Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Bird by Bird is a great inspirational book

And anything by Drucker is a must read.

Great to hear your recommendations and lottery picks

My current Top 3 would be Marketing Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout, Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, and Life After the 30-Second Spot by Joe Jaffe. Having said that, I have just started Made to Stick and am enjoying it, and am planning to start reading Duct Tape Marketing soon.

Scott,

I need names here! What are your top 3?

My 3 Favorites are:

Secret Formulas from the Wizard of Ads- Roy H Williams - One of the most intriguing and well written marketing books.

Understanding Comics - Scott Mcloud- Learn how to communicate effectively by breaking down patterns in a limited amount of space.

A Poem a Day - edited by McCosker and Albery - You write how you read. Poets are masters at communication thoughts in a few words and in unusual ways.

Coming up with 3 was tough though. Especially without including my own books ;-)

Hi John - great post. Here are my three favorite right now:

*Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston

*The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

*Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

Hard to stop but these are John's participation rules! :)

I only read one book really last year but read it about 10 times. It was my own What Sticks, which I call Marketing’s Inconvenient Truth, since it sheds light on how bad marketers and agencies are at developing advertising that works. Really, it is a disaster. It was my attempt to do an intervention on the industry.

Greg at gregstuart.com

Greg,

What about all time? I read my book about 10 times too but by then I was sick of it.

1. Mans Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl

2. Creating Customer Evangelists, Ben McConnel and Jackie Huba

3. Radical Edge, Steve Farber

I like the idea of 3. Yikes how to choose. How about 3 that are not obvious.

William Bridges: Managing Transitions.

Jane Dutton: Energize Your Workplace.

Pema Chodron: When Things Fall Apart

Take 3,

David Zinger

Bootstrapping Your Business - Gianforte
Bird By Bird - Lamott (Definitely agree)
The Big Moo - Various

1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
A classic story of youth and the world

2. Made to Stick - Dan and Chip Heath
Obvious but great content with application in every industry

3. Purple Cow - Seth Godin
I don't care what color it is. I want to be remarkable

1) Selling Retail- John Lawhon

2) Discipline of Market Leaders- Treacy & Wiersema

3) 22 Laws of Branding- Ries & Ries

All marketing/ business-- great reads- lots of insight. 22 Laws of Branding is like Marketing for Dummies, but it's so simply stated, it's a great tool.

I'm leaving out John Jantch's "Duct Tape Marketing" and John Battelle's "The Search" in order to avoid accusations of conflict of interest. ;) The 3 that leaves me with:

Master of the Senate, an LBJ biography by Robert Caro -- wonderful history and a guide to negotiating from a master!

Wisdom of the Crowd, James Surowieki. It helped me understand why Web 2.0 publishing approaches (such as Digg or Metafilter or Newsvine) are better at organizing content than traditional editorial boards.

Independence Day, Richard Ford. A novel every parent should read, lest you end up as clueless as Frank Bascombe!

1. Leap: A Revolution in Creative Business Strategy by Robert Schmetterer

2. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

3. Thought Particles by Roy H. Williams

Love the site. Here are our top choices...

1. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

2. Marketing Metrics: 50 + Metrics Every Executive Should Master by by Paul Farris, Neil Bendle, Phillip Pfeifer & David Reibstein

3. Mavericks at Work by William Taylor & Polly LaBarre

A lot of good books here. Mine--

Alexandria Quartet - Durrell

Burr - Vidal

A Clearing in the distance = Rybcyzynski


When are you going to do the favorite albums?

My trio:

Selling the Invisible - Harry Beckwith

Growing Your Business - Mark LeBlanc

The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity - Catherine Ponder

My all-time favorite books for entrepreneurs (other than my own, "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, "which I shamelessly and tactlessly mention here) are:

Rules for Revolutionaries, Guy Kawasaki

Permission Marketing, Seth Godin

Swim With The Sharks, Harvey Mackay

Read these all - they will open your eyes.

(And then, when the startup life seems overwhelming, read "The eMyth Revisited" by Michael Gerber)

Wow...painful

Lamb--Christopher Moore

It's Not About the Bike--Lance Armstrong

Small is the New Big- Seth Godin

Here are my three:

The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

Tough question, but here goes:

The Ultimate Success Secret - Dan Kennedy
(such a simple concept, that's so far reaching)

Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
(prose at it's best. compelling novel, that made me hang on every word)

The Book Theif - Marcus Zusak
(historical fiction, narrated by death...)

Great idea for a post.

1) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature - A.H. Maslow

2) Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff

3) Co-Opetition : A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation : The Game Theory Strategy That's Changing the Game of Business by Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry J. Nalebuff

These are somewhat awkward and obscure but I enjoyed them. They also happen to be the most recent three books I've read.

1) Mergers & Acquisitions from A to Z Andrew Sherman and Milledge A Hart.

2) NLP Carol Harris

3) The Psychology of Selling Brian Tracey

Well, you did say "business or not," and I'm not in love with many business books, so . . .

Nickel and Dimed - Barbara Ehrenreich

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove - Laura Schenone

Swallowing Clouds - A. Zee

You know I didn't think of this at the time but I've just destroyed my list of books I want to read - so many great recommendations - now what!!!!

<trackback>3 Books Everyone Should Read...By Category
Over at Duct Tape, John challenged his readers to list their 3 favorite books...which is remarkably hard (mine ended up being Lamb, Lance's book, and, since it's a business blog, Small is the New Big.). HOWEVER, since this is my</trackback>

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Death By Meeting by Patrick M. Lencioni

One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard

A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
Still, years later, the best book I've ever read.

Mavericks at Work - LaBarre and Williams
More current and pretty breakthrough in it's thinking/presentation. I loved this book.

Olgivy on Advertising - David Olgivy
Twenty-five years later and he's still right.

It's interesting how fast number one came to me and how much of a struggle it was to get to two and three... It's also been a little revealing to see how many of the books listed above we've all read. Will definitely pick up Bird by Bird; thanks for the recommendation!

What a challenge. It sent me to my bookcase to see if I could finger only 3. That ended up in 3 hours of cleaning out my book case of those books that might make the least useful 3. Yes, you will get your Top Three from me and a thankyou gift for showing me how to clear out more than 100 business books that were done before the Internet and I haven't referenced.

The Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell
The World is Flat - THomas Friedman
The Operator - Tom King

Have you read Deepak Chopra's Book of Secrets - much more detailed regarding the concepts in 7 Spiritual Laws.

My other two,

Jack Canfield The Success Principles
Boethius - Consolation of Philosophy

My favs:

-If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland. I heard about it through Guy Kawasaki's blog, and found it to be utterly invigorating to read. Kind of a poetic take on Anne Lamott's hilarious Bird by Bird (which is a fav too, but you said we could have 3)

-The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It is a nice, slim book which summarizes some Toltec wisdom in a very interesting way.

-Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live by Martha Beck. As a coach, I have referred this to hundreds of clients. Martha is not your typical fluffy self help writer, she is wickedly funny, very practical, and has a wonderful perspective on life.

Never Come Morning - Nelson Algren

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

EndZone - Don DeLillo

(All work and no play etc.)

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

Finding Flow, The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life - by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mastery, The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment

GREAT post!

Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy
Sophie's Choice- William Styron

Hug Your Customers - Jack Mitchell
One - Richard Bach
One Man's Wilderrness - Keith/Proenneke

there are many as all of u have
but at the first sight:

Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo
Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Sun Tzu - The Art of War

Greetings from Hungary!

It looks like most of the "posters" are preternatural readers, and asking for a top three, regardless of category, is unusually limiting. Noted that most responses are related to marketing, which begs your question.

1. The Bible - Ok, 66 books in one volume.
2. The Effective Executive - Peter Drucker
3. Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck

3 books, and only 3 books, John? Tough stuff!

OK, here are my top 3 of recent memory:

1) Made to Stick - Dan and Chip Heath
If you're a storyteller, this is a great book to help you tell better stories.

2) How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
A classic book with a classic message. Be interested in people, and they will find you interesting. Simple stuff really.

3) Now Discover Your Strengths - Marcus Buckingham & Donald Clifton
This is the best book on management I've ever read, and a great one for all of us to remember to focus on what makes us all great...our strengths, NOT our weaknesses!

When you say favorite book...do you think people would actually read some of their choices when they are - vacationing on a beach - after a long day at work - or on a lazy Sunday?? Those are places I would want to read my favorite books instead of common sense marketing books.

Interesting reads...

Baudolino - Umberto Eco
In Praise of Slowness - Carl Honore
Voltaire's Bastards - John Ralston Saul

John,

This is a terrific post and comment thread. It's always fascinating to me to see what books have provided inspiration to others.

Here are my top 3:

1> "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking" by Andy Sernovitz.
The advertising and marketing worlds are going through fundamental change, and this book is the how-to manual to survive (and thrive). I heartily recommend this book for anyone who wants to not only understand influencers, blogs, and viral marketing, but also come away with enough ideas and case studies to actually get started right away after reading the book.

Disclaimer: I used to work for Andy at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. But I'm still a huge fan, and have alrady bought copies to give to friends.

2> "Selling the Dream" by Guy Kawasaki. This is the first book I ever read that talked about corporate evangelism. It inspired me for years, and still continues to do so to this day.

3> "The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur" by Randy Komisar.
A truly wonderful gift of a book about dot.coms, VC's, and the soul. It was initially recommended by the soulful Evelyn Rodriguez. I only wish I had this book when I covered the dot.com boom-bust cycle in Chicago in the late 90's/early 2000's and met entirely way too many "Lennys".

Michael and all,

This has been a great thread - way beyond my expectations, the funny thing is how few books get repeated and how few of these books I've read! (except of course the Bible, but I'm Catholic so I had that read at me, does that count?) I do plan to check out some new ones.

3 books. Whew. Tough.

* All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy

* 100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

* Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Hard copies of all. Portions of each book still take my breath away.

More later.

There's a few I considered in the previous comments and many I've added to my reading list (thanks for the ideas!) Here's my top 3:

1. The Answer to How is Yes, by Peter Block. It's helped me both in business and in my volunteer work.

2. The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathon Haidt. Just read it and am already looking forward to re-reading it.

3. Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robins. It keeps me grounded and is a book I seem to pack on every trip I take to get re-grounded.

1. Hardcover 2. Library 3. very well worn paperback.

Atlas Shrugged
House of Leaves
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance