Summer Reading

Friday is the first day of summer. Every year, I wind up with a “summer reading list” of books that I’ll read during the lazy days of summer. And every year, the list exceeds the number of lazy days.

Here are a few on the list for this year:

1. Drive by Daniel Pink

I have already started this one—all about motivation. I love one of the first examples: which would you have guessed would be more successful, an online encyclopedia called Encarta backed by Microsoft or one called Wikipedia backed by volunteers? Sometimes the market can surprise you. With so many of our client organizations needing to motivate volunteers and members, not to mention needing to keep the crew here at Virtual motivated, this is atop the summer reading pile.

2. Finding your Element by Ken Robinson

I love Ken Robinson’s TED talks. This talk will hit an astounding 17 million views this week. This book is built on the old Confucius saying – “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I’m lucky-I genuinely enjoy what I do, but I spend a lot of time talking with folks who are still looking for that elusive spot.

3. Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

This is a re-read. This year is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg (and I just booked a family trip to there for next year). This book tells the story of those three days in an extraordinarily engaging way. There’s a larger lesson worth noting—you can be informative and still be entertaining.

4. Straight Flush by Ben Mezrich

I love Ben Mezrich’s stuff. Ok, he writes the same book over and over (Well-educated kids get involved in shady activity and get in trouble). But I still love his writing style and the characters in the books. If I don’t have my surfboard in my hand at the beach, good chance I have one of his books in my hand instead.

That’s a start—any ideas for the rest of the pile?