BOOKS I READ - OCTOBER 2018
For those of you who read my article last month you will know that I have set myself a challenge to read more every day of every week for the rest of the year (and beyond).
As part of this challenge I decided that I am going to share my monthly reading list here with all the links that will lead you to where you can find and obtain the books I've recently read.
If you like any of the books let me know in the comments...
If you've also read a good book in the last month please share in the comments also...
Anyway lets kick this article off for October:
- In The Blink Of An Eye: A Perspective On Film Editing by Walter Murch
This book is still available on Amazon and its well worth a read.
Its written by multi-award winning editor Walter Murch and is probably one of the best books you will ever find on video editing.
I've heard a lot about the book over the years and finally got around to reading it in the last month.
The blurb for the book tells you the following:
In the Blink of an Eye is editor Walter Murch's essay of film editing. Starting with what might seem to be the most basic editing question - Why do cuts work? - he treats the reader to a marvelous "ride" through the esthetics and practical concerns of cutting film. Along the way, he offers his insights on such subjects as continuity and discontinuity in editing, dreaming, and real life; the criteria of a good cut; and the blink of the eye as both an analog to and an emotional cue for the cut. New to this second edition is Murch's lengthy meditation on the current state of digital editing.
Where to get it: https://www.amazon.com/Blink-Eye-Perspective-Film-Editing/dp/1879505622
2. Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business by David Mamet
If you've seen any of my posts on LinkedIn you will know I am a very big fan of David Mamet both in terms of his writing and directing and his philosophy on both these skills that he shares through his fantastic books.
The blurb for the book will tell you the following:
From the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and playwright: an exhilaratingly subversive inside look at Hollywood from a filmmaker who’s always played by his own rules.
Who really reads the scripts at the film studios? How is a screenplay like a personals ad? Why are there so many producers listed in movie credits? And what on earth do those producers do anyway? Refreshingly unafraid to offend, Mamet provides hilarious, surprising, and refreshingly forthright answers to these and other questions about every aspect of filmmaking from concept to script to screen. A bracing, no-holds-barred examination of the strange contradictions of Tinseltown, Bambi vs. Godzilla dissects the movies with Mamet’s signature style and wit.
Where to get it: https://www.amazon.com/Bambi-vs-Godzilla-Practice-Business/dp/1400034442
3. The Content Trap by Bharat Anand
This is a relatively new book (came out in 2016) I've had it sitting on my list to read for a while.
I really enjoyed it as a piece that helps the reader to understand content (in its broadest context) in the digital landscape.
Blurb about what you can expect from this book here:
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG
Companies everywhere face two major challenges today: getting noticed and getting paid.
To confront these obstacles, Bharat Anand examines a range of businesses around the world, from The New York Times to The Economist, from Chinese Internet giant Tencent to Scandinavian digital trailblazer Schibsted, and from talent management to the future of education. Drawing on these stories and on the latest research in economics, strategy, and marketing, this refreshingly engaging book reveals important lessons, smashes celebrated myths, and reorients strategy.
Success for flourishing companies comes not from making the best content but from recognizing how content enables customers' connectivity; it comes not from protecting the value of content at all costs but from unearthing related opportunities close by; and it comes not from mimicking competitors' best practices but from seeing choices as part of a connected whole.
Digital change means that everyone today can reach and interact with others directly: We are all in the content business.
But that comes with risks that Bharat Anand teaches us how to recognize and navigate.
Filled with conversations with key players and in-depth dispatches from the front lines of digital change, The Content Trap is an essential new playbook for navigating the turbulent waters in which we find ourselves.
4. Critique Of Pure Reason (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant) by Immanuel Kant
As you would also know if you read my list last month my reading is pretty eclectic and I go everywhere from books on what I do... To books on things that interest me... To books that pass the time and so on.
Philosophy is an interest of mine and I had not read this book since before I was at university and I wanted to re-read it and see if my thoughts on it had changed.
I really enjoyed more this second time around.
I will say this thought - This book is not an easy read.
If you are new to philosophy... Don't start here.
The book does assume a fair amount of prior knowledge on behalf of its audience and if you are just starting out you are going to feel lost pretty quickly.
I do read a lot of philosophy and still had moments of brain fatigue.
Blurb about the book here:
This entirely new translation of Critique of Pure Reason is the most accurate and informative English translation ever produced of this epochal philosophical text. Though its simple, direct style will make it suitable for all new readers of Kant, the translation displays a philosophical and textual sophistication that will enlighten Kant scholars as well. This translation recreates as far as possible a text with the same interpretative nuances and richness as the original.
You can find the book if you dare here: https://www.amazon.com/Critique-Reason-Cambridge-Works-Immanuel/dp/0521657296
5. The PM Years by Kevin Rudd
This is a book that maybe some of my Australian network might read.
They should.
Its a good read.
Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia was a real turning point in Australian politics.
He has his fans and his detractors.
I am unashamedly a fan of Kevin Rudd and the vision that he had for Australia that sadly he never had the chance to realise.
This book is an interesting insight into his views on his Prime Ministership and certainly worth a read for anyone interested in that journey and an insiders perspective on it.
Blurb about the book here:
It was the coup that killed Australian politics.
Less than three years after taking government in a landslide election victory, Kevin Rudd was betrayed by his deputy and the factional powerbrokers of the Australian Labor Party, the 'Faceless Men', despite enjoying historically high personal and party approval ratings.
The betrayal of June 2010 is the most significant Australian political event of the century. No prime minister including Rudd has since seen out a full term before being dethroned by their own caucus. But how did party games in Canberra spiral so catastrophically out of control?
Kevin Rudd defeated John Howard on a platform of fresh ideas, progressive innovation and new leadership. He inherited two wars and the legacy of eleven years of conservative economic mismanagement. And within months of taking office, his new government would face the greatest economic cataclysm since the Great Depression - the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. But none of these deterred Rudd from his vision of bringing Australia into the modern age.
In witty, forthright and audaciously honest prose, Rudd recounts his early triumphs and challenges in the hard business of government. But beyond the policy goals he kicked - from raising the pension to axing WorkChoices to laying the foundation for a decades-long Labor dream of paid parental leave - he takes us into cabinet, the prime minister's office and the back-corridor conversations that reshaped the country. We learn of the wheeling and dealing of governance as Rudd works with President Obama in the face of the financial crisis, apologises to the Stolen Generations and ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
Yet regardless of Rudd's efforts to combat climate change and his success in keeping Australia out of recession - the great moral and economic challenges of our generation - dark forces within his own party conspired against him. The unceremonious removal of a first-term prime minister from office shocked Rudd as much as it did the nation.
Despite great pain, Rudd continued to serve his party, and his country, as backbencher and foreign minister. He documents his time in the wilderness before his brief resurrection as Labor leader and the 2013 election, retaking the party after it had truly 'lost its way'.
After years of silence, the 26th Prime Minister of Australia is finally on the record about his time in government, in this second volume of his autobiography. This is the memoir of a prime minister full of energy and ideals, while battling the greatest trials of the modern age. This is Kevin Rudd's response to the ultimate political - and personal - betrayal.
You can get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/PM-Years-Kevin-Rudd-ebook/dp/B07HYJVTQ5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540951050&sr=8-1&keywords=Kevin+Rudd
Thats it for this month.
I hope you get a chance to read some of these books (if you have read them your comments are warmly appreciated - always interested in hearing different perspectives on books).
Feel free to share your reading list in the comments as well.
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