This week we’re going to share some ideas about books for you to read this summer. Summer is a chance to travel and relax (sometimes!) and it can be a good opportunity to catch up on your reading. With this in mind, we’re going to look at books that will entertain and inform you without hyperstressing your neurons.
Here are my picks for your summer reading:
The Age of Persuasion – Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant - I’ve previously reviewed this witty and entertaining book, which was written by the producers of The Age of Persuasion radio show on CBC Radio. The book manages to retain O’Reilly’s tone and humor while educating you at the same time. If you’re convinced that advertising is evil, this book really won’t make you change your opinion, but it will inform you and entertain you while you try to make up your mind.
Advantage Play: The Manager’s Guide To Creative Problem Solving – David Ben – This book is a little hard to find but it’s well worth it if you do. I really can’t say enough good things about this book even thought it’s not as flashy as others. However, explaining Creative Problem Solving both in a business context and in terms of developing magic routines is quite clever and makes for a great read.
Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott – Anne’s book on writing is a funny and moving treatise on the difficult yet rewarding life of the fiction author. One of Anne’s contributions to popular culture is the phrase shitty first draft. It’s quite a valuable concept. Anne’s chapters are at times comical, depressing, sad, maniac, and uplifting and they’re all great.
The War of Art – Steven Pressfield - I think I first heard of Steven Pressfield and the War of Art via one of Seth Godin’s books and I had to check this one out. You’ll learn all you need to know about Resistance (what Godin calls The Lizard Brain) from reading this book. It’s a short but powerful book that helps explain why it’s sometimes hard to sit down, shut up, and write. It can be done and it’s rewarding.
Most of these books are a bit on the light, easier to read side, which could make them the perfect books for your summer reading list. Enjoy!
Image by soundfromwayout
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One of these days I’m going to have to get to “The Art of Persuasion.” I keep meaning to but never seem to.
Right now, Nick Carr’s “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” is on my radar — hopefully early this week.
Ack! It’s actually the Age of Persuasion, I misspelled it!
I’m tempted to read The Shallows, just to see if his arguments make any sense at all.
Huge fan of The Age of Persuasion here – both the radio program and the book, which the nice folks at Amazon just sent me – and The War of Art is on my must-read list, but the other two titles are new to me: thanks for the tips, Mark!
Have fun, Rebecca!
I keep meaning to read Stephen King’s “On Writing.” “The War of Art” is also on the “must read soon” list.