I used to feel honor-bound to finish any book I started, but now I'm smarter than that. Life is too short to keep slogging through something that doesn't interest me.
Tyler Cowen http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2006/12...
The book gets added to my to-read list if:
* it has received a a good recommendation from someone I respect
* the author has a good interview on a program such as KQED's Forum or NPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge
* has generally good reviews on amazon.com
The more criteria it matches, the higher it sits in my list.
The current one is the evolution of language in general, but, of course, the audience is assumed to be English-speaking (he does use many other languages as examples however) http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=1600
Enjoy!
I think there are two types of reading. The first type is conversational or fun reading. It's like having a dialog with the author. The second is structured reading, where the goal is information transfer at the expense of readability. It's great when you can get a book that does both, but the trick is to be able to make yourself read the second type when the information is worth getting.
So the books I have open right now are "Expert F#", "Getting past Ok" (recommended by another HN'er). "Practical ML", and "When Genius Failed"
I'm also watching a series of college lectures on the history and evolution of spoken language -- very interesting!
I read 2-4 books a month. It's definitely worth it to me. Many times consulting is just being able to consume and process information that most people don't have time for. That means a lot of reading. So while everybody else is watching football or dancing with the stars, I'm either working on startup stuff or learning.