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I don’t usually write a recommendation for a book until I’ve finished it, but I’m only 2 chapters into Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody and I’m really excited about it. I saw Shirky on the Colbert Report a couple of weeks ago and was intrigued by what he had to say. The book deals with technology, but that doesn’t begin to sum it up. What I really like so far is that he’s examining social changes and technology without relying on buzzwords and oversimplification. Also, his writing style is very engaging - the book is not the least bit boring. Anyway, I can’t wait to read more and will post again when I finish the book.

One of the advantages of reorganizing my books yesterday is that I was reminded of many titles I’d love to recommend. Case in point: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Even if you’ve never read the book you may think you know the story from the various film versions. You don’t. The book is so much more than the camp and silliness you see onscreen (and if you’ve only seen the execrable 1993 version with Keifer Sutherland, you REALLY have no idea what you’re missing). The book is a fantastic tale of adventure, intrigue, political machinations, romance, tragedy and triumph. The characters are more complex and the plot much more intricate than any 2-hour film can possibly show - do yourself a favor and give it a read.

One of my ongoing goals is to organize my home/life. I tend to start this project several times a year and then get completely overwhelmed and quit without accomplishing much, and sometimes having made things worse. This year I’m trying something different: as much as possible, I’m tackling small projects and doing them from start to finish. Today I organized my bookshelves.

Since I started working in libraries I don’t buy nearly as many books as I used to, but I still have quite a few. Many of them are in storage, but the ones in the house tend to get disorganized pretty quickly. When I don’t have places to put things I just start stacking, so today I was sorting through piles of books and other stuff and putting them in order back on the shelves.

It’s very dusty work, so I weeded and cleaned as I went, and I’m quite happy with the result. I have room for all the books I want to keep in the house plus a little extra for growth, and everything is in order and visible. I am one happy librarian!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a ripping good read. It’s the story of 2 women: one a famous author (Vida Winter) who is finally ready to tell her life story and the other an obscure biographer (Margaret Lea) who must try to get the truth from this notorious fabricator. Vida’s story (true or false) is thoroughly engrossing, and the interplay between the two women is wonderfully drawn. This is a great crossover between genre and literary fiction - it will appeal to fans of everything from the Da Vinci Code to V.C. Andrews, but is so much better written that I hesitate to make those comparisons. As an added bonus, the audio book is also quite wonderful.

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is such a great book! Just drop what you’re doing and go get it now. I’m serious. My little blurb here won’t do it justice, but Mitchell perfectly captures the agonies and ecstasies of being 13-years-old (and I’m not just nostalgic for my own 80s youth, I promise). It’s a brutal, honest, and sweet coming of age story.

Michael Chabon is a really interesting writer - he has literary chops, but likes to play with all sorts of genres and conventions in his novels. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union was described by Publisher’s Weekly as “a murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller” and that’s probably as coherent a description as you’re going to get. It’s not a perfect novel (I still think Chabon’s best is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), but as always Chabon writes great characters, and it’s a very compelling read.

Are you mystified about the best ways to invest your money? Then check out The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle. This short book is not exactly thrilling reading, but it packs a lot of good information into a small package. And the good news is, Bogle’s done the math and makes a great case for the idea that the best thing you can with your money is also one of the simplest: buy low-cost index funds and hold them for the long term. By doing just that, you can beat the returns of about 80% of investors. Why? Because most people invest emotionally (e.g. buy high because they have to get in on a “hot” stock, sell low because they freak out when the market dips) and pay too much for the privilege (through fees and taxes). I’m all for strategies that make my life simpler, and it turns out that this one is really sound.

If you just can’t resist the temptation to play the stock market, you might try the strategy that The Motley Fool calls “Index Plus a Few” - put the bulk of your money in index funds and spend a small portion on individual stocks (2-5, but no more than you can reasonably keep up with). There are plenty of low-cost online brokers to make the process easy. Zecco.com even offers free trades (with some restrictions), although their site can be a bit clunky to use.

Today’s recommendation is a two-fer: a pair of novels by John Green. I spent a couple of my years at the library working as a young adult librarian, and if you never think to read YA novels, you should. There is a lot of quality literature written for the teen age group - some excellent genre fiction, serious coming of age novels, total fluff, you name it.

John Green won the Michael L. Printz award for Looking for Alaska in 2006, and received a Printz honor for An Abundance of Katherines in 2007. The books are very different; Alaska is a tragic coming-of-age story, although there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Abundance is just pure fun; sweet and silly with a little romance. What they share is an engaging main character and awesome supporting characters. I don’t have a lot of time today so I won’t write a plot synopsis, but check these books out if you get a chance.

I decided that I’m going to try to post a daily recommendation - might be a book, movie, website, song, whatever. I’m considering this a target and not a moral obligation, so there will inevitably be days missed, but I thought it would be fun to talk about some of the new stuff I come across along with some older favorites and thereby resist the temptation to post about what I ate for lunch just because I can’t think of anything else to say. So, with no further ado:

Although I don’t make resolutions, this book seems like a good fit for the beginning of a new year. It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh is a handbook for clearing out the clutter in your home and organizing what’s left. There are lots of practical tips and how-tos, but what I really liked about this book was Walsh’s emphasis on how clutter and the proliferation of stuff affects your quality of life. The entire book is informed by the idea of living the life you want to live instead of being controlled or overwhelmed by stuff you possess (or stuff that possesses you).

I am not a fan of resolutions. I like to take the end of the year and the beginning of the next one as a time to evaluate and so on, but resolutions just seem like a set-up for failure so I avoid them. In fact, I studiously avoid starting anything new (exercise routines, organizing systems, what have you) on January 1st, even if it’s something I really want to do. I either start before January or later in the month just to avoid the psychological association with resolutions and failure. (I don’t know how much good that actually does, but…).

Having said that, I was totally inspired by Merlin Mann’s posts on clutter and feel like using the New Year to get control of this area of my life. Merlin posted links yesterday to a good Ask Metafilter discussion on literary clutter (Librarians, take note!) and his series on his own “War on Clutter.” The one that really kicked my butt: Never “organize” what you can discard - oh my gosh, how many dollars I have wasted at the Container Store doing exactly that!

Meredith Farkas’s post reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about First, Break All the Rules. Meredith introduced the 12 questions that demonstrate organizational health, so I’ll just say that one of the highlights of the book for me was the mountain climbing metaphor, early in the book. Buckingham and Coffman break the twelve questions into 4 groups that represent different stages of the “climb”:

• Base Camp (What do I get?)
  • Do I know what is expected of me at work?
  • Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
• Camp 1 (What do I give?)
  • At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
  •  In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
  • Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
  • Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
• Camp 2: (Do I belong here?)
  • At work, do my opinions seem to count?
  • Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
  • Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
  • Do I have a best friend at work?
• Camp 3: (How can we all grow?)
  • In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
  • This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

The idea is that you can’t advance too soon to the higher camps, or you will get “Mountain Sickness” - that is, you won’t be able to sustain your energy at the higher altitudes of vision and purpose if you haven’t firmly established your foundation at Base Camp and Camp 1. The authors point out that a lot of management theory and practice is focused on Camps 2 and 3, when most managers really need to focus on Base Camp and Camp 1. I’ve definitely found that most of the leadership and management books I read seemed to be focused on the Camp 2 and 3 types of issues.

At any rate, this book made me question several assumptions I had about leadership, and I got a lot out of it. Definitely worth a read.

Another good quote from Leading for Growth:

Whether they like it or not, leaders have the power to scare the hell out of people. If you don’t fully explain what you are up to, you leave people in the dark, and people in the dark have vivid imaginations…You’ve got to give people information, and lots of it, so they don’t wonder what is really going on and start imagining all sorts of worst-case scenarios.

Very true, especially if you haven’t established a level of trust. People who don’t trust you have no reason to give you the benefit of the doubt and every reason to assume the worst.

I’m reading Leading for Growth by Ray Davis. I’m only on chapter 2, but here’s a quote I liked from chapter 1:

Think of your own business and industry. What do you and your competitors do that is boring, stale, or bland? Is there something that is numbingly similar across every company, including yours? If so, you have a great opportunity. (p.13)

Well, at least in libraries, the “numbing similarities” are probably too numerous to count. But I like looking at our services through this prism and seeing what opportunities shine out…much to think about here.

“Why are you always in such a hurry, Mr. Lipwig?”

“Because people don’t like change. But make the change happen fast enough and you go from one type of normal to another.”

From Terry Pratchett’s Making Money