Besides the YA novels, I've also been reading career books non-stop. I was interviewing for (and got!) a job with a lot more responsibility, including managing people. Here's a sample of what I've read:
One Minute Manager
I cannot describe the stupidity of how this book is set up. I was embarrassed to read it. Good tips, yes, but I don't need to be told this crap in the form of a "fable."
Influencer: The Power to Change Anything
I'm not sure how useful this will actually be. I picked it up because I wanted to a) influence possible employers to hire me and b) be a better fundraiser. It doesn't really help me with either, but as someone who works in public health (as a fundraiser) the discussion about we change people's behavior is still interesting.
The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch)
Obviously the title is terrible. I know I can be a boss without being a bitch, but I still want to know how to be a good boss. The vocabulary is demeaning ("chick-in charge"? Fuck you), but it does have useful information. It just constantly reminds you that you're female, as if you'd forget.
Do What You Are
Have you ever taken the Briggs-Myers personality test? I vaguely remember doing so in Junior English and scoring the same as the weirdo who sat next to me--I'm still convinced that he cheated off me. Anyway, I am an ISFJ. Although in high school we took the test to get an idea of what we would do when we grew up (my possible career path: shoe salesperson. Why shoes?), now I just wanted to be clearer on how to work with different personalities and how to express what my personality needs at a job. My current job is very influenced by certain personalities and I was recently criticized for not having that kind of a personality (trying to protect the innocent with my garbled desciption), and I have to say that having this book made me feel better about it. Not like I can't learn to do or act in a certain way, but I can confidently say now that I focus on work duties, not my coworkers personal lives, and that's fine. I know that with my new job, I can start out with this kind of confidence.
Showing posts with label obsessive list-making. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obsessive list-making. Show all posts
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Books that Changed Your Life
The Fountainhead? Really? You're willing to have that published on the internets?
You can't be judgmental when someone publishes a list like this--he is asking you to judge him and assumes that he comes off well. I'm always curious what is going through someone's mind when they write such a list. Did these books really change his life? Or are they just his absolute favorites, the type of book he returns to time and time again? Because those are the books that I was thinking about when pondering this question. But I cannot serious say that Pride and Prejudice changed my life, except that I re-read it a lot and will annoyingly refer to "fine eyes" and truths universally known. So what are the books that really impacted the way I thought about myself and the outside world?
Not surprisingly, I refer back to adolescence and childhood for the most part. (I am far too crusty and opinionated now to allow a book to change my thought processes.)
* Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (series): Ah, protestant work ethic and the pioneer DIY spirit. And the detail of Mary's buttons and Laura's bonnets. This book is why I need therapy once a week.
* The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I still want a plot of earth all to my own. I think I liked
Mary best when she was bossing around Colin and making him jealous about Dickon. But I liked the three of them together, a secret, motley crew of agriculturally-minded weirdos. This book is why I got into punk.
* Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation ed. Barbara Findlen: This was the first feminist book I ever had. It given to me by my Republican uncle, who disagreed with my taste but wanted to get me a gift I would appreciate--in other words, trusting a young woman to make her own decision, an act I wish his political brethren would imitate. I considered myself a feminist before (duh, I put the book on my christmas wish list), but I had little exposure to a feminist community or women who were active in feminist activism. I learned about the multiple oppressions that face women from a variety of backgrounds, about teen motherhood, about feminist reasons NOT to have a (medical) abortion, about issues that never faced me in my sheltered, white, suburban life. This book is why I'm still excited to be a feminist.
* Fear of Flying by Erica Jong: I must have been 16 or 17 when I read this, so it's somewhat surprising that it impacted me as much as it did. After all, I wasn't married, didn't have any sexual experience, didn't find farting and dirty toes sexy. And yet, I constantly struggled with the idea of being an independent, intelligent young woman and being sexually and romantically fulfilled. I didn't know how to do it. It seemed like relationships at that age demanded that you be a clingy girlfriend, withholding or "giving up" sex as part of a complex system of power and control, not pleasure. I can't say that Fear of Flying showed me how to have a healthy relationship (because...no), but it did let me know that I was not a freak for wanting a healthy balance between intelligence and sex. This book is why I own a vibrator (or 3). It's also why I'm fascinated by book covers that undermine the content of the book (I still have the infamous body bag/naked torso cover pictured).
Okay, judge away. I just hope my grandmother never finds this post...
You can't be judgmental when someone publishes a list like this--he is asking you to judge him and assumes that he comes off well. I'm always curious what is going through someone's mind when they write such a list. Did these books really change his life? Or are they just his absolute favorites, the type of book he returns to time and time again? Because those are the books that I was thinking about when pondering this question. But I cannot serious say that Pride and Prejudice changed my life, except that I re-read it a lot and will annoyingly refer to "fine eyes" and truths universally known. So what are the books that really impacted the way I thought about myself and the outside world?
Not surprisingly, I refer back to adolescence and childhood for the most part. (I am far too crusty and opinionated now to allow a book to change my thought processes.)
* Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (series): Ah, protestant work ethic and the pioneer DIY spirit. And the detail of Mary's buttons and Laura's bonnets. This book is why I need therapy once a week.
* The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I still want a plot of earth all to my own. I think I liked
Mary best when she was bossing around Colin and making him jealous about Dickon. But I liked the three of them together, a secret, motley crew of agriculturally-minded weirdos. This book is why I got into punk.* Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation ed. Barbara Findlen: This was the first feminist book I ever had. It given to me by my Republican uncle, who disagreed with my taste but wanted to get me a gift I would appreciate--in other words, trusting a young woman to make her own decision, an act I wish his political brethren would imitate. I considered myself a feminist before (duh, I put the book on my christmas wish list), but I had little exposure to a feminist community or women who were active in feminist activism. I learned about the multiple oppressions that face women from a variety of backgrounds, about teen motherhood, about feminist reasons NOT to have a (medical) abortion, about issues that never faced me in my sheltered, white, suburban life. This book is why I'm still excited to be a feminist.
* Fear of Flying by Erica Jong: I must have been 16 or 17 when I read this, so it's somewhat surprising that it impacted me as much as it did. After all, I wasn't married, didn't have any sexual experience, didn't find farting and dirty toes sexy. And yet, I constantly struggled with the idea of being an independent, intelligent young woman and being sexually and romantically fulfilled. I didn't know how to do it. It seemed like relationships at that age demanded that you be a clingy girlfriend, withholding or "giving up" sex as part of a complex system of power and control, not pleasure. I can't say that Fear of Flying showed me how to have a healthy relationship (because...no), but it did let me know that I was not a freak for wanting a healthy balance between intelligence and sex. This book is why I own a vibrator (or 3). It's also why I'm fascinated by book covers that undermine the content of the book (I still have the infamous body bag/naked torso cover pictured).Okay, judge away. I just hope my grandmother never finds this post...
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