At the age of fifteen I transferred from a lackadaisical high school run by the U.S. military outside Paris to an academically rigorous prep school in Newport, R.I. Being both shy and a foreigner to the prep scene, I turned to books to help me catch up, and my love affair with dead-tree media has grown stronger as the years go by. Overstuffed book shelves in my office, by my bed, in the living room, in the family room, and along the hallway downstairs are taking over my house.

Many books inform what I write, but these deserve special attention. These are seminal, the crème de la crème, that are influencing my thinking on Informal Learning. This list is still growing. Any suggestions?

Design

IDEO. IDEO Method Cards. 52 cards. Methodcards@ideo.com

Norman, Don. The Design of Everyday Things

Krug, Steve. Don't Make Me Think.

Morville, Peter & Rosenfeld, Louis. Information Architecture.

Lidwell, William; Holden, Kritina & Butler, Jim. Universal Principles of Design.

Horn, Robert. Mapping Hypertext.

Horn, Robert. Visual Language.

Wurman, Richard Saul. Information Anxiety 2.

Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building.

Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Lanugage.

Gery, Gloria. Electronic Performance Support Systems.

Cunningham, Ward et alia. Extreme Programming.

Alger, Brian. The Experience Designer: Learning, Networks and the Cybersphere

Psychology

Seligman, Martin. Authentic Happiness.

Seligman, Martin. Learned Optimism.

Hallowell, Edward. Driven to Distraction.

Hallowell, Edward. Delivered from Distraction.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi. Flow.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi. Good Business.

The Dalai Lama. The Art of Happiness at Work.

Keirsey, David. Please Understand Me I.

Langer, Ellen. Mindfulness.

Langer, Ellen. Mindful Learning.

Langer, Ellen. On Becoming an Artist.

Adams, John. Thinking Today as if Tomorrow Mattered.

Gardner, Howard. Changing Minds.

Goleman, Daniel. Primal Leadership.

Gazzaniga, Michael. The Mind's Past.

Zinsser, William. Writing About Your Life.

Organizations

Cross, Rob. The Hidden Power of Social Networks.

Dawson, Ross. Living Networks.

MacKenzie, Gordon. Orbiting the Giant Hairball.

Multiple authors. Learning Organizations.

Kleiner, Art. Who Really Matters.

Brown, John Seely & Duguid, Paul. The Social Life of Information.

Cooperider, David. The Appreciative Inquiry Thin Book.

Steward, Tom. Intellectual Capital.

Conner, Marcia & Clawson, Jim. Creating a Learning Culture.

Warshawsky, Jon; Hardaway, Chelsea & Fugere, Brian. Why Business People Speak like Idiots.

The Business Ecosystem

Wineberg, David et alia. The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat.

Allee, Verna. The Future of Knowledge.

Davis, Stan & Meyer, Christopher. It's Alive.

Johnson, Steve. Emergence.

Brown, John Seely & Hagel, John. The Only Sustainable Advantage.

Stewart, Tom. The Wealth of Knowledge.

Malone, Tom. The Future of Work.

HBR on Knowledge Management.

Zuboff, Shoshana & Maxmin, James. The Support Economy.

Wheatly, Margaret & Kellner-Roberts. Myron. A Simpler Way.

Pink, Daniel. Free Agent Nation.

Learning

Conner, Marcia. Learn More Now.

Davis, Ned. Learning for Tomorrow. (In press)

Bransford, et alia. How People Learn.

Schank, Roger. Lessons.

Zinsser, William. Writing to Learn.

Tobin, Daniel. All Learing is Self-Directed.

Russell, Thomas. The No Significance Difference Phenomenon.

Senge, Peter el alia. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.

O'Driscoll, Tony. Achieving Desired Business Performance.

Kelly, Tom & Nanjiani, Nader. The Business Case for eLearning.

Brown, John Seely et alia. Storytelling in Organizations.

Brown, Juanita. The World Cafe.

Goleman, Daniel. Working with Emotional Intelligence.

Ayre, Richard. Spiritual Serendipity.

Pryor, Karen. Don't Shoot the Dog!

Knowles, Malcolm. The Adult Learner, A Neglected Species.

Rossett, Allison. Beyond the Podium.

Denning, Stephen. The Leader's Guide to Storytelling

Madson, Patricia Ryan. Improv Wisdom.

The Future

Capra, Fritjof. The Hidden Connections.

Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined.

Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind.

Davenport, Tom. Thinking for a Living.

Metrics

Johnson, Thomas & Kaplan, Robert. Relevance Lost.

Johnson, Thomas. Relevance Regained.

Many more on this topic.