It’s been ages since I wrote about a book I’ve read. I didn’t stop reading, just sharing.
I recently read Jared Diamond’s “Gun, Germs & Steel.” I’m not going to spoil the book, but not for the reason you think. You can’t spoil this book without regurgitating it in its entirety: it is pure content. Every page is interesting and I refreshingly exercised my mind on the challenges of our world from an old-world perspective.
I just read “Selling to Big Companies” by Jill Konrath.
“Ugh.” Written on a third-grade reading level with a tone of voice often focused on a fourth-grade audience this book was beyond painful. The author adumbrates a plan, but (being a decision maker) I find several of her positions paradoxical. The book does have useful information, but it was not reinforced with compelling stories or anecdotes. As I trudged to the end of this book I realized that reading just the “Key Points” sections at the end of each chapter just might have ameliorated the experience.
Yup, I read another book. I think we can all agree we live in turbulent times. Current economic conditions combined with market globalization causes all sorts of fluctuation and chaos. I enjoyed parts of this book, but didn’t find it particularly valuable. I believe the lack of value is not the author’s fault, but rather a condition of me being a young entrepreneur.
I liked how the author reinforced the concepts by correlating turbulence and chaos to our immediate past (2008).
Long ago I studied Project Management very briefly. OmniTI does a mix of project work and operations work and the orchestration of those two things is quite interesting (more to come on that in a future blog post). Regardless, my understanding of project management principals was getting far to rusty and I decided to read up.
The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management by Eric Verzuh, while likely an awful project management book for anyone serious about learning the deeper craft of project management was an excellent book for me.
At some point, I will come up with a list of "must have" books.
Until then, this reading list will do. I'm very pleased to see my work there amongst such exemplary company. There will always be a place in my heart for APUE.
We can always be better at what we do, right? My father gave me this book a long time ago and yesterday I ran across it an consumed it. It’s a discuss of the art of loving (but not really). It talks about the discipline and dedication required to master any art and goes on to postulate that the art of loving is no different: to become a master you must dedicate yourself to the pursuit of the art in everything you do.
For those of you who know me, have seen me present or ever actually read all the various bits of my blog, you know that I've claimed to have been writing a book. In fact, it's been listed on Amazon for about two years. People have back ordered it there, and, I'm sure, feel like they will never get it. Well, the end has come. I have submitted all my materials to my publisher and it should be a matter of weeks before it goes to press.
