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It's raining books

Good blog posts require good blog fodder (defined as "an interesting idea, story, or link. Referred to as blog fodder when your first reaction is to use it in your blog." see Urban Dictionary.), so I am going to start sending interesting books to interesting ActiveRain bloggers. Now to be clear, we are not giving these books away. We expect that once you finish reading the book you will either send it back to ActiveRain, or preferably pass it onto an associate who will commit to the same set of rules you did, etc, etc.

This week I will be sending out approximately 25 books to ActiveRainers. I will decide who will get the first batch by looking to the authors of this weeks featured posts. So if in the next couple of days you write a post that is selected as a featured post and you would like to receive any of the books listed below, name which book you want in the comments section of your featured post, and make sure your address is correct in your profile. The list of books to choose from: Smart Mobs, Purple Cow, Wikinomics, Cluetrain Manifesto, Naked Conversations, and The Long Tail. If you are having trouble deciding which book to choose, then win Mark Flander's contest and I will send you all six of them!

Posted by Jonathan Washburn on 02/19/2007 06:23 AM

Comments (33)

books, blog fodder

Originally posted at: jonwashburn: It's raining books

33 Comments on It's raining books

FEB

2007

Well - I have three of them already - still sitting on the "smart shelf" - however - Smart Mobs, Cluetrain Manifesto and Wikinomics look interesting. I've added them to my Amazon.com basket just in case I don't win! :-)

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Wow that's some heavy rain!

Sounds like a great way to stir the rain barrel and activate some interesting articles!

And I am just here ready to help someone edit their post!

And what are you going to do for those that took my challenge earlier this week?

Wow! It's a virtual 'Reading Rainbow!' Nice touch, Jon. Thanks!

Jon, what a great idea! I especially like that you're encouraging us to "pay it forward."

How about any of us that have them already nominate them for redistribution?

Tony's ahead of me again! I've only got two of the books on my "Smart Shelf" - Purple Cow and The Long Tail. I'm probably better to buy books than borrow them as I tend to have yellow markers all through the good ones (non-fiction, that is) and go back to read portions of them again and again. It was too early for this contest, but another great book to read is one I blogged about recently, "Exceeding Customer Expectations" about Enterprise Car Rentals.

Jonathan

I love this idea and applaud your initiative. It's an innovative approach to rewarding a "cyber activity" with a timeless gift. Very appropriate, indeed, when I think of the countless times that I've tried to push myself away from the computer to read a book. Regrettably, the computer now wins more often then not.

What do you think of a contest for best book reviews?

I think this is awesome! In all of the years I have been in business, the one overriding characterisitc of the successful was that they read and grew their minds on a daily basis. Jonathan, I applaud you on this offer-one of the reasons that I love this site is the free expression of ideas that allows the entire community to grow as individuals. Thank you!!!

That's a cool idea! I do not have any of these books as of yet. Hopefully this will get people reading, thinking and sending along.

I wish I knew how to read:)

Me too :)

Already have wikinomics in my bag, heading overseas on Friday, now if I was just disciplined enough to post a review when I get back.

I'm always interested in good informative books to help me . Thank you for the tip.

Patricia Aulson/REALTOR/SEACOAST, NH & ME

This is a great idea, Jonathan. What a great way to build our community even more! These are such great books, from my experience and from what I have heard.

Jonathan,

I'm thinking its a pretty good idea. Being new to blogging myself the learning curve was pretty severe from the get go. I do not have any of the books that you mention. If they though provide a literary council that could be used as a primer, I believe that would be a good thing.

Observation:The Posts that I have read in the last couple of weeks that have caused me to leave a comment or read and learn from, are the Posts that are reflections of real life situations either lived by ( participated in ) or observed by the Author of the post. I truly love the posts that tell an interesting story with a message wrapped inside. I also like Posts that are lists or are the Top ten as the old saying goes when the student is ready the teacher will appear. I don't necessarily care for complaint posts. For my feeling on that subject is : Grow up life is not fair and it is not our responsibility to craft a trouble free life for you.

But then again everyone posts for a different reason. And " Thats the way it is " ( thanks Walter )

Herb

Thanks for the great info. About a month ago, my partner asked me what a blog was. I tried to explain it and had no idea how to do it. The desire is to rise to the top. Thanks again, Chris in Princeton

I am of the impatient variety, Naked Conversations and the Long Tail are already on their way to me by way of Ebay, lol. Thanks for the reading list Jonathan.

laurie

Never read one of them. I just write what's going on for that time and that though and try to put you in the picture.

No wonder little kids like my scary stories!!! :-)

Very Cool! I think it's a great idea!

What a great idea this is! I hadn't heard of any of these until today.....they all sound like interesting reading.

Ann

Jonathan,

Thanks for the post. You guys are turning up the heat. The challenge is now on!

I'm looking forward to reading the blog posts that will be generated in response to this.

Judi

Jonathan...

I left my request on my AR ROAR Review Post :)

I want a book. Don't make me stomp my lovely foot :)

TLW...ROAR!

I did two last week doesn't that count for anything? LOLOL ok ok just kidding :-) Nice list, I agree

That's pretty cool of you guys Jonathan!! and very creative!

yay... more free stuff for activerain!

FEB

2007

Jonathan.... these look like some good books. Thanks for sharing this and adding it into the contest.

FEB

2007

Jonathan, I absolutely love reading...I've just started reading about Blogging recently. Thanks for another great incentive. I'll definitely sign up on my Blog.

FEB

2007

Hi Jonathan! Great post- I haven't read any of those books yet...

Can I give you a little tip? You know how you have those anchor text links to the books in your post? I am assuming you have an Amazon account...

Anyway, I kept trying to click the books to "Search Inside," but the books had no links. :-(

After you get your text links from Amazon and you have them worked into your text, you can put your cursor on those linked words and then click the hyperlink tool to bring up that affiliate link that was generated... It'll show that long string of code that includes your affiliate link. Highlight and copy that linking code and then go back and click on your book images. Click the hyperlink tool again and paste the same link that was created for your text.

Of course, you might just be linking directly to the books and maybe you don't have an Amazon account at all. Than, I'm just an idiot.

I have heard good things about The Cluetrain Manifesto.

FEB

2007

What a great idea to get yourself out there. I am a week new here at the rain, and I think that I have just now learned what the stars on some of the blogs mean. Those are the featured posts, or am I off my rocker? Looking forward to hopefully getting a mailing from you one day!

Michelle