Nicholas Bate

4 books for your holiday

Here are four books you may wish to read while on vacation...
Regular readers of this blog will know I am a huge fan of Don Winslow. This is his latest and the tight, taut text is as excellent as ever.
My first Thomas Perry novel: Fidelity. A little John Le Carre. Full back-list which is good news if you enjoy him.
A good book on the amazing Nixon+Kissinger relationship.
And not just for the girls (although the cover will suggest so): Eat, Pray and Love. The classic journey on discovering who the heck we are. But told with humour and humility.

5 Great Books

which you may have missed:

1. Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. This is a fantastic, simple and inspiring guide to finding your passion.
2. Slack. Some clear, deeper thoughts with practical guidance on time management.
3. Rules for Radicals. You really want to create change in your organisation? Read this.
4. The Winter of Frankie Machine. Read and enjoy the story, but also notice the style. This will get you producing clear reports.
5. Trafalgar. Be (re-) inspired by the heroism of previous times.

Do books matter?

A good and thoughtful post on the matter from Joining Dots, a great blog.

Re Business Books

I always feel there is no shortage of good advice out there, whether it is marketing strategy, leadership or selling. The challenge is implementing those ideas-so following up on Michael Wade's post I would suggest:
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. This is a powerful book on how to get chnage to happen in any culture.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. An equally valuable book on how to get the best out of you.
Get them. Read them. Act upon them.

What are you reading?

A good friend and colleague of mine sent me a copy of The Creative Companion by David Fowler. Here's some good advice from page 7:
" An idea is like love. The more you need it, the less you can find it. The more desperate your search, the more scarce it becomes. Stop. Settle down and listen to the thing. It will tell you what it wants to be. Maybe if you walked around the block, you could hear it more clearly. Maybe if you went and fed the pigeons, they'd whisper it to you. Maybe if you stopped telling it what it needed to be, it would tell you what it wanted to be. Maybe you should come in early when it's quiet."

Cool, huh?

What are you reading?

Just finished The Pirate's Dilemma. If you want some good background reading on how youth culture is affecting business, this is a good place to start. I actually disliked the book for its sweeping generalisations but it's stiil one of the best in its genre.

Flight Plan

Bryan Tracy has a handy little book out. Nothing revolutionary, just good practical tips on getting the success you want; he neatly builds it around the concept of the 'Flight Plan' and the analogy holds well throughout. I read it on the plane coming over; here are a few thoughts:

To create a different Life-in any area-you must be a different person.
On any journey you will be off course a large percentage of the time.
Success is goals; all else is commentary.
What can I do to deserve money from others?
Walk before you can run: become a 1000-aire before a millionaire.
Hope is not a strategy.
Be audacious. Audacity will get you into trouble, but even more will get you out.

Choose a favourite and live and breathe it today.

A thriller for the week-end?

Start here.

What are you reading?

If you are series about your creativity, then Eric Maisel is your man; I have read many of his books over the years: they are excellent. If you are going to start with him now, choose Creativity for Life. It's comprehensive yet approachable and if you work at his exercises you'll get the results he promises.

What are you reading?

Three books picked up on my travels to Australia: two good and worth reading, one excellent:
Good 1
Cats by Stephen C Lundin, the author of the Fish! series. This gives nine principles ('lives') for innovation e.g. know that innovation isn't normal. Pros: easy to read, different to so many books on innovation. Con: the metaphor-unlike for Fish!-is simply stretched too far to make it helpful.
Good 2
The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin. This book revolves around the basic premise that some of the most effective people have in common the ability to hold opposing ideas in their minds at the same time and value them both. A simple analogy being we realise how useful our opposable thumb is: think how useful our opposable mind might be if we got it up and running to the same level! Pros: first 50% structured and well explained. Con: increasingly academic towards the end with too many models.
Excellent
Leadership and self-deception.. Read it and act.