THESCRAPBOOK

I read a lot of shit books over the holiday (no link, cos that’d be unfair) but I read two great ones that I highly recommend. The first is Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature, by Mark Earls. I can genuinely say I’ve not read a business / marketing book that I’ve agreed with so much for a very long time. It’s filled with the sort of accessible psychology and sociology that you’ll have read in the likes of Tipping Point but with an applicability and research rigour that I certainly will quote from.

Looking at a “new” (though actually founded upon our core animal nature) approach to marketing based on the power of groups, Herd explains the ‘why’ of our struggles to influence mass behaviour. It reveals that most of us misunderstand the mechanics (the ‘how’) of mass behaviour because we have misplaced notions of what it means to be human.

Earls challenges some of our deepest ideas to reveal the truth about who we are and what marketers, managers, and governments can do to set about influencing mass behavior. He reveals that most of us misunderstand the mechanics of mass behavior because we have misplaced notions of what it means to be human.

Mark Earls challenges some of our deepest ideas to reveal the truth about who we are and what marketers, managers, and governments can do to set about influencing mass behavior. Bold in its conception and engaging in its execution, Herd offers the most radical new theory of consumer behavior in a generation.

The other one was No Country For Old Men, which is a beautifully written tale about greed, opportunity, and old age. I’ve not seen the film yet, but the book is stunning.

Read At Work:

Dont Click It

Two great websites that deserve to be here on TheScrapBook. Play with them yourself to appreciate what they’re all about!

Authentic reproductions of vintage cocktail books to be found here at Cocktail Kingdom

I used to have so many of these as a child - I’m sure they belonged in fact to my cousins in Pakistan, or possibly even my dad. Brilliant artwork on the covers, but the interiors were awesome too (though a bit dated now). Exploring takes of myth and legend of Mongols, Moghals, warriors, gods, princes and more.

Thanks for the memories, Ecstatic Days

Some real nice additions to the Dashwood Books site.

By Marion Bataille

Faber and Faber launches print on demand classics to make available a large number of titles which until now have been out of print (P-O-D website: Faber finds). The launch was written about in the Guardian Books section (2 May 2008) and talked about on the Today Programme this morning (3 June 2008). The Guardian wrote:

“The new titles, which will retail at about £9, and be printed with automatically generated cover designs, will not be stocked in large quantities by booksellers, but will be available to order through most major booksellers and the majority of internet-based book retailers.The publisher aims to publish up to 20 new titles every month, after the launch list of 100 books to be made available this June.”   

A day after its initial piece on the “print on demand” project the Guardian invited a group of writers to suggest titles of books which they would be requesting for reprint.The publisher, interviewed on the BBC4 Today Programme, informs that once 50 people sign their online petition ‘lost & found’ in favour of a particular title it will be published again.

“Young adults experience news fatigue from being inundated by facts and updates and have trouble accessing in-depth stories, according to a study to be unveiled at a global media conference Monday.”

USA Today has an interesting article on the way people’s news consumption habits have changed. I for one have all but stopped taking in news. Reading the Metro in the morning doesn’t count as real news, but snippets; and I found the way  I’m taking in the rest of the news through the net or broadsheets, reflects that same snack-sized information. Top-line, hard facts and the like.

So we’ve seen Penguin’s foray into the digital 2.0 world with their Google mash-up for We Tell Stories, but they’re not the only ones doing some interesting book marketing.

Chuck “Fight Club” Palahniuk’s latest novel, “Snuff” (out May 20th) is being promoted with a series of spoof trailers, for films called “Chitty Gang Bang“, “Wizard of Ass” and “The Twilght Bone”. Check out the MySpace page too, for Chuck Palahniuk’s starlet, Cassie Wright. (The films were direced by Honest)

Douglas Coupland’s latest novel, The Gum Thief had a similar, though more salubrious pre-launch marketing campaign. A number of different films have been made each exploring different cinematic techniques. The whole collection of book trailers can be viewed here, but below is an example of each.

Shepard Fairey gives George Orwell’s dystopian classics, 1984 and Animal Farm the Obey makeover for Penguin Books.

More at Obey Giant. Thanks to Creative Review