The current #1 movie in the country is The Social Network – if you don’t already know, it’s the movie about the making of Facebook. (don’t be ashamed if you didn’t know – I’m so in the dark that I haven’t actually seen a single ad for this movie although I’m certain they are everywhere – curiously not during football games though) So, what does the bookstore nerd do when a big movie comes out? Especially since I don’t really do movies anymore – I haven’t watched an entire movie in probably a year. Well, of course the bookstore nerd doesn’t go to the movie – he reads the book. The Social Network is based on Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book Accidental Billionaires. (Mezrich is the guy who wrote Bringing Down the House – the book about the M.I.T. students who beat Vegas)

Lemuria has been trying very hard lately to figure out how to give the best service we can to our customers on Facebook – I actually think it’s a great tool for us to communicate with you. Facebook is trying to help you put your social experience online. 500 million people are on Facebook – that’s one in 14 on the planet. So, a lot of people are on Facebook, but also folks are  logging in more often and stay on Facebook longer than any other site. We know you’re on there, so please “like us” on Facebook and dialog with us so we can learn how to give you the best service that we can on Facebook.

But what about the book? Accidental Billionaires is fast paced, sexy, and gives you all of the inside scoop about the “social network” of friends who started the ultimate “social network” website. (Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, and friends) It illustrates very well the excitement of those first days. There seems to be no question that the original idea came from Zuckerberg’s frustrations with the dating scene on the Harvard campus. I think it has a few faults – it’s hard to tell what Facebook was in those first days. It sounds like it was just a profile that others could view – a pure ego site.  I know the actual evolution of the site doesn’t make for a page turner, but a little bit of info would have been nice. My other criticism is in the origin of the title, Accidental Billionaires, I think the idea that Zuckerberg just stumbled onto this idea is false. The book downplays all of the continued work and creativity still going on that keeps Facebook vibrant and constantly in the media – it may be that all of those who got rich by being “friends” with Zuckerberg got “accidentally” rich, but I don’t believe for a second that it was an accident for Zuckerberg himself.

So, enjoy the movie and if our bookstore is important to you then consider letting us into your social media world by “liking” us here. Thanks

The 24-Hour Customer: New Rules for Winning in a Time-Starved Always Connected Economy by Adrian C. Ott (Harper Business, 2010)

The already in flux retail world  is changing even faster since the recession started. Customer values have changed. Ott sets the tone in her new book:

“Time isn’t money.

It’s more important than money.”

My industry seems to be in chaos. The future of the physical book is in jeopardy with the growth of electronic publishing. The box bookstore concept appears frail at best. And easy-to-click-and-buy Amazon seems more homogeneous and stereotyped with price being its defining focal point.

Ott’s book has helped me to think about my customers while analyzing the value added service of Lemuria. We hope not to waste our readers’ time by guiding them to books of low quality or poor choice for their reading tastes. We work to provide high-value books that satisfy the time available. We strive to make knowledge-based book suggestions fed by our own first-hand reading experiences. We want to engage our customers in the store and online. We want to guide you with our blog similar to in-store interaction. We even consider the added value of a book in terms of its collectibility.

Over the years, Lemuria has had many types of customers, and many have become friends and members of the Lemuria reading family. We have not always been perfect. Bookselling is harder than it seems and being a good bookseller is not just about personal reading taste. As we start our 36th year, I’m pleased to say that my young-gun booksellers are the overall best unit Lemuria has ever had. Combined with their online efforts, we are looking for the customers who want us and value our work. Let us know your reading desires and I know we will try to match them with good books.

We hope to save you time and money while enhancing your reading life.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media , Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott

John Wiley 2010 (2nd revised edition)

Lemuria ends our 35th year of business. As this year ends, we have been hammered by the recession for at least 25 months. As a result of a tough business climate, I have returned to reading more business books to help me reflect and be more creative.

The one thing that I am convinced of is that the old ways of retail merchandising will not work anymore. The book retail world will be something very different in the near future (as will most forms of business). My struggle is to adapt Lemuria so it can be ready to prosper as the recession weakens and a new reality for opportunity begins.

David Scott’s book has opened my mind to explore extensive virtual contact with my customers. Lemuria has taken ideas generated from New Rules in using our blog to add value to those who follow our work. We hope you feel more of a part of our bookstore by reading our blog and being informed  through Facebook and Tweets when you cannot make it to the store. We hope our sharing through these mediums speak to you and make you want to be our customer virtually and physically.

New Rules is about representing your work and knowledge by sharing information. It’s an opportunity to let people know what has been meaningful about your efforts. It’s also about creating new ways to be more open about your services and how they compare to the competition.

If you find yourself puzzled by the new business challenge of our times, David Scott is rolling the dice with his New Rules ideas. We have only so much energy and money to use, however, we know we need to do things differently.

Reading David’s New Rules could help you light a spark on finding a new successful approach.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

by Seth Godin

Portfolio (2010)

Linchpin is about what the future of work looks like. As you read the book you realize it’s already happening. There are those people around you who have decided that a new kind of work is important and are retraining themselves to do it. These are workers who want to do something that matters. I have tried to extract some of the main points Godin makes in Linchpin.

Linchpins leverage something internal and external to create a positive value. There are no longer any great jobs where someone tells you precisely what to do. Successful organizations are paying people who make a difference: A group of well-organized linchpins working in concert to create value.

A linchpin brings passion and energy to the organization, resulting in getting the job done that’s not being done. This is essential. “Not my job” is not in their vocabulary. Being pretty good is extremely easy; Just meeting expectations is not remarkable.

A linchpin has a skill, not a gift. Linchpins are made, not born, by making internal choices, not being controlled by external factors, using self-determination and hard work. Almost any job can be humanized with mindful awareness.

Linchpins solve problems that people haven’t predicted, haven’t seen and connect people who need to be connected.

Work is a chance to do art.  Your art is what you do when no one else can tell you how to do it. It is the art of taking responsibility, challenging the status quo and changing people.

Emotional labor is the task of doing important work even when it’s not easy. Not willing to do emotional labor is a short term strategy.

Linchpins know the rules but break them. Successful people are successful for one simple reason. They think  about failure differently. It is essential to learn directly and correctly from your mistakes.

Our system is broken. Being a linchpin is about making a difference, standing for something and earning respect and security you deserve. Work should be fun and it is not something you can fake.

Linchpin: noun: a locking pin inserted clockwise (as through the end of an axle)

All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World

by Seth Godin

Portfolio (2005)

While reading Seth’s new book Linchpin, I’m reflecting on his earlier inspiring work.

Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we believe them. That belief makes their story true. In this concept, liars are storytellers. Marketers succeed when they tell us a story we embrace and share. We become a member of the marketers tribe and then pass this story onto our own tribe (much like writing this blog). It is up to the consumer and her tribe members to interpret the authenticity of the marketing. A marketer’s performance must live up to the effort we perceive. More authenticity generally equals good work, a more creative lifestyle, and more success.

Godin’s visionary yet short book is not hard reading. Read with care, it will fire off many ideas about our world and our responsibility to connect to it through our work and the sharing of our efforts.

Godin appeals to young people growing up in the Internet Age because he is spot-on with his understanding of the changing world of instant communication. However, All Marketers Are Liars is applicable to old folks like me who want to be tuned into the vitality offered by new business techniques being generated by our resourceful, “No BS” young folks who are making a difference in this rapidly changing business world.

A must-read for today’s small business person.

Read other blogs about Seth Godin’s books.

The Housing Boom and Bust by Thomas Sowell

Basic Books (2009)

While recently reading 2010 articles on how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are attempting to avoid strangulation, I’m reflecting on Sowell’s eye-opening book I read last summer. Sowell’s wisdom is a reliable cornerstone of stability among all the babble on economic solutions spewing from Washington.

Housing Boom is a plain English explanation of how we got into the current economic disaster that developed out of the housing markets. Sowell explains the evolution of the boom, pulling no punches when discussing the political culprits of either party, the financial damages they created or the BS used to escape their own responsibility for what happened.

Reading The Housing Boom and Bust has helped me have a defrosted view on how to better interpret the facts and lies flowing out of Washington, 2010. (Whatever that means is up to me.) However, I feel the more informed we are the more likely we are to put forth the right business decisions in our own little worlds.

Awareness as a whole could prevent us from being blindly led to dysfunction. Thomas Sowell’s easy-to-read book is a step in the right direction.