Here are some brief thoughts on what I've been reading.

279 Days to Overnight Success. There are a lot of how to make money on the Internet books out there, but this really combines the best of all worlds. Chris Guillebeau outlines a project that is intensely do-able. Be consistent, be honest, and don't promise things before you're sure you can deliver.

This is also a great guide to changing existing habits or creating new ones.

Stingray Shuffle. Mitch turned me onto the works of Tim Dorsey. Dorsey's hero, Serge Storms, is a wacky hobbyist-slash-sleuth-slash-homicidal maniac. Everything I've read is hysterical, fun and downright enjoyable. I'm not even going to bother summarizing the plot for you; just go grab some Dorsey and unwind.

The Art of Racing in the Rain. I'm in the middle of this on audiobook. JB recommended it to me when we decided we were getting a dog, and she talked me into trying the audiobook (which is great, because I can listen to it while I'm walking Rufus). I love the narration, I love that I don't need light or to pause to read it, and I love the book.

Narrated by a dog on the eve of his euthanizing, the novel is about Enzo's family, from living with Denny – a race car driver known for his ability to drive in the rain – to Denny's meeting his wife Eve and having their daughter Zoe, to Eve's brain cancer and more.

Garth Stein's Enzo is convinced that dogs are closer to humans than chimps are, and he puts up a good argument.

Do the Work. Steven Pressfield, an accomplished novelist, screenwriter, and probably something else, too, wrote this outline to completing a project. It walks you through the outlining process, the self-doubt, the crash when something goes horribly wrong, and the push to ship your product. This is a quick, easy read, and I highly recommend it, even if you don't have a major project on tap.

An Object of Beauty. Steve Martin is best known as a comic actor, and a really good one at that. But he's a great literary novelist, too, and this Manhattan art-world story focused on our protagonist, Lacey Yeager, is a great read.

We meet Lacey in art school, and follow her through her first job at Sotheby's, at a private gallery, and then into gallery ownership.

Your turn: What are you reading these days?

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He's the second author on Trust Agents, he's been podcasting probably since before the name was invented, and he's a straight shooter who will tell you exactly why you're not reaching your goals, whatever they are.

He wrote his first solo book recently. It's called The Flinch. It's only available in electronic form (for your Kindle or mobile device's Kindle app), and it's a 90-minute read that teaches you what you're doing wrong.

The punchline is that you need to learn to "flinch forward;" that is, when you're startled by something, make your first reaction to go into it, rather than pulling away from it.

There are homework assignments, and it's a really excellent start to your own personal manifesto. At the very least it will inspire you to change something. (Anything.)

He says it's among the best work of his life, and he's done some pretty awesome work, so...yeah. Just read it.

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Go to his blog and download the PDF. It's 136 pages, and it's free.

And it's awesome.

I already do a lot of this stuff. I get up early. I get enough sleep. I eat primarily real food. I'm well hydrated, usually knocking off about 50 ounces of water before I leave the house. My workouts are intense and are actually work. I try to indulge once in a while, and I do my best to enjoy life.

But there are definitely other areas of my life I can use a kick in the butt in. And this book is a how-to guide for a lot of your life.

Again, it's free. Go read it now.

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That's not an indictment of either, it's just a statement that the two of them are smart in the same direction.

I'm far from in the Godin disciple camp, but he put out a new book called We Are All Weird (affiliate link), and I just had to read it. It comes with a reversible dust cover (pretty cool), and is just enough out of the mainstream that my local Barnes & Noble not only decided not to carry it, but they didn't even offer to order it for me.

Or maybe it's because Godin's new publishing venture, The Domino Project, has partnered with Amazon. Either way, my local chain bookstore should grow a pair and buy from its competition. [See also: Reasons I love the few local bookshops in town.]

Anywho, Godin's book is about marketing to fringes, niches, whatever you want to call them. Basically, you have a couple of options as a business. You can either market to the middle and get average consumers who are dispassionate about your products (because they can buy them anywhere), or you can greatly reduce the number of people who are interested in your products but reach an extremely loyal, passionate group by doing so. You can be Target and sell Monopoly to someone who will, two weeks later, go buy Sorry! from Wal*Mart, or you can be a small seller who sells a few intricately carved chess games and highly polished Go pieces to a few customers who will come back to you over and over for gifts.

For a little clarity, you should watch this TED talk by Malcolm Gladwell, who speaks about offering enough choices that you hit the entire mainstream of consumers. You produce just enough kinds of spaghetti sauce or mustard or coffee to reach average people, and the average people will come to you (or they'll go to your competitor who is selling exactly the same thing at exactly the same price).

Godin's book is essentially too long to be a blog post, but it's a quick (hour-or-so) read. Also, hopefully it'll undergo a copy editing process before he prints more. But it's worth the read, especially if you're thinking about what you should offer in a new business, or who you want as your customers.

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• 5 Syracuse-area Coffee Shops to Work From
• 5 Syracuse-area Bars to Work From
• 5 Places to Bring Clients in the Syracuse Area (Note: Edward Thomas Cigar is now something a bit more private and secluded, and is no longer on that list.)

Here are five places in the Syracuse area not on these lists that you might want to try out.

1. Frosty Fuzions

Located in the Gold's Gym in DeWitt, Frosty Fuzions is locally owned, employs a couple of people part-time, and serves organic smoothies and coffee, locally made high protein bread, and other energy drinks and food bars. The owner, Shawn Hannon, is personable and he keeps up on sports and politics, so there's always something to talk about at the counter. He also does corn-based plastics. You don't need to be a member of the gym to go in; just let the folks at the member service center know you're heading in for a smoothie.

2. The Beginning II (B2)

The B2 is a little off the beaten path, but not far (a little bit up Bridge St, past all the action). They have a lot of really good food (they claim they have the best wings in town – they're definitely up there – but the pizza, nachos and sandwiches are pretty awesome as well). The B2 is a sports bar (Syracuse U, Red Sox and Buffalo Bills) with beach volleyball courts out back. It draws a mix of people, from students to retirees, and has a friendly staff. Try them out on a non-sports day if you're not into the sports crowd.

3. The Cafe at 407

I wish I was out Liverpool way more often. Located in the village of Liverpool, the Cafe at 407 supports Ophelia's Place, a safe haven and support center for people with body image issues. The serve fair trade, organic, awesome foods (coffee, salads, sandwiches, soups, cakes, etc.). Free wifi, and a very comfy space.

4. Kelley's

If you're on Tipp Hill or near the Onondaga Hill neighborhood, you're probably not a stranger to Kelley's. Upstairs, Kelley's is a nice-looking place, but at the bar downstairs, it really comes to life. Dark woods, a couple of dining tables in quiet corners and otherwise a sports bar feel. The food is very good (try the Buffalo mac-n-cheese!), and they have some really good off- and on-menu wing sauces that you'll just have to go to experience.

5. Books and Memories

Books and Memories is a large used book and music shop. They're currently in transition, dumping some of their dead weight and opening themselves up some storage space downstairs, but they still have five rooms with narrow aisles, tall shelves, and stacks of books laying around waiting to be filed. While I miss the basement (it was so big they'd have to yell downstairs a few times before closing to make sure they didn't lock anyone in the shop at closing time), I was still able to spend several hours browsing recently – and that didn't include opening up my computer, or checking out any CDs or vinyl. They offer coffee and tea for free while you browse (they have a donation jar, but it's serve yourself and leave something if you want), and the wifi is free as well. It takes up a block on James Street in Eastwood, and is the perfect place to spend a rainy weekend afternoon.

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Slights by Kaaron Warren. A fun horror tale about Stephanie (Steve), who wants to know what dying people see. And it's not a tunnel with a white light at the end – it has something to do with people the dying person has slighted throughout his or her life. A little slow getting into it, but enjoyable. 3/5 stars.

Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard. If you've never read Leonard, start. Everything he writes is a good old-fashioned mystery with cool characters, a double-cross or two, and a probably-predictable-but-getting-there-was-fun-anyway ending. 4.5/5 stars.

The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. Ferriss (known for the best-selling 4-Hour Workweek) is a self-experimenter you might call, oh, "crazy." He headed up a sports medicine company for a while, and got to know both athletes and scientists. He took to learning their secrets for himself, and figured out (sometimes odd, often supplemented) ways to drop body fat quickly, gain muscle quickly, and, well, other stuff. I'm in the midst of a weight loss competition, and decided to give some of it a go. [Officially I'm down 11.4 pounds in 2 weeks; third weigh-in hasn't happened yet, but I'll be down again.]

The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. Sisson writes Mark's Daily Apple. He's a former Olympic-level athlete who totally over-trained and burned himself out, and he changed his lifestyle to include only foods that grow and breathe, and he changed his workouts and food schedule to try to mimic a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (which works well if you're retired and living in California; less so if you have a 9-5 desk job and live in a place where it's sunny and warm a third of the year).

Enterprise Social Technology by Eric Klososky. I received a review copy of this in the last few days. It claims to be crowdsourced from start to finish (everything from the writing to the publishing to the cover design to the marketing); I'm a little skeptical after having skimmed the afterword, but we'll see. The idea of the book is a model for businesses to use social communication to crowdsource their marketing and even product development.

Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison. This was a fun 1960s-era dystopic look at the 1990s. The U.S. has exhausted its resources and New York City is way over-crowded. Water is rationed to all but the very wealthy, food is scarce, shelter is tough to come by, and work is even tougher. With the benefit of hindsight, Harrison wasn't too far off on the numbers, but of course his future was exaggerated – though, also with the benefit of hindsight, we could be closer to that future than Harrison would have guessed.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I'm re-reading this. It first came to me from a Twitter friend, and I fell in love with both the language (even in translation) and the story. It's a mystery about literature set in Spain, and I can't recommend it enough.

What are you reading?

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2010 was a year of upheaval – and let's make it clear that upheaval isn't all bad. I have found a life partner with whom I share a mutual love, support and respect I've never known. For the first time in my life, I've landed in a job I love at a company whose product I am 100% behind. And for the first time since I moved from my parents' house, I'm in a residence I'm not likely to be leaving anytime soon. So 2011 is going to be a year of stability.

It's also going to be a year of passions renewed.

Baseball memorabilia

My dad and I were voracious baseball memorabilia collectors when I was a kid. We would go to card shows at least monthly, I would trade cards with the neighborhood kids, and we were involved in a Strat-O-Matic league.

My parents have started their transition to retirement (it'll be a several-year process, likely), and that includes leaving behind my childhood home. I'm inheriting the collection of cards and publications, and I've started doing some inventory. The publications start in the 1950s (with a couple sporadically before then) and continue into the 2000s; while I haven't seen all the cards yet, they appear to end right around 1990, which is when I entered high school.

So I'm figuring out what's what, and I'm picking that collection back up. I'll fill any holes in the sets, and start looking at what's up in the community these days (I see Donruss has been bought and Fleer is out of business, but that was a quick couple of minutes of not-quite-research).

Reading

I've always been a reader, but here it is January 5, and I've started my third book of the year. I've finished Kaaron Warren's Slights and read Elmore Leonard's Riding the Rap, and I've started Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!

I think there will be some re-reading this year, too – Carlos Ruis Zafon's Shadow of the Wind is on my read-again-soon list, and since I'm already reading a dystopic novel (the Harrison), I'm likely to want to re-read any or all of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Exercise

I know exercise, fitness and weight loss are on a lot of people's lists. But I'm working at a gym (which means I really have no excuse not to go), I'm already in the midst of some personal training, and on Saturday, I start an intensive weight loss competition.

I'll still be playing tennis and, as spring and summer approach, softball; I'm just hoping to be in better shape.

I'm also planning to do more volunteer work, more fundraising, and continue to be active in the community. By the way, in case you were wondering, these are the organizations I supported in 2010, in case you're looking for causes this year:

• Central New York Community Foundation
• WRVO
• 40 Below
• Syracuse First
• Alchemical Nursery
• St. Baldrick's
• St. Jude

Photo Credits:
• 1985 Topps Roger Clemens baseball card by Tommy Duchniki on Flickr
• Books by Phing on Flickr
• Weights by rick on Flickr

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1. You're into social media in some way
2. You're a Central New Yorker wondering when I'm going to start writing about Central New York again
3. I've bought you coffee/a beer/lunch and you feel obligated
4. We're related

If it's the first or the third, this post is for you. If not, you can wait until next week, when I'm doing a whole week of childhood cancer, because you don't feel bad enough about the world these days.

If you're in category number one, you might remember back in August when Mitch Joel reminded me he wasn't writing for me, but rather for people who weren't already sold on the power of the Internet for marketing.

Here, I'm going to give you three must-reads for people who are slow to get into social media, but that you, the person who is already doing social media well, probably don't need to read.

In fact, if you're doing the consulting thing, every time you enter a contract, buy these books for your client and include them in your price. Also, insist that they read them in this order.

1. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith. The first thing I like about these two gentlemen is that they walk their talk. This book will explain to your clients why they need to give away knowledge, if not product, for free, and why they need to build relationships, even with non-customers, even outside of working hours. If they're not sold on social media after this book, tell them what Brogan charges after a couple of years in social media ($10,000 for a speaking engagement, $22,000 for a day-long consult). If they're still not sold, exercise your out clause.

2. The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Kabani. My favorite part of this book is that it provides how-tos. Most other social media books talk about how to best utilize the platforms (this one does as well), but this book actually walks you through setting up Facebook pages and the like. And because social media is always changing, Kabani and her staff keep the book updated online.

3. UnMarketing by Scott Stratten. Stratten even tells you in the introduction to this book that if you're already using and succeeding with social media to not read his book. Use this book to reinforce what Brogan and Smith write about. There are more old-media comparisons in this book, which might help the stodgier of your clients think about their practices and the way they behave themselves as consumers. If you have initial resistance, start with this book and have them read Trust Agents third.

I hope that saved you some time.

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There's something comforting to me about Charles Bukowski's writing. I think it's that, despite his tendency to barely fictionalize his own life of drinking, writing and screwing, there's humanism and emotion through it all. With National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) quickly approaching, I picked up a copy of his Hollywood to keep the word pump primed (having recently re-read Edson, it seemed like a natural progression), and was surprised to discover the book was not about drinking, writing and screwing.

Instead, it's a book about writing about drinking, writing and screwing.

Well, it's a fictionalized version of his experience writing the screenplay and going through the production of the film Barfly.

What draws me – and I'm guessing many others – to Bukowski's alter-ego Henry ("Hank") Chinaski is that he says and does things at the basest level of humanity. And none of the rest of us has the guts to be that much of a jerk. He often gets drunk enough to be belligerent and physically numb. He enjoys fights with bartenders. He picks up women with a bold crassness. And people fawn over him because he's an asshole writer who's enjoyed some success.

But as some writers know, words can be a disease. To counter his incessant need to write, Chinaski drinks, screws and gambles (he loves the horses, except for the half-hour wait in between races). And it's true that when Bukowski died in 1994 in his mid-70s, he looked like he could have been 130.

Hollywood paints a picture of a Bukowski (or Chinaski) in his 60s, happily married to a woman who has accepted some of his vices (gambling), shares in some (drinking) and tamed others (eating) [no word on the screwing, oddly]. Someone has asked him to write one of his novels into a screenplay, and he works through writing in a new medium, pleasing the actors and producers, and going through a roller coaster with the funding.

Sure, the drinking is there (Chinaski is always an anti-social character), but this is the first novel of Bukowski's I've read that really chronicles an event – it actually has a plot line and ends when it's done.

I'm also sad to learn that I'm almost out of Bukowski's novels – he wrote seven; much of his body of work was poetry, and I'm not a fan of his poetry. Not even a little. Oh, and yes, have a go at Hollywood, even if you had a hard time making it through others of his books.

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Edson is about Henry Corvine, a songwriter who quit the misery of writing and the hardship of touring in favor of the happy, stable life of a married 20-something. When his marriage ends – he's 37 now – he takes the summer to fish on a boat in Alaska and then returns to the small mill town of Edson, New Hampshire, where the snow starts early, there's one convenience store, everybody knows everybody else, and a young songwriter is getting popular singing Henry's old songs without giving him credit.

When a young woman – who lives next to Henry in a residential hotel – discovers Henry's records in that young songwriter's apartment, things change for Henry. When the mill closes unexpectedly and moves south, things change for Edson.

What I love about this book is that Morrissey's words feel like a change in seasons. His voice (singing and speaking) feels like winter is coming on, and so does the air here in Syracuse. This might become an annual ritual for me as we head toward winter.

If you can find a copy, I highly recommend reading it, with a cup of something warm nearby.

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