My "independent study"/sabbatical

I've spent a lot of this sabbatical year paying attention to and learning things I've been interested in, and it's felt a bit like an independent study period. With a year having passed, I wanted to write down the things that made a good impression on me (not everything did), and I recommend everything on here. I've put in bold those few books that made the biggest impression on me. If you're curious about something, I'm happy to tell you more, too.

I put most energy into learning about interaction design. I have a long reading list, including:

• Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
• Contextual Design by Beyer and Holtzblatt
• Visual Thinking for Design by Colin Ware
• Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few
• Experience Design 1 by Nathan Shedroff
• Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages by Alex Wright
• The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon
• Designing for People by Henry Drefuss
• Designing for Interaction (2nd ed) by Dan Saffer
• Designing Gestural Interfaces by Dan Saffer
• Don't Make Me Think (2nd ed) by Steve Krug
• Web App Design Handbook by Fowler and Stanwick
• Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell, Holden and Butler
• Do You Matter by Brunner, Emery and Hall
  

I also went to two interaction design-related conferences:

• Interactions '09, the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) conference in Vancouver, B.C.
• CHI2009, the ACM's Computer Human Interface conference in Boston.
  

I attended a number of design-related events and groups around Boston.

• BostonCHI, particularly Ben Schneiderman's talk on social media involvement
• Pecha Kucha Boston
  
• UX Book Group Boston
• UPA Boston
• IxDA Boston
• Refresh Boston
  

While I was thinking more seriously about consulting and entrepreneurship, these books were particularly illuminating:

• Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
• Getting Started in Consulting by Alan Weiss
• Inventor's Bible by Ronald Louis Docie Sr.

I also put some effort into understanding storytelling:

• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Heath and Heath
• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds 
• The Elements of Persuasion by Maxwell and Dickman
• The Story Factor by Annette Simmons

Along with the "happy reading/discussion group" that I was with, I read a few other things in a similar vein:

• The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt
• Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony by Deng Ming-dao
  
• Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Ten Poems to Change Your Life by Roger Housden
  

I paid attention to visual communication and understanding.

• The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam
  
• How to Use Your Eyes by James Elkins
  
• How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Masters by Patrick de Rynck
• The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution by Denis Dutton
  
• Why Architecture Matters by Paul Goldberger
  
• Prints and Visual Communication by William Ivins
• The Digital Photography Book Volume 1 by Scott Kelby
  
• Illustrator CS4 Visual QuickStart Guide by Weinmann and Lourekas
  

Along with the time spent reading, I spent a lot of time looking. These are some of the most rewarding places and exhibits for me this year:

• Boston MFA, particularly the Venetian masters exhibit, the ways of seeing class, and the Greek and Roman carved miniatures and seals.
• Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum
• Boston ICA, particularly the Shepard Fairey exhibit
• Mass MoCA, particularly the Sol Lewitt installation
• The Metropolitan Museum, particularly Roxy Paine on the roof, middle age pen and parchment exhibit, and the sculpture courtyards.
• Museum of the City of New York's Saarinen exhibit
• Getty Villa
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts, particularly the large and appealing Asian collection
  
• The Frick Collection

And there were a few books that didn't quite fit into any of these groups, but were still quite appealing -- my electives or recreational nonfiction reading.

• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
• Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone and others.
  
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
• The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher

I also read a bit of fiction:

• Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, as well as his Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries
• Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson