Summer Reading

The other day, one of my clients recommended the book called Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher.

The book’s main premise is simple: what you pay attention to becomes your life. Therefore, the more focused you are, the more successful you are in achieving your goals. With Blackberries tethered to our waists, technology has caused attention spans to be at odds with maintaining focus. It’s difficult to find time to sit down for one hour and read a book. Or even practice the piano, which incidentally is in a state of decline.

I’m all for easy-to-read, bulleted information. But when I want to explore a subject in-depth, I go to a book – not a blog. I have lots of interesting communications-related reading on tap this summer, including The Cluetrain Manifesto and Words that Work – book recommendations that I came across through one of my colleagues and through Twitter. So in between blogging, twittering and Facebook updates, don’t forget to dig into a good book this summer (even if it has no professional value). I asked some local communications professionals what was on their suggested PR-related summer reading list. Here are their suggestions:

Rick Oppenheim (@RickOpp) – PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge and Flawless Consulting by Peter Block
Cindi Brownfield (@CindiBfld) – Words that Work by Frank Luntz
Briana Schweitzer (@bschweitzer) – Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work – And Why Your Company Needs Them by Peter Shankman
Ann Marie Varga – Putting the Public Back in Public Relations How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge
Chris Gent (@ChrisGent) – PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz
Alan Byrd (@albyrd) – Good to Great by Jim Collins
Jamie Floer (@jamiefloer) – Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Kari Conley (@KariConley) – Corporate Community Relations: The Principle of the Neighbor of Choice by Edmund Burke
Joe Kilsheimer (@kilz) – The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

What’s on your summer reading list?

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