ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever

Following on from the 37 Signals first book, Getting Real. This books takes their software development thinking and expands on it for business. Basically stop spending cash on rubbish, stop having lots of boring, useless meetings, stop being dicks, stop wasting time and concentrate on what is really important. So you have more time to write book blogs of course.

Getting Real is available here to read for free.

From the founders of the trailblazing software company 37signals, here is a different kind of business book - one that explores a new reality. Today, anyone can be in business. Tools that used to be out of reach are now easily accessible. Technology that cost thousands is now just a few pounds or even free. Stuff that was impossible just a few years ago is now simple. That means anyone can start a business. And you can do it without working miserable 80-hour weeks or depleting your life savings. You can start it on the side while your day job provides all the cash flow you need. Forget about business plans, meetings, office space - you don't need them. With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, "Rework" is the perfect playbook for anyone who's ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs who want to get out, and artists who don't want to starve anymore will all find valuable inspiration and guidance in these pages. It's time to rework work.

The Internet Case Study Book

Preordered and dispatching on the 31st. From the people at FWA and packed full of interesting goodness from Industry Peers. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this stuff, as I've usually seen it and the last thing you want is a book crammed full of useless, good looking, marketing web stuff...

The Amazon synopsis talks about Strategies for Success - let's see, as we put a few to teh test.

This title offers strategies for success. It discusses how to make your business work online. Featuring 60 success stories, from clients' briefings to final projects, this book provides detailed studies divided into five chapters: e-Commerce, Corporate Sites, Campaigns, Social Media, and Promotional Sites. These subjects form the core of what the web can offer to every person or institution, and knowing how these projects were developed can help differentiate your business or online presence from that of your competitors. Strategies examined range from those of giant corporations to small businesses, but all have a common goal: a successful, efficient and cost-effective investment on the web. Each project is laid out in terms of Brief, Challenge, Strategy and Results. From Coca-Cola to Prine of Persia, from Diesel to Domino's Pizza, this book shows how successful businesses of any size can devise an effective online presence, and features the work of strategic innovators such as Ajaz Ahmed, Alex Bogusky, and Jeff Goodby.

Baked in: Creating products and businesses that market themselves

In Baked In, CP+B's Alex Bogusky tells us how 21st Century marketing will give us better products. To quote Mr Sall Ball, I wonder if Product Design agencies across the land are talking about doing advertising...

In principle this sounds interesting but the book gets bad reviews. Creating products is something that takes time, talent and vision. Ultimately this book says less about product design and more about advertising, and how it needs to be useful and/or entertaining and/or connecting and/or educational.

Brands must build a new relationship with their customers and the culture they participate in. The old rule was: Create safe, ordinary products and combine with mass marketing. The new rule is: Create truly innovative products and build the marketing right into them. Today the product is at the centre of the conversation. It's within the product itself that a brand has the most leverage with consumers. Baked In gives companies a step-by-step guide to how to adapt and succeed in this brave new world, where the product is not separate from the message but is the message.