Summer Reading - Wallowing in Wonk

Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Futre
of Passenger Rail Service

I have been busy this summer reading all manner of wonky (transportation, urbanist, land use, economics, linguistics) books. Hopefully I can find time for some fiction or maybe anime but for now its wonky wonky.

Here is a list of what I have been reading the last year with some on my wish list. The list reads from those that I have most recently read to those which I read up to about a year ago. (As of September 5, 2012)

Currently Reading:
Canals for a Nation - The Canal Era in the United States 1790-1860, Ronald E. Shaw
Cadillac Desert - The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner
The Age of Heretics - Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change - Art Klein (Tribes Biography)
The Leaderless Revolution - How Ordinary People Will Take Power and Change Politics in the 21st Century, Carne Ross


Books I've Read since January 2011

The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic -George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling
Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service : Janet McGovern
27 Powers of Persuasion : Chris St. Hilaire 
City Comforts - How to Build an Urban Village : David Sucher
Open Road- A Celebration of the American Highway, Phil Patton
Oil on the Brain - Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank - Lisa Margonelli
Pedal Power - The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public Life : J. Harry Wray
Linchpin - Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin
Meatball Sundae - Is Your Marketing Out of Sync, Seth Godin
Tribes - We Need You To Lead Us, Seth Godin
Purple Cow - Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable,  Seth Godin
Highways to Heaven - The Auto Biography of America: Christopher Finch
Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service, James McCommons
Getting There - The epic struggle between road and rail in the American Century : Stephen B. Goddard
The Checklist Manifesto: How to get things right, Atul Gawande
Here Comes Everybody - The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, Clay Shirky
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile, Taras Grescoe
Going Local - Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age - Michael H. Schuman
Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in our Communities, George Kelling and Katherine Coles
On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life : Amy Walker
As One - Mehrdad Baghai
Open Leadership - How Social Technology can Transform the Way you Lead : Charlene Li
The Neighborhood Project : Using Evolution to Improve my City, One Block at a Time, David Sloan Wilson.
Rebel Bookseller - Why Indie Business Represent Everything You Want to Fight For, Freom Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities - Andrew Laties
Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City : Anthony Flint
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures : Malcolm Gladwell
Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.
Don't Think of an Elephant, George Lakoff
The Elements of Influence: Introducing the Playmaker's Standard: The New Essential System for Managing Competition, Reputation, Brand, and Buzz : Alan Kelly
Grassroots leaders for a new economy : how civic entrepreneurs are building prosperous communities, Douglas Henton, John Melville, and Kimberly Walesh.
Ignore Everybody : and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Hugh MacLeod.
Microstyle : the art of writing little, Christopher Johnson.
Behind the dream : the making of the speech that transformed a nation, Clarence B. Jones and Stuart Connelly.
Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping : Paco Underhill
What Women Want - The Global Market Turns Femaile Friendly : Paco Underhill
The Call of the Mall - The Geography of Shopping :Paco Underhill
Changing places : Rebuilding Community in the age of sprawl, Richard Moe and Carter Wilkie
Two Billion Cars: Driving Towards Sustainability, Daniel Sperling
The Organization Man : William "Holly" Whyte (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces : William "Holly" Whyte
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America : Thomas Freidman
The World is Flat - a brief history of the 21st century : Thomas Friedman
Bowling Alone - The Collapese and Revival of the American Community : Robert Putnum
A Whole New Mind : why right-brainers will rule the future, Daniel H. Pink.
Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life, Tom Lewis
What the dog saw and other adventure stories, Malcolm Gladwell
Divorce Your Car: Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile, Kate Alvord
Unless it moves the human heart : the craft and art of writing, Roger Rosenblatt
Home From Nowhere : remaking our everyday world for the twenty-first Century (reread), James Howard Kunstler
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape,(reread) James Howard Kunstler
Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking : Malcolm Gladwell
World Made by Hand : James Howard Kunstler

The Death and Life of Great American Cities (reread), Jane Jacobs
The Economy of Cities, Jane Jacobs
Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jane Jacobs
The Nature of Economies, Jane Jacobs
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics, Jane Jacobs
Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life : Alan Deutshman
Outliers - The Story of Success : Malcolm Gladwell
Traffic - Why we drive the way we do, and what it says about us : Tom Vanderbilt
Soft Energy Paths - Towards a Durable Peace, Amory Lovins
Brittle Power - Energy Strategy for National Security, Amory Lovins
Winning the Oil Endgame, Amory Lovins 
Stick Your Neck Out - A Street-Smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond : John Graham
Your Innner Economist - Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist : Tyler Cohen
Freakonomics - A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything : Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
The Privitization Decision: Public Ends, Private Means : John D. Donahue
The Great Inversion and the Future of the American city : Alan Ehrenhalt
A pattern language - towns, buildings, construction : Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein
Introduction to logic and critical thinking : Merrilee H. Salmon
Joyride: Pedaling Toward A Healthier Planet : Mia Birk
The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition : James Howard Kunstler
Two Billion Cars - Driving towards sustainability : Daniel Speriling
Wow Wal-Mart is Destroying America, and What You Can Do About It : Bill Quinn
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities : Jeff Mapes
Triumph of the city : how our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier, Edward L. Glaeser.
Last Child in the Woods - Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder : Richard Louv
Drill here, drill now, pay less : a handbook for slashing gas prices and solving our energy crisis, Newt Gingrich with Vince Haley.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference : Malcolm Gladwell
The Black Swan : the impact of the highly improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Memoir Project : a thoroughly non-standardized text for writing & life, Marion Roach Smith
The Science of Fear - How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain : Daniel Gardner
The Storytelling Animal : how stories make us human, Jonathan Gottschall
Cadillac Desert - The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner
Special Events and Festivals : how to plan, organize, and implement,Angie Prosser and Ashli
Brew to Bikes - Portland's Artisan Economy: Charles Heying
Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability : David Owen
The New City State - Change and Renewal in American Cities : Tom McEnery

And Prior
Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Reckoning, David Halberstam (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Fifties, David Halberstam
The Ecology of Commerce - A Declaration of Sustainability, Paul Hawken (Age of Heretics -Biography)

On my reading list:

Doing More with Less, Burce Piasecki
The Icarus Syndrome - A History of American Hubris, Peter Beinhart (recommended by Chuck Marohn of Stongtowns.org)
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways : Earl Swift
Small is Profitable - The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size, Amory Lovins
Reinventing Fire - Bold Solutions for a New Energy Era - Amory Lovins
Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation, Richard Sennett
Placemaking, Charles Bohl
The Quest - Energy Security and the Remaking of the Modern World - Daniel Yergin
The High Cost of Free Parking : Donald Shoup
ReThinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking : Eran Ben-Joseph
Better Together: Restoring the American Community : Robert Putnam
The Witch of Hebron: A World Made by Hand Novel : James Howard Kunstler
Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation : James Howard Kunstler
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century : James Howard Kunstler

Railroaded: The Transcontinental Railroads and the Making of Modern America : Richard White
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger : Marc Levinson
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York : Robert Caro (Open Road Biography)
Stealth of Nations - The Global Rise of the Informal Economy : Robert Newwirth
Now Your See It - How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn : Cathy N. Davidson
America The Philosophical : Carlin Romano
Small Town Rules - How Big Brands and Small Business Can Prosper in a Connected Economy : Larry J. Molitz & Becky McCray
The Nonprofit Board Answer Book - A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives
No Way to Run A Railroad - The Untold Story of the Penn Central Crisis : Stephen Salsbury
Derailed - What Went Wrong and What to Do About America's Passenger Trains : Joseph Vranich
End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains : Joseph Vranich
The Powers That Be : David Halberstam 
The Best and the Brightest : David Halberstam 
Supertrains: Solutions to America's Transportation Gridlock : Joseph Vranich
Bold Endeavors - How our Government Built America and Why it Must Rebuild Now : Felix Rhoyhatyn
Moving Millions - An Inside Look at Mass Transit : Stan Fischer
Stuck in Traffic - Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion : Anthony Downs
Breaking Gridlock- Moving Towards Transportation That Works : Jim Motavalli
Making the Car Pay Its Way: The Case of Minneaapolis Roads : John Biley, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
The Pressue Boys: The Inside Story of Lobbying in America : Kenneth Crawford
The Interstate Commerce Omission: The Public Interest and the ICC : Robert C. Fellmeth
The Pavers and the Paved - The Real Cost of America's Highway Program 1971 : Ben Kelley
The Motorization of American Cities : David J. St.Clair
Superhighways Super Hoax : Helen Leavitt
The Automobikle and American Culture 1986 : David Lewis
The Going Rate - What it Really Costs to Drive : James J. McKenzie World Resource Institute, Washington DC
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 David McCullough
The Economics of Competition in the Transportation Industries : John Robert Meyer
The Era of Thodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America : George E. Mowry
Railroads - The Free Enterprise Alternative : Daniel Overbey
No Way to Run a Railroad: The Untold Story of the Penn Central Crisis : Stephen Salsbury
Building the American Highway System: Engineers as Policy Makers : Bruce E. Seely
The Interstate Commerce Commision and the Railroad Industry: A History of Regulatory Policy 1991: Richard D. Stone
Silent Spring : Rachel Carson
Suburbia - It's People and Its Politics 1979 : Robert C. Wood
The Prize - The Quest for Oil, Money and Power : Daniel Yergin (Age of Heretics -Biography)
On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors 1979 : Patrick J. Wright (Age of Heretics -Biography)
What Are People For - Essays : Wendell Berry (Age of Heretics -Biography)
Voluntary Simplicity - Towards A Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, Duane Elgin  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
A Grunch of Giants : Buckminster Fuller  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, Robert Heilbroner  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
Let Them Call me a Rebel - Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy : Sanford Horwitt  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Glory and The Dream,William Manchester  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Seven Laws of Money, Michael Phillips (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shaped, Anthony Sampson (Age of Heretics -Biography)

Superhighways Superhoax, Helen Leavitt (Open Road Biography)
Interstate: Express Highway Politics 1941-1956, Mark Rose (Open Road Biography)
The Last Landscape, William "Holly" Whyte  (Open Road Biography)