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10 best buys for your bookworm

Selecting a book to give as a gift is a bit different from choosing one for yourself. You might want to make an impression, send a message, teach a lesson, enlighten or just give something nice to someone you like.

By TIMES WIRES
Published December 22, 2006

Selecting a book to give as a gift is a bit different from choosing one for yourself. You might want to make an impression, send a message, teach a lesson, enlighten or just give something nice to someone you like. With those things in mind and the holidays on the horizon, here are 10 ideas from Miami Herald columnist Richard Pachter that should accomplish one or all of those things, depending on the recipient and the giver: 

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual

By Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, Perseus Books Group, 190 pages, $14

The first and best explanation of the new realities of the emerging customer-driven economy. A good one for those who "just don't get it."

Soft Selling in a Hard World: Plain Talk on the Art of Persuasion

By Jerry Vass, Running Press, 240 pages, $12

My all-time favorite sales book should be studied by anyone who wants to communicate and persuade by providing solutions to someone's problems.

Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors

By Jaynie L. Smith with William G. Flanagan, Currency, 240 pages, $19.95

It's almost insultingly obvious, but if a product or service lacks a clear advantage over the competition's, why bother with it? Smith and Flanagan's elegant little book ought to be mandatory reading for all entrepreneurs.

A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age

By Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead, 288 pages, $24.95

Although America as manufacturing giant is done, Pink (whose Free Agent Nation is a great read) shows how we can survive and triumph with our creativity and ingenuity.

MBA in a Box: Practical Ideas from the Best Brains in Business

By Joel Kurtzman, Glenn Rifkin and Victoria Griffith, Crown Business, 448 pages, $34.95

Less expensive than going to Harvard or Stanford University, this book is a veritable cornucopia of required information in a variety of critical fields.

Think and Grow Rich

By Napoleon Hill, various publishers, various prices

You can buy the original restored text or just be frugal and e-mail the link www.sacred-texts.com/nth/tgr/index.htm as a present. The original 1938 classic still offers ample wisdom amid the earnest banalities.

Introducing Machiavelli

By Patrick Curry and Oscar Zarate, Totem Books, 175 pages, $12.95

I maintain that the author of The Prince unfairly gets a bad rap and this illustrated but uncomical primer is a revelation and a lot of fun, whether you agree or not.

Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America

By Les Standiford, Crown, 336 pages, $24.95

Florida International University's creative writing guru and Miami Noir mastermind presents a page-turner of a historical tale that reads like a fine novel.

Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made

By Andy Hertzfeld, O'Reilly, 291 pages, $24.95

Mac lovers will squeal with delight at the story, screen shots, prototypes and bad hair days of the freaks and geeks who fought to create the first truly personal computer.

IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation

By Edwin Black, Three Rivers Press, 560 pages, $30

It will shock and horrify, but this secret history of the American company that actively enabled the Nazis' efficient extermination of millions is also impossible to put down.

[Last modified December 21, 2006, 22:59:40]