Some minor issues

On holiday, I read. At least, when i’m abroad (like last week). At home (this week) I only managed to read a few pages

But last week I read some interesting books.

Jack & Suzy Welch: Winning, the answers
I really like reading Welch. If you don’t know him, this now retired guy was the CEO of General Electric (GE) for almost 20 years. He brought the company to unseen levels and was declared as manager of the 20th century. After he retired his principles got some critique, as being no longer accurate (bubble, web 2.0, other cultures, ..) but I think there is still á lot of wisdom in his methods.
The main reason why I like Welch is because he’s got a very positive view on doing business. It’s almost common sense, except few people are doing it. After reading one of his books I feel energized and full of plans
Winning, the answers is in response to the previous book Winning. After that book became a bestseller a lot of questions arose by all kind of people all over the world. This book answers the most interesting. I enjoyed this book. If you’re interested in management, reading Welch is a must, and so is this book. But I recommend you to read Winning first.
4/5

Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Shadow of the wind
The obligatory fiction book on my holiday list, and I loved it. It’s intriguing, intense, well written .. hard to put away, couldn’t get enough of it. Sort of an a-typical detective. No wonder it sold millions of copies.
This book is excellent movie material, so who’s going for it?
5/5

Kenneth shelfariBlanchard: Self Leadership and the One Minute manager
It’s a fun and fast to read little book. It’s about becoming more effective and analyzing situations to decide how to act best. The surrounding story is a bit cheesy and somewhat obvious (the right things happen at exactly the right time .. by the book as they say) but hey it’s about a guy named Steven in advertising so I’ll buy it

In the book are 3 “secrets” for effective self leadership (freely translated):
1/ Check invalidated assumptions
2/ Be proud on your power sources
3/ Work together to reach success

It reminded my Steve Covey from time to time. Anyway, if you want to know more: read the book.
3/5

Chris Anderson: The long tail
Wow!
I finally read this book. It was lying around for almost a year know, and I was postponing reading it because I thought it was a must read but somewhat dull book. Besides I got the long tail principle, so there was no urge.
Man I was wrong. First of all, this book isn’t dull, it’s well written and the concepts are explained on an interesting way. Second, it seems I had an assumption about the long tail, but didn’t got the concepts in detail. It’s truly an economic book, but applied to the social-economic context of the nowadays .. let’s call it 2.0 (although I don’t like the word) generation. It’s about doing business. It’s about choice, and masses. About marketing. It’s a book I loved reading, and I will remember the concepts in my future project. I recommend this book big time.
5/5

Speaking of books, I started using this social reading website called Shelfari after I read about it on iBert. If you love reading and buying books (like I do) give it a try. I’s working very well. If you have an account feel free to ad me as a Shelfari friend.
Unfortunately I can’t add all books I own. A dozen of them are only Dutch, and can’t be found in the list. Apart from that: great website, great concept.