Reading lists are for losers

In the last month I've read four books that I'd had on my reading list for quite some time. The Long Tail, Black Swan, Freakonomics and The Viking Manifesto were all books that had either been recommended to me or that I'd spotted and decided to plough through.

A lot of people have read those books. You could start to try and define me and my interests by the fact that I'd read those books. Except that you can't. I chose my reading material only on the basis that someone else recommended it, or because the cover looked pretty, not necessarily because I wanted or needed to.

I had a web2.0ey conversation with someone recently where I stated an opinion, their immediate response was, "you REALLY NEED to read Cluetrain Manifesto, THEN you'll see".

I appreciate the idea and opinion that we're defined and educated by the books that we read and for specific professions nothing could be truer. If I were a software engineer, I would be damn proud of having read Linux for Dummies. In marketing and PR I would argue that that statement holds far less true.

The skills that we need as PRs or marketers all relate back to an understanding of humanity; how people tick and what motivates their actions. On that basis it seems a tad dumb to be reducing our business reading to tomes that cover the same niche of society, and yet so frequently we do.

All I need to do my job properly is to use and broaden my life experience. I need to understand how people react so that I can put myself in their shoes when I'm planning and running a campaign.

Ironically, in Black Swan the first chapter concerns itself with a theoretical example known as Umberto Eco's anti-library. Umberto was an academic with a magnificent and broad library of books. Most people who visited this temple of academia earnt his disdain by announcing what an impressive collection of books he had and asking how many he had read. The few visitors who got the point, understood that the books he had read were far less important than the ones he had not.

On this slightly paradoxical basis, creating common lists of research material is well meaning but ultimately a short sighted activity.

I've just returned from an evening out watching The Revenger's Tragedy at the National Theatre with some tickets that were donated by new buddy and all-round legend @monkeyliz.

The production is incredible and the staging especially impressive. I'd never been to the National before so didn't know what to expect but it ruddy well blew my socks off. In addition to this, I've also read Atonement recently, watched Stranger Than Fiction at the weekend and am planning to go to the Great British Beer Festival on Thursday.

None of these activities are at all PR focused but by golly I feel like I'm going to be better at my job as a result.