100 Pounds of Dynamite

I just signed up for LibraryThing last night. It was exactly what I was looking for. I’ve got a bunch of books on my “to-read” queue and I wanted a way to track them. LibraryThing allows that and so much more. You can add books easily through a bulk upload from your amazon purchase history, share books with friends and see who you’re related to via common books. (Its very much a last.fm for books…)

I’ve added a widget in the sidebar with my “to read” books and here is another version below:

Here are the books I’ve got on deck:

Little Black Book of Connections

Naked Economics

The Social Life of Information

Juicing the Orange

Spark

Night

Pop!

Presentations that Change Minds

Thinking Creatively

Blink!

Smart Mobs

Getting Things Done

Never Eat Alone

Winning

I read
The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffery Gitomer over the last few days.

I’m not in sales, but the job that I’m doing at the moment is about as close as I’ve ever been. I’ve always thought there was a bit of a mystique about sales people. The first thought that comes to mind is the a-hole car salesman stereo(arche)type.

There is some interesting insight the mind of a successful salesman. Gitomer makes a very interesting statement that he referes back to a number of times in the book (and in a subsequent book): People don’t like to be sold to, but everyone loves to buy.

The book is full of potentially inspirational information for people in sales to get out there and produce value for their prospects. For someone not in sales I think it has some degree of usefulness, but I think it would be much more useful for someone who actually sells for a living.

I’m almost done with his book “Little Black Book of Connections” which has, I believe, more appeal for non-sales people. More on that when I finish it.