In 2004, I blogged my “Top-10 Innovation Readings” and included such titles as:

• Leading the Revolution by Gary Hamel
• The Innovators Solution by Clayton Christensen
• Developing Global Strategies for Service Businesses by Christopher Lovelock
• Discovering the Soul of Services by Leonard Berry
• Provices and Serducts by Michael Schrage

The books on this list reflect where I was on my innovation journey nine years ago. It was filled with good strategic frameworks and academic collections on service innovation.

But now that it's mid-summer in DC – the dog days – it’s time to update my list and think about putting something new in the beach bag. Here are four, couldn’t-put-down reads from my bookshelf.

Innovation Science & History

• Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson
  Johnson is a flat-out terrific science writer, a storyteller as accessible as Jonah Lehrer but with a tighter grip on the underlying science.  Not a business book, which is a strength.
• Runner-up: Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

Behavioral Economics

• Nudge by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
  The field of behavioral economics has actually dominated my non-fiction reading, and this is just one of the best.
• Runner up: Daniel Kahneman’s excellent Thinking, Fast & Slow.
  

Social Science

• Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky
  The phenomenon of social production is spelled out beautifully by this NYU professor. Filled with examples, the tone is more pop science than peer-reviewed journal, but the empirical data shows up just enough to give it heft.
• Runner-up: The Social Atom by Mark Buchanan
  

Business Science

• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
  Eric puts his finger directly on the pulse of the entrepreneur, and distills the methods into a reusable formula.  While it focuses mainly on software entrepreneurship, I can assure you the methods translate to new products, new services, the whole shebang.
• Runner-up: The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson

OK, so what’s on your list?  I’d love to hear just one of your couldn’t-put-down read from the past year or two.