What I'm Reading Now
For Christmas I received the best gifts of all, books and gift cards for books. I picked up copies of Freakonomics, A New Kind of Christian, and The Kite Runner, plus $50 in gift cards I've yet to turn into books.
I'm probably a couple of years behind the Freakonomics phenomenon, but there's something to be said for reading post-hype. Unlike with a fiction book there's no spoiling the big surprise ending (one reason I've not read any of the Harry Potter books yet). I can certainly see where the reviews and energy level about this book came from as I'm about half way through it thus far. Its an engaging read, written in a conversational tone, that I've found difficult to put down (Damn you having to have a job). From my sales background, this book is great when viewed through the lens of incentives. The book's whole focus is how people react to incentives, which is what sales is all about.
The defining factor for a book for me is would I reread this book and would I pick up something else by the author based only on the fact that he wrote it. Freakonomics passes both tests thus far, although I think I would have been somewhat disappointed to have read this during the huge hype phase.
In unrelated news, I'm going to be tweaking the design of the site in the coming days/weeks (as spare time exists)