My Summer Reading List

[rjs]

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
2. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???

I'm looking for suggestions for 3-5. They need to be related to business, personal development, or sports.

(For anyone else looking for a good sports read, I recommend "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis)

Comments

[gunga_galunga]

I actually liked "Blink" better.

[rjs]

I saw "Blink" but figured I should read Tipping Point first.

[rcfox]

Two good books:

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. The first self-help personal development book.

The Real Heroes of Business...and Not a CEO Among Them by Len Schlesinger & Bill Fromm

I assume you've read Moneyball by Lewis (if not, do so).

Russ

[rjs]

Yep, I've read Moneyball - great book!

[rjs]

I actually had my copy of "How to Win Friends..." with me at a poker game the other day (in case I needed to kill some time before a tournament started) and an older gentleman started talking to me about how good the book was. Then he recommended "another good book by some Napoleon guy" that he couldn't remember.

[ronsrants]

Ranked in order of importance:

1) A Pirate Looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett

2) Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Bob Andelman

3) The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

4) What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson

5) Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery by Sam Calagione

-R

[ronsrants]

FYI,

I couldn't finish Blink nor How to Win Friends and Influence People. Not that they are bad, but they just didn't resonate with me the way the 5 recommendations I made do.

-R

[rjs]

That last one sounds really interesting, especially with my interest in both beer and one day running my own business (not necessarily combined though).

[ronsrants]

And yet I found the last one to be the least impactful upon my life.

The Jimmy Buffet book is awesome because it reminds me how to live life.

The Home Depot book is a far far better primer on how to push up your shirtsleeves and create value. Keep in mind, these guys started the business after they got fired from their cushy executive jobs and they were middle-aged with little to show for it.

The Stanko book explains how to ensure that you at least retire rich, even if you never make a lot of money in your career.

The Bronson book is an excellent read for when you are around 25 and realize you haven't a clue what you want to do, but it certainly wasn't what you are currently doing.

The brewing book was interesting. It was very repetitive to me, given that I had already studied much of business side of things in school.

-R

[gunga_galunga]

Also, No Cash, No Fear was interesting. It sounds like a get rich quick book, but it's actually an autobiography of an entrepreneur.

[rjs]

Yep, read Moneyball. "License to Deal" by Jerry Crasnick was a fun read too.