2009 Reading List

I'm not really and avid reader, but last year, I really committed myself to reading be it for leisure, for knowledge or even for the mere purpose of passing time time. Here are the ones that really got my attention.

Chick Lit, thanks to Sophie Kinsella's not-a-care-in-the-world characters both in the Shopaholic Series and Remember me.

Neil Gaiman Collection, which I started with his compilation of short stories, then The Graveyard Book and Startdust, which I read to see if it was anything better than the movie (yes it was). And Coraline, before I went to watch the movie.

The Twilight Series, because yes, it was in everybody's reading list. But also because it was juvenile (Twilight), heartbreaking (New Moon), fickle (Eclipse) and vindicating (Breaking Dawn).

I saw the trailer of Where the Wild Things Are and decided to read the book with my son, It was.....let's just say it's not one of those books that you read with your 5-year old son and forget about it one you reached the last page. There's just so many things to explain and so many things to process for me and my son to get the most out of it.

Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, whose reviews got into me. I might have ingested most parts of it as I could still hear parts of it wringing in my ears. Stories about the New York City police department, Paul Revere, mavens, connectors, the magic number and more. So when I saw that Malcolm Gladwell got a new book, The Outliers, I just couldn't pass on the chance of reading it. True enough it was as educating as Tipping Point was.

Then of course there is Freakonomics, which was written by an economist and everything that I didn't expect a book on economics could be. It was as informative as Gladwell's., its discussion on the applications of the game theory, asking questions about similar behaviors among sumo wrestlers and teachers, the economics of drug dealing, and how penalties distorts economic decision making. Super cool!

And later this year, I stumbled on TED and learned about Daniel Gilbert's book Stumbling on Happiness which doesn't talk about the perfect formula for happiness, but discusses how rational decisions can cause irrational unhappiness.

This year, I hope I'd do better, bringing more serious materials into my reading list . I'd definitely look forward to reading Superfreakonomics. And I'll try to finish whatever material I started to read (Still have 3 books hanging over my head). Good luck to me!