C&M’s Bookish Review: the Top Five Head Fodder of 2008
That’s right, more list-o-mania from C&M… This time it’s all about the bookish head-fodder (ie, train, plane and Ovaltine-fodder) that’s seen us through the year.
Here’s our top five reads of 2008. The following ought to give you some idea on how and why we do our schtick…
(NB: only some of the following were published this year; others we only just got around to reading.)
1: My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising (Claude Hopkins, 1966)
It being the year of doom, gloom, Black Swans and ‘I told you so,’ we found it good to ground ourselves in a little history. Claude Hopkins was one of the founding fathers of modern advertising: not of the glossy, brand-driven type, but of the hard-edged, research and coupon-driven type. Next year the spoils will go to those who can measure what they do. Check out our man Claude for a bunch of fundamental ideas on this theme… (We’re still in the same business as he was all those years ago, you know.)
2: Here Comes Everybody (Clay Shirky, 2008)
Mr Shirky is a professor of ‘Interactive Telecommunications’ at New York University. He’s documented pretty much every major trend in the Interweb over the past 10 years. You might say he’s a bit of a guru. He’s certainly hip: no academic twaddle here, just a stream of superb ideas on how the Interweb is changing the way that communities are built and mobilized (including a super story about how one guy with a laptop can raise an army to help recover a stolen mobile phone). An essential read for anyone with a Social Media brief.
3: Building Findable Web Sites (Aaron Walter, 2008)
Much of what we do at C&M takes a steer from the semi-technical worlds of SEO and web usability design. Up until now we’ve been mashing things together in our own way. Then we discovered this book. ‘Building Findable Web Sites’ does what it says on the tin: it provides a complete framework for optimising every single atom of your web site so as to make it stick with Google and users alike – from code to colours to content. Very much a new C&M bible.
4: Mckinsey’s Marvin Bower: Vision, Leadership, and the Creation of Management Consulting (Elizabeth Haas Edersheim, 2004)
More on the history tip, this time from the man who invented modern Consulting (with a capital ‘C’). Before Mckinsey it was your accountant who told you how to go about your business. After Mckinsey it became the job of a bunch of super-talented super heroes in blue suits. Granted, the world of the Management Consultant has become maligned of late, but this is a superb insight into the birth of a new kind of information-based business service and the generous mind of its creator. If every consulting company were run this way then the world would have many, many more happy clients…
5: Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design (Paul Mijksenaar and Piet Westendorp)
Mr Mijksenaar and Mr Westendorp make this list a) because their book is genuinely funny, b) because it teaches us the basic principles of good information design in a beautiful way and c) because they’re Dutch (and hence make it all seem so very simple!).
The subject of information design is one of those sublime things that we so often get wrong because it seems so fundamental to our thinking. We’re all experts on ‘telling’ because we do it hundreds of times each day, right? This book shows us otherwise – it takes a mass of commonplace examples from today and yesteryear and shows us what a hash we make of the art of explanation. (Check out the instructions for the first VHS video recorder: classic stuff – brought back fond teenage memories of wrestling with an eight page fold out on the living room floor. Check out Mijksenaar’s blog for more of the same…)
Bonus Ball!: At Large and at Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist (Anne Fadiman, 2008)
This collection of ‘familiar essays’ (aka, noodling and musings on stuff that Ms Fadiman finds interesting) is a superb bedtime / fireside read. It has bugger all to do with what C&M does for a living, but it does have the ability to restore your faith in the power of great writing. So if you care for well crafted copy or just love a little lyricism in your life, then give it some time…
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Roger Warner
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Gianni Catalfamo
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