Reading List, 2008

Once again, I am one of those nerds that keeps track of all the books he reads in a given year:

• Nobody Likes You: Inside The Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day - Marc Spitz
• I Am America (And So Can You) - Stephen Colbert
• Jump The Shark: When Good Things Go Bad - Jon Hein
• Giving: How Each of Us Can Change The World - Bill Clinton
• Clapton: The Autobiography - Eric Clapton
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong - James W. Loewen
• Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From The American Indie Underground 1981-1991 - Michael Azerrad
• George's Secret Key To The Universe -- Stephen and Lucy Hawking
• Rock On: An Office Power Ballad - Dan Kennedy
• Sound Advice On Recording & Mixing Guitars - Bill Gibson
• Things The Grandchildren Should Know - Mark Oliver Everett
• Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways To Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done In Less Time - Brian Tracy
• My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary Of Kevin Smith - Kevin Smith
• Save Me from Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, and Lived to Tell My Story - Brian Welch
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - David Allen
• The Heroin Diaries -- Nikki Sixx
• Love Is A Mix Tape -- Rob Sheffield
• When You Are Engulfed In Flames - David Sedaris
• High Performance Web Sites - Steve Souders

Highlights/recommendations: "Things The Grandchildren Should Know" is totally brilliant. I want to invite Mark Everett to Christmas dinner. "My Boring-Ass Life" -- the middle 150-ish pages is slow-going, but the parts at the end about Die Hard, jury duty, and Jason Mewes' heroin addiction are worth the wait. "Nobody Likes You" -- I'm a sucker for anything Green Day, and this book does a great job of explaining how they are anything but a flash in the pan, or trend followers. I've always stood firmly behind my love of Green Day, and this book just adds to my justification for doing so. :) "Love Is A Mix Tape" -- Great true story. Music nerds everywhere will love it, even if he does spend a awful lot of time talking about indie bands that I don't particularly enjoy. "The Herioin Diaries" -- Nikki Sixx's diary from 1988, at the height of his heroin addiction, published for the world to read and learn from. Wow, I read a lot of books this year about heroin addiction. Hmmm... :) Not as many as I wanted to complete, but I did start forming 2 new bands, recorded several others at my studio, started a new "web development/design" business, and well, lots of other stuff that took up a bunch of time. :) I've got a few more that are still "in progress", so I'll save those for the "2009" list. -nolan