Two Challenges for Business Book Readers

It’s a challenge to select a book to read from the gazillions of books available. Most of us pay attention to the recommendations of others, the way the members of our Intentional Reading Panel do.

You can read book reviews that suggest books that you should (or should not) read. I do book reviews on this site and, every Thursday, I publish reviews and summaries by others on my Writing Edge site.

Sometimes you have a different challenge. Sometimes your knowledgeable, and perhaps snooty, colleague references a classic business book (like Peter Drucker’s Effective Executive) that you haven’t read. You want to be able to keep up, so you want to find out a little bit about those classics. If you read my reviews of business book classics, you can catch up on some of them.

Reading books about books can help you with both challenges. Here are three books about books that I like. You may want to buy them and keep them handy on your shelf or on your Kindle.

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

This book reviews the 100 best books of all time to tell you what they say, why they matter, and how they can help you. The book is organized by category. There are twelve of them, including You, Leadership, Strategy, Innovation and Creativity, and more. The categories can help you find great books on a particular topic. The latest edition of this book includes sections and recommendations about several great women business authors writing today.

The Best Business Books Ever

This selection of 130 books is organized in alphabetical order. Each book includes several sections. They are: Why Read It, Getting Started, Contribution, and Context. The sections on Context and Contribution are especially valuable because they reference other books.

The Leader’s Bookshelf

This book identifies “the top 50 books that can help anyone become a better leader.” The authors chose their books based on the recommendations of senior active and retired US military leaders. They picked books based on the special insights which helped them achieve success. The result is a selection that is much broader than simple business or leadership books. There is some historical fiction, books of history, biographies, memoirs, and more.

These are great books, but there is one obvious problem. Because they’re books, they’re frozen in time. They won’t tell you much about current business books and the best choices, and they won’t give you an idea about how thought patterns might be changing.

Use Them Together

Sometimes a book that you would like to know more about is on more than one list. That gives you a way to compare different takes on the book. Other times, the fact that there are three books means that you’ll find a book even if it’s on only one of the lists.

Bottom Line

These three books about books can help you find interesting things to read, or help you find what an important book is about without having to read it yourself first. Books about books like these can help you make your reading better.