Books To Read – September 2011

The weather is cooling off, and for that I am really grateful.  This summer has been brutal for a lot of us here in the Southeast.  With a chill in the air, here are my books to read for September 2011.

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

I finished up the trilogy this past month.  Where the Two Towers dragged with the seemingly never-ending journey of Frodo and Sam into Mount Doom, the Return of the King is a great page-turner.  The battle for Middle Earth climaxes as Gollum falls with his Precious into the fire of Mount Doom and Minas Tirith is successfully defended from the Orc army.  I got to the end of this book, and even though I knew the ending, I wanted it to go on.  That’s the sign of a great book.  I can’t recommend this series of books enough, especially if you have never read them.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

This is the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy.  We are reading these books as a family and they are simply gripping.  The first book ends with Katniss victorious in a very cool twist.  The second book starts with the victory celebrations and the natives of Panem becoming restless.  As President Snow seeks to quash the uprisings, the quarter quell begins.  Katniss is again in the middle of the story as she and Peeta are thrown back into the arena.  We are about half way through this book right now, and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

Customer-Centric Selling by Michael T. Bosworth, John R. Holland

One of the biggest challenges I have had in starting my new company is understanding the selling process.  I have always been the other guy in the room on sales calls, nodding my head and providing comfort and assurance.  Having to be the sales guy has been hard to get used to, not because I can’t talk about what I do, but rather because I have never had to manage the entire process myself.  This book was recommended to me as a resource to understand how and why people buy, and I have found it invaluable.  I am still implementing some of the things in here, but I can already see a difference in how presentations and things go.  This is a good one to pick up if you are like me and sales is a bit of a mystery.

Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli

There are lots of books out there about having better meetings.  This one came to me free as a part of the Domino Project (which you should be a part of if you are not).  This is a really short read, but it helps to reinforce the necessity of demanding meetings be about decisions and debate, not wasting time.  It’s a great kick in the backside if you have found yourself getting lulled back into the meeting death spiral.

That’s it for this month.  I am reading some really cool books right now and should have them done for next month’s list.  

Thank you, as always, for reading.  I get a lot of great feedback through the various social channels and I really appreciate it.