Here are the books I read towards the end of 2011. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue blogging about the books I read anymore in 2012 as I’m not sure if this serves any purpose, seeing I’m not really reviewing the books per se. It just feels like there’s no point to all of this. Main question being: is anyone getting anything out of this?

• Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski
• Strangler by Corey Mitchell
• Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter
• Card Sorting by Donna Spencer
• Dismembered by Susan D. Mustafa and Sue Israel
• Death Trap by M. William Phelps

Luke is a man I have huge respect for and I was so excited about Mobile First to come out. In the end, I’m not sure if my expectations were too high, but it felt a bit of a let down. Again, maybe it was just me. Sometimes it felt like Luke was trying to sell his point a bit too much, but it could also because I’m a believer already.

It is an important book. No one can deny that. Ten years from now this concept – including Luke and this book – will probably be seen as the biggest turning point since moving from browser specific mutant code towards standards based direction. And it’s no secret that was a web developer I’m betting my money on mobile first and responsive web design as well. It’s hard, there are a lot of unknowns, it takes a lot of work, but in the end I know it’s the only way to go on.

As for Corey Mitchell, I’ve said it before: he has proven himself to be a true crime author you can’t go wrong with. Strangler was no exception. His books are well written, interesting to read and I will definitely keep on buying his books without a second thought. This was also his last true crime book that I hadn’t read, so here’s to hoping his next one will come out soon!

I got Aarron Walter‘s Designing for Emotion mainly because it was bundled with Luke’s Mobile First. It sounded like an OK book, but I would have pushed back buying it hadn’t it been bundled with the book I really wanted to get. I’m glad I didn’t as it turned out to be one of the best work related books I read all year. I had no expectations and every page of this book amazed me. Human beings feel things and feelings cannot always be explained. By adding something your users feel could very well be that otherwise hard to get X factor.

Unfortunately Donna Spencer’s Card Sorting didn’t do what I thought it would. Again, maybe it was just me, but I think this book could have been half of its length. Maybe I’ll get it when I do run my first card sort. ;)

Dismembered by Susan D. Mustafa and Sue Israel was a quality read, as I expected from these fine authors. Their previous book Blood Bath convinced me, Dismembered didn’t let me down and I really hope they will continue their fine work. This book was that much more interesting because I drove through Louisiana the past summer. If you like true crime, do yourself a favor and get this.

I ended the year by reading M. William Phelps’ Death Trap. Unfortunately I had to read it over several weeks and there were times when I felt I lost the interest for it, but it was all in my head. Once I got to finishing it, I knew I was right originally – it was definitely worth the read. It shows the depths of craziness that can happen when wrong people have kids, the lengths of legal battle for custody and how justice will catch up with the selfish morons who murder the good folks in this world.