Seth Godin makes an interesting point in one of his latest posts: 95 percent of a business book’s content typically focuses on motivating people to take action; the remaining 5 percent focuses on tips. The reason, he says, is that in the high-stakes world of business, the first step is to change your perspective, and then your behavior. So, a good business book is less a tip sheet, and more a motivator.
As you keep in mind Seth’s dos and dont’s for reading a business book, I thought I’d offer up a few suggestions for summer reading. For good or for bad, one of my habits is to have several books going at once (sometimes I even finish one!) Here are some of the tomes I’m reading this summer — some business, some not — but all good (so far…)
- Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overstretched and About to Snap by Edward Hallowell, M.D.
- The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
- Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks by Zack Hemple
- Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright
- Then We Came to the End: A Novel by Joshua Ferris
And, by the way, there is no intended connection between the N.T. Wright book on resurrection and Then We Came to the End!
