This week’s reading list for business writers: 1/1/15

Jan 1, 2015 | Reading Lists

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

That’s from Stephen King’s wonderful book, On Writing. If you want to write really well, you need to follow King’s advice. Most of my clients don’t want to be writers.

You don’t have to master the craft of writing if you want to author a book. You can get help from someone like me. But great books are more than great writing, they include information, insight, and inspiration and you develop those things by reading, widely and deeply.

That’s why I share reading lists that give you an idea of what to read. Use them to discover new things to read. Use them to get an idea of what other people are writing. Use them to develop a sense of what great books are like.

Around the New Year, many people offer lists of the best books in the prior year. So, this week I’m pointing you to four lists of the best business and leadership books from 2014. I also posted my list of the five best books I read in 2014 on my Three Star Leadership blog.

From Theodore Kinni: Best Business Books 2014

From Geoffrey James: 10 Best Business Books of 2014

From Tom Fox: Great leadership books for your holiday shopping list

From Michael McKinney: The Best Leadership Books of 2014