Christopher Clapp's reading habits

As you’ll learn in this weekend’s IBJ, cloud computing firm BlueLock is the fastest-growing private company in the Indianapolis area. You can read the financial details for yourself, but it’s fair to say they’re scorching.

Most of that growth was managed by a team spearheaded by John Qualls, and then last year the firm brought in a new CEO, Christopher Clapp, to the go the next level. Clapp, you’ll remember, took Angel Learning, an Indianapolis software firm, to a grand exit of a $94 million sale in 2009. So expectations for BlueLock are high.

If you were to ask Clapp what he reads, what do you think you’d hear? Well, he likes The Wall Street Journal—he reads it in print and online. He also keeps up on industry trends through tidbits people send him on the Internet.

He’s also a big fan of Harvard Business Review. Some of the articles, like the ones about global enterprise, aren’t especially relevant for him, but he says he also runs across gems. One has been particularly useful. “In Praise of the Incomplete Leader” is invaluable for its perspective on assessing one’s strengths and building teams of complementary skills.

As for books, he’s reading Berkley Duck’s new “Twilight at Conner Prairie: The Creation, Betrayal, and Rescue of a Museum.” Duck is the Carmel attorney who helped guide Conner Prairie through its tumultuous split with Earlham College several years ago, and his thoughts about keeping museums and other not-for-profits on solid ground would be of interest to people like Clapp, who is now a Conner Prairie board member.

Clapp’s favorite? Probably “Team of Rivals,” the book about Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet of towering figures.

How about you? What’s on your recommended reading list?