I think Seth Godin writes great marketing books. I particularly like this book because he focuses on the telling of great and authentic stories. Although he writes about 'the consumer', I like to think of that person as any consumer of ideas. So it's not just about people who buy products; it's also about those executives, managers, partners, team members, &c. that need to believe in your ideas for them to succeed. From my own experience, I have seen how telling compelling stories influences executive management decisions, and how one cannot just rely upon the merits of an idea alone. It's not simply what you say, but how you say it (or show it). In this book, Godin offers great advice and examples on how to craft powerful stories and what will make them authentic. You don't have to be in marketing to appreciate this book. If you're in the ideas or innovation business, this book is for you, too.

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I've been meaning to read one of Gallagher's books for some time, now. Her topics of choice have always been fascinating, to me. The subject of her latest book, Rapt, seems especially timely for someone like me, who grew up in an era before Blackberrys, 24/7, and ADHD. Although I have adapted to this multitasking round-the-clock lifestyle, I question how it's affecting me. So, I thought, if I was going to start reading Gallagher, this would be an appropriate first book. I think contemporary society may be losing its ability to distinguish one's standard of living from one's quality of life.

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Lately, I've been rereading some of the books that influenced me, as a youth. I would have to say that Zen sits at the top of that list.  Reading it was a seminal event for me. It led me to a serious lifelong study of philosophy (both Eastern and Western); it forced me to examine my own thinking; and it changed how I viewed the external world. It was an inflection point, for someone in high school, searching for the truth, trying to figure out life.

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I've created a Twitter account for Immaterial. 

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Within the film industry, Bruce Block is an acknowledged master in the art of visual storytelling. I found his book to be a nice complement to McKee's Story.  While McKee focuses on the principles of narrative structure and meaning, Block expounds upon the principles of visual structure and its role in storytelling. For Block, visual structure is based upon an understanding of the Principle of Contrast & Affinity. He defines this principle, then spends the rest of the book explaining how to use different visual components in terms of contrast and affinity. The visual components include space, line, shape, tone, color, movement, and rhythm.

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I first heard about E.C. Large, while being captivated by an excerpt in Dot Dot Dot Fifteen. That excerpt was from Asleep in the Afternoon, Large's second novel. Sugar in the Air was Large's first, and these two novels form a pair. Sugar in the Air was first published in 1937 by the firm of Jonathan Cape. Editor Robin Kinross and his firm, Hyphen Press, have recently reprinted both novels in beautifully bounded hardcover volumes that hark back to that era. Both are facsimiles of their original editions. I recently finished reading Sugar and found it to be both imaginative and insightful, and look forward to reading the second book. Without giving away too much of the plot, the premise of the novel is the invention of extracting food from the air. One of my favorite quotes from the book: 'It is always a mistake to be influenced by men whom you have ceased to respect.'

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It was during a DMI webinar, given by Valerie Jacobs, Director of Trend Analysis at LPK, that I first heard of Bob Johansen.

Bob Johansen is a Distinguished Fellow at (and former CEO of) the Institute for the Future. IFTF includes an interesting array of people; ARG designer Jane McGonigal (creator of Superstruct and I Love Bees) and futurist Jamais Cascio (co-founder of Worldchanging) are among those affiliated with the organization. 

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Raymond Williams originally conceived this to be an appendix to his work, Culture and Society. But when he had finished that work, his publisher told him that it had to be shortened, and that one of the items that he could take out was this appendix. Williams reluctantly agreed and put a note, promising the material as a separate paper. Twenty years transpired, and Williams kept adding to this appendix, which eventually was published as its own book. Williams emphasized that the book is not a dictionary or glossary. "It is, rather, the record of an inquiry into vocabulary: a shared body of words and meanings in our most general discussions, in English, of the practices and institutions which we group as culture and society."
 
I'll occasionally pick up my copy and randomly pick an entry. More often than not, I'll find myself reading multiple entries because of how a word is connected to other words for its context and meaning. And I always find it interesting how the use and meaning of a word has changed over time, and how it reflects our changing culture.
 
"A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used." - Towne vs. Eisner, 245 U.S. 418, 425 (1918)

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I just finished reading this book, this morning. I first heard about it from Stuart Candy's blog, The Sceptical Futuryst - and I'm glad I did. In a little over 150 pages, Nowotny covers a lot of intellectual ground, regarding innovation. This is not another how-to business book about the Art or the Faces or the Myths of Innovation. This is about innovation as a social phenomenon and human endeavor, and its impact on our culture, language, identity, and future. The book caused me to step back from our society's madding rush to innovate and ask, "What's it all for?" Lots of great thought-provoking insights, written in almost poetic prose, at times (a translation from the original German). This is definitely one of those books I'll be referring back to often. 

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Another area of interest, for me, is design fiction (also, speculative design, critical design, &c.). I found this volume to be a nice complement to Antonelli's Design and the Elastic Mind (which I also enjoyed). Although there is some overlap between the two books, in terms of featured works, I much prefer Troika's attractive presentation and overall content (despite the absence of Elio Caccavale). Included, also, are brief interviews with Dunne & Raby, Ron Arad, Steven Sacks, and Machiko Kusahara. A companion DVD would have been nice, to see the works in action.

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