The Five Books I Ordered For My Birthday

Birthdays are a funny thing as we get a little older. Nobody's too sure what to get you if they even want to give you a gift at all. I hate when I get asked what I want because I know I don't really need anything in particular and the things I want are a little too pricey for a mere birthday gift. Last week my wife had a surprise party for me and that was a great gift (she also got us tickets to the John Mayer/Sheryl Crow show coming up...another great gift). I got to spend time with a bunch of friends and it was really fun but apparently everyone thinks I really like Starbucks because I racked up nearly $100 in gift cards to Starbucks. I think I'm covered for a while. In fact, I'm more than covered...so here's an idea for a little free coffee to someone reading the blog...the first person to email me who wants to meet up for coffee here in the Nashville metro area (at the Starbucks location of your choosing) just has to ask (fourthbill@gmail.com) and it's all yours. We can talk about anything you want. What do you think? You, me, and Starbucks for free!

Ok, back to what I was actually going to post about...I got a gift certificate to Amazon.com (thanks M,K,E,&SE) and some cash so I promptly spent it all on five books. My friend Randy said a while back that he always likes to see what books people are reading...so I'll share five books that I'll be reading soon...

• Purple Cow - This is a Seth Godin book that I read a few months ago but I had borrowed it from Chris and since I obey all borrower rules and returned it promptly after completion I don't have it anymore. It's good enough that I knew I needed my own copy.
• Small is the New Big - The latest from Seth Godin
• Naked Conversations - Robert Scoble's book about blogging
• The Long Tail - This is a big deal...and I need to know more of what it's all about.
• The Search - We all want to get better Google ratings don't we? I hear this book has the goods.