SPIKE! Too many books!

Hello!

With the planning future sprints ongoing I need to define what resources I require. Research in agile are often referred to as 'spikes'.

A story or task aimed at answering a question or gathering information, rather than at producing shippable product. Sometimes a user story is generated that cannot be estimated until the development team does some actual work to resolve a technical question or a design problem. The solution is to create a “spike,” which is a story whose purpose is to provide the answer or solution. Like any other story or task, the spike is then given an estimate and included in the sprint backlog.

http://agiledictionary.com/209/spike/ 

My user stories detail that I want to read a selection of fiction and non-fiction books. I want the books to help me develop in business and culturally broaden my horizons. To help me curate my reading list I will rely on resources I trust.

In each Entrepreneur on Fire podcast the host John Lee Dumas asks his guests to suggest a book for other entrepreneurs to read, something which had inspired them on their journey. The EOFire team have recently updated their list of recommendations of the top 15 books, I will use this chart as the basis of my business non-fiction list.

As a result I have bought Rework, The 4 Hour Workweek and Think and Grow Rich to go alongside How to Win Friends and Influence People which I read in the past sprint. Adding these titles to my reading list will give me a firm foundation to start my business reading.

For the fictional books reading list I have decided to mix classics with books I feel will challenge me as well as entertain. Being a nerdy guy with a dark sense of humour and a post-modern outlook it may come as no surprise that I'm a massive Douglas Coupland fan. However I don't feel I've read enough Coupland, so I will be adding his books to my reading list alongside others.

Generation X, Shampoo Planet, Generation A and Miss Wyoming all take precedent in books I wish to read as part of my sprint.

Alongside Coupland I want to add in some classics and influential texts which is why I decided to begin with The Handmaid's Tale. With this in mind I want to add in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Atlas Shrugged, Infinite Jest, Don DeLillo and Brave New World. This gives me a fiction foundation to go with my non-fiction list.

Thanks for reading,

The soon to be better read and slightly spiky Agile Timelord