What I’m Reading
I will do this from time to time.
What I’m reading in Business:
Naked Conversations - Robert Scoble / Shel Israel. If you are a PR Company - read chapter 7. Apart from a great slating of Edelman (we all enjoy a cheap joke) it should make you scared. Better than the Ogilvy game ‘destroyyourbusiess.com’ which Rory Sutherland and I played in the ’90s with Peppers and Rogers. [it even mentions a client of a PR firm client of mine…. and slates them too!]
How not to Come Second - David Kean. The book given away at JFDI at their New Business Workshops and New Business Academy days. [if you don’t know what the initials stand for… ask!]. Pitching and every excuse ever made about why you didn’t win the business. Plus how to overcome the hurdles and WIN. I bought this on Amazon and mailed it to a client. He had it sitting on his desk when I visited. Not even opened it out of curiosity. Would you wonder why I’d sent it to you?
Whatever you think, think the opposite - Paul Arden. Bollocks. Nice pictures, catchphrases and good typography. Don’t buy it - but do leaf through it when you’re next in the bookshop coffee store. It’ll take you 5 minutes to read and get the idea. There is only one idea, by the way. Not what you’d call deep!
Key Account Manager’s Pocketbook - Roger E. Jones. Great little read of good tips. Used this in coaching session with a client recently. Busy lady, working Mum, perfect book - short and to the point.
What I’m reading in Sport:
Consistent Winning - Ronald Sandler and Dennis Lobstein. How to write training programmes that enable peak performances. I got this from Harry Mahon. Great.
What’s beside my bed:
My life as an Edge - Richard Lawrence. Fun, quirky view of the world by a little-known rower.
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini. Great novel (can’t bear for it to end) and it echos my time in Peshawar in 1986 with Nicholas della Casa
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson. Has sunk to the bottom of the pile next to the gardening books. So don’t think I’ll ever finish it. It isn’t my copy anyway, I picked it up in the committee room at Tideway Scullers! [OK, Mr. Chairman - I confess, it was me. But it had sat there for over a year gathering dust along with Tracey’s tantric sex guide that everyone else had borrowed.]
Cracking India - Bapsi Sidhwa. Recommendation from Nabeel Sarwar who has bought the film rights of another of her titles. Just started this. Good opening of child memories of Lahore.
PS I don’t make money from Amazon.