I have a reputation for reading a lot of books. As a result, I often get asked for book recommendations, which I’m happy to provide. In order to streamline the process, I’ve decided to publish a list of books that I read every quarter in 2014. I had previously published the books that I read from January through March. Below, you’ll find a list of books that I’ve read from April through June of this year.
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read” – Charlie Tremendous Jones
Here are the non-fiction books I read during the second quarter:
- Business Brilliant by Lewis Schiff. This book identifies seven principles that separate extraordinary entrepreneurs from the rest of the world. Schiff investigates several myths about how wealth is produced and shows how the truly rich have established a different set of priorities than the middle class. Highly recommended.
- The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy by Bill Carter. This is a book that describes the recent history of Late Night television. It provides an inside look at what happened with Jay Leno’s first retirement and the debacle with Conan O’Brien that followed. Highly recommended.
- The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz and Dan Kennedy. This is a classic book about self-perception. The core message of the book is that you can be whoever you want to be and are only held back by your limiting self-beliefs.
- Flash Boys by Michael Lewis. This is a book that describes how high-speed trading has impacted the stock market and how some large financial have engaged in a game of trading arbitrage in order to reap illicit profit.
- 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall. This is a book that applies the 80-20 principle (20% of your activity leads to 80% of your results) to sales and marketing. Marshall provides insight about how to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and avoiding time-wasting activities (like cold calling).
- Accidental Genius by Mark Levy. I was instructed to read this book by my book coach. It teaches the practice of free writing as a way to “generate breakthrough ideas and solutions that you couldn’t have created any other way.” This book might have some value for someone that frequently runs into writer’s block, but I didn’t get any unique benefit from the book.
- Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker. This is a book about team building and outsourcing (primarily to the Philippines). If you’re interested in hiring some internationally to help with your business, this book provides a lot of best practices and guidelines to follow.
- The Financially Savvy Entrepreneur by Emily Chase Smith. This book provides a game plan for entrepreneurs to get their finances in order. It’s geared more toward entrepreneurs that are having financial trouble, but there are some good principles in the book for anyone that runs their own business.
- Shark Tank Jump Start Your Business: How to Launch and Grow a Business from Concept to Cash. This book offers some basic advice to prospective entrepreneurs and provides bit of a behind-the-scenes look at ABC’s Shark Tank, but won’t provide much in the way of actual insight to anyone that’s read many business books.
- How to Write, Format, Publish and Promote your Book (Without Spending Any Money). This book is a great place to start for anyone that wants to self-publish their own book. It provides good insight about marketing distributing your books through Amazon, SmashWords and other e-book companies.
- 13 Things that Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks. This is a book about thirteen scientific phenomena that can’t be explained well by modern science. If you decide to read this book, read the epilogue first.
Here are the fiction books I read during the second quarter:
- Daemon and FreedomTM by Daniel Suarez – These two books are a series that explores the idea of what happens when a computer program becomes sentient and tries to take over and re-organize the world in its own image. Highly recommended.
- Ready Player One by Earnest Cline. Ready Player One chronicles the tale of a teenager that attempts to complete a quest in a MMO video game left by a dead billionaire. If you are nostalgic for 80’s entertainment or have played World of Warcraft, this is a book for you.
- The Lost Stars: Perilous Shield by Jack Campbell. This is the latest in the “Lost Fleet” series of books. If you’re interested in a quality military sci-fi series, checkout the first Lost Fleet book, Dauntless.
- Influx by Daniel Suarez. This is a cyber-thriller that imagines that the human race is much more advanced than most people are aware of. There’s a secret government organization that keeps technology from advancing too quickly and a scientist that’s determined to stop them.
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