the Digital World are Assaulting our Economy, Culture and Values.”
Reviews
Lawrence Lessig: The Cult of the Amateur is "200 pages attacking the rise of the "amateur" and the harm — economic, social, cultural and political — these amateurs will cause. Without "standards," without "taste," without "institutions" to "filter" good from bad, true from false, the Internet, Keen argues, is destined to destroy us." Lessig also writes the book is “shot through with sloppiness, error and ignorance. It tells us that without institutions, and standards, to signal what we can trust (like the institution (Doubleday) that decided to print his book), we won’t know what’s true and what’s false. But the book itself is riddled with falsity — from simple errors of fact, to gross misreadings of arguments, to the most basic errors of economics."
Dan Gillmor: "My own difficulties with the book mirror Lessig’s. Among other things, in just a few pages about citizen journalism, Keen seriously misrepresents what I’ve said and written; gets some fairly important facts wrong; and cherry-picks quotes, omitting other quotes from the same interview that would refute what he wants to convey, to make the entire concept of citizen journalism seem shallow."
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
By Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
Book site: http://wikinomics.com/
About
Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics explains how to prosper in a world where new communications technologies are democratizing the creation of value. (Excerpted from the book’s Web site.)
Reviews
Peter Waner: "For the price of the book, you get a well-designed collection of thoughtful anecdotes stitched together by two talented business writers and polished by a good editor. They've made a good attempt to cover most aspects of the topic and they do an excellent job of explaining why the ideas are important for CEOs that are struggling to move their business forward."
Digital Urban: "Partly marketed as a management book it is in fact a good general read and almost essential reading for anyone involved in the area of social, virtual or new media spaces. Based on a 9$ million research project, Wikinomics shows how masses of people can participate in the economy like never before."
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
By Chris Anderson
Book site: www.thelongtail.com
About
The Long Tail is a powerful new force in our economy: the rise of the niche. As the cost of reaching consumers drops dramatically, our markets are shifting from a one-size-fits-all model of mass appeal to one of unlimited variety for unique tastes. From supermarket shelves to advertising agencies, the ability to offer vast choice is changing everything, and causing us to rethink where our markets lie and how to get to them. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it, from DVDs at Netflix to songs on iTunes to advertising on Google. (From the online book description at amazon.com.)
Review
Matt Bailey (Search Engine Guide): "I enjoyed the book as it was much more of a social commentary than a business manual. I like this approach, as The Long Tail is not a "how-to", but a "because why". The difference is vast between those, as it is the difference between the understanding the market forces or being subject to them."
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why The Many Are Smarter Than The Few And How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies And Nations
By James Surowiecki
About
New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. This seemingly counterintuitive notion has endless and major ramifications for how businesses operate, how knowledge is advanced, how economies are (or should be) organized and how we live our daily lives. (From the Random House Web site.)
Review
The Washington Post: "Surowiecki, who has fashioned a fascinating financial column in the New Yorker by using cutting-edge social science research to interpret market life, finds ample evidence to support his argument. He writes with command and flair, weaving together entertaining anecdotes from popular culture and business history and accessible summaries of arcane theoretical debates in behavioral economics, sociology and psychology. The Wisdom of Crowds is both intellectually challenging and a pleasure to read."