Books, books, books!

Jurgen Appelo of Noop.NL posted a great article about books. He posted 8 questions about books and I would take up the challenge and answer these questions.

1. How many books do you read (on average)?
I read about one book a month.

2. Which books did you read lately?
Peopleware
1001 Ways to Reward Employees
The 24-Hour Business: Maximizing Productivity Through Round-the-Clock Operations

3. Why did you choose to read those books?
The 1st two books are about team management and performance management. The 2nd book is about businesses running 24/7 schedules and how to optimize the operations. I am currently into operations management and these three topics are the most important areas that I am working on.

4. What is your (brief) opinion of those books?
These are niche market books with very specific topics. They did an excellent work in discussing, elaborating, providing lessons learned and best practices with the specific topics discussed.

5. What book are you reading now?
Toyota Talent: Developing Your People the Toyota Way
Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

6. What is your opinion of that book so far?
Content-rich! These 2 books delved into the nitty gritty details of how Toyota produced and retained talented people.

7. Which books are you planning to read?
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten. I am still waiting for my order since the popular bookstores here in the Philippines do not have this book in their list yet.

8. Why do you intend to read those books?
I would like to know what are the additional business books that I need to add to my library.

9 Which 2 books had the biggest influence on you? (Olav Maassen added this question to the list)
The Greatest Salesman in the World
Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I read both books when I was still in secondary school and both gave me that profound sense of drive and motivation coupled with a healthy dose of optimism that enabled me to challenge myself constantly in order to rise against adversity and mediocrity and follow my dreams.