I love to read! I’m a pretty fast reader! With these super powers combined I’ve decided to attempt to read 5o books over the final 55 days of 2015. Some suggest that I might miss out on something reading at this pace but I’m not reading books faster than normal — just more often than normal (I’m looking at you Netflix). Here’s my takeaways from the books I’ve read so far:

1 – How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass – Christopher DiCarlo

Rating: ★★★✯☆ [3.5]

Quick Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was a strange book to begin with because those closest to me know this title is something I perfected quite some time ago. 😉    — [are emoticons allowed on blogs?]

The heart of the book is critical thinking and sound arguments, wrapped up in a humorous but forthright tone. Anyone interested in critical thinking and questioning should enjoy this book.

2 – Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – David Allen

Rating: ★★★★✯ [4.5]

Quick Review: When you set a goal of fifty books in fifty-five days [#50in55] you would be wise to begin with a book like this. David Allen does an excellent job of helping you set aside some of the more traditional concepts of organization and change them up. It’s about mental clutter as much as it is about physical clutter on one’s desktop (Analog or Digital). If you’re an organization/get-things-done kinda person you will appreciate this title and all the tips/ideas in includes.

3 – Legacy Code (Book 2) – Autumn Kalquist

Rating: ★★★★★

Quick Review: I’m a sucker for sci-fi and Autumn Kalquist’s stuff hooked me. She’s a self-published author who has really captured my attention. I’ve become an evangelist of sorts for her books amongst my friends/family. The books are relatively short and inexpensive. I will read anything Kalquist writes for the foreseeable future.

4 – The Gospel of John, An Actual Translation – Roy Blizzard III

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Quick Review: The formatting for this ebook was almost unreadable. I haven’t read the ‘dead tree’ version so it may be better. I value Blizzard’s desire to show the Ancient Jewish imagery and language in the Gospel of John and I will likely use it as a resource at times but I probably won’t recommend it too often.

5. Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

Rating: ★★★★★

Quick Review: Stop reading this blog and go read this book! Seriously – go now! This is a beautiful parable about life, living, and being. I had been recommended this book by some dear friends and only regret not taking up their recommendation sooner. If you like short stories with depth and beauty you’ll find this to be a go-to book for a long time to come.

6. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories – B.J. Novak

Rating: ★★★★☆

Quick Review: Great. Meh. Funny. Meh. Engaging. Meh. This is seemingly the pattern the book takes. There are amazing stories and pretty mundane [meh] stories. I waffled a bit on the rating because there are many stories that should’ve been edited out but other ones are quite excellent. How does one rate a book like this? I’m an optimist so I went with a 4 instead of a 3 — but reader be warned you might not like these.

7. Humble Inquiry – Edgar H. Schein

Rating: ★★★★★

Quick Review: I’m a sucker for Questions! This book helps the reader understand the value of a good question. We’ve been trained to be ‘The Answer Person’ when in all reality the best leaders tend to be the best questioners. I was told that Schein’s other books are equally excellent.

These are the first seven of my #50in55. I’ve actually read 13 so far, but you’ll have to wait for those reviews!

What are you reading? What are your recommendations? Please post your ratings/reviews/recommendations in the comments section below [this could be one blog post where folks want to ‘scroll down’].