On Friday, UPS dropped a great package at my backdoor – it was four new books direct from Amazon – fodder for my weekend entertainment. I love to read – in fact, I try to pack away 2-4 nonfiction books per month, mostly business related.
Here’s the list for this month and excerpts from the intros. I will leave the intros to speak for themselves without commentary at this point; however, you can bet that these books will further refine my thinking and philosophy – as do every book that I read – which will be reflected in the coming days and weeks on this blog.
- Seth Godin’s new release Small is the New Big. Excerpt: "They’re stuck because society, or their bosses, or their spouses, or their co-workers won’t let them do what they already know they should do. It’s like their suitcases are filled with compressed propane, but they can’t get anything to happen…So here they are, in a handy, portable, nearly waterproof format, 100 percent recyclable, of course. The most explosive, viral, intuitive, obvious, spreadable, and quotable ideas from almost a decade of m writing books, then a column and now a blog. I guarantee that you’ll find some that don’t work for you. But I’m certain that you’re smart enough to recognize the stuff you’ve always wanted to do buried deep inside one of these riffs. And I’m betting that once you’re inspired you’ll actually make something happen."
- Catch-up reading on my part: All Marketers are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World by Seth Godin. Excerpt: "I believe marketing is the most powerful force available to people who want to make change. And with that power comes responsibility. We (anyone with the ability to tell a story – online, in print or to the people in our communities) have the ability to change things more dramatically than ever before in history. Marketers have the leverage to generate huge impact in less tiem – and with less money – than ever before…"
- Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble (of Microsoft blogging fame) and Shel Israel. Excerpt: "As in every revolution, there will be casualties. In this case, we think many will be the incumbent proponents of one-way, command-and-control broadcast marketing who argue that things are just fine the way they are. We predict their demise without glee. We do not argue that marketing in itself will or should perish – only the broadcasting aspect of it that says "We talk. You listen."
- The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Difficult to summarize in one sentence, so I’ll quote the back of the book testimonial from Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google – "Anderson’s insights with The Long Tail influence Google’s strategic thinking in a profound way. Read this brilliant and timely book if you want to get a look at the future of business."
