Categories: Articles

Sharing, Celebrating And Selling Your Favorite Authors

There is nothing that inspires me more than a great book.

Yes, I love the power of connecting to content on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, magazines (Fast Company, Wired, etc…), online publications (Quartz, Lost At E Minor, PSFK, etc…), but if I could only choose one media, it would be books. I rarely read fiction. It’s non-fiction for me. I’m fascinated with the art of writing business books, and what these authors pull together into something substantive that can take months/years to crystallize. Not that long ago, one of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, pulled together a list of his favorite authors (you can read his list right here: Sharing and celebrating your favorite authors…). Seth’s right when he says: "Ideas that spread, win. If you speak up about an idea or an artist you care about, the word spreads, the world changes. Find a favorite and tell someone…". Like Seth, I regularly hand sell the work of my favorite authors. In fact, I often buy multiple copies of books that truly inspire me and give them away as gifts to people.

Here are just some of the authors that everyone should read (in alphabetical order):

James Altucher.
Dan Ariely.
Brene Brown.
Julie Burstein.
Susan Cain.
Alain De Botton.
Nancy Duarte.
Dave Eggers.
Bryan Eisenberg (and his brother, Jeffrey).
Jeffrey Gitomer.
Seth Godin.
Ann Handley.
Arianna Huffington.
Lewis Hyde.
Joseph Jaffe.
John Jantsch.
Steven Johnson.
Avinash Kaushik.
Austin Kleon.
Anne Lamott.
Nilofer Merchant.
Tom Peters.
Dan Pink.
Steven Pressfield.
Douglas Rushkoff.
Clay Shirky.
Sherry Turkle.
David Weinberger.

Ugh, now I feel bad for all of the amazing authors that I am surely forgetting.

Why not make your own list and share it? Not in the mood? Feel free to add to this list below in the comments or try out Seth’s new reviewing site: HugDug.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.