Current Reading Covers A Broad Spectrum

The January meeting of Columbus Futurists celebrated the 10th anniversary of the local chapter – and elicited a spontaneous round of applause for David Staley, chapter president who initiated the chapter and has shepherded it ever since.

The topic of discussion for the meeting was “What are you reading now?”   Everyone in the group offered at least one title on their current list, and some have more than one book going at any given time.  I made an effort to capture the titles, and present them here in no particular order.  I have also provided an embedded link to each title, so they are easy to find should you wish to follow-up.  For consistencies sake, each link – where available – goes to the printed book edition – but many do have electronic editions also, which are listed where they exist.

If anyone who was in attendance finds that I have omitted something – or somehow gotten it wrong – please add a comment here or send an email, and I will correct the list for posterity.

What are you reading now? – January 26, 2012:

• Listening to the Future: Why It’s Everybody’s Business, Daniel W. Rasmus
• Civilization: The West and the Rest, Niall Ferguson
• Legitimation Crisis, Juergen Habermas 
• Screw Business As Usual, Richard Branson
• A History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor
• The Great Reset: How the Post-Crash Economy Will Change the Way We Live and Work, Richard Florida
• A Theory of Capitalist Regulation: The US Experience, Michel Aglietta
• One of Ours, Willa Cather
• The Cycles of American History, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
• American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, Colin Woodard
• Managing the Future: A Guide to Forecasting and Strategic Planning in the 21st Century, Stephen M. Millett
• The Union War, Gary Gallagher
• The Confederate War, Gary Gallagher
• Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950, Charles Murray
• 7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century, Andrew Krepinevich
• Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
• Our Own Worst Enemy: Asking the Right Questions About Security to Protect You, Your Family, and America, Randall Larsen
• The Future of Power, Joseph S. Nye Jr. 
• Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, Sally Bedell Smith
• Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, Richard Rhodes
• 25 Things You Need to Know About the Future, Christopher Barnatt (available in Kindle version only)

Quite an eclectic list – and of course we would anticipate nothing less from this group!

We look forward to seeing the group again on Feb 23 (same location: Panera on Bethel Rd.), when we will be discussing “Are Freeways Doomed?”

— Posted by Rich Bowers