Wednesday, April 14, 2010

A Treasure Trove of Timeless Tomes


I adore books. I can comfortably while away minutes at a bookstore. It is like a library of sorts, where I can check out the latest books indefinitely.

I especially enjoy biographies; these are found both in hardcover books, soft-cover as well as in magazines. I enjoy biographies as these are focused on the person, his experiences and unique angles on things. I also enjoy the way a journalist interviews, and then puts it all together in a feature story.

Biographies are work of non-fiction. These are more real, as there are verbatim quotes, spoken with a certain truth and honesty. The biography expresses the character, personality, beliefs, values, mindset, attitude, behaviors, perceptions and thinking of the interviewee. In a way, it is another mirror to how a person ticks.

Just yesterday, I borrowed Michael Gerber’s 1986 edition of The E-Myth. It is, essentially, about small businesses and the entrepreneurial approach. I was delighted to find it my client’s office. Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited is the current available version. I hope to track the predictions that Gerber made almost 25 years ago. I really wonder why this became an underground classic among marketers. I am more interested about the author’s approach to demystifying entrepreneurial assumptions and beliefs. By the way, Amazon.com's prices for new copies of these are about US$140-270!

I hope to track a few more out-of-print books due to their exclusiveness and rarity – one of the six principles of influence, as expounded by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD.

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