I’m always reading, from business how-to books to web and video technical tomes, with a dash of novels and short stories thrown into the mix. Every time you open a book you’re seeing the world through another’s eyes, and that’s powerful magic. Any creative person should especially be reading as much as he or she can. After all, we’re expected to create magic for our clients and doing that consistently requires fully-charged creative batteries.

Here’s a list of recent stuff from my virtual bookshelf:

• Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day (Couzin and Grappone). Even if you end up hiring consultants to help you optimize your website’s search results, this is a great book to read for a no-nonsense overview of how things work. There’s a lot of scammers out there in SEO land. These authors are the good, real deal.
• Small is the New Big (Seth Godin). Sure, a lot of what Seth has in this book is in his blog, and much of what he’s saying can be gotten elsewhere. But the way Seth writes makes you feel like you’re having a conversation with a really smart friend, and oftentimes how we receive information is as important as receiving the information in the first place.
• YouTube for Business (Miller). OK, I have a few problems with this book- his tech tips pretty much suck (for the record, you should ALWAYS upload your videos at the best resolution possible and let YouTube scale it accordingly). But the rest of this book, about strategy and tactics towards using YouTube and video on the web to market your business or organization? It’s a brilliant introduction. I wish more business owners and marketing VPs owned this book, it’d make my job less stressful.
• Narrative. This is a magazine, you can find it on newsstands. Being a tech geek, I get mine on Kindle. It’s a collection of short fiction from around the world, and for me it’s a welcome recharge for my creative batteries.
• The Los Angeles Times. Every day. Cover to cover, via Kindle. Newspapers have been under fire for a couple of years, but I don’t know of a better way to feel connected to your hometown. I also read the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Business Journal. But the LA Times is an essential.

Have you read any good books lately?

Awesome photo by Moriza