At The End Of The Day

Read Between The Lines...Or Don't

I just now received an email with a link to a CNN story featuring a new poll about American's reading habits.

Since I got through the entire online article it proves that I indeed have time to get at least some reading in each day. But the facts don't lie – as a country, we're reading less. Something tells me this can't be good. Part of this is due to our obsession with working which has cut into our leisure time, and part of this is due to the internet and, ironically, the advent of Blogs.

Still, I find myself with Labor Day looming having not yet finished my "summer read".  Alas, maybe I'll find more time this winter where I'll cozy up to a fire and get through it once and for all.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I am not going to review A Thousand Splendid Suns because I have not finished reading it yet.  And, I'm not in the practice of writing book reviews.  I can say, however, that this is a book I am enjoying immensely, as I did Khaled Hosseini's first book, The Kite Runner. 

This is reading that takes you beyond your every day experience, and opens up new worlds that we all would do well to understand more completely. 

Consider this, then, a recommendation. 

Short on words...and patience

I supposed I would be remiss in not pointing out the publication of The Age of Conversation, a book about marketing communications in the form of blogs.

In some ways, the idea of snippets of marketing insight sounds interesting. However, thinking of it as over one hundred 400-word essays about the subject makes me want to cringe. Reading that doesn't sound like fun. This is summertime, after all.

Anyone want to take on this assignment?

I suppose I'll do it but I'd love to hear reviews from anyone. Anyone?

Bueller?

Good thing it's not a picture book

I just finished reading The No Asshole Rule, a good business book about how to create and work in an environment where the best work comes from the most people.

That is a positive spin (coming from me?) on the book's subtitle, "Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't." The purpose of a civilized workplace, in my opinion, is to create that environment to get the best from the most.

But...like many business books, this one I think is 1/3 too long.

The good ones are based on good thinking, actionable items and an expectation of change or advancement in how you do business. However, when you write a book, it has to be..."book length." You then put in extra examples of how the theory works, stories and some equal time to an opposite viewpoint. This one is the same. The good news is you can spend 1/3 less time reading this than you thought.

It looks like Sutton has also hit on an idea that can keep him going for years. He can become the No Asshole expert. Judging by the proliferation of his writings, he already has. Excerpts from this one book are all over the place:

* Here's one from Law.com

* A book review by Guy Kawasaki.

* Thoughts from The Chris Pirillo Show

* And Time's take.

The bad news for the author is that if you read enough of these, you don't have to read the book. I'm sure he has another on the way though.

What a racket. I wish I thought of it.

Book Report: The Best Damn Sales Book Ever

I had a 4+ hour flight from Boston to Dallas yesterday, so I decided to pick up a book. Since I'm attending a new business pow-wow, I went overboard and picked up Warren Greshes' The Best Damn Sales Book Ever: 16 Rock-Solid Rules for Achieving Sales Success!"

Overall, the book was slightly above average. Greshes is a native New Yorker who moved to Chapel Hill several years ago. He's quite pleased with himself because he writes "I was a keynote speaker for [FILL IN FORTUNE 500 COMPANY HERE]" about 734 times in the book's 191 pages. But I'll give credit where credit is due: Greshes sure knows how to sell.

Greshes peppers his book with "Sales Tips" and "Rants." For the most part, they work because it breaks up the normal structure of a book.

But one rant on page 140 was just so out there, I have to share. From the book:

"As you can tell, I'm not a big lover of school. Don't get me wrong, I think education is not just important, it's critical. However, far too often, school doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with education. There are far too many public school systems in the United States that are nothing more than jobs programs for the marginally employable."

Um, wow.

Click here for his blog.

Time is running out for "60 Minutes"

Whenever someone asks what my favorite TV show is, I think about my honest answer and immediately feel old.

That's because my favorite TV show is "60 Minutes."

For me, this Sunday evening stalwart is the last chance to relax before another week of work. (Plus, my wife and I usually watch it while wolfin' down homemade pasta and meatballs.)

However, after a few shows into their 39th season, "60 Minutes" has, for the first time, started to rub me the wrong way. And the reason has to do with indirect schilling for their sister companies' books.

For example, a few weeks ago, Bob Woodward was interviewed by Mike Wallace (didn't he retire?) to promote his new book, State of Denial. It's Woodward's third book examining the current Bush administration and the war against terrorism.

The above-mentioned reasons didn't annoy me, but they came close. I felt "60 Minutes" could've chosen a more original feature than reaching back into the Woodward Bin. But then the fact that Woodward's book is published by Simon & Schuster sent me over the edge of my couch.

You see, Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS. Sure, Mike Wallace offered up the disclaimer, but I just think it's poor form to pimp a sister company's book while showing the horribly unimaginative "book rollin' hot off the presses" shot.

The next Sunday, I was sucked back in and ready for another episode of my favorite program. And then it happened again.

David Kuo is an evangelical Christian and card-carrying member of the religious right, who got a job in the White House in the president’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. And then he soured on the administration and wrote a tell-all book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, about his experiences.

This feature, as you probably guessed, didn't sit well with me. So you could imagine my level of disgust when Leslie Stahl revealed the Free Press--also owned by CBS. And just to pour salt on my proverbial wounds, they showed a video clip of Kuo's book rollin' hot off the presses.

Amazingly, I didn't upchuck my Italian dinner.

It's safe to say that I expected more of "60 Minutes." For nearly four decades, "60 Minutes" has been the ultimate TV news show asking the hard questions while never flinching.

Now, it seems, they're just looking to make an extra book.

I mean, buck.

Book Report: The Search finds the answer

Don't be misled about The Search. It's not a summation of the rise and continued domination of Google. It's more than that. Much more.

Author John Battelle--cofounding editor of Wired and The Industry Standard--brilliantly puts the importance of Google into perspective for not just our economy, but for cultures spanning from America to China. Simply put, Google has glorified the concept of search as the ultimate touch point in our daily lives.

A snippet from The Search:

"As more and more of our lives become connected, digitized, and computed, we will need navigation and context interfaces to cope. What is TiVo, after all, but a search interface for television? iTunes? Search for music. That box of photographs under your bed and the pile of CDs teetering next to your stereo? Analog artifacts, awaiting their digital rebirth...It may sound far-fetched, but in the future, your luggage will be searchable. Within two decades, nearly everything of value to someone will be tagged with tiny computing devices, devices capable of saying, upon radiowave-based query, "I'm here, right here, and here's what I've been doing while you were away.""

The Search is much more than a business book. It's a look inside the future of our culture and how search will make us more efficient, organized and, ultimately, dependent on technology.