On the bookshelves of the digerati
MARKETTA SILVERA president and CEO, Pilot Network Services. The Gorilla Game, by Geoffrey Moore. "I had many people come up to me and ask, 'Are you a gorilla?' And I thought, What's going on here? So I picked this up, and I actually am a gorilla. This book instructs access investors to find gorillas: companies that are poised to dominate their industry category and whose stock is still cheap. Moore also uses colorful terms on how to find new high-growth industry markets. I found it enlightening."
IRV LICHTENWALD CFO, Advent Software. A History of Knowledge, by Charles Van Doren. This is a book that takes a look at the evolution of knowledge, and asks, 'How did we come to know that? And what else was going on at that time that helped us gain the knowledge of the day?' It's a good way of helping us keep things in perspective. Continually reemphasizing that there will be different views and beliefs of what is the proper way to conduct our lives reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously."
CHRIS MACASKIL president and CEO, Computer Literacy. Pour Your Heart into It, by Howard Schultz. "This book read like a novel. You think of Schultz as a really confident guy, but he had been turned down 200 times and he was so nervous about seeing this one investor that, after he went in and was immediately rejected, he went down to the lobby and broke down in heaving sobs. He didn't think he could go on. Schultz's passion for the business made all the difference in whether Starbucks existed or not."
XANDER MELLISH columnist, New York Daily News Online. George Washington: A Life, by Willard S. Randall. I think biographies are the best self-help books. You see people who do brilliant things with lives just as hectic as your own. The idea that Washington had a human side is fascinating. In a way, he was a loser who persisted and succeeded. He was a giant self-promoter. But he wasn't a great farmer; he was losing money until this job comes along - this president job - and he took it because he needed the money."
STREET CRED
Easy (Web) Access
The Robotmaker
The Many Faces of Disgust
New Media, Old Theories
It's a Droid's World
Thin Is In
The Truth Is Out There
Memorabilia Lane
Music
Crowd Control
Prometheus Hardbound
Come on Feel the Noise
One Visionary Day
ReadMe
State of Flux
Meat Space
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