From...

by Mickey Butts

(IDG) -- To help clear through the clutter, we surveyed the 49 books that The Industry Standard reviewed so far this year (plus some that weren't). We wanted to find those that were engagingly written, well reported and presented ideas with lasting importance to the development of the Internet Economy. The test presented to our reviewers: Would they have read this book if they didn't have to review it?

The alphabetical list that follows is highly subjective, reflecting the unique sensibilities of our reviewers. These books may not be the most popular (for that list, check out Amazon's bestsellers, compiled for The Standard), but they are well worth your time.

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Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig (Basic Books, $30). Lessig (a columnist for The Standard) shines in a penetrating examination of Internet law that provides few answers but asks all the right questions about privacy, free speech, intellectual property and government regulation.

The Control Revolution: How the Internet Is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know by Andrew L. Shapiro (Public Affairs Books, $25). Our New York bureau chief James Ledbetter praised Shapiro's "comprehensive, sober analysis" and "sensible formulas for public and private Net policy."

Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age by Michael Hiltzik (HarperBusiness, $26). This is an engaging flashback to the days when Xerox PARC sparked just about every computer innovation we take for granted today.

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick (Pantheon, $24). Reviewer Daniel Akst calls Faster "a thoughtful and learned meditation on the acceleration of modern life." So stop multitasking, take a deep breath and read this book.

Gravy Training: Inside the Business of Business Schools by Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove (Jossey-Bass, $25). This muckraking book peeks inside an executive-training machine that's pumping out over 100,000 MBAs a year. It's a timely examination of the future of B-schools, as students leave in droves for Internet startups.

In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the Key to Future Prosperity by Eamonn Fingleton (Houghton Mifflin, $26). Always eager to poke holes in the received wisdom, contrarian financial journalist Eamonn Fingleton says the extraordinary boom in America's information-oriented New Economy may in fact be hiding a profound structural decline due to deindustrialization.

Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules by John Hagel III and Marc Singer (Harvard Business School Press, $25). This popular book, which coined the important concept of the Internet "infomediary," makes the case for putting consumers in charge of the data that's collected about them.

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton, $26). Lewis does to the Internet-mad '90s what he did with the greed-is-good Wall Street of the '80s. Staff writer Jim Evans said he hasn't yet seen the Internet Economy's Big Book, but this entertaining read came close.

Nudist on the Late Shift: And Other True Tales of Silicon Valley by Po Bronson (Random House, $25). Publishers offloaded a slew of hazy historiographies about the Valley this year, but Nudist on the Late Shift was a breed apart: "Po Bronson is a great storyteller and he has Silicon Valley's story down pat," says contributing writer Michelle V. Rafter.

Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin (Simon & Schuster, $24). Godin introduces a concept that has proven important in an oversaturated Internet marketing environment.

The People's Choice

1. Customers.com: How to Create a Profitable Business Strategy for the Internet and Beyond by Patricia B. Seybold (Times Books, 1998, $28).

2. Business at the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System by Bill Gates (Warner Books, 1999, $30).

3. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian (Harvard Business School Press, 1998, $30).

4. Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin (Simon & Schuster, 1999, $24).

5. Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules by John Hagel III and Marc Singer (Harvard Business School Press, 1999, $25).

6. Digital Darwinism: Seven Breakthrough Business Strategies for Surviving in the Cutthroat Web Economy by Evan I. Schwartz (Broadway Books, 1999, $25).

7. Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance by Larry Downes and Chunka Mui (Harvard Business School Press, 1998, $25).

8. StrikingItRich.com: Profiles of 23 Incredibly Successful Websites You've Probably Never Heard Of by Jaclyn Easton (McGraw-Hill, 1998, $25).

9. New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World by Kevin Kelly (Viking Press, 1998, $20).

10. The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater and Every Business a Stage by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore (Harvard Business School Press, 1999, $25).

* as of dec. 13. not all bestsellers were published in 1999.