Aaron Gustafson

By Reena Jana and Matt Vella

This year, a number of the world's experts released long-awaited books that augmented a bumper crop of texts on the subject of innovation. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, for example, published four books in 2008, while Procter & Gamble (PG) chief executive officer A.G. Lafley contributed a volume of tips on how to be innovative. Here we offer our list of the year's 10 best reads—as in stimulating, practical, and well, inventive. The roster includes some well-known titles and a few surprises, presented in alphabetical order.