Josh Shear

The first book that ever kept me up all night because I just couldn't put it down was Edson by Bill Morrissey, who is better known as a songwriter. The book went out of print quickly, but is generally available on Amazon and other used marketplaces. I first read it to prepare to interview Morrissey ahead of a reading at a bookshop. I bought eight copies to gift at that event; I think the author got tired of signing them.

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.

Are you ready for Banned Books Week? It begins tomorrow.

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

I was surprised to find, among the 10 most frequently challenged books of 2009, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, and The Color Purple are still making the list.

The American Library Association also maintains a list of banned or challenged classics, which is interesting, because the association hasn't been able to find evidence of challenges or bannings for 54 of the 100 books on the list.

I'm a might bit embarrassed to say that I've only read 31 of the classics on the list, although some of them are my favorites (I'm kind of a glutton for dystopia). I may not read anything new to me on the list this week, though I may re-read something, just for ha-has.

What are you reading?

This disclaimer applies here, too.

I love me some Chris Moore. Of course, with titles like Practical Demonkeeping and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, how could you not?

Anyway, I've just finished Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. This goes back to that perspective thing I was on about last week.

Raziel, the barely competent, perpetually late angel (in Moore's telling, he shows himself to Jesus – Joshua, actually, because that's what the name translates to from the Hebrew – and Biff at 10 years old, when he was supposed to show up at Joshua's birth), is told to raise Biff from the dust right about the year 2000, give him the gift of tongues (so he can write in modern English) and charge him with writing a new gospel, since no one else seems to have included much about Jesus from, oh, birth until his 30s.

So, Biff details the journeys he took with Joshua to visit those three wise men who had come to visit Josh upon his birth. They learn kung fu, they learn meditation (Joshua's so good at it he actually manages to disappear). They free children from sacrifice in India, they learn magic, and Biff has a lot of sex.

The new gospel is interwoven with stories about Raziel's love of soap operas and professional wrestling, Biff's enjoyment of pizza, and it's topped off with a sappy love story ending.

Moore is more reverent with this subject matter than usual (for obvious reasons), and it's clear he was going long (the book comes in at 444 pages, including an afterword that you should read), because when Josh and Biff return to Judea for Josh's ministry, the modern-day Biff and Raziel are absent until the epilogue.

Features: Mary Magdalene is a very strong, positive character. The whole water-to-wine thing is done to spice up a boring wedding. We get the origin of certain stories and quotes that have been attributed to Jesus.

In all, a funny book. More or less typical Moore, but with some pretty serious subject matter. If you're the sort of person who can't handle your faith being ridiculed or your messiah being a drunk, horny teenager, don't read it. Otherwise, do.

Blah, blah, blah.

I'm in the middle of reading a very funny novel right now. I also have two other books on my nightstand, and I haven't managed to get past page 20 in either, though I hear they're very good – Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation and John Jantsch's The Referral Engine. I've read Joel's blog (same title as his book) and I'm familiar with Jantsch via his previous book, Duct Tape Marketing.

In the past year, I've also read Gary Vaynerchuk's Crush It, Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, Journey to the Emerald City by Roger Connors and Tom Smith, Shama Kabani's Zen of Social Media Marketing, and Jeffrey Hayzlett's The Mirror Test.

On top of that, I wake up many mornings and read Brogan's blog as well as the blogs of Outspoken Media, Bruce Clay, and a half dozen other individuals and organizations with whom you're familiar if you've recognized most of the names here, or with whom you're not if you had to go read everybody's bio.

I walked by Scott Stratten's book in the bookshop today and it hit me: everybody's telling us more or less the same two things:

1. If you want to run a business you must be willing to take some risks, work some long hours, and in general bust some ass.
2. You need to be on social media, and you have to interact, giving away a lot for free and boosting other people.

Well, everybody except Connors and Smith, who just needed a way to extend their PowerPoint presentations into book form.

I'm becoming a bit jaded about it, I guess. It's not only the same information (albeit sometimes with slightly different action items), it's the same people going around in a circle. I picked up Joel's and Jantsch's books because Outspoken recommended them. Kabani's people told me I'd probably enjoy it after they saw I read Brogan's book – and it turns out he wrote the introduction for her. I still recommend Vaynerchuk's book to people seeking their passion and Trust Agents to people who just don't understand social media ROI. I just don't feel like reading anything this circle's putting out right now. It's not making me think about anything in a new way, and it's not leading me to any sort of creativity.

It leads me to wonder: Are we all (including the people I've mentioned here), writing for ourselves? For like-minded people? For famous people to write our introductions or to give us blurbs?

Where are you finding value today in words?

Photo Credit: JasonTromm

Chuck's back.

I've been a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk since reading Choke a few years ago. I swallowed the rest of his novels and one of his nonfiction collections pretty quickly, and have been faithfully waiting for each novel since.

His new novel, Tell-All is a return to what got me hooked – a somewhat ridiculous but still semi-plausible story line with an ending that makes the reader say, "Wait, did that just happen? Let me read those last 20 pages again."

It's been a long time coming for me. I was disappointed that Rant turned into a cheap sci-fi joke at the end; I thought Snuff was a total throw-away book that probably sounded good after a bottle or two of wine; and Pygmy's redemption-of-the-villain ending was way too shiny happy for me.

This is supposed to be from the guy whose every review called him funny and subversive – I guess that's what happens when your first novel is Fight Club.

And so.

Katherine Kenton is an Elizabeth Taylor type. Hollywood actress, famous leading lady, lots of husbands (or "was-bands") in her wake. The novel is narrated as a tell-all by Hazie Coogan, the ugly girl who was a better actress than her Miss Kathy when they were younger, but she could never compete for parts with those good looks. So Hazie becomes the assistant. She's a maid. She dresses and coaches Ms. Kenton. She's there when all the husbands die, and when young strapping Webster Carlton Westward III comes into Kathy's life. And she's there to bury Katherine Kenton when the time comes and publish her best-seller, because anybody who's ever lived in a star's shadow has everything but the last chapter written and ready to go to the printer.

Tell-All brings back the we-thought-she-was-beautiful character types I loved in Invisible Monsters, which really needs to be made into a movie, if anyone's got backing money to commit, since it seems to start off then falter every few years.

Anyway, read this book. It's summer, it's the perfect time for some fun fiction, and this definitely fits the bill.

Next up for me, I'm going back to getting serious with John Jantsch's The Referral Engine.

You've heard of Jeffrey Hayzlett (Twitter). He's the Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak, he's owned a bunch of businesses, and he's been on Celebrity Apprentice (whatever that is).

I came into possession of his book The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? because when I was at the 140 Character Conference back in April, he gave a bunch away to people who came early the second day. He asked people to give to the American Heart Association in exchange. Awesome.

Hayzlett's book is a must-read if you're in business. He writes in plain English, pulls no punches, and has no problem telling his readers as much about his failures (like the pheasant farm he owned) as his successes (like the print shop he did well at).

As someone who recently started a business, there's some good stuff in here. For example, always ask for the sale. Don't imply that you're looking for business and you hope the person in front of you will buy. Ask for the sale.

I'm trying some highly customized direct mail marketing – not something I even would have thought of if I hadn't read this book. If people know you put the effort in to sell them a package customized to their actual needs – and to them as people – they're more likely to buy. Especially if they have a piece of paper in front of them. (I'll let you know how that goes.)

Another lesson Hayzlett learned along the way: don't give away the meat. You can be very involved in the community. You can be extremely generous. But if you make widgets, don't give away the widgets: people won't value them as much. Give away widget accessories, or donate money for an organization to buy your widgets, but don't give the widgets away. Period.

He also reminds business owners to ask themselves the tough questions and to really test their teams to make sure they have the right people on board to represent them.

If you're in business, or want to be, read this book. Definitely worth it.

You know who's smart? Shama Kabani.

A young entrepreneur and head of The Marketing Zen Group, Kabani's book The Zen of Social Media Marketing is among the best social media books I've read – not least because it's a living book.

The problem with writing a book about anything social media is that social media is changing really fast. The book Twitter Revolution, for instance, came out in paperback in October 2008. Twitter has undergone so many changes since then, I can only imagine about 10% of that book is still relevant.

What Kabani does with Zen is start with the basics – how to use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, including how to set up your profiles and how to be found – and at the end of her book she gives you a link to ZenOfSocialMedia.com and a pass code to get into the online version of the book, which is updated as new information becomes available.

Which means that when Facebook changes its look and procedures, suggestions for making your Facebook profile great are updated in the book.

My one hope for Kabani is that she hasn't buried herself (or her interns) under decades of book updates.

In addition to how-tos for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, Kabani offers some good general purpose tips, like outline your overall social media strategy and know what you want to achieve for your business before you send your first tweet.

She also enrolls David Kaminski of Web Video University to write a chapter on video.

Next up for me is going to be The Mirror Test by Kodak's chief marketing officer, Jeffrey Hayzlett.

I'd like to say I have a love-hate relationship with books about management, but it's really more a dislike-hate relationship. I dislike reading them, and I hate getting them, because usually it means your manager is telling you, "I'm about to make your work life miserable, and if you read this book, you'll understand why, since I can't deal with explaining it to you in language you'll understand."

Enter Journey to the Emerald City: Achieve a Competitive Edge by Creating a Culture of Accountability by Roger Connors and Tom Smith. You'll want to watch The Wizard of Oz before you read the book; you'll understand the point a little better.

In L. Frank Baum's story, Dorothy and her companions seek out the wonderful Wizard of Oz in hopes that he can give them things they've been looking for (a heart, a brain, courage, a way home), when really they had it all along. By sending them to defeat the witch, the Wizard has shown them they can conquer anything, and all they had to do was step up to the plate and get it done using the tools they had.

Connors and Smith take this and tell managers to set concrete goals for their employees, and then have some sort of accountability system in place for everyone from the top to the bottom. They create several models, but a lot of it has to do with making your employees feel comfortable voicing their opinions, and with getting managers to do some self-reflection when they hear criticism of the way things have been going.

I'd recommend reading this book at a management level or higher first. If your company plans to give this book to front-line employees, they need some background as to why they're getting this book – otherwise it feels very much like their employers are saying, "We're struggling and it's your fault. Turn us around."

Next up for me is Shama Hyder Kabani's The Zen of Social Media Marketing. The review will be up after I finish.

What are you reading? Do you have recommendations of business, social media or online marketing books for me?

I finally read The Catcher in the Rye last year. I probably should have read it in high school – I was much more likely to learn from it then than I am now. Of course, the books I was actually taking my cies from then were Brave New World and Animal Farm, and they've had a much bigger impact on worldview than Catcher ever could.

Let me say I mean that purely from a story and character perspective. I could have learned a lot more about writing from The Catcher in the Rye than I ever could with three years of high school composition.

You probably know that author J.D. Salinger died last week. I learned about it on Twitter, from posts like this.

Salinger's family and close friend and neighbors will no doubt miss him. But why the oh nos from the general public? Not only will you not miss him as a person – you almost certainly never met him (this guy barely did) and probably never heard, read or saw an interview with him, what with the seclusion and all – you won't miss him as a writer: if his Wikipedia page is to be believed, his last work was published in 1965. His death did not deprive the world of forthcoming wondrous literature the way, say, David Foster Wallace's death did (or didn't, what with the posthumous novel).

Salinger belonged uniquely to the people he chose to surround himself with. He is their loss, and they have requested privacy, even noting there won't be a funeral. He is clearly one who lived by the words he wrote. I hope he does have people to miss.

When I wrote about the things I liked and disliked about the Kindle for iPhone app, one thing I hadn't tried was the Notes function.

It's the ability to leave a note in the margin, and stick a Post-It Note on the page so that you know where you left the note.

My brief review on Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith is that it's important for you if you're trying to use the Internet to advance your business, your career, or your brand. I think the same thing about Gary Vaynerchuk's book Crush It.

Both have action items, and both will help you – greatly – if you understand how to apply the lessons these folks share to your own situation. These books have action items, but they are not how-to-become-the-next-Chris-Brogan-or-Gary-Vaynerchuk books. If we all tried to be the next Chris Brogan, we'd have a world full of Chris Brogans and nobody to manufacture car parts or make peanut butter.

Lowell D'Souza gives a brief overview of Trust Agents. Go read the section numbered 1-6 (the rest is D'Souza commenting that the book is so-so, but then, he was looking for a how-to), and then come back.

These are the notes I, er, wrote in the margins.

Action item: Build a listening station. This is a step-by-step list on how to keep track of what people are saying about you or your business. This is not just a matter of running an occasional Google search for yourself; Brogan and Smith teach you how to set up a feed reader and get search feeds from various searches sent to you easily.

You don't have to be born with it. Forget the people who say you have to be born with a talent to be good at something. You get good at something by practice. Sure, chess might come easy to some people, but if the other people work hard at it, they'll do just as well.

Be good to people. Here's a direct quote.

In this chapter, we're talking about taking advantage of systems, not people. People are real, have real feelings, and always deserve respect. Always consider what's right and wrong when it comes to this stuff.

You Win by Having Goals. This is something that I will be working hard on in 2010. I understand the tools, I just have to set milestones that I want to achieve using the tools.

There's plenty of room on the Web. You don't have to directly compete with someone. There is plenty of room out there to work together, or do something similar, or collaborate, but not try to do the exact same thing someone else is doing. Find your niche.

Know which systems are open. Brogan and Smith use Pacman and Ms. Pacman to explain this concept. Pacman is a known system. As boards progress, prizes progress predictably, and a perfect game consists of a set number of points. Ms. Pacman, though, uses a random prize progression – at any given point, you may get a 100-point cherry or a 1,000-point banana (I made up the numbers, don't trash Brogan and Smith for it if they're wrong).

In real life, mastering a closed system (Pacman) means you are the best at something. Cal Ripken Jr? Best at playing consecutive baseball games. Barry Bonds? Best at hitting home runs (steroids or not – he has a number to prove it). But who's best at walking down Main Street in Toledo? It's an open system. We don't even know what being the best at walking down Main Street in Toledo looks like – it's all trial and error, and we're kind of making the game up as we go along.

Action Item: Affiliate Marketing Brogan and Smith outline some affiliate marketing strategies.

Forge partnerships. I don't think this needs any expanding. If you want to know what Brogan and Smith have to say, read the book.

Agent zero. We all have our personalities and roles in organizations. Agent Zero is the person who connects the people who need to know each other. I'm glad there's a name for this.

Maintain relationships. I'm horrible at this. I've been getting better, and Brogan and Smith offer good tips (like pay attention to the birthday calendar function in Facebook).

Yes and. I love this concept. The idea is that someone says something, and you not only agree, but build. An improvised story might start with someone saying, "The bear sat on the sofa and read the sports page," the next person continues by saying, "Yes, and he bemoaned the Giants' season coming to an end." The first person picks back up with, "Yes, and..."

And so, too, should go your discussions about collaborative projects. You build on what the other person says, rather than poo-pooing something that you don't yet see the point of.

Web site and book recommendations. Here are some of the books and sites the authors recommend throughout the book.

• Akoha.com (social media reality game)
• Spinvox.com (voice mail as text)
• Jott.com (speak into your phone, have it transcribed as an email to you)
• Kayak.com (travel help)
• Serious Creativity by Edward de Bono
• How to Be More Interesting by Edward de Bono
• The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

» Chris Brogan on Twitter
» Julien Smith on Twitter