Books of the World newsletter

NUMBER 012

AUGUST - 2000

Previous issues:
NEWS AND ARTICLES
  • Ellroy's New E-Book Up For Bid When the rights to James Ellroy's Widespread Panic go out to bid, it'll be the first time an e-book will be auctioned off to a publisher.
  • Libraries: Checking Out In The Digital Age Paper, ink, books, shelves, dust: These were the hallmarks of research libraries all of 10 years ago. And for all its concentration on matters cerebral, the act of research itself was steeped in the physical: People traveled to libraries, sifted through card catalogues, walked the stacks hunting for books, fished tomes from shelves, lugged them to photocopy machines, leafed through pages and penned notes on paper. By Doug Brown, Inter@ctive Week.
  • Talking Books Speak Volumes Digital talking books could revolutionize the way individuals who are blind or print-disabled enjoy texts. Will these books go mainstream? One group is working to see that happens. By Kendra Mayfield.
  • This E-Book Is a Free Book Best-selling author Seth Godin, whose day job is Internet marketer, has a revolutionary idea: Offer an entire book for free online. He's putitbusng his money where his mouse is. By M.J. Rose.





RECENT ADDITIONS TO "BOOKS OF THE WORLD"


RECOMMENDED BOOKS
  • "Living on the Fault Line"
    by Geoffrey Moore

    According to Geoffrey Moore, author of "Crossing the Chasm" and "Inside the Tornado," your company's management agenda could be dangerously out of date. In "Living on the Fault Line," Moore explores the challenges of management in the age of the Internet and passes along a few New Economy tricks.
  • "eBoys"
    by Randall Stross

    In "eBoys," Randall Stross casts his inquisitive eye on the workings of Silicon Valley's venture capitalists--in particular, a group of tall (average height 6 feet 5 inches) white guys at Benchmark Capital. The result is a dramatic account of the risk-taking group that bankrolled some of the Internet's biggest names, including eBay, Webvan, and Priceline.com.
  • "ChangeWave Investing"
    by Tobin Smith

    Investment guru Tobin Smith combines his two loves- -marketing and the search for growth stocks--to show how you can invest in and profit from the New Economy.
  • "The Monk and the Riddle"
    by Randy Komisar

    Randy Komisar can say it with a straight face: "It's not about the money." In "The Monk and the Riddle," Komisar, former CEO of LucasArts Entertainment and now "virtual CEO" of several emerging companies, explains what success really means in the heart of Silicon Valley. In this interview with Amazon.com, Komisar talks about risk and failure, the uniqueness of Silicon Valley, and what Steve Jobs brought to Apple.
  • "Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman"
    by Gail Evans

    In "Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman," CNN Executive Vice President Gail Evans takes a piercing look at today's workplace and discovers that what's limiting the success of women in the workplace is not a "glass ceiling," but the rules that women impose on themselves. In this interview with Amazon.com, Evans talks about power, perfectionism, and the virtues of being an imposter in the workplace.
  • "The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding"
    by Al and Laura Ries

    The authors of "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding" think they know how branding works on the Internet--and what they say may surprise you. In "The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding," Al and Laura Ries share their not-so-conventional views of what successful branding means in cyberspace.
  • "Clicks and Mortar"
    by David Pottruck and Terry Pearce

    According to David Pottruck (co-CEO at Schwab) and Terry Pearce, virtually every business will have to embrace the Internet sooner or later--which means profound changes internally as well as externally. In "Clicks and Mortar," they offer an insightful road map for creating the culture and leadership necessary to meet the e-commerce challenge.
  • "Irrational Exuberance"
    by Robert Shiller

    Ever since Alan Greenspan first uttered them in 1996, the words "irrational exuberance" have caused many a sleepless night for both professional and individual investors. In "Irrational Exuberance," Yale professor Robert Shiller reflects on the many factors and feedback loops that have kept stocks priced so high for so long. Look out below!
  • "Beyond the Basics"
    by Mary Farrell

    Online investing has lead thousands to the stock market for the first time. But after you've gotten your feet wet (or burned), what's next? In "Beyond the Basics," PaineWebber analyst and Wall $treet Week "elf" Mary Farrell helps both novice and experienced investors find their edge in today's turbulent markets.
  • "The eProcess Edge: Creating Customer Value and Business Wealth in the Internet Era"
    by Peter Keen, Mark McDonald

    Publication date: June 23, 2000
    Binding: Paperback
  • "Communities of Commerce : Building Internet Business Communities to Accelerate Growth, Minimize Risk, and Increase Customer Loyalty"
    by Stacey E. Bressler, et al
    Publication date: June 23, 2000
    Binding: Hardcover
  • "Internet Marketing for Your Tourism Business : Proven Techniques for Promoting Tourist-Based Businesses over the Internet"
    by Susan Sweeney

    Publication date: July 2000
    Binding: Paperback
  • "Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology"
    by Howard Rheingold

    Where will our new machines take us? Back in 1985, forward- thinking Howard Rheingold asked research pioneers to describe the nascent personal-computer revolution and its trajectory, and then examined their predecessors' work, in "Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology." Republished 15 years later with a new afterword by the author, the book is an excellent slice of "retrospective futurism"--showing how we got to our largely wired world and where we might find ourselves in the future, as well as exploring some might-have-been scenarios that still seemed likely in the '80s.
  • "You Say You Want a Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics"
    by Reed E. Hundt

    Won't someone think of the children? Former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (and friend of Alan) Reed E. Hundt tried to keep the nation's youngest citizens in mind as he helped shape the early-'90s metamorphosis of the communications industry. His memoir of those years, "You Say You Want a Revolution," is strangely free of the bitterness we'd expect from a man who had to struggle with business leaders and Congress for every step forward.
  • "Rescuing Prometheus"
    by Thomas P. Hughes

    Building the pyramids was child's play compared with designing the Internet and other highly complex 20th-century projects. So many individuals and organizations had to come together to build these more recent monumental structures successfully that new ways of managing complex undertakings had to be invented on the spot. Eminent technology historian Thomas P. Hughes explores the development of systems engineering in "Rescuing Prometheus," which focuses on four projects that are bewildering in their scope, yet were completed successfully.
  • "Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs"
    by Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, and Alex Lowy

    God forbid that doing business and making money on the Internet should bear any resemblance whatsoever to the past millennium of bricks-and-mortar capitalism--that would be too easy. Nope, it's a whole different ball game now, and the new rule is "adapt or die." At least that's the message in "Digital Capital."
  • "Clicks and Mortar"
    by David S. Pottruck and Terry Pearce

    David S. Pottruck, president and co-CEO of Charles Schwab, and Terry Pearce, founder of Leadership Communication, are among those who believe the Net will change forever the way business is conducted--if it hasn't done so already. In "Clicks and Mortar," they draw on personal experience to suggest that corporate officials prepare for this new reality by refocusing their practices, principles, and passions on the real needs of a 21st-century company.
  • "The Social Life of Information"
    by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid

    How many times has your PC crashed today? While Gordon Moore's now-famous law projecting the doubling of computer power every 18 months has more than borne itself out, it's too bad that a similar trajectory projecting the reliability and usefulness of all that power didn't come to pass, too. Advances in information technology are measured most often in the cool numbers of megahertz, throughput, and bandwidth--but, for many of us, the experience of these advances might be measured better in hours of frustration.
  • "Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century"
    by Howard K. Bloom

    Is the Internet just the latest embodiment of the collective brain, a global learning phenomenon that affects all earthlings, whether plant, animal, or mineral? Howard Bloom's "Global Brain," a sequel to his famed book "The Lucifer Principle," asserts that every creature, from bacteria in the primordial soup to human infants, exists in an environment of mass information--a collective consciousness that evolves with the times.
  • "Inventing the Internet"
    by Janet Abbate

    Publication date: September 2000
    ARPANET, the original proto-Internet, was created with the cooperation of a hodgepodge of private-sector types, government organizations, professors, students, and such. An entire technology sector has grown up with the Internet, including now universal applications like e-mail and the Web. "Inventing the Internet" tells the story of the Internet from its beginning: its migration from a mere think tank idea to its full-blown, sprawling current state.
  • "The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier"
    by Howard Rheingold

    Publication date: October 2000
    This updated edition of the 1993 original argues that netizens behave much like people in ordinary, physical communities--with an added element of darkness. A new chapter studies the impact of higher numbers of wired folks on social communication.
  • "The Engines of Our Ingenuity: An Engineer Looks at Technology and Culture"
    by John H. Lienhard

    "The Engines of Our Ingenuity" reports on the uncanny ability of our technology--whether discovered by chance or through purposeful innovation--to affect society profoundly throughout history. For example, the telephone was invented for business use only, and the typewriter initially was a mere curiosity, certainly not considered an eventual substitute for handwriting. The worst technological disasters ever are also examined, along with strange designs of certain things (airplanes, for example), giving you the notion that they couldn't possibly work properly.



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