Great Quote

Adventure is just bad planning.  - Roald Amundsen

Your Ten Top Non-Fiction Books

A friend of mine had a great idea... a list of the ten best fiction books on his shelves.

I'm taking advantage of the concept but proposing the posting of lists of the ten best non-fiction books on your shelves. A brief description of why you chose your ten is a bonus.

My List:

1. The Prince and the Discourses (Niccolo Machiavelli)
2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig)
3. The Art of War (Sun Tzu, Cleary Translation)
4. Design Patterns (the "Gang of Four")
5. The Mythical Man Month (Fred Brooks)
6. The Second World War (Winston Churchill)
7. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Waterson)
8. The SAS Survival Guide (John Wiseman)
9. A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)
10. Amo, Amas, Amat and More (Eugene Ehrlich)

Bonus Entry: Anything starting with FM-xxxx. (FM stands for Field Manual, US military) But since these I have on CD, I'd have to not include them in my base 10.

Another friend of mine said #1 and 3 above give you advice on how to live, #2 on why. I put #4 in because it represented a pardigm shift (literally) in my field and in my mindset. #5 explains why Project Management appears to have nothing in common with science or art (or success usually). #6 is about one of the key wars in human history and written by one of the most key figures. #7 is joy in book form. #8 could save your life. #9 will blow your mind (at least it did mine). #10 reminds us why some things from antiquity matter and how they can still be fun two thousand years later.

Your list?

Quote of the Day

The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.
  - Andre Malraux

To me, the quote exemplifies the remarkable part of our humanity - our ability to live meaningfully amid times that make one doubt all certainty, all truth, and all authorities. We draw that from within and exert our own meaning upon our world.

From a writing perspective, it is an interesting construction with evocative imagery.

The quotation at the top by Malraux was 'shamelessly quoted' from Quotes of the Day.