Books – Read This!

7 Books that Changed the Way I See the World

July 29, 2011
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7 Books that Changed the Way I See the World

I don’t think this was really meant as a meme but I’m stealing it and using it as such. I came across this list on the Happiness Project blog, and I think its highly appropriate that I create my own list since  The Happiness Project would definitely be on it! This was actually a hard list to put together for a couple of reasons, first I have a lot of favorite books that have moved me but I’m not sure they’ve changed how I see the world. Second, any time I share a list like this I’m pretty sure readers will be appalled at my terrible taste in books (same goes for music) But here it goes! 1. The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun I’ve always had a fascination with the human brain and how it works, and its a short leap from there to happiness, what makes us happy, why what we think will make us happy doesn’t when we actually get it. Plus who doesn’t want to be a little happier. I really enjoyed Gretchen Rubin’s approach to this book each

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April Reads: Enchantment, Switch and A Game of Thrones. What Are You Reading?

April 27, 2011
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April Reads: Enchantment, Switch and A Game of Thrones. What Are You Reading?

Fiction I’m leading with fiction this month because I’m so excited about it on many levels. This weekend I watched the first episode of Game on Thrones on HBO, loved it and immediately went out and downloaded an audio version of the book its based on A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One. I spent a good portion of the weekend carrying the iPad from room to room so I could listen while I cleaned or cooked, or peddled mini bike. Can’t wait to see the next episode of the show & finish the book! Non Fiction I’m listening to both of these titles. First the Guy Kuwaski book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, I bought this one with my Audible subscription since the library didn’t have it as a downloadable audio book. Since all librarians are library advocates 24/7 I want to be on my toes and ready at moments notice to convince whomever needs convincing about our awesomeness. The second book is Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by the authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die I got from the library and may have to

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March Reads

March 30, 2011
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March Reads

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best… and Learn from the Worst this should come as no surprise to anyone, I’ve mentioned Robert Sutton’s first book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t several times on this blog, including in There is No Excuse for Bullies at Work (or Anywhere Else). As Sutton notes in the opening of Good Boss, Bad Boss: A 2007 Zogby survey of nearly eight thousand American adults found that, of those abused by workplace bullies (37% of respondents), 72% were bullied by superiors. I highly recommend both of these books to everyone. Workplace conditions affect everyone, even those who aren’t the victims. A 2007 Gallup survey of U.S. employees revealed that 24 percent would fire their boss if given the chance. Gallup concludes that crummy bosses are a primary reason that 56 percent of employees are “checked-out” and “sleepwalking through their days.” Worse yet, the most bitter employees (the “actively disengaged” 18 percent) undermine their coworkers’ accomplishments. For those hard to convince, working conditions also directly affect the bottom line University of Florida researchers found that employees with abusive bosses were more likely than others to slow down or

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January 2011 – Here’s What I’m Reading, Plus a Few Old Favorites. What Are You Reading?

January 22, 2011
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January 2011 – Here’s What I’m Reading, Plus a Few Old Favorites. What Are You Reading?

Thanks to the holidays and Mid Winter I am still working on titles I’ve mentioned before Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky and Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping–Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond for Non-Fiction. Fiction In Fiction I finished off the Gemma Doyle trilogy with The Sweet Far Thing and moved onto World Without End the follow up to Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth. Reports For reports of course I’m reading Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community from OCLC. Old Favorites Earlier this week someone asked me what my favorite books are, I’m embarrassed to admit I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my  head. Yes, really, nothing. Librarian fail. In attempt to recover from my shame I thought I’d share a few of them with you. The Devil’s Picnic – My selection for the non-fiction book club I lead at my library several years ago. The author travels the world sampling forbidden and illegals foods from absinthe and coca leaves to  alcohol and eels. It gets really interesting when he starts looking why and how things became illegal or forbidden. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World

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Why We Buy: Applying the Science of Shopping to Libraries

December 17, 2010
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Why We Buy: Applying the Science of Shopping to Libraries

Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping is on my reading list this month but it deserves its own post.  It has inspired a great deal of thinking about what we measure, why and how we use it to declare ourselves successful (or not). Please note there is a newer version of this title, Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond, but I am reading the older one because it is what my library had, I will be requesting the newer one. As I listen to this I can’t help apply much of the science of shopping and buying to libraries. Like many retail stores we declare our success and failure based on the numbers reported by  the cash register or generated by frequent buyer accounts or credit card reports (ILS stats anyone?) I am not even half way through this book and I already have a long is a list of questions about our physical spaces. Some of these we track on our websites or talk about when we talk about information seeking behavior but not when we talk about physical space.  Here are a just a few: Why did they come to the library? A specific title? Did

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photo by Beth Tribe

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