I am feeling really good about my launch out the gate for 2019. On the last day of January, I had already read 6 books. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up the pace. December 2018 was quite rough. I read over 3,000 pages but I met my goal with a half hour to spare. I don’t want to cut it that close this year. So far, I have knocked 4 books off my 12 books Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge. I read some really great books in January. This is what I plan for February. Come read along with me.

For February, I will be focusing on my reading shelf. There have been some books sitting on it for years. Time to clear them off. Although, some of the books are brand new. The books I have scheduled in February are all over the map. Some are about productivity, one deals with advertising, another is about the future, and one is a review request—I am not sure what it is about, yet.

Here is what is on my reading list for February 2019:

Hit and Run by Bob Rich

I do not know what to expect with this book. I was asked if I would review it. I am looking forward to seeing what unfolds.

Via Amazon:

84-year-old Sylvia barely escapes death when a teenage driver plows down six children and a crossing guard, never looking back. Shaken, Sylvia draws his portrait, creating a connection with this 14-year-old boy that allows the police to locate and arrest him. That night, he appears to her through a supernatural process neither understands. Can one woman’s belief in the power of love make a difference in the life of one boy who wants to change?

Juggling Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done–Now! by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig

Juggling Elephants has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years. I picked it up at an Association for Talent Development conference. I am not sure which one. It looks like a quick read. I am looking forward to seeing what it is about.

Via Amazon:

What do you do when your life feels as busy as a three-ring circus?

Juggling Elephants tells a simple but profound story about one man with a universal problem. Mark has too much to do, too many priorities, too much stress, and too little time.

As he struggles to balance his many responsibilities without cracking under the pressure, Mark takes a break to attend the circus with his family. There he has a surprising conversation with a wise ringmaster. He leaves with a simple but powerful lesson: Trying to get everything done is like juggling elephants — impossible.

So Mark begins to think about his work, family, and personal life the way a ringmaster thinks about the many acts in a three-ring circus. He discovers that managing his various acts can be fun and easy once he changes his attitude and follows his new friend’s ongoing guidance. Mark soon realizes:

• If you keep trying to juggle elephants, no one, including you, will be thrilled with your performance.
• A ringmaster cannot be in all three rings at once.
• The key to the success of a circus is having quality acts in all three rings.
• Intermission is an essential part of any good circus.

Juggling Elephants is a wonderfully lighthearted guide for everyone who feels like they’re about to be squashed. It will help you better focus your time and energy, so you’ll be able to enjoy more of the things that are important to you. Above all, it will teach you how to run your circus, instead of letting the circus run you.

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford

This book was given to me to read by a professor at Jamestown Community College. It focuses on the automation of the future and its impact on society.

Via Amazon:

What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making “good jobs” obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart software. As progress continues, blue and white collar jobs alike will evaporate, squeezing working- and middle-class families ever further. At the same time, households are under assault from exploding costs, especially from the two major industries-education and health care-that, so far, have not been transformed by information technology. The result could well be massive unemployment and inequality as well as the implosion of the consumer economy itself.

The past solutions to technological disruption, especially more training and education, aren’t going to work. We must decide, now, whether the future will see broad-based prosperity or catastrophic levels of inequality and economic insecurity. Rise of the Robots is essential reading to understand what accelerating technology means for our economic prospects-not to mention those of our children-as well as for society as a whole.

Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin

I have been listening to this book make the podcasting circuits. The discussions were fascinating enough to prompt me to take a look.

Via Amazon:

Talk Triggers is the definitive, practical guide on how to use bold operational differentiators to create customer conversations, written by best-selling authors and marketing experts Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin.

Word of mouth is directly responsible for 19% of all purchases, and influences as much as 90%. Every human on earth relies on word of mouth to make buying decisions. Yet even today, fewer than 1% of companies have an actual strategy for generating these crucial customer conversations. Talk Triggers provides that strategy in a compelling, relevant, timely book that can be put into practice immediately, by any business.

The key to activating customer chatter is the realization that same is lame. Nobody says “let me tell you about this perfectly adequate experience I had last night.” The strategic, operational differentiator is what gives customers something to tell a story about. Companies (including the 30+ profiled in Talk Triggers) must dare to be different and exceed expectations in one or more palpable ways. That’s when word of mouth becomes involuntary: the customers of these businesses simply MUST tell someone else.

Talk Triggers contains:
* Proprietary research into why and how customers talk
* More than 30 detailed case studies of extraordinary results from Doubletree Hotels by Hilton and their warm cookie upon arrival, The Cheesecake Factory and their giant menu, Five Guys Burgers and their extra fries in the bag, Penn & Teller and their nightly meet and greet sessions, and a host of delightful small businesses
* The 4-5-6 learning system (the 4 requirements for a differentiator to be a talk trigger; the 5 types of talk triggers; and the 6-step process for creating talk triggers)
* Surprises in the text that are (of course) word of mouth propellants

Consumers are wired to discuss what is different, and ignore what is average. Talk Triggers not only dares the reader to differentiate, it includes the precise formula for doing it.

Combining compelling stories, inspirational examples, and practical how-to, Talk Triggers is the first indispensable book about word of mouth. It’s a book that will create conversation about the power of conversation.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Deep Work is another book that I have heard mentioned repeatedly on podcasts I listen to. I am confident that I will learn some strategies to help tweak my systems.

Via Amazon:

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there’s a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four “rules,” for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories — from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air — and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.

That’s it for this month — I want to hear what good books YOU’VE read lately! Please share in the comments below.

If you missed previous months in 2019, you can still check them out: January

My Reviews for This Reading List

• Book Review: Juggling Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done – Now!
• Book Review: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
• Book Review: Hit and Run
• Book Review: Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth

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