Read a good book lately?

Who doesn’t love a good book, especially around the holidays? As 2010 comes to a close, we’ve pulled together a sampling of some of our team members’ favorite finds in literature. You’ll see a wide range of genres (and publishing dates) that include a few professional books and some just for fun. As one BR’er put it, “Don’t we read enough professional content while we’re at work being professionals?”

Whether you’re reading a hardcover, paperback or digital version, we hope you find value in our recommendations and enjoy getting to know a little bit more about a few of our associates. Here are our 10 top reads of 2010 followed by short summaries.

• “All My Friends Are Dead” by Avery Monsen and Jory John
• “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House” by John Meacham
• “I, Alex Cross” by James Patterson
• “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova
• “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” by Stieg Larsson
• “The Grass Harp” by Truman Capote
• “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
• “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott
• “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
• “What is the What” by Dave Eggers

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What are ‘they’ saying about your brand?

“A brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.”
—The Brand Gap, by Marty Neumeier

I recently read The Brand Gap, along with Neumeier’s follow up, ZAG, and I particularly like this quote because it forces communications practitioners to put themselves in the shoes of their target audience. What’s being said about a brand, and why?

Knowing the answers to those questions are especially crucial in today’s social media environment, where bad news can travel the globe in seconds. But good news can have the opposite effect – it can build a following for a brand that Neumeier refers to in ZAG as a Unique Buying Tribe (or UBT).

Customers, he says, would rather buy than be sold. And when they buy, they do so in a tribal fashion. (Want proof? Consider the legions who couldn’t wait for Apple’s iPad and iPhone 4 to launch this year.) Within a UBT, he says, “news spreads quickly, which gives brands extra traction.” Social media has only exacerbated this situation.

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Eternity Can Wait

Science and statistics tell us that in the course of humankind, we’ve added 10,000 extra days to our average life expectancy (since 1900 to be exact). Compared to 100 years ago, that’s almost a second lifetime.

Most of us manage our efforts and plan our lives as best we can to finally cross the goal line to retirement. And then, we will engage in a whole new life that will likely span thousands and thousands of days, but with no societal history, family tradition or road map to guide us through them …

Fortunately, Dr. Tom Nolan has given this subject a great deal of consideration, and has written a new book called Eternity Can Wait to help us all out. The former Milwaukee investment advisor, author, and high profile media personality continues working even during his own retirement.

Succinct, straightforward and engaging, Eternity Can Wait calls out the issues, the concerns and the questions we need to address in order to evaluate how to approach this future. Check out the Web site and you can download sample chapters, employ an interactive date calculator to see how many days you have coming, or even pose a question directly to the author.

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