Streetwise Business Tips:

200 Ways to Get Ahead in Business, Most of Which I Learned the Hard Way. By Bob Adams.

I found this little jewel of a book at the Tuscaloosa Public Library book sale.  It has some great advice in it.  Composed of short, one-page anecdotal advice snippets.  For example on pg. 10 he explains that the easiest way to profits is to cut costs.  He states that if your profit margin is 5% and you are able to cut 5% in expenses then you have doubled your profit margin.  On the other hand, if you want to double your profit margin to 10% w/o cutting costs then you would have to increase sales by 100%...a much tougher thing to do!!!

Turn the Ship Around

In the Nov. 12, 2012 issue of Fortune on pg. 44 there is a list of " must read books of the year".  One book that intrigued me is Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet. Read more about the book here.

A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America's Financial Disasters

I heard about this book on NPR's Marketplace during an author interview.  I found the book to be interesting and look forward to learning more about it.  I'll look for it in the Bruno Library at some point.

Do the Olympics Cost Too Much for the Host City?

This interesting debate is certainly worth discussing.  I love the Olympics and would hate to see them come to an end b/c of the cost!  I really don't think that will happen, but...

Click here to read a CNN article about the ongoing discussion.

Dan Ariely

I saw him speak at the recent American Library Assoc. Conference in Anaheim, CA.  I got a copy of his latest book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves.  He's a great teacher, speaker and researcher. I highly recommend his books.

What I Learned on the Way to the Top

by Zig Ziglar.  I bought this book at the Tuscaloosa Public Library bookstore.  I'm really enjoying reading a snippet (one page per day) while my computer boots-up in my office in the AM.  These are the type of books I really enjoy. They are light reading with a positive message (this one even includes a small Bible verse on each page to help get my day started in the right way).  A great read!!!

How to Read a Financial Report

by John A. Tracy. I bought this 3rd ed. recently from the Tuscaloosa Public Library bookstore. There are later editions that have been published. I think this will be a good book to read through to get a better understanding of company financials. Bruno Library has a 1999 e-edition that can be found here or some older print versions that are in the collection with the call number: HF5681.B2 T733

Learner-Centered Teaching : ...

Putting the Research on Learning Into Practice by Terry Doyle. Forward by Todd Zakrajsek.

I discovered this book around the last part of 2011. Dr. Z (Todd Zakrajsek) was the invited speaker at a UA faculty workshop at the Bryant Conference Center. He is a psychology professor at UNC and friend of the author of the book. I'm about half-way through this book and have found it to be very helpful in the way I lead my library instruction sessions. The book, in a nutshell, is about ways to move to an audience-centered format of teaching rather than lecture-information-data-dump style of teacher speaking and students taking notes and having little participation.

So far this is a good and helpful read!