June 19th, 2006
My Art Center students often ask me to share what books I am reading. I promised to put up a new list.
For the sake of full disclosure I wanted to note that I read in two ways.
1. A regular pulp based book. I do this less often.
2. Audiobook on my iPod. I do this while bike riding or while driving in L.A. The latter makes traffic on the 10 going to the westside much easier to cope with.
So I will start with the recent pulp based books I have read:
1. A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age
Author: Daniel H. Pink (Signed by the Author)
2. Little Red Book of Selling
Author: Jeffrey Gitomer
3. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Author: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Audio Books. If you haven’t seen Audible.com you should check it out. If you end up signing up and buy something make sure you say I referred you. My user name is: zuzio
1. The Google Story
Author: David A. Vise and Mark Malseed
2. Never Eat Alone
Author: Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz
3. Blink
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
4. Eboys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work
Author: Randall E. Stross
5. The Second Coming of Steve Jobs
Author: Alan Deutschman
6. Goals! How to Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible
Author: Brian Tracy
7. All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories In a Low-Trust World
Author: Seth Godin
8. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century Part
Author: Thomas L. Friedman
From all of these there are 2 that I highly recommend:
If you are a creative and you have always wanted to know what makes creative people tick read Creativity:Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
It gets a bit dry through some parts because it is based on a research study. But it has some great insights into the creative mind and process. One that THE_GROOP has always believed in is that great creativity is not only the domain of visual artists it also includes science, technology, music, film etc. Also that creativity often comes from collaboration. There is no such thing as the “Singular Genius”. Collaboration is key.
The second is The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
It expanded my understanding of how global commerce works. Knowing how business works is half the battle.
