BizBook Nuggets

10 Best Business Books List Published

Michael Hyatt, President & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has updated his ten favorite business books. They are:

Focus: The Future Of Your Company Depends On It by Al Ries, HarperBusiness

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen, Penguin Books

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins, HarperCollins

Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders, Three Rivers Press

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham, Free Press

Slide:Ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte, O'Reilly

Stress for Success by James E. Loehr & Mark McCormack, Three Rivers Press

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber, HarperCollins

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin, Portfolio

You Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are by Roger Aisles, Doubleday

Branding Books: What you need to know to get known

Recently Denise and I (The Blog Squadtm) did some research for a workshop on Branding and Blogging. I'd like to share some books on branding you'll want to read. Even if you already have a name for your business, it's never too late to find a good/better/best name for your information products and programs.

Here's a list of our favorites:

POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd, by Sam Horn (I love this book!)

The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing, by Emanuel Rosen

Hot Button Marketing: Push the Emotional Buttons That Get People to Buy, by Barry Feig

The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business, by Richard Maxwell & Robert Dickman

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing, by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg

Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand, by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson (listen to our interview with William Arruda)

Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort, by Steven Van Yoder

Any other branding/marketing books you'd like to add?

Why I Haven't Posted Recently

It's not that I don't continue to read 2-3 business books a month; I still do. But I've stopped posting regularly on this blog, in favor of two of my other blogs: CoachEzines.com and Build a Better Blog.

It's gotten to be too much with the 10 blogs total that Denise and I write on as The Blog Squad.

I also want to direct readers to the blog 800-CEO-Read. They have a regularly updated blog about what the savvy business person is reading, authored by several great writers. When somebody else does a better job than you do, I say, refer and outsource!

Summer Reading List Blues

Pamela Slim over at Escape from Cubicle Nation complains about her Amazon addiction, and points to a great list of summer reading for entrepreneurs:

http://read.ducttapemarketing.com/2006/07/a_great_list_of.html

Pamela says, "I will not buy one more book until I make it through the stack on the edge of my bathtub.  Remind me to buy some stock in Amazon, as I am a hopeless addict.  I really should visit the library more often so that I don't have to work so hard to support my book habit. Thanks to the folks at 800-CEO-Read on Duct Tape Marketing's Blog Channel for the info."

Does this sound like you? I've been so busy buying books on Amazon, I haven't had time to read. No I kid you not. And instead of the bathtub, they get taken on every trip I make.

Denise and I are off to San Jose, to the BlogHer Conference, and I will take about 4 books on blogging with me to read on the plane. Never mind that the trip is only 2 hours long, my eyes are bigger than my carry-on.

Have  you got the book-blues too? Hit the comment link and share your book list woes.

Forbes: Best Biz Books 2005

The editors of Forbes and Forbes.com select the best of the biz-book crop.

What's interesting about Forbe's best biz books list are two things: 1.) their commentary on why Freakonomics didn't make the cut of the top 5 for 2005, and 2.) the slide show that presents a blurb on each book.

It's worth clicking right on over right now, to see this - it only takes a minute. Click the link to read the full story right here.

Most Blogged About Books

This list is from the New York Times, based on the most blog mentions. The top 9 are mostly biz books.

1. FREAKONOMICS: A ROGUE ECONOMIST EXPLORES THE HIDDEN SIDE OF EVERYTHING
By Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow, April 2005)

2.  HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (BOOK 6)
By J. K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine Books, July 2005)

3.  BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING
By Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown, January 2005)

4.  THE WORLD IS FLAT: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
By Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 2005)

5.  GETTING THINGS DONE: THE ART OF STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY
By David Allen (Penguin Books, January 2003)

6.  COLLAPSE: HOW SOCIETIES CHOOSE TO FAIL OR SUCCEED
By Jared Diamond (Viking, December 2004)

7.  BLOG: UNDERSTANDING THE INFORMATION REFORMATION THAT'S CHANGING YOUR WORLD
By Hugh Hewitt (Nelson Books, January 2005)

8.  GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL: THE FATES OF HUMAN SOCIETIES
By Jared Diamond (W. W. Norton & Company, April 1999)

9.  THE TIPPING POINT: HOW LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
By Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books, January 2002)

Best Biz Book List - Business Week

BusinessWeek's December 19th issue covers "The Best of 2005".

Included in this issue is a list of their choices for the top 10 business books of the year.

Here are their picks (not the usual suspects):

The Big Picture
Blink
Conspiracy of Fools
Disneywar
FAB 
Fortune's Formula
The Future for Investors
Three Billion New Capitalists
Winning 
The World is Flat

Amazon Editors Picks for 2005

One of my favorite blogs, 800CEORead, reports that Amazon's editors picks has the usual suspects you would expect for a best of 2005:

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedmen
Resonant Leadership by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee
The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
China Inc. by Ted Fishman
DisneyWar by James Stewart
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
The Travels of a T-Shirt In A Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli
Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich

There are two I've ordered, Resonant Leadership, and The End of Poverty... and two more on my wish list, Blue Ocean and China Inc. Hard to choose sometimes.

What are your favorites for 2005?

Strategy + Business E-news Best Biz Books for 2005

Here's a great Best Biz Book List for 2005 from Strategy + Business, s+b's enews, from editor Art Kleiner.

New York, N.Y., November 30, 2005 -- Of the shelfloads of business books produced this year, strategy+business has selected the eight titles you don't want to miss. We asked some of the world's most distinguished business thinkers to help us choose our winners from among 32 notable books published in the last 12 months.

The top books in each category are:

The Future
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas L. Friedman

Strategy
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant
by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

Globalization
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
by Jeffrey D. Sachs

Work and Life
Creating the Good Life: Applying Aristotle's Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness
by James O'Toole

Management
Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story
by Kurt Eichenwald

Marketing
ProfitBrand: How to Increase the Profitability, Accountability & Sustainability of Brands
by Nick Wreden

Media
Hard News: The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media
by Seth Mnookin

Leadership
A Life in Leadership: From D-Day to Ground Zero: An Autobiography
by John C. Whitehead

Great selection, in my opinion. What are your favorites this past year?

10 Best Books About Customers

Church of the Customer Blog just published their list of the ten biz books that will chang your business life. This is a great blog that is all about word of mouth, customer evangelism and citizen marketers. Here's their list:

1. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini (Collins; 1998) The title says it all. A must-have classic.

2. The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore (Harvard Business School Press; 1999) Business is theater and to not understand this fundamental point is to miss several rungs of the loyalty ladder.

3. Selling the Dream by Guy Kawasaki (Collins; 1992) How Guy did it at Apple and how you can do it for your organization.

4. The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen (Currency; 2002) Emanuel retraces the word-of-mouth roots for a software program he once was in charge of marketing and uncovers an entire world of network of buzz creators.

5. Diffusion of Innovations by Everett M. Rogers (Free Press; 1962) It's big and academic, but Rogers laid the foundation for so much of what we now take for granted today.

6. Purple Cow:  Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin (Portfolio; 2003)
Seth sure knows how to create unforgettable terminology. Today, everyone talks about being "remarkable;" that began with this book.

7. The Republic of Tea by Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler and Bill Rosenzweig (Currency Doubleday; 1992) Not knowing anything about it, I first bought this book for a buddy of mine in 1992 because he's a Bubba tea drinker. He raved about it and after having read it, I know why: A company's well-defined cause is the underpinning to its grassroots growth.

8. The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing:  How To Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth  by George Silverman (American Management Association; 2001) George's book is a jam-packed with ideas on how to make word of mouth happen.

9. Secret Service by John DiJulius (American Management Association; 2003) John owns several high-end salons in Ohio that have grown exclusively via word of mouth; John explains how he did it, step by step.

10. What's on your list?