The BBC have recently put about 500 episodes of Desert Island Discs online for on-demand listening – it is a treasure trove of fascinating people with interesting and sometimes surprising musical choices. For those unfamiliar – guests get to chose 8 of their favourite pieces of music, then one book (to supplement the Bible and The Complete Works of Shakespeare)  and a single item of luxury. The programme has been running since the 1960’s and is currently hosted by Kirsty Young.

It got me thinking about what my Desert Island Discs would look like – and I finally came up with these eight songs:

• Sea Diver by Mott the Hoople
• Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello
• Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen
• Dream a Little Dream of Me by The Mamas and the Papas
• You do Something to Me by Paul Weller
• Stay with me Baby by The Walker Brothers
• Waiting for the Night by Depeche Mode
• Ballade de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin

A Spotify Playlist is here

My book – The Long Walk : The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

My luxury – A freshly made bed, every night.

If I had to save ONE song – it would probably be The Walker Brothers – Stay with me Baby

What would your Desert Island Discs be?

I love the packaging – well designed, with a sense of humour – and mostly paper based for recycling. I took some pictures as I unboxed.

I’m writing a review of my first few days of using the Kindle – now they are available in the UK (via Amazon import), I’m sure I’ll see more of these on my travels.

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 style, short punchy lists that prompt you to think for yourself, asking you questions that provoke and inspire.

Instant Brilliant 2010 is full of tips and guidelines to help you be brilliant. Divided into a number of short chapters, Career, Wellness, Relationships and Money amongst many others – Nick makes some excellent suggestions to get you on your way.

You can order Instant Brilliant directly from blurb.com which also lists a number of other books by Nicholas Bate.

Thanks Nick for the early copy – an excellent read – highly recommended.

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 song about the mountains of effort you put in for love – Fitzcarraldo was man who pulled a ship over a mountain to follow the thing he loved.

Now – this weeks inspiration – I am proud to have been involved with a book that has just been released by my Mum – all the details are over here.

A Power Within – Poems of Love is a book of poetry take from the blog of the same name. My Mum has been writing poetry to record her life as she cares for my stepfather, who is suffering from Multiple Myeloma.  I was involved in formatting and editing the book – and laying out ready for the publisher.

The book is completely inspirational for me as it shows how love conquers everything – shining through even the darkest days. I’ll leave the poetic writing to my mum, but please consider visiting her site, reading the poetry and leaving some comments – and maybe purchasing a copy of her first self published book.  Each sale will include a donation to the International Myeloma Foundation, and the Church in the Village where Mum lives.

That’s my inspiration this week – what has been inspiring you?

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 debt.

Later the book shifts focus to the tougher process of getting out of debt, with some good common sense tips about tackling the debt. the examples and ideas are practical, actionable and easily customisable to your personal situation.

I read this in a few hours – it is a bit lightweight, but a good primer if you are facing into a problem of debt.

Buy ‘Getting out of Debt and staying out’ by Tony Palmer at Amazon now

What books are you reading right now?

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 book comes across a little bit as an extended brochure for Terminal 5, however as de Botton spent his time camped out in the middle of the Terminal concourse it is clear that he has exposed some good insight into the travellers he encountered. If you are on and off planes as often as I am, then you soon get to wonder about your fellow passengers, and this book does a great job of telling those stories.

It is a great intro to Alain De Botton, beautifully written and an interesting travel read.

Have you read any good travel writing lately?

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 of the main characters into the language of the book – it is an interesting concept and challenges the reader to hear the characters much more clearly.

As the stories develop, the book exposes the pathos of an immigrants life in London, the colour bar, austerity Britain and a lack of jobs are in conflict with the natural indomitable spirit of Moses, Sir Galahad and Cap – the standout scene being a dance attended by all the key characters and hosted by a ‘lahdedah’ friend who tries to impress the white guests he has bought. Priceless images of calypso dances and ‘slackness’ ensue.

This is a marvellous book, that shows how cold and unforgiving London can be, and how the diversity of the city can also shine through.

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 practiced offline as well – be a trusted advisor and people will gravitate towards you when they need something, and then trust you with their information and leads.

It is sage advice indeed – and I ripped through this in a few days, coming away with some great suggestions on how to increase trust. Chris Brogan has an authentic voice in this area – having established a successful blog and social network, as well as putting his money where his mouth is – he is even open to giving the book away for charities and non profits.

The book proposes that it will help you drive sales, get hired without a resume or just make your business more awesome than the others. At the very least, it will be a disruptive influence in your current working styles, and that is never a bad thing

I wouldn’t disagree with any of that – I am confident this book will help you develop any relationship you have, beyond business.

Excellent read – buy Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith now.

What are you doing to build trust?

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 a hierarchy of distractions, where one channel trumps the next and evokes specific emotions.

(click to enlarge – original here)

This chart explains exactly what is at the top of the chart – a text message is only trumped by a loved one shutting the laptop on your fingers!

Found here – and a book – Visual Miscellaneum to accompany (I’ve ordered mine)

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 being remarkable, and how businesses have transformed their fortunes by standing out from the crowd.

Buy The Purple Cow by Seth Godin here (Amazon Link)

It is an inspiring read, prompting you to evaluate everything from your business models to your personal behaviour – and establish whether what you do is really outstanding.

I devoured this again in one sitting on a 2 hour plane ride – and have come away with a new set of ideas I’ll be implementing, including some that will make my support teams even more remarkable, and also some that will hopefully make me a step closer to ‘awesome’.

What are you doing to ensure you or your business/team are The Purple Cow?