Do some books outlive their usefulness?

Who better to render judgment on a book’s virtues and shortcomings than the very people who buy and read it, which explains why I believe in?Amazon Reader Reviews.?The problem is, many reviews are limited to ranking a book based on one to four stars, telling you “what”?– meaning the grade a particular reader assigns to what you’ve written – but not “why,” given there is no supporting commentary to explain how the reader arrived at an evaluation, be it good (four or five stars), bad (one or two stars), or indifferent (three stars).

The Art of Client Service?gets its share of wordless, starred reviews, but the other day I was pleasantly surprised by a review from someone who took time to say why she or he?thought well of the book:

“Everyone that works as an advertising executive must read this book. To summarise, cheat sheets in an incredibly easy read. Love that the author also recommends a list of other great books we can pick up.”

The reviewer’s last point about “other great books we can pick up” sent me back to the first edition, to see what I recommended some 18 years ago.?Had I wanted to compile a long list of books, it might have been a relatively easy task, but I didn’t want it to be long, I wanted it to be short, requiring judicious and discerning selection, even if it meant abandoning alternatives worthy of inclusion.??I believed in these books then; I believe in them now; no wonder they were part of my original list and rightly remain on it to this day.

No surprise, there was David Ogilvy’s?Ogilvy on Advertising, Jim Collins’?Good to Great,?and Malcolm Gladwell’s?The Tipping Point.?Ogilvy’s book is 45 years old; it has been more than 20 years since Collins’ and Gladwell wrote their masterpieces.?Love them, hate them, agree with them, dismiss them, all of these books have endured because, to me at least, they had something important to say.

Not all of the books on the list are as famous and widely known as Ogilvy’s, Collins’ and Gladwell’s, but this means little.?Take?The Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy, by Tom Monahan.?

Monahan might be more famous for being one of the founders of?Leonard, Monahan, andLubars, where a young Creative named David Lubars – today he is Chair and Chief Creative Officer of?BBDO?– did an early tour of duty.?I’ve never met Tom – we had a friend-in-common,?Tom Nelson, and had occasion to speak by phone when he recruited me to?Tim Williams’?ahead-of-its-time, distance-learning enterprise,?Thought Legion?– but I recall stumbling on his book, loving it, and making it part of the initial list.

If you were to ask me why, the long answer would be, “Read the book; see for yourself what I saw in it,” but the short answer is:?because it’s useful, short on theory, long on practice.?It addresses a formidable subject, speaks with conviction, and above all, equips readers with techniques they can use.?

After running the agency he co-founded then serving as a creativity coach at another shop he founded,?Before and After,?Tom likely would lay claim to being retired, but I’m not buying it.?He’s a?gifted painter, still creating, with no end to his powers of invention in sight.

Some books have earned their high number of copies sold.?Others plainly mystify me, their performance far exceeding their utility, insight, and craftmanship.?Then there is a book like Tom’s, with its usefulness far exceeding its notoriety, earning this reader’s respect.

• If you read?The Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy, it likely will earn your respect too, proving that some books never outlive their usefulness.??