I religiously read The New York Times EVERY day. And I always read the op-ed from Tom L. Friedman, Maureen Dowd, Gail Collins, and David Brooks.

I always read New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Harvard Business Review. I wish I had more time for magazines but between work, family, three kids, exercise, etc., there is just not enough time in the day or the week.

And of course, I read our trade journals daily, weekly, monthly – Women’s Wear Daily, 20/20 Magazine, Vision Monday, Eyecare Business, and Accessories Magazine.

Recent Books

I just finished reading Bill Clinton’s new book Back to Work. I will avoid the political debate and simply say it is really important that we all stay informed and read varying view points on our economic issues and familiarize ourselves with the different options we have in front of us. We have a real crisis looming and if we do not do something soon, our economy will continue to stagnate and the next generation will have to shoulder an even larger burden. Clinton’s book does a great job of laying out a number of options and policies we should at least consider as we tackle these hugely complex and important issues.

I recently read Tony Hsieh’s book Delivering Happiness (and had the pleasure to meet Tony while visiting Zappos in September).  His book made me want to completely change the way we approach service and our overall company environment.  I like to think we do many things well, but Zappos does it MUCH better.

Tom Friedman’s latest, That Used to Be Us. Why don’t our politicians consult with Tom? He and many other great writers could have our problems solved over lunch.

I wish I had a longer recent list - did you see the part above about three young kids?? I could list The Cat in the Hat and Goodnight Moon and Where The Wild Things Are but maybe this isn’t the appropriate spot.

My All Time Favorites

LIFE, by Keith Richards. The single best book ever written.

Anything by Pat Conroy, Nick Hornby or Jonathan Franzen.

Great Business Books & Authors – These are The Classics for me. 

Jack Mitchell: Hug Your Customers. When I read this, I changed our entire approach to service at our company.
 
 
 
 

Tom Peters: the pre-eminent business writer in the USA. In Search of Excellence and the follow up, The Pursuit of Wow - he chronicles how companies stand out from the crowd.
 
 
 
 

Jim Collins: From Good to Great. Probably one of the most popular business books of all time. Jim’s book really made me think about my company. The question Jim raised for me which I want to share with all of you is, “You are probably satisfied with your business today. You are probably running a GOOD business. GREAT is attainable. Do you want to get there? Or are you satisfied with good?”
 
 
 

Jeffrey Gitomer: A sales and marketing guru, he has written a number of book. My favorite is Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. The title says it all. His books will definitely make you think about how you sell and how you treat your customers.