Another weekend, another New Year’s Resolution met. I made some free time this weekend to meet this month’s book reading quota. I ended up making my way through three books, which puts me ahead of my yearly quota.
How to Manage Problem Employees: A Step-by-Step Guide for Turning Difficult Employees into High Performers by Glenn Shepard (Wiley Press 2005, 198pp)
I read this book not because I am a manager but because (A) sometimes I feel like I may be a problem employee and (B) sometimes I interact with people I consider to be problem employees. This book gave me some insight as to why people act and do the things they do at work. Particularly interesting were the chapters titled “What Happened to the American Work Ethic?,” “Why People Do the Things They Do,” and “How to Handle Daily Challenges Problem Employees Create.” I definitely recommend this book not only to every small business owner and manager regardless of where they stand on the corporate ladder, but also to employees who fall under either category “A” or “B” I mentioned above.
How to Be Invisible by J. J. Luna (St. Martin’s Press, 2005, 259pp)
“Do not, as long as you live, ever again allow your real name to be coupled with your home address,” says J. J. Luna, a point he stresses throughout this book. Within its pages, Luna describes four levels of invisibility. Level One is “very basic” and gives you “more privacy than 98% of the general population.” Level Two involves having your home utilities and vehicle registration in multiple, alternate names. Level Three involves putting your home in the name of a trust and preventing pretty much any business activity (including travel and banking) from being traced back to your real name. Level Four, the highest level discussed, duplicates the Witness Protection Program. At this level you no longer talk to anyone from your previous life, file taxes or work for an employer.
How to Be Invisible discusses (mostly) legal ways to remove yourself from the grid. These involve (again, legal) methods of disassociating your real name from your physical address, setting up one or more aliases, and how to send and receive mail without having it traced back to your real name or address. A lot of the advice within the book is pretty practical (how to avoid giving out your social security number) and some of it is fairly sketchy (how to cross the border anonymously). I don’t plan on disappearing off the face of the earth any time soon, but I still found the book to be an interesting (and somewhat scary) read.
The $50 and up Underground House Book by Mike Oehler (Mole Publishing, 1997, 115pp)
Mike Oehler is an interesting fellow. For $50, he basically dug a hole in the ground and lived in it. His first hole wasn’t big — about 120 square feet — but he learned a lot during the process; so much, in fact, that he built a second one, a 1,000 square feet for around $500. In this book, Oehler discusses the pros and cons of living in a self-dug underground house. Several different plans are discussed and explained. This book contains enough information that, with enough time and a shovel, you too can live in a hole in the ground. While interesting, I don’t think I’ll be trying it any time soon.
Good selections! Added two of the books to my wish list (“How to Be Invisible” was already on my list).
Good start but you need to read some fiction too. All non-fiction and no fiction makes Rob a dull boy.
These sound like really interesting books… how on Earth did you hear about them? Did you find them locally or order them online? Just curious, they don’t exactly strike me as books that might appear on the New York Times Best Sellers List. :-)
alt.binaries.ebooks
I download a ton of things like that but, up until now, never made the time to go through and read them. The only thing lamer than a collection of stuff you never enjoy is a collection of digital files you never enjoy. Waste of time and drive space. I am still looking forward to picking up some type of e-reader this spring to break the tether of having to read these while sitting at the computer desk. I could do it on my phone but … too small of a screen for me.
Since – like me – you seem to be more into non-fiction books, I’ve gotta recommend Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma for fascinating exploration of the origins of modern food and the implications that our choices have for the health of us & our planet. It’s a bit of a dense read, because it’s so packed with information, but it is an incredibly thought-provoking book.
Also, I’d recommend Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. It’s not really an indictment of fast food – the author plainly states that his family still does eat some fast food – but more of a revealing look at how fast food has shaped our world. Schlosser does slam some of the big chains pretty hard, but he also makes a point to commend the few that do it right, like In-n-Out Burger. Again, this book is also packed with details and loads of interesting backstory, so it’s not an quick & easy weekend read, but it is well worth the time!
Both of these books have certainly changed the way I look at the food I’m put on my family’s table…