One More Quick Post for the Day...

In the world of random thoughts that roam around my head, I was struck all of the sudden today by how many interesting and smart people there are and how thanks to the internet, I get to learn from them.  I must confess that as I was driving at lunch today my thoughts also turned to how many stupid and annoying people there are, but maybe I just need to separate the way a person drives from who they actually are and what they are capable of.

Some of these brilliant people live on my blog roll (which if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can see).  One of the principals on this list, Seth Godin, always makes me think.  He just makes so much sense and he professes the type of honest, permission-based marketing that I wish to bring to any business that I am ever involved in, and seek to do currently.  Marketing sounds like a boring business topic, but actually, as you dig deeper into it, it can be a deeply psychological view into human behavior and how it permeates every single thing in our current society.  Godin's views seem to be so counter-cultural (by viewing people as *shocker* human-beings) and against the traditional grain of Marketing 101, that I take his advice straight to heart.

Today I had the privilege to add my dear friend, Rebekah O'Dell's newest blog to my list as well.  Already on here for her amazing pictures, her book review blog on all of the books that she reads is an absolute must-read.  I love her writing - she's an English teacher after all - and superb thoughts on all that she reads.  She is a profilic reader and writer and I'm so excited to get her reading recommendations, because they promptly go up on my "To-Get-To" List :).

Lastly I'll mention another friend of mine, Emily Thompson.  One of the sweetest girls I know, Emily also happens to be one of the funniest.  She is currently a second-year Wahoo and to say that she is a kindred spirit is an understatement :).  She maintains her own wonderful blog, where she chronicles thoughts on college life, relationships, and wonderful, beautiful things like Warrenton covered in snow.  One of my favorite posts that she has written has to be this one on college finals.  So hilarious!!

Twitter allows me many other learning opportunities as well - too many to link to on this blog.  I really have come to believe that that is Twitter's greatest asset - the opportunity to educate and inform others things that you find interesting and relevant.

So anyway, those are my thoughts and links to some amazing people who teach and inspire me!  There are of course a ton of others, so thank you to you all.  All that I am is really a conglomerate of what I learn from you all!

What to Read, What to Read?

Well, with just a few weeks left to go in the year 2008 (how is that actually possible? Where does time go? Am I living in a time warp?) I am trying to decide what book to pick up and try to finish before the year is out. I recently have read a lot of good books and have enjoyed pretty much everything that I picked up to read this year, and so want to close out 2008 with some good reads.

I have a recommendation from my best friend Rebekah to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but she did forewarn me that it is a pretty dark, depressing book. Not sure if I should try that right before the holidays, but really, when is there ever a good time to read a depressing book? So it is Number 1 on my list to consider.

I have a book by Thomas Friedman, the noted NY Times columnist, about living green and why it is essential. I read the article that he wrote that was the precursor to this book and it really inspired me as to why the Green Revolution is the next thing that we as a generation should pursue. I enjoy reading articles written by him, but he is not a quick and easy read. Reading his stuff takes time and thought and I go into my college-reading mode, taking my time to digest, analyze, and think about what is being said along the way. I also have the book The World is Flat by him that I have not read yet, but again, it will take time to digest it.

Then there is the book, The Shack that my roommate is reading right now. I have seen some of the message boards about it on RansomedHeart.net and it seems like a good book, and an easy book to get through. I think that is just the way though that most fiction is for me - easy to get through. And especially if there is a good story to go along with it, I fly - I cannot put the book down until I finish reading the last page.

I could come up with an entire list of stuff that I want to read - in fact, if you scroll down the side of this blog, you can see one of my widgets from GoodReads, and see what books I have on my "To Get To" list. Or you can check out my Visual Bookshelf posted on Facebook for pretty much the same list, but with a couple different books listed.

Do you have any recommendations? Read anything brilliant lately? Something so good that you just could not put it down? Please let me know!