So. What exactly do I do for a living?

Recommended Advertising & Marketing Books

  • By Bob Bly: The Copywriter's Handbook
    Essential to grasping the concept of copywriting for a living. (****)
  • Seth Godin: Permission Marketing
    You still have to "interrupt" people to get permission, but solid info on maintaining and growing a customer base. (***)
  • Nick Usborne: net words
    I cannot stand writing in jargon laced "corporate speak". Nick tells people why it's bad and what you need to write for the web EFFECTIVELY. (***)
  • Patrick Hanlon: Primal Branding
    Insightful and thought provoking notes concerning a consistently misused, mishandled and misunderstood concept. (***)
  • Chip Heath and Dan Heath: Made To Stick
    Smart brothers, classic case studies and sound reasoning. The book just makes sense. (***)
  • Clotaire Rapaille: The Culture Code
    Culture certainly plays a role in what we want and how it should be sold to be successful. And Fortune 500 companies pay Rapaille very well to tell them how. Great insight on the perspective one needs to carry in today's global society. (***)
  • Seth Godin: The Big Moo
    Fun book. Short, poignant stories of success. Reminder that being remarkable and being perfect are vastly separate entities. (***)

Required Reading (As I See It)

  • Bruce Lee: Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom For Daily Living
    Simple. Profound. Striking. All from a man who died at 32. (****)
  • Ernest Hemingway: To Have And Have Not
    The guy's a master. This is my current favorite selection. (****)
  • Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird
    Two words: Atticus. Finch. (****)
  • Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
    How many times do you get to crawl inside the head of a Roman emperor? (***)
  • Stephen F. Kaufman: The Book of Five Rings
    Miyamoto Musashi was the baddest philosopher/samurai that ever lived. He served no master but himself. The Book of Five Rings is his definitive strategy on proper living. (****)
  • Jon Krakauer: Into The Wild
    I read this book before it was "cool". Great investigative reporting regarding one of life's most epic searches for "the truth". (****)
  • Neil Strauss: Motley Crue: the dirt
    Rampant destruction in the name of greed, lust and arrogance. You will feel dirty after reading this book. (***)
  • Don Miguel Ruiz: The Four Agreements
    Live life better. We all need to be reminded how. Some of us need to be shown. (***)
  • Dante: The Inferno
    The classic treatise on the damned. I could think of people who need to re-read this in today's world. (****)
  • David Rensin: All For A Few Perfect Waves
    A series of interviews, from the men and women who paved the first roads of modern surfing, concerning the enigmatic life and times of surfing's legendary genius and consummate asshole Miki Dora. I'm still not sure what to make of Da Cat. (***)