[smarterchild]

Not that these are bad books (I've read a lot of them and they are quite interesting), but I think there's more value in compiling a list of the 5 most important books we should read, rather than the 30.

Of course we can learn something from reading 30 books. It'd almost be hard not to (if you chose the right genre). The problem is that, while entertaining, I'm sure a lot of us are looking at these books not just for fun, but because we want to figure out how to run our software business.

To take every software book that's imparted some little bit of insight and put it in a huge list only gives you a huge list of books to read, with no indication of which 20% of those books will give you 80% of the insight. And while some of us can digest this list in two weeks, for others it's a huge time commitment they don't have the ability to make.

I apologize for ranting, and this list does have some useful information (especially in the commentary on each book). But I get uncomfortable when I see a "Top X design articles" or "Top Y books" and the X or Y is >10. I feel like we are feeding our desire to gorge on numerically delimited information without necessarily getting substance out of it.

[brownegg]

I don't agree. Giving 30 books vastly increases the chance that any given reader can find the "right" 20%. Your 20% might not be mine; although I would find it interesting if you posted your top 5 books, I'd rather see the 30 that you read, so that I can read them all and find my own top 5.

My reaction tends to be opposite yours: when someone gives me the "top 5", I consider it only a trailhead; it's unlikely my top 5 would be the same.

[smarterchild]

> when someone gives me the "top 5", I consider it only a trailhead; it's unlikely my top 5 would be the same.

That's a fair point. The important part, it seems, is identifying not just which books to read but why. That information would help you and I find our 20%.