“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.
This week’s list was put together by Joel Gascoigne who is the co-founder and CEO of Buffer, a service that I love and that I use every day. His list is called “50 Books That Transformed My Business and My Life.” Here’s how he describes it.
“I’ve found that due to this natural desire to reflect, I love to read books and think about what we could try to apply at Buffer. On top of this, at Buffer we give all new team members (and family members) a Kindle and have an unlimited Kindle books program (no limits and no questions asked).
Here are some of the books which have had the biggest impact on Buffer and me personally.”
One great thing about this list is that Joel shares why many of the books are on there. That can help you decide which books to read. He included one book that I didn’t like very much, so I’m going to go back to it and see what I missed.
