Christmas Brings New Books!

Christmas gifts for me always include new books.  This year was no exception, and I thought I would share a couple of them that I am looking forward to reading.

I'll post reviews and thoughts about these books as I read them.  I have quite a pile of unread books, so it may be a little while.  Stay tuned...

Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono.

This book describes a method for thinking that is based on an understanding of how brain chemicals change with the mode of thinking.  Edward de Bono divides thinking into six coloured hats - Black, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue and White - each with their own characteristic.  For example, the Green Hat is creative thinking, and the White Hat is facts and figures.

As the cover says "thinking is a skill and can be improved" - I am looking forward to seeing if I can improve MY thinking.

The Starbucks Experience by Joseph A. Michelli.

The subtitle for this book is "Five Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary".  Quite a long time ago I read "Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time", a book written by Howard Schultz (then CEO, now Chairman of the Board).  This is a great book that describes the values on which Starbucks was founded and on which it relied as it grew.  I found it particularly interesting to read as it was recounted by the CEO of the company.

When I saw "The Starbucks Experience" in a book store in San Francisco airport, I was immediately interested in reading more about this successful company.  Joseph Michelli is an "outsider" to Starbucks, but with access to their personnel and resources, he isolated the 5 key leadership principles that helped Starbucks succeed.  They are "make it your own", "everything matters", "surprise and delight", "embrace resistance" and "leave your mark".

How to Cut a Cake by Ian Stewart.

I am a big fan of "leisure-science" type books, particularly mathematics based ones.  Previous favourites have included "Fermat's Last Theorem", "How Long Is a Piece of String?" and "Why Do Buses Come in Threes?", and many more.  How to Cut a Cake has 20 chapters, each discussing a different mathematical conundrum or puzzle.

I enjoy these kinds of books, mostly because it forces me to think in ways I don't normally think.  Any book that makes me grab a pencil and a piece of paper in order to grasp a concept HAS to be doing me SOME good, doesn't it!?