A tale of two business books

Two business books I’m reading: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath and Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin. It’s a bit unfair to compare the two, because Purple Cow was published in 2002 and Godin has gone on to create …

You are what you buy, whether you know it or not

kickin it like an old skool iPod, originally uploaded by kandyjaxx. I’m reading Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, by Rob Walker (about whom I’ve written in the past). As a result, I no longer trust myself — or at least, I no longer believe I understand my …

Is no problem. You are funny thing.

David Foster Wallace keeps coming up in my life recently. Not in person of course, just references to him. Here’s a video of him reading excerpts from two essays, "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All" and "A Supposedly Fun This I’ll Never Do Again." It’s a long video (27 minutes), …

Good books for kids

Pinkalicious and Purplicious in good company at Target, originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey. On a recent Saturday I stopped at the local Target to find a birthday gift for my niece. Look what I spied in the children’s book section. My friend (and client) Elizabeth Kann and her sister Valerie wrote and illustrated, respectively, two fine …

“At the intersection of absurd and punk, Ethan is perched atop his unicycle, calmly taking notes.”

This looks interesting: Leaning with Intent to Fall by Ethan Clark.  Ethan recounts a life on the fringes, filled with all the great punk pastimes: dodging cops, shoplifting, trespassing, drinking too much, and working crappy jobs that barely pay the rent on dilapidated houses filled with down-and-out roommates. But rather than succumbing to the jaded …

If you’re going to SXSW, you should be Buying In

Reading Railroad, originally uploaded by Kyle Tombstone. I won’t be attending SXSW this year, but if I were there’s one particular talk I would be sure to attend. It’s a book preview by Rob Walker, a columnist for the New York Times Magazine and blogger at www.robwalker.net. He’s a terrific writer and a smart person. …

In six words

under waterline, originally uploaded by Marcus Vegas. A friend sent around an email: There is a new book out called 6 Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Some samples are: Steve Colbert – Well, I thought it was funny. Elizabeth Gilbert – Me see world! Me write stories! A.J. Jacobs – Born bald. Grew …