#ok to be fair to me I listened to a bunch of books on audiobook

[flintandpyrite]

Oops I stayed up to 1 am and finished the whole book.

[andersonpress]

New Year, Same Me: Part 2- Books to start 2019 with

Updated: Apr 25, 2020

I will admit. I too used to say things like "I just can't read books." Blaming my lack of reading on time fleeting, busy schedules, and boring content. The only books I really had been exposed to had been the ones my parents bought me, what I read for school, and the books that all my peers were reading. I hopped on the Harry Potter books, the Hunger Games, Twilight series, and every other young adult book that sold like hotcakes at the book fair. I never really knew what types of books I liked to read or what those books were even about. Hell, I don't even think I really knew how to read properly. I often skimmed over most of the words to the point to where I forget what I was reading.

In college, I suddenly had a bunch of free time. Like any other perfect adult, I felt that I had to be fond of reading. All establish adults read, and seem to enjoy it. My parents had hundreds of books in our library, and even bought my brother and I our own book shelves for personal libraries. According to them, reading is something all the good adults do, and I want to be a good adult so I cracked open a book. I walked into my universities' bookstore and picked up the first book I saw on the "Best Sellers" shelf. That was my first mistake.

Rule #1: Read things that intrigue you, not just the best sellers. Who makes these best sellers lists? Do those who choose these award-winning books comes from backgrounds that reflect your own? Have your peers heard of this book? Are people, organizations, or programs you frequent promoting the book? Well honey, you probably won't like it. 

Rule #2: Reading is fundamental, and can be done in a number of ways. The good ol fashion, looking at pages and turning them is my favorite method to read. However, I am a young professional woman with a very hectic schedule who can not realistically take the time to read a book. Girl get an audible! Subscribe to a podcast! While listening is different than reading, it is an option. I actually listened to The Hate U Give, and Eloquent Rage via audiobooks! Both were amazing books that I really wanted to read, but did not have the time to. So make "you time" on the drive to work, or while running errands. It is possible.

Rule #3: Have a diverse set of books, it's more fun. I love science fiction, thrillers, autobiographies, research articles, and self help books. These are my go-tos. But the genres don't stop there! I'll look at a photo collection, history book, play, or manual every now and again. Remember, reading is fun but it can also be practical. Wanna learn how to drum? Read! Just like your surroundings, you should try and read a diverse set of books from authors who all do not look like you, live in the places you live, speak the languages you speak, or even like the same things you do. There have been many books, authors, pieces, or projects that I have disagreed with or ended up not liking. It's ok. It's normal.

So, it's time for a New Year and you're ready to start a book club. Well here are a few books to help get you started.

1) The Woman in the Window - A.J. Finn

2) The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

3) 12 Rules for Life - Jordan B. Peterson

4) Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay

5) Blanche Passes Go - Barbara Neely

6) Spoken Soul- Rickford & Rickford

7) Of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi

8) The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

9) Becoming - Michelle Obama

So you're welcome. You can now check "read more" off of your New Years resolution list. Happy searching.

[seotipsandtricks-me]

At the end of Anti-Sell, there’s a ‘Further Reading’ section, recommending a bunch of books that the reader can check out beyond mine. And even though it might seem like a really lazy rather ingenious copy/paste job from the book (), I thought it made a lot of sense to share it on here, too. Throughout the book I’ve mentioned numerous books and resources that can help you on your Anti-Selling journey. Here’s a list, with a bit more info about each of them, plus a few more for good measure. A quick note: None of these authors paid me a fee to be included, nor do I get a commission if you buy any of them. I recommend these books 100% wholeheartedly – because I actually really like them.* ReWork by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson ReWork is probably my favourite business self-help book of all time, and a big influence on Anti-Sell. Why? Because ReWork is also quite rebellious in nature: it goes against the grain of traditional business advice but makes excellent recommendations in spite of that. It was recommended to me by a client (thank you Scott of TestLodge!) and on the first listen (I bought the audiobook), I fell in love with it. While listening to it in the car, I used to scream “YES!!!” after sentences I agreed with – which happened a lot. And probably sounded weird if I had my car window open. But there we go. Some of its takeaways include: Other people’s failures are other people’s failures, not yours. So when people talk about the survival rate of freelancers, small businesses and startups, just remember: if other people fail, that doesn’t mean you will too. Plans should be called “guesses.” I remember freaking out when I had to put together a business ‘plan’ for some funding that I was seeking in the early days of freelancing (if I remember correctly, it was funding to cover my first year’s membership at my coworking space). How do I know how my business is going to do next year or the year after that? And that’s precisely the point. Call them guesses. To quote the book: “Start referring to your business plans as business guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and your strategic plans as strategic guesses. Now you can stop worrying about them as much.” Everything you do is marketing. This ties in very closely to the message of the book you are currently reading. Marketing isn’t defined by adverts and promotional materials – it’s literally everything you do. Every. Single. Thing. You. Do. Every email you send is marketing. Every invoice you send is marketing. Just because you’ve won a client, it doesn’t mean that the marketing stops there for them. Every action you take can leave an impression on someone – good or bad. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there (not-in-the-book note: I actually wrote about my biggest takeaways from ReWork – including the above points plus more – on this very blog a few years ago: here’s the link). If Anti-Sell has resonated with you, and you haven’t yet read ReWork, pick up a copy. I’m sure it will resonate with you as well. While writing this book, Fried and DHH released a new book: It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, which – as you can probably guess from its title – addresses the sensitive subject of work-life balance. It’s worth checking out as well. > Buy ReWork on Amazon The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz The Pumpkin Plan is a special book to me. Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been running a small business for a while and you’ve hit a rut, there are some great tips in it. As mentioned in earlier chapters of the book, it has advice on: How to go niche when it comes to targeting clients. Creating your own Assessment Chart, which can be used to score clients on certain criteria, in order to help you to detect which clients are the best-fit for you (not-in-the-book note: I’ve blogged about the Assessment Chart over on State of Digital). Tactics for cutting bad-fit clients in a way that won’t cause any animosity, fallout or professional embarrassment. Mike also has another good book called Profit First, where he recommends paying yourself first before paying bills, whereas typically we do the opposite (we pay our bills and then keep what’s left over as profit, however big or small that amount may be), so it’s worth checking out what he has to say on that as well. > Buy The Pumpkin Plan on Amazon To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink “We’re all in sales now.” In Chapter 2 of the book, I touched upon the phenomenon of the ‘‘typical’ salesperson, citing the movie Glengarry Glen Ross as a classic example. To Sell Is Human further investigates this somewhat old-fashioned stereotype, suggesting that salespeople of this nature are near-enough a thing of the past. If anything, we’re all in sales – especially these days. While we still have ‘obvious’ types of sales, such as the process of asking a client to give you money in order to provide a service in return, we might also conduct certain tasks or habits that may not seem like sales but totally fall under that category. In a broader sense, sales is the process of asking someone to part with their time, money or resource somehow, in order to get something back that benefits you. So in other words, sales is essentially the process of moving or persuading someone to take action. When Daniel conducted a survey asking people if they work in sales, he found that while one in nine people considered themselves a salesperson in the traditional sense, when it came to ‘non-sales selling’ or moving/persuading others, the ratio was much higher. If Chapters 2 and 3 piqued your interest especially, and you’re interested in learning more about how sales has ‘shifted’ in its meaning and behaviour in the last few decades, then To Sell Is Human is worth taking a look at. A lot of what Daniel covers is backed up by psychological studies, and the book even includes selling tactics such as mimicry, the best style of positive self-talk, and in which order you should appear if you’re part of a series of agency pitches and you want the best chance to succeed. It’s an interesting read. > Buy To Sell Is Human on Amazon Start With Why by Simon Sinek “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek’s TED talk covering this topic is the third most popular TED talk of all time, having been viewed more than 40 million times on the TED website. In Start With Why he explains that most people in business talk about what they do, before saying how they do it, then lastly say why they do what they do. He then goes on to argue that the most inspirational people and businesses – think Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright Brothers – start with why they do what they do, and then talk about the how and the what, i.e. the reverse of the usual order. Effectively communicating the “why” part of your core marketing message can make a huge difference on how you are perceived by others. > Buy Start With Why on Amazon Youtility by Jay Baer “Smart marketing is about help, not hype” – this is the core message of Youtility. The book starts off with Jay using a real-life example of a swimming pool installation business coming close to going under as a result of the 2008 economic downturn. In an attempt to drum-up more business, the owner started writing blog posts that answered frequently asked questions and also covered issues and problems that his customers often had to deal with. He literally sat down and wrote blog content covering every single possible question someone might ask him. Over time, his website became a go-to source for all help on swimming pool purchasing decisions, with some arguing that its popularity has made it the world’s favourite go-to source on the subject. His efforts led to more customers for the business, and he also found that it led to better educated, easier-to-sell-to and therefore easier-to-convert customers. The rest of the book explains how you can utilise Youtility – in the same way as the swimming pool business – and why it’s the best way to market yourself now and in the future. > Buy Youtility on Amazon The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr Elaine Aron and Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person by Dr Barrie Jaeger I only necessarily recommend these books to people who resonated with the relevant subsection of Chapter 6 of the book. When I first discovered that I was an HSP (a Highly Sensitive Person), it was life-changing – not only because I felt like a freak growing up and thought that I was the only person who felt this way (these books revealed that this is far from the reality), but because Dr Jaeger’s book has a chapter in it that recommends self-employment as a viable career option for HSPs. And now I can confirm that he was right. > Buy The Highly Sensitive Person on Amazon > Buy Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person on Amazon When compiling this list, I realised something really sucky: it’s a very white male list, with only one woman author included. So if you can recommend any sales or freelancing books written by women and/or minorities then please do let me know, as I would love to read them. You can contact me at SEOno.co.uk/contact, tweet me at @steviephil, or leave a comment below. * Ok, so while nobody paid/pays me to be included in this list, and they’ve all been included because I genuinely recommend them, each of the Amazon links in this post is an affiliate link, so I make a teeny-tiny commission if you do end up buying through them. That’s fair enough, right? I thought I’d best be honest and upfront about it just in case it were to cause confusion. Cheers!

[ais-n]

Hi ais! I've just finished re-reading icos and I once again feel so sad that it's over again. Do you have any nook recommendations or books that you like?

Aww thank you for reading ICoS the first time, let alone rereading it! That’s sweet of you

I could have sworn at some point I compiled a list (which I was going to link only because I have the worst memory and forget things I love whenever I try to list it all) but I can’t find anything! What the hey.

So, I made a list below the cut :D I broke it up between M/M, nonfiction, fiction, YA, and anime/manga. You should know ahead of time that I tend to read mostly manga or nonfiction, and/or I tend to gravitate toward “darker” stories or stories that deal with a lot of nuance and complexity. I don’t tend to gravitate toward stories that are really black and white (but idk about the ones I mentioned from when I was a preteen/teen because it’s been so long since I read them).

That may tell you if you might like any of these or not :) I wrote a little about the book by most of the names to give you a bit more of an idea.

Hopefully at least one of these looks interesting to you :) Let me know if you need links on something if you can’t find it, or if you want a bit more of an explanation on anything. Some (honestly, most) of these books I haven’t read in forever but others I periodically reread just because I

BOOKS BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS BELOW

**M/M:**

All for the Game series by Nora Sakavic - m/m, super awesomesauce series, it’s my fave in general. First book free, second 2 books 99 cents each. Nora was having some issues with the first book not being on the site with the rest so I put it on my site until she’s got that figured out, so people can still read the series. Get the first book here: http://aisylum.com/tfc/ and then I link the other books on there.

Raised by Wolves series by W.A. Hoffman - m/m, this one is a very different series and style of storytelling. I personally adore this series but it’s also the sort of thing some people may not be into for various reasons. But for me, I read the series all the way through and instantly started over and reread it all again. First book is Brethren.

**NONFICTION:**

anything by Simon Singh but especially The Code Book and Big Bang - these are nonfiction books and if that makes you go “UGH NO WAY” then know that Simon writes nonfiction like fiction so they’re really great and easy reads, plus you get lots of great info. Also, The Code Book is what I used as research for Jeffrey’s knowledge base + the whole thing with the message in Evenfall and the OTP comment. (If you’re like “Hey yeah what WAS all that about?” I answered it here.) (Also also, if you saw Imitation Game, then you should know that the Code Book covers at least part of the same history as that movie)

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (follows the story of one of my favorite humans, Paul Farmer who founded/co-founded Partners in Health which is one of my favorite charities) also Tracy writes other books that look intriguing to me but I haven’t read yet.

Erik Larson - Devil in the White City, Thunderstruck, and other books by him – he, like Simon, writes nonfiction in a way that reads very easily like fiction. I like the way he interweaves various stories of various people into one book. Devil in the White City might be my favorite of his that I’ve read? Mostly because it combines architecture + America’s first serial killer + the 1893 Chicago World Fair and all of these things make me go YES PLX

Troublemaker by Leah Remini and Rebecca Paley - this is about scientology; I listened on audiobook–it was interesting and informative

Also, I listened to Dan and Phil’s first book (The Amazing Book is Not on Fire) on audiobook and that was also entertaining–although if you have no idea who tf Dan and Phil are, that may be less entertaining to you lol

Death’s Acre, or Beyond the Body Farm, by William Bass and Jon Jefferson - so, Bill Bass is super interesting, tl;dr is he’s a frontrunner in forensic anthropology, these books are about a farm people donate their bodies to where they decompose in various states to help forensic anthropologists learn more on decomposition which then helps in murder trials and elsewhere. If you’re into forensic anthropology, check out Bill Bass

Dismembered by Susan Mustafa and Sue Israel - this is true crime about a serial killer in Louisiana. It is, therefore, quite graphic and you should heed the title as quite accurate representation of what you will be reading about in the book. But if serial killers or true crime intrigue you, I really liked this book and have been on the lookout by more from these ladies. I thought it was written well and told the story well.

**FICTION:**

books by Jefferson Bass - there’s a whole series called the Body Farm series or something. Jefferson Bass is the combo if the two people for Death’s Acre, except that pseudonym is for their fiction series based on scientific reality/facts. It’s a pretty interesting series from what I recall but I never finished it. But if you like forensic anthropology and want to read a sort of murder mystery/detective type of series written by an actual acclaimed forensic anthropologist with all the science being legit, this is your series

Tony Foster series by Tanya Huff (starts with Smoke and Shadows) - ok so, Tanya Huff was SUPER nice the one time I messaged her. I like her a lot as a person. I will say that this series is not the actual best writing you will ever read–BUT Tony Foster is such a freaking great narrator that I love the series. Also, Tony’s a gay male which is always cool to have as a lead, especially in a sort of fantasy like this :)

Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman – honestly, just about anything you pick up by Neil Gaiman will be good. I’d have to reread all the books to say which is my favorite but I do recall liking Good Omens a lot, which he cowrote with Terry Pratchett. But Sandman is what got me into graphic novels, eventually manga (because I was used to reading GNs by then) and Neil Gaiman as a whole. I fucking love Sandman and will forever recommend it, but it’s a GN so it may not translate well to nook? idk

Speaking of Terry Pratchett, if you like stories that are easy to read and oftentimes have a fair amount of humor infused into them, I recommend him and probably any of his books but my particular recommendation would be Mort as well as the Sam Vines books. I think the first time we see Sam Vines is in the Guards! Guards! book.

Otherland series by Tad Williams - ok in all honesty, I never finished the series (got partially through 3rd of 4 books) and it’s been probably 20 years since I read them, so maybe my opinion would be different now. But Otherland was such an interesting sci-fi ish series which I honestly think is probably going to end up being somewhat realistic to our future. Basically, VR is a thing and people choose to live there instead of in reality sometimes, and now people are dying IRL because their bodies are wasting away and a diverse group of people from around the world get together in the virtual world to try to figure out what’s happening and how to stop it, but they don’t realize the politics and danger involved. Why didn’t I finish reading, you wonder? It’s because I read this series when I was a teenager when it first came out, and I think when I read reading the 3rd book the 4th hadn’t even been written yet. Anyway I was suuuuuper engrossed in the series–so much that when a certain thing happens related to my favorite character in the series, I was too emotionally affected by it I set the book aside to take a moment to reset my emotions before continuing, and then I just…. never continued…. ^^;; I got too distracted by other series but I always plan to finish it. Also side note, Tad Williams is a super nice author who actually wrote back to little teen me(!), taking my email seriously and encouraging me to write. Also side side note, Tad Williams wrote a bunch of books and I recall liking all of his fantasy series I read too but I don’t think I’ve read all his stuff.

Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling - first book: Bone Doll’s Twin. It’s been a while since I read this (as is the case for pretty much everything on this whole list) but I remember thinking this was a really interesting trilogy with a rather unique story, especially for the time this was written. If you ever read Lynn’s other book series (Nightrunner, m/m) then know that the Tamir Triad is set in the past of the Nightrunner world, by I don’t remember 500 years or something– also it’s written TOTALLY different than Nightrunner. The two styles are like night and day; if you don’t like the Nightrunner style, totally give Tamir a chance. If you do like Nightrunner, I still think you should read the Tamir books because I think they’re better, even though I did like Nightrunner in the beginning :)

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. This book is the inspiration for the wildly popular musical Wicked (which I also recommend you see because it’s omggggg

**YA:**

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer - for the most part, I quite like this series. It’s a very easy to read YA series that re-imagines the Disney Princess/fairy tale female leads into a sort of cyberpunk Earth with space adventure future. Most of the females in this series are pretty strong female characters, leading their own stories, having agency, not being overpowered by the male characters like in their Disney or fairy tale versions. It has kind of a Sailor Moon vibe in some aspects, mostly because Marissa’s a total nerd who loves Sailor Moon lol

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - this is actually part of a series but tbh I liked Six of Crows more than the other book. Basically this book is a heist novel with young adult MCs. It’s a freaking BEAUTIFUL hardcover btw, like black edged paper and cool illustrations on the chapter pages and omgggggggg so this is one I recommend you buy in print if you like it, rather than just getting the ebook. It has an MC (Kaz Brekker) who I swear to god is like if early Evenfall Boyd and Hsin had a baby lol

Books by Sherryl Jordan - it’s been approximately forever since I read any of these books so maybe my opinion would change if I read them now, but back in the day I loved the fuck out of Sherryl’s books when I found them as a preteen/teen. I remember feeling like a lot of her female characters felt strong or at least I thought they were cool. The main one I remember liking back then is Winter of Fire. Mind you, Sherryl Jordan’s books are now really hard to find–turns out she’s a New Zealand author and a lot of the books went out of print at various times. But if you happen to run across one, you can check her out and see what you think. I mention her because her stories stuck in my head for 20 years.

Mage Heart (and the Chronicles of Dion Trilogy) by Jane Routley. Another one from forever ago–no idea what I would think of this if I read it today but I remember really liking it when I read it as a teenager, and the story has stuck in the back of my head since. I don’t remember a lot about the actual plot, just that I was inspired by the story/world.

Aaaaand that’s probably enough. You’re probably regretting asking XD

There are a couple of other books I remember from when I was really little but you probably don’t care about those lol The only one I’ll mention is Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede - that’s the first book in a YA series. I quite like Dealing with Dragons, but tbh I was really frustrated by the other books. You could read just the first if you wanted to check it out.

Lastly, if you like manga/anime at all, here are some other recs: fave anime/manga recs, plus here’s another good manga