Reviews with TLC

I started reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Vintage) by Cheryl Strayed with some resistance. I had heard many people gushing about Wild ,   and, far too often, I am disappointed by books people gush about. I tried to temper my expectations as I started the book. My resistance faded quickly. Strayed writes honestly, sometimes brutally, about her life and her experiences. The words often felt so raw they rubbed against my comfort zone bringing old insecurities, stupid decisions, and brazen moves to the surface. I winced in recognition of emotional states and shook at my head at decisions I would never have made because I wanted to change the trajectory of Strayed experiences. Wild immerses the reader in Strayed's decision making, or sometimes lack thereof. Strayed takes the reader along on a ride that at times feels like being pulled onto a trail without full knowledge of what one is doing just as was Strayed's experience. I felt immersed in the book...

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin had been on my reading list for a very long time after a couple of people recommended it to me and I'd seen it referenced as describing the "right" way to market. Perhaps I'm a bit too cynical, but reading this book made me realize why I hate so much of the marketing we see today. While this book is a how-to book about marketing strategy, I have to admit the techniques within sounded a bit manipulative to me. I'm a straightforward kind of person, and I truly don't appreciate it when people wrap up their marketing techniques in thinly veiled manipulations. In theory, I can see how permission marketing is preferable to many types of marketing, but it's really not that hard to use it to provide false choice. The book makes some excellent points about not spamming people and respecting other people's space. Godin also clues in consumers that they are agreeing to receive marketing material when they sign up for a newsle...