By mattr on January 2, 2010
Snow days and holidays give me the opportunity to dip into as many books as possible, and Instant Brilliant 2010 has been waiting patiently for me over the holiday period.
Nicholas Bate has pulled together this excellent book from a series of blog posts on his excellent blog. I’m a huge fan of his writing [...]
Posted in books, expandyourmind, onetoread
By mattr on November 15, 2009
Slightly later this week, because I used all my time yesterday working on today’s Sunday Inspiration. It’s a special edition because it’s a project I have been involved in. As always, some music to listen to whilst you read on – click here to listen to the marvellous Fitzcarraldo by the Frames – a [...]
Posted in books
By mattr on October 25, 2009
Disclosure – this book was given to me as a review copy from the Librarything early reviewers program. Check out my Librarything bookshelves now.
A nice quick read that focuses a good amount of time on the prevention of Getting into Debt – there are some good examples of how the reader can slip into [...]
Posted in books, expandyourmind, onetoread
By mattr on October 20, 2009
Easily devoured in a short flight – ‘A Day at the Airport’ (Amazon UK link) is an interesting experiment of having an ‘author in residence’ at Heathrow Airport. Of course, it helps that the author in question is Alain de Botton, who has a significant following and some great books under his belt.
Unfortunately the [...]
Posted in books, expandyourmind
By mattr on October 7, 2009
Picked this up on the recommendation of a friend after discussing 1950’s calypso music, it’s a modern classic I hadn’t heard of telling the tale of a small group of (mainly) Trinidadian immigrants in London in the fifties.
Buy The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon on Amazon now
Sam Selvon eschews ‘Standard’ English and fuses the patois [...]
Posted in books, expandyourmind, reading
By mattr on October 1, 2009
This is a great book, combining sound theory, relevant examples and actionable suggestions with an easy readable style. The main premise is that cultivating ‘trust’ will enable you and your business to succeed. Most of this is talked about in terms of social networks or online media – but the key points can be [...]
Posted in books, expandyourmind
By mattr on September 23, 2009
Getting Things Done has become an industry in its own right – as have the zillions of productivity blogs that have popped up to grab our interest. It is easy to become obsessed with getting productive, rather than actually doing the stuff in the first place.
However, it is actually quite simple – there is [...]
Posted in books, inspiration, random, reading
By mattr on September 17, 2009
The Purple Cow stands out, because it is remarkable. In a field of black and white cows, the purple cow is the one that you would remember – turning to your travel companion and saying, “did you see…?”
That’s the premise of Seth Godin’s book from 2002, a highly enjoyable spin through the act of [...]
Posted in books, business, customer service, expandyourmind
By mattr on September 9, 2009
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
I picked this up on the way through Terminal 5 on Monday, to at least kill some time on the 9 hours to Seattle. Little did I know that by the time I landed, I’d be 3/4 of the way through.
Telling the story of 7 main characters over the [...]
Posted in books
By mattr on September 6, 2009
I’ve invested some time in reading some highly recommended business/excellence books recently, and whilst I don’t suggest that you go away and read all of these, just one of the following 3 in your next Amazon order will reap maximum benefits.
Nicholas Bate – Instant MBA- 52 great ways to think like a top MBA [...]
Posted in books, expandyourmind