Books 30-32 on Journey to 52

Books 30-32/52...

I don't have a ton to say about the books that I've not written reviews on over the past month. They were good reads, quick reads, but I haven't really been in the flow for reading, which is very bad for me because I believe that reading is the key to my creativity. When I read, I write... or come up with new business ideas. I discovered that the problem was partly that I was following Tim Sanders advice and reading every business book that I could get my hands on, but had no business to which I could apply what I was learning... it burned me out. So, I've stocked the shelves with some David Ambrose and some Cormac McCarthy and I'm gonna dig out of this hole.

What hole? Well, I've read 32 books and we're in the 38th week of the year! That makes me 6 books behind schedule!

Book #30: "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, 3/5 Stars
Book #31: "Fish" by Lundin, Paul, Christensen, & Blanchard, 4/5 Stars
Book #32: "The Discreet Charm of Charlie Monk" by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #29 = "The System's Bitch" by John Wright, 3/5 Stars
Book #28 = "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm, 3/5 Stars
Book #27 = "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW, 3/5 Stars
Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

Should a new phone really make me that happy?

Image by The Pug Father via Flickr

This post has been on the back burner (and on my mind) for a few weeks now. The story that it reminds me of most in my own life has to do with all the words exchanged about whether the Palm Pre is/was a better phone than the iPhone.

Here's my take, "Who cares?"

I'll be happy with my iPhone and you be happy with your Pre, cool? Honestly, I'd hope that technology continues to improve itself and, in conjunction, improve our lives. If the iPhone didn't have competition... well, let's just say that Apple is good, but can't be relied upon for every technological advance to be made in mobile phone technology.

Right about the time I was secretly laughing at the arguments amongst friends about whether the Pre or the iPhone were "the best," Seth Godin wrote a blog post that really hit home; the objectivity and subjectivity that occurs in the world...

"The external world is remarkably consistent, and yet we blame it for what's going on inside of us. People who think the world is going to end always manage to find a new thing that's going to cause it to end. People itching to be bummed out all day long will certainly find an external event that give their emotion some causal cover. The thinking happens long before the event that we blame the thinking on."

So true. Half full or half empty? You are what you eat; you are what you tweet.

Seth then asks the question, "Should a new phone really make you that happy?" And, I answer, it depends on how long you waited to upgrade. :-) I got sold on the iPhone when I was sitting in the The Tune Inn on Penn in DC and remembered that I had to send an email to our membership base, some hundred thousand plus strong, when my friend turned his iPhone around on the table, slid it over to me and said, "Can you do it with this?" Oh yeah, cheeseburgers, beers and nothing like sending a political email blast from one of the greatest dive bars in America.