My Reading List for 2007 and beyond

02/12/2007 -- I've decided to continue updating this post with new books as I discover them instead of having multiple lists.

One thing I want to continue this next year is lots of reading. I've rediscovered it and I'm learning so much. Hopefully I can someday apply some of the stuff I'm learning to my career. I can't see how yet, but hopefully I'm learning and retaining information. Thanks to Jeff Jones and Mark Howell who loaned me books while I was at Lake that restoked my passion for reading.

A great quote from Dan and Chip Heath in Inc. magazine, talking about their new book "Made to Stick:"

The great cruelty is that the smarter you get about something, the harder it is to share what you know. This is the problem we all have with doctors, lawyers, and accountants. We all know that they know what they're talking about. But we've all had that experience of sitting in a lawyer's office and not understanding what they're saying because they're forgetting that you don't know what they know. It's the same with a 10-year-old trying to show you how to play a video game. The child can't fathom the scope of your ignorance.

This is my planned reading list. Every day I find a new book to add to this list. Unless they're a series, I'm reading them in the order that they become available from the library. I've cut back and am not buying books myself at the moment, though if I get through all the ones available from the library I guess I'll be forced to head to Barnes and Noble. My list comes from other books I read, things people recommend and from recommendations or mentions in Inc., Fast Company, Entertainment Weekly or Reader's Digest.

— A —

• Completed: All Marketers Are Liars


• The Answer to How is Yes (Peter Block)


• Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want

— B —

• Becoming a Healthy Disclipe [added 09/09/07]
  
• The Big Moo (Seth Godin)


• Blue Ocean Strategy (W.Kim, R.Mauborgne)


• Bobos in Paradise (David Brooks)


• A Brand New World (Scott Bedbury, Stephen Fenichell)

— C —

• Citizen Marketers: When People Are The Message

— D —

• Democratizing Innovation (Eric Von Hippel)


• Completed: Disney War (Stewart)

— E —

• The Effective Executive (Peter Drucker)


• End of Story (Peter Abrahams)


• Completed: The Experience Economy (Pine, Gilmore)

— F —

• Fast Company's Greatest Hits (Vamos, Lidsky)


• Faith Begins at Home [added 09/09/07]
  
• First, Break All the Rules (Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton)


• The Future of Competition (C.K. Prahalad, Venkat Ramaswamy)

— G —

• Completed: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (Allen)


• Completed: Good to Great and the Social Sectors


• Growing Pains (Eric G. Flamholtz, Yvonne Randle)

— H —

• Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense


• Completed: Harry Potter and the Deathly Boredoms (Rowling)


• How to be a Star at Work (Robert E. Kelley)


• HR from the Heart (Libby Sartain, Martha I. Finney)

— I —

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert Cialdini)


• The Innocent Man (John Grisham)


• The Innovator's Dilemna (Clayton M. Christensen)


• The Innovator's Solution (Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor)

— J —

• The Joy of Fundraising (Terry Axelrod)

— K —

• Karaoke Capitalism - Daring to be Different in a Copycat World (Jonas Ridderstale, Kjell A. Nordstrom)

— L —

• The Leader Of The Future 2: Visions, Strategies, And Practices For The New Era (Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard)


• Leading the Revolution (Gary Hamel)


• Life 2.0 (Rich Karlgaard)


• The Lexus And The Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (Thomas L. Friedman)


• Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands (Kevin Roberts)


• The Lovemarks Effect: Winning In The Consumer Revolution (Kevin Roberts)

— M —

• Made to Stick (Chip and Dan Heath)


• Manhunt (James L. Swanson)


• Completed: Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win (Taylor/Lebarre)

— N —

• Narratives From The Crib (Katherine Nelson, Emily Oster)


• Completed: The Negotiator (Henderson)
  
• The New Capitalists (Davis/Lukomnik/Pitt-Watson)


• The New Pioneers (Thomas Petzinger, jr.)


• Completed: The Night Awakens
  
• The Night Gardener (George Pelecanos)

— O —

• Open Innovation (Henry Chesbrough)


• Currently Reading: The On-Time, On-Target Manager (Blanchard/Gottry)

— P —

• The Paradox of Choice (Barry Schwartz)


• The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness (Steven Levy)


• Pour Your Heart Into It (Howard Schultz)


• Completed: Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi (Crowder)


• Purple Cow (Seth Godin)


• Purpose: The Starting Point Of Great Companies

— Q —
— R —

• The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

— S —

• Sacred Marriage [added 09/09/07]
  
• Completed, with review: Sahara (Clive Cussler)


• The Secret River (Kate Grenville)


• See Brand From The Inside (Libby Sartain, Mark Schumann)


• Selling the Dream, (Guy Kawasaki)


• Shackleton's Way (Margot Morrell, Stephanie Capparell)


• Small Giants: Companies That Chose To Be Great Instead of Big (Bo Burlingham)


• The Strategy Paradox (Michael Raynor) [added 04/02/07]


• The Success of Open Source (Steven Weber)

— T —

• Team of Rivals (Doris Kearns Goodwin)


• The Ten Faces Of Innovation: Ideo's Strategies For Defeating The Devil's Advocate And Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
.

• Ten Rules For Strategic Innovators: From Idea To Execution (Vijay Govindarajan)


• Theodore Rex (Edmund Morris)


• Treasure Principle (Alcorn) [added 09/09/07]
  
• Turning The Future Into Revenue: What Business And Individuals Need To Know To Shape Their Futures.

— U —
— V —

• Visionarian(?) (Andrew Stanley) [added 09/09/07]

— W —

• Completed: Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Your Marketing (Eisenberg)


• The War For Talent (Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, Beth Axelrod)


• Weird Ideas That Work (Robert I. Sutton)


• Completed: When God Whispers Your Name (Lucado)


• Completed: Why Johnny Can't Brand


• Completed: The Wisdom of Crowds (Surowiecki)


• Who Really Cares? The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism (Arthur Brooks)


• The World Is Flat [Updated And Expanded]: A Brief History Of The Twenty-First Century (Thomas L. Friedman)

— X —
— Y —

• Your Management Sucks (Mark Stevens)


• Completed: Your Marketing Sucks (Stevens)

— Z —

• Completed: Zig Zag [not recommended!]

Link Friday

But first, a rant. Stupid Taco Bell and Del Taco for not taking regular credit cards. I hate those places that only accept ATM cards.

Waterworld worth visiting? - A design for a hotel built into the side of a quarry. Very neat looking.

That would be a long extension cord... a guy at MIT has designed floating wind turbines to be tethered out in deeper water where they wouldn't be an eyesore to beachfront property.

Funky Stroller - like the iBot does for handcapped, this stroller's innovative design raises the baby up so that it's not lost among people's legs in crowds.

Modern and Future Lighting - how lighting is and will be changing in the years to come.

What's New in Iran? The Tehran International Trade and Convention Center Conference Schedule for 2007

Is it Time to Go Yet?

7:51 am - Listened to a little bit of the Ricky Gervaise Christmas Podcast on the drive in. Carl Pilkington is hillarious. It's hard to know, though, if he actually means to be. His brain works so differently that it would be easy to just call him stupid but I don't think that would be a fair assessment. Anyhow, either you've heard the podcast and know for yourself what I mean or I recommend you go out and download it free from iTunes. I think if they did more, I would be willing to pay for them if they were reasonably priced. But I haven't listened to too much of this one and they were saying they were bored of the whole thing.

My alarm went off at 5:50 and I snoozed it until 6:30. I paid some bills and had breakfast and got out the door later than I had intended. A new goal is to start going to bed earlier and start getting up earlier again. When I got to work I felt like I could do a lap or two, but then I looked at the thermometer in the car and it said 28 so I said nevermind.

I'm feeling tired this morning but hopefully I can quickly snap out of that. When I was making my cofee I tore open the Equal packet and some of the Equal-dust went straight into my mouth. That was a nice jolt.

9:01 am - Just finished devotions. Definitely tired today, yep, tired.

2:23 pm - It's been a slow day. There's no work for us, so we're doing data cleanup. It's something we need to do, but it's something we shouldn't have to do. We do it because they employee people at minimum wage to put the data into the system in the first place. People who don't know what an e-mail address looks like, what it should have (like a @ and .) and shouldn't have (spaces, commas, etc.). And they also scan some of it. So when we're collecting addresses that were rejected by the system, we have to look to see if it's a scanning problem (ad.com instead of aol.com) or a human error (like earth.link.net). Of course, those are the easy ones.

But while I talk about scanners or people who haven't been trained, the biggest culprit? Oracle. We have this big huge fancy Oracle system that keeps track of millions of dollars and thousands of donors, but it lacks (a) the ability to check an e-mail address -- when enterred -- for missing information or invalid characters and (b) the ability to quickly update records. Right now, for each bad address we find, we have to search for that address and then go into the record, go to the tab, create a new entry for the corrected address and then inactivate the bad address and then blah blah blah blah. I can do several a minute, but it's still far more effort than should be made, considering how much I'm paid.

2:40 pm - Lori and Rachel came to visit me today at lunch. They usually bring me lunch once a week. It's a nice break, to get to see them in the middle of the day. We had soup and crackers. Then we walked around the ponds as we usually do. It was so cold. Probably less than 40. Two of the three ponds were frozen, the third was in the sun. The first one was filled with cattails but the second one was pretty much just a solid uninterrupted sheet of ice. I threw large rocks on it and marvelled as they would make a splash as they broke the ice, but then skip across the surface of the ice. I walked around a second time and brough the camera to take some photos of the ice.

4:33 pm - Is it time to go yet? It's gotten dark outside. I'm looking forward to when it gets lighter earlier in the afternoons. We'll be able to walk again after work. That'll be nice. I ought to start taking the dog for walks when it's not too cold and not raining. It'd be good exercise for both of us and we both need it. I just completed a task worse than data entry. Fortunately, it got paired back, but I'm betting it's not entirely over with. I guess that's what happens when you don't have anything monumental to do... last minute requests actually get done. Oh well. I guess that's a good thing? Someone's lack of preparation didn't cause them difficulties and if this is God's work, I guess it's all for the good that I was able to do it quickly. That old saying "A lack of preparation on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part." or however it goes really doesn't apply here.

Where Did 2006 Go?

Looking back at the year, the theme for me was a lack of time.

It's a rather odd theme, considering that I had a shorter commute and Lori took on a larger share of the household chores since she's now working outside of the home now. Sure, for April through September I was working a little late each night to make up time so that I could attend chapel (temps don't get paid for chapel). But where has all my time gone? I'm not quite sure... I've been reading a lot more but I suspect I've also watched more TV this year, which is kind of sad, considering I've watched far less HGTV and DIY.

Once again, a lot of electronic "ink" was spilled over the weather. I kind of find that amusing. I wonder if that has to do with my complete lack of interest in sports. I didn't talk much about my diet because it had its own website which I folded when I abandoned the project. I wish I hadn't killed it off, I'd like to go back and look at it now. The good news is that my goal was 30 and I got 27. I've gained 7 back since then, but that's still impressive. On March 1 I'll start the diet again and this time the goal is 20. I'm hoping that some others will join me and I can see how well my experimental diet works for others.

January 27 - Snow Day

But today's a day I would have really liked a snow day. Our financing plans have fallen through on the new home purchase, our home still has not had any offers, Rachel is recovering from a nasty fall (eye was still swollen shut today), I didn't get enough sleep last night (stayed up with Rachel for awhile) and this morning I had to bring the websites back to life after an upgrade last night that we knew would hose them all.

February 7 - 36 Hours

We figured it out... in the past 36 hours, we have sold a house in California, purchased a home in Washington, and I was offered a job. It's a contract job, but a job nonetheless.

March, part 1 (Los Angeles)

So here I sit, on my last day of work, in a very quiet office, with my Starbucks, my doughnut and some Seattle music while it pours outside. Yesterday I paid off all the credit cards and today I'll pay off Lori's car. Later today they're having what sounds like is a big production for my surprise going away party.

March, part 2 (Seattle)

My diet today wasn't that great. In order to try to change my eating habits, I've done some rather odd things that may or may not actually by themselves do anything good for me, but rather represent a change in thinking.

Current events and introspective... coming soon. One of my goals for the new start is to read more. Each week I am going to consult the New York Times Bestseller List for Non-Fiction and if it's a new one, then I'm going to purchase and read it. For my birthday Lori got me a really interesting book called "Blink" which I notice this week is #5.

April - I can't wait for Christmas

The affair is over. To anyone I ever told "I'm a native Southern Californian accidentally born in Seattle," I apologize. It was a lie. It's like that period of time when I thought Lowes was better than Home Depot. I fell in love with a place I could not afford to enjoy. Only now that I don't live there will I be able to enjoy it again. Trips to Disneyland will be more magical, traffic will the minor inconvenience while getting between destinations, not the norm of life. The heat, the smog, the pouring rain, it'll all be something I won't be able to see again through the palm trees. We'll say "I miss the area." and then we'll fly home and say "Nah, I don't miss it." Maybe someday, San Diego. But I can't imagine ever calling Los Angeles home again. It has a beauty, a hope, a promise, but it's better seen on the silver screen than lived by the general masses who inhabit it.

This is home.

May - A Day at Target

So that's going to be something that's gonna bug me. Here, another opportunity to catch up with an old friend, blown because I'm still just as socially inept as I ever was.

June - The Phone Call

Finally a moment of creativity. Click to read.

July - Blech

I have a bad taste in my mouth. It was a bit of pastry. Tasted good at the time. But now it's unpleasant. I think it was too much sweetness and I've been trying to decrease my intake of sweets as I try to lose weight. But it just feels heavy and I feel bummed that I gave in. Losing weight is tough and not at all fun.

August - Mine to Lose

About two weeks ago my boss came to me and took me into a private conference room where he told me that my permanent position had not yet been approved and there was an unforeseen delay. However, instead of just waiting, he recommended I apply for a new position that had just been created. It would have been more responsibility, more pay, and a great stepping stone to more and more.

And I blew it.

September - The End of Passion

Well I was washing my car today and noticed some rather unpleasant scratches on the back door, down towards the bottom. All the way to the metal. I can't imagine what from, maybe a tricycle, maybe some strong bushes, maybe a curb? I'm not quite sure.

But I look at the scratches and all I can say is "Wow! Look at these scratches." Lori comes over and is at least a little better in saying "That sucks."

But is this what it's come to? Sure, it's an object. Most of the world doesn't have a car and we have two, so should I be lamenting minor damage? Or is that all the more reason? I'm fortunate enough to have a car and so shouldn't I be upset when it gets damaged? I think most people would side with Lori and suggest not seething is actually the correct response.

But I find that hard to accept. This is my car. The biggest, most expensive object I've ever owned. (The bank or my dad owns the house, I'm not sure.) So I should take care of it and be upset when it's been damaged. Where is the passion? Where is the emotion? Should I not be upset, and shouldn't it just be expected?

October - Busy Day

I sometimes wonder what people would think if they could peek into my brain. I often feel like the best description might be an butterfly on speed with ADD. Flitting from idea to idea without even stopping to complete one before moving to the next. I think it's why it's hard sometimes to talk because I get too excited and get so far ahead of myself that I have to stop and figure out what I just said and remember what I had been thinking at the time I started speaking. I wonder if I would be a high-functioning mental case or something. But that's ok, I find it kind of amusing. I just wish I could do something with all the ideas in my head.

November - First Day of Christmas

Well, the tree is up and it's got lights on it. And maybe one ornament, I'm not sure. And there's one small tree outside with lights on it. But after a drive through the neighborhood, I know I need to do more, but there are also a lot of slackers in the neighborhood.

December - Unwritten

Wow, it's getting really bad this year. It's already December 8 and we've collectively completed 3 Christmas cards, I think. I would like to come into the season once where I'm not wishing it were over and done with long before Christmas ever arrived.

Last December I said...

So what's next? I'm going to try to get back to the diet, back to the creativity, and maybe some more regular introspective and real posts, not just commentary on the news.

I think I was mildly successful.


So how will I re-orient for 2007?

I aim to post in my blog more frequently. Overall my posting is down for the second year in a row, but we'll make the quality versus quantity arguments later. Honestly, posting isn't that difficult but I guess it doesn't always occur to me. I certainly want to post more on Rachel's blog, there have been some great recent developments.

I want to take more artistic photos. Lori and I put up a frame in our entry way that holds five photos. At the end of the month I pick out the best non-people photos and then we choose one to go into the frame, bumping the oldest one. So every month there's something new and interesting. But I want to up the ante. Less photos at the zoo and more photos out in the world. Since we replaced the broken digital camera, I have the broken one with me often so I can to snap more "life." We'll just see if I can do that without the LCD screen.

I plan to do a lot of reading. My original goal for this year was to let everyone else do the picking for me. Try to see movies with the highest box office, buy music on iTunes that was highly purchased, read books at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. That didn't work as well as I had intended, but thanks to Jeff and Mark and Lori's recommendations I've found myself heading down a really interesting track with my reading (planned reading list in a separate post). I hope that I'll someday be able to apply my learning to my career.

I intend to be more social. I won't say much on that subject, except to say I've improved but I have a ways to go. It's becoming easier and coming more to the forefront.

The diet will return. After last year's success, I'm excited to go for round 2.

I will figure out how to be less busy. Not sure what that even means, but I intend to "re-orient" and figure out how to be less tired and feel less busy. Especially next Christmas. I essentially "missed" Christmas this year and I'm noticing how many posts I selected to recap talked about Christmas in some fashion or another. I'm a little bummed by that and hope to do better next year.

I will be a bigger help around the house. I think I've kind of slacked a little bit and I didn't mean to. I think I can do more. Sometimes it's all we can do do get the basic chores done, let alone attack the clutter. If I can de-clutter, I think that will help me re-orient.

And the little things... make it to The City monthly, try a new restaurant each month, eat at the same restaurants less often, send Lori flowers more often, don't waste time with chores or computer stuff when watching Rachel, find a new home for the dog, get the finances under control, talk to Lori's dad at least once a month, her mom at least twice a month, my parents and brother at least twice a month.

And I will revisit this list regularly to make sure that needed course corrections are smaller.

Silent Night

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Random Thoughts

I woke up late this morning when Lori's alarm went off. I had to rush but still made it to work on time. It should be an easy day, last day before break and we're almost all done with everything that has to be done for next Wednesday.

When my alarm went off I was dreaming that I was trying to explain to someone the benefits of cross-disciplinary working-groups. My explanation was going poorly but they were still getting. My stuttering (if you can call that) has been getting bad at work lately. I don't go st-st-st-stut-t-t-t-er, but I struggle to find the right word and sit there unable to complete a sentence. I suspect that's partially a sign that I need more sleep but I still also maintain that my brain just works faster than my body can handle.

I realized this morning that most of the people I know work in the caring or leading professions: Healthcare and Teaching. I think they (you) are the ones most likely to be able to keep the idea of "changing the world" alive. But I suppose it's still hard, especially as teachers. Because we're the enemy, the adults, the ones who have messed it up. So it's a really particular skill to be able to help the students to learn on their own that they do have the power and the ability to be a force for change.

And if the CEO of your organization suggests you sit down with them and some other lower-level colleagues for a game of Risk, I don't think you should mercilessly trounce him. Especially if he's the former CEO of Parker Bros. Just a thought.

Anyway... something I was waiting for has finished, so back to work for me.

Stop Waiting

I like the sound of this song. I even like what it stands for. But at the same time, it makes me almost giggle when I think about people believing in it. Sorry if that paints me a cynic mere days before we celebrate the birth of our Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

But the song's a little sad, isn't it? We all want to believe these lyrics and can even throw ourselves backwards to high school when we might have believed something like this. What happened? We're on our way to becoming the very people our children will one day be waiting for the right to wrest power from. Perhaps the real lesson in all this is that we can't keep on waiting. Because the world won't change, unless we change it. It won't be some grand gesture, it won't be because it's our "turn." It'll be in the small ways we live our everyday lives, to paraphrase the boy scouts, leaving the world a better place than we found it.

If I can take any solace, it's that I've been blessed enough to be allowed to participate in an organization seeking to make the world a better place for children. One thing that's really popular each year is the World Vision Gift Catalog. You can make contributions for specific items -- like seeds or a goat or a share of a deep well. You can "gift" your contribution to someone else with a nice online e-card, too.

Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything is going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It’s hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
When you trust your television
What you get is what you got
‘Cuz’ when they own the information ooohhh,
They can bend it all they want

So while we're waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It's not that we don't care
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

(Guitar solo)

We're still waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population

So we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Know we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change