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Any mountaineer worth his or her salt has, has read and cherishes this absolute must-have for all climbers, alpinists and mountaineers. It covers in detail orienteering, ropes/knots, shelters, rock & ice climbing, cooking and medical treatment, including at high altitude. If you have any interest in mountaineering whatsoever you just need to buy it and start at page 1.

If you're eager to learn about raising venture capital yourself, want to understand what your founders are up to when they're working towards raising capital, or want to be better equipped in your own equity negotiations, this is a terrific book to explain the many dimensions involved in dealing with VC's.

This detailed and thoroughly researched work gives real insight into the political, social and military rationale behind England's decision to colonise Australia. If you're going to read one book on the white colonisation of Australia, this should certainly be it.

A seminal, prophetic work of science fiction and my favourite sci-fi novel of all time. Gibson coined the term cyber-space in Neuromancer which in turn became a large part of the mid-late 90's cyber-punk subculture (eg: Hackers).

The premise of Strength Finders 2.0 is to spend your time focusing on your talents, gifts and overall strengths rather than banging your head against a wall with things you're just not that good at. I was skeptical when I first heard of this, especially when the test questions seem so nonsensical. However, reading the report afterwards was like an old friend sitting you down and telling you a few (positive) home truths about yourself. For what it's worth, my top 5 themes were: Restorative, Futuristic, Ideation, Strategic and Command.

Quite apart from Dan's inspiring story, this is a great read to get inside that part of your own mind that you know makes irrational decisions and yet goes along with it anyway. This book explains several of these behaviours in such a way that you can easily understand and make use of them. For good, of course :) Also highly recommended is his iTunes U class, also called Predictably Irrational.

If you've ever studied English there's a good chance you already own "Strunk & White". Think of it as a quick reference book to make sure you don't mess up your commas, quotes, prepositions and subjunctive pluperfect participles... or whateva

This is heavy reading folks but if like me, you have a deep fascination with trans and post humanism, and whether you agree with his predictions or not, Kurzweil is undoubtedly a thought leader on where we're going as a species so far as our technological evolution is concerned.

This is a fast, easy read that while I didn't take it hook, line and sinker, I did very much enjoy the way it articulates with specific tips and even homework, possible paths towards having a lifestyle many of us have thought and dreamed about.