The books of 2015 now published

The first proper content to the site is now published and I am really happy with how it looks.  I still need to add the comments to all but Think Like a Freak but I have most of them in rough draft now. 

I am also looking forward to writing a page about the selection criteria as this is something that I'd like to work on throughout 2016 and score books as I go.  It will also make the pages much quicker to publish if I decide to repeat this process next year.

When giving each book a score for each criteria I kept in mind the advice from Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow to score each book independently from each other and not tally the scores up until I had finished the process for every book.  This way I kept the temptation to bias the scores in favour of particular books to a minimum.  What surprised me was how difficult this was during and after the scores were added up.  It proved too difficult on occasion and did add and subtract a few books by a tiny bit but I made sure I left the top 15 or so alone. I don't envy teachers having to mark essays one bit!

​The results definitely through up some surprises the biggest being Marie Kondo coming out as the winner.  It just ticked all the boxes and I didn't expect to like it anything like as much as I did.  When I saw it on Amazon and read the positive reviews I couldn't believe anyone had written a popular book on tidying.  The book reminds me of a shorter non fiction version of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 in that it is totally nuts at times, I mean who talks to their house or finds spiritual enlightenment in folding clothes? But like 1Q84 the book is magic.  I have enjoyed tidying a lot more since I've read it, there aren't many weeks that go by without me thinking about it and I can't help recommending it to people.  I read a few reviews on Goodreads today and it certainly seems it is a Marmite book with one lady liking it to a cult!!        
 
​Without the scoring system I would of almost certainly given the number 1 spot to either The Fault in our Stars or Flashboys.  Michael Lewis wrote probably my favourite book of all time Moneyball so I am biased when it comes to his books but Flashboys was truly brilliant what a story and it's true.  But The Fault In Our Stars is jaw droppingly good and they made a great job of the film too.   ​It currently has over 1.7 million ratings in Goodreads at an average of 4.38.  1.7 million wow!!  Looking for Alaska is in the bookshelf and on the 2016 to read list.  I should of read it in 2015 but I was, and still am worried about reading it as if it doesn't reach the same heights I don't want it to spoil my memories of The Fault In Our Stars.

​It has been a lot of fun to do this and a great way to start my website.  So to 2016 and I'm hoping that doing this doesn't detract too much from actually reading.  It is off to a great start with Life on the Edge - The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology.  Nearly halfway through and it is really good so far.