Personal Ramblings - Books, Books and more Books

As usual I'm on a reading blast. Here are the books on my table to read in the next month or two.....

Next Stop - Growing Up Wild Style in the Bronx - Ivan Sanchez
The Power Of Story - Change Your Story, Change Your Destiny in Business and Life - Jim Loeher
A Whole New mind - Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World - Daniel H. Pink
Are You Somebody - The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman - Nuala O'Faolain
All Souls - A Family Story From Southie (second time I'm reading) - Michael Patrick McDonald

Of course I'm still reading my usual monthly magazines:

Success
INC
Fast Company
Wired
Movie Maker

And my list of must read books keeps growing by leaps and bounds. Now if I could only turn my reading into a income stream... Hmmmm.....

Looking Back - Looking Forward - Books Read in 2008 and.....

Some of the Books I read in 2008:

1. The Greatness Guide 2. Change of Die 3. Fist Stick Knife Gun
4. Influencer 5. Rules for Renegades 6. Laws of Leadership
7. The Middle Class Millionaires 8. Outliers 9. Good in a Room
10. I Chose to Stay 11. Unleasing the Power of Rubber Bands
12. Predictably Irrational 13. Will You Die With Me
14. Awaken the Giant Within 15. Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters
16, All Souls 17. Old Friends From far Away 18. Band of Sisters
19. How Successful People Win 20. Girls Will be Girls
21. The Success Principles 22, Do You 23. Your Life as Story
24. Losing My Virginity 25. The Billionaire Who Wasn't
26. The Pope's Children 27. The Drinking Life
28. The Big Five for Life 29. The Utmost Life 30. Strength for Life
31. Angela's Ashes 32. making the Impossible Possible
33. Ten Successful Start Ups 34. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
35. Going Places

Books I am planning to read in 2009: My initial Hit List

1. Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip
2. Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream
3. The Art of StoryTelling
4. Nothing's Impossible: Leadership Lessons for Inside and Outside the Classroom
5. The Man Who Loved China
6. The Life Coaching Handbook
7. How the Irish Invented Slang
8. My American Journey - An Autobiography - Colin Powell
9. Winners Never Cheat
10. The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood
11. Frogs Into Princes: NLP
12. How the Irish Saved Civilization
13. The Time Paradox
14. The Teacher Who Couldn't Read
15. The Monk From Brooklyn: An American at the Shaolin Temple
16. Rules for Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto
17. How to Succeed in the Game of Life
18. Sharing the Wealth: My Story
19. Ten Points
20. More than a Dream: How One School's Vision is Changing the World
21. Ask and You Will Succeed
22. Idea Spotting: How to Find Your Next Great idea
24. Home Town Heroes
25. The 5000 Year Leap: a Miracle That Changed the World

Recommended Books - Nov 25th

Just ran across two books that I'm going to pick up for my holiday reading. I read the reviews of them and I recommend you check them out.

A story of a 101 year old George Dawson an African-American in Texas. His life has spanned 3 centuries. He lived through segregation in the South. This book reminds me of Angela's Ashes. What's so remarkable is both the upbeat title and the fact that he was an illiterate who started school at age 98 and is working towards his GED. An amazing person and story. This is a book I must read.


A novel that carries the message that life always has a second verse or second chance.

http://www.recoveringcharles.com/splash.html

Personal Ramblings - Books

Just had a friend from NY visit. He asked me for a book to take back on the plane. I gave him. 'Make the Impossible Possible".
I previously turned him on to "The Billionaire Who Wasn't", and "The Man Who Stayed Behind". All of them are fascinating books and if you haven't read them I recommend them.

I was writing in my journal today at the Self Realization Gardens and thinking about books and writing. I have had a love affair with reading and books ever since I dropped out of high school at age fifteen. I have read thousands of books over the years in every fields. Reading is clearly one of my passions.

Books, Books, Books - Scratch Beginnings

My passion for reading started with Marvel comics when I was a kid. It accelerated when I dropped out of high school at age fifteen. It continued when I finally went on to college ten years later and continues to today. I once said that my image of heaven is a huge bookstore and I get to read every book ever written.

So I Just added another book to my reading list. It's a really long list and I know it just keeps growing and I'll never finish reading all the books on it. But I'll enjoy the journey.....



"Scratch Beginnings" seems like an interesting story of a young student on a journey to see if the American Dream is still alive. He starts out with only $25 and the clothes on his back and sees if he can work his way out of homelessness in a year. I'll review it after I read it.

Books I'm Reading - July 12th 08 - Leadership

Just returned from filming a project with the U.S. Marines in Virginia. Spent a week observing the training of leaders in the context of the USMC officer's training program. I met some impressive leaders and some college student candidates committed to becoming leaders. My experience this week feeds into my passion for studying and improving my leadership skills.

I've been a student of leadership for the last fifteen years so I picked up another book on leadership on my return. The book,
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell will make another contribution to my study of leadership

I"m also finishing up two other books on influence and leadership "Influencer" and "Predictably Irrational". I will be writing reviews of all three books in the next couple of weeks.

My takeway is to step up in life as a Leader and an Influencer and be a student of both,

Books I'm Reading - July 5th 08

I just picked up two new books and started reading them. Both of them deal with similar subjects but from different vantage points. The books are:

Influencer

Predictably Irrational

I have been studying persuasion, influence, change, behavior, psychology, marketing and transformation for over 15 years and feel these books will expand my understanding on these topics. I will write reviews of them when I am finished and share my takeaways from them.

One sentance in "Influencer" is an immediate takeaway. Choose to be an Influencer in life. I would add that we all are unconcious Influencer to all family, friends, community etc but we need to step up and be conscious Influencer's and study how to be effective in this crucial area of our lives.....

Father's Day - Books Worth Reading as a Parent

Here are two books that I found useful. The first one" Going Places" I read with my daughter every night for bedtime when she was younger. We would read one story every night. The subtitle of the book " How America's Best and Brightest Got Started Down the Road of Life" sums it up.



The second book "Strong Father's, Strong Daughters" is a reminder of the responsibilities of fatherhood. I recommend reading both books.

Thought for the Day - Know When To Hold Them

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

Success Magazine Interview - Paul Zane Pilzer

I just listened to an excellent interview with Paul Zane Pilzer ( an economist, entrepreneur, college professor and the author of seven best selling books), on the CD that comes with Success Magazine. A couple of points he made stand out, he predicted that in the next ten years 10 million new millionaires will be created in America. The latest research states that:"according to this 2005 article from MarketWatch, 8.9% of Americans are millionaires. That translates to roughly 2.6 million people.". His thinking on this is developed in his book "The Next Millionaires".

He also addressed the nature or nurture argument in achieving personal success and puts forward the idea that it is 10% nature,10% nurture and 80% the choices you make it life. I think that is a dead on observation.

Check out the latest "Success Magazine" and his book.

Books I'm Reading - June 08

I'm working my way through two books right now. One I read before and I'm rereading it .

Rule # 1 - Phil Town

Good in a Room - Stephanie Palmer

The first is about investing and the second is about selling your ideas, projects. and products. So far I'm enjoying and learning new ideas from both books. Reviews will follow.

Personal Journey - On Writing - Old Friend from Far Away

Just finished reading a great book on memoir writing entitled "Old Friend from Far Away". I love the title. The author Natalie Goldberg reignited a flame. It's re-inspired me to write and study writing. The book reminded me of my love of books, writing, language and stories. Years ago I started in that direction during my two years in a MA program on creative writing at City College of New York. I studied writing with many teachers but I remember one teacher Grace Paley who was also an author. I read fiction voraciously and remember my love of a few authors including Raymond Carver, Madison Smart Bell and Andre Dubus. It's been years since I've read fiction or memoirs. Today I still read 1-2 books a week but they are mainly non-fiction. I feel a fiction and autobiographical phase coming on.

Years ago I came at writing from many interesting directions. I read oral histories and conducted oral history interviews, studied journaling and started a writing journal that has now expanded to over fifty life journals, studied writing and performance of one man shows , read books by Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian and other performance artists and wrote and performed in theater performances of my autobiographical material. I used my journal writing to explore stories from my life, keep a dream journal, used it to self analyse myself and kept writing about my life.

During the passing years I have filled fifty journals, filled five journals for and about my life with my daughter, written a one man show, wrote an autobiographical screenplay now entitled "Sugar Cane" and now have turned another corner and started a blog that while focused on motivation has also explored some of my personal life journey. Yet I don't think of myself as a writer or even think that I write that much.

The latest chapter in my life has reconnected me with my roots and taken me back to Ireland and family. The Chinese have a saying we live in interesting times and i have had a very interesting and unique life. A cousin described it as I've turned a lot of corners and I have turned a lot of corners, walked through a lot of doors, reinvented myself many times and lived many different lives all in this one life. Having met my lively ninety four year old aunt I hope I have many more lives left. So I step off the cliff again and hope I can fly. It's time to write to explore my daemon, my unique spirit and share the stories of my life. It's time to write to challenge myself again and to get another completion in my life. it's time to write..... Write on.....