Self Improvement Reading

Whether you’re looking to build that new book shelf, or looking for new ways to relieve stress during the work day, a good ol’ self-help book may just be what the doctor ordered. Optimize your mind and body with some self-improvement reading. The Blio Blog offers tips on which titles have helped our readers. Find out now!

What Would Don Draper Read? | Books on Advertising

June 7, 2012

in Classic Reading,Contemporary Reading,Controversial Reading,Self Improvement Reading

The books Don Draper reads helped get him to the top of the advertising world. Don’s bookshelf on the AMC series Mad Men is a much-talked about nuance of the show, a glimpse into the inner-workings of the flawed yet likeable protagonist. So much has changed in advertising since the 1960s, we wondered what books Don might read if he worked today. Here are a few books we thought deserved a home on the modern-day Draper bookshelf.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris: Don Draper would do well to look in on the day-to-day work life of his creative team. Ferris’ novel offers looks at the lives of the remaining employees at an office affected by a business downturn. They spend their time competing for the best office furniture left behind and enjoying secret romances, gossip, elaborate pranks, and frequent coffee breaks, while trying to make sense of their only remaining “work,” a mysterious pro-bono ad campaign.

Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy: Could Don have written this book himself? At the age of 37, Ogilvy founded the New York-based agency that later merged to form the international company known as Ogilvy & Mather. Regarded as the father of modern advertising, Ogilvy was responsible for some of the most memorable advertising campaigns ever created. This book is the distillation of all the Ogilvy concepts, tactics, and techniques, many of which Don has put into play himself at Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce.

Ulysses by James Joyce: Leopold Bloom will always be the best man in advertising. He’s the original ad man of modernism, with a mind far more obscene and confused than anything even Don Draper could work up. This controversial work changed the course of literature with its puns, parodies, allusions, stream-of-consciousness writing and clever structuring.

Social Media is a Cocktail Party by Jim Tobin: If anyone loves a cocktail party it’s Don Draper. Ever wonder how Don might have navigated the world of social media advertising? This book compares social media to a cocktail party, and how explains how to stop being a wallflower and start reaching people online.

Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley: If the characters on Mad Men like anything more than a tall glass of gin it’s a cigarette. And after working on the Lucky Strike account, Don could really relate to Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, as he undertakes a media blitz to defend the rights of smokers, a job that has unexpected repercussions when he is targeted by someone out to prove just how hazardous smoking can be.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki: The secrets of Don’s past and his humble, tumultuous upbringing have haunted him since he began his ascent in advertising. Hopefully he takes the lessons he learns on Madison Avenue and passes them down to his own children. Sally shouldn’t have to learn the hard way how to handle money. This book shows explains what the rich teach their kids about money that poor and middle-class families do not.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt: To be good at advertising Don would need to have a full understanding of the modern economy. Fortunately, Freakonomics offers an alternative view of how the economy really works, examining issues from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing — details that get to the heart of what moves consumers.

Zero Moment of Truth from Google: As the search engine giant puts it: Whether we’re shopping for corn flakes, concert tickets or a honeymoon in Paris, the Internet has changed how we decide and what to buy. Google calls this online decision-making moment the Zero Moment of Truth. And if you work in advertising, it’s a moment you absolutely have to win — and nobody likes to win more than Don Draper.

Do you have a favorite book about advertising? What do you think Don Draper should have on his bookshelf?

Tagged as: Advertising, Don Draper, Mad Men

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7 Books That Will Instantly Improve Your Writing

March 21, 2012

in Self Improvement Reading,Uncategorized

Good writers borrow; great writers read books about writing – or something like that. To help make your prose as surprising and enjoyable to read as possible, we’ve put together a list of 7 books that will instantly improve your writing. Read, take notes, and put pen to paper… or fingers to keyboard – something like that.

1. Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing

Clarity is the key. Leonard gives pointers to help the writer get out of their own way and begin constructing concise, polished prose that doesn’t sound like writing, but like storytelling. The book is illustrated (see drawing, above) and easy to follow and sure to improve your writing.

2. The Art of Fiction – John Gardner

Gardner’s “Notes on Craft for Young Writers” is a necessary handbook for any aspiring author – from basics of composing a sentence to more complex issues of plot and character development.  Forgo the MFA program, read Gardner, start improving your writing.

3. The Workshop

The collection of 43 stories and essays come from graduates of the Iowa Writers Workshop, and includes their unique views on the writing life and the program’s place in twentieth-century American literature. Each section provides great insights on ways to improve your writing.

4. Poetics – Aristotle

In this seminal work of literary theory, Aristotle defines plot structures, characters, and the philosophy of writing.

5. On Writing – Stephen King

The bestselling writer takes the reader on a journey through his early writing career, his days as a struggling author, through his breakout successes to his near fatal accident in 1999. King gives basic advice on craft and memory, while providing a detailed personal account of how he made it.

6. Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott

Instructions – often humorous – on the writing life. For example: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

7. The Art of the Novel – Milan Kundera

The Czech author discusses his own classic novels, as well as world of Kafka and other writers and thinkers like Hermann Broch, Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Musil.

What books have you read that have been useful in shaping and improving your writing? Leave their titles in the comments below and tell us what you found most useful.

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