Brad Feld

Back to Blog

Books: Mental Muscle and Mental Floss

Mar 06, 2005
Category Books

I was totally fried from my week so I stayed away from my computer all day yesterday.  I had a fun breakfast with Lucy Sanders of NCWIT and Krisztina Holly of the MIT Deshpande Center, got a massage, and then laid on the couch and chewed down two books.

The first was Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start.  Like all of Guy’s books dating back to The Macintosh Way, it’s a must read for all entrepreneurs as Guy continues to pile on anecdotes and lessons that everyone can learn from.  And – in a move that is after my own heart, he spends the better part of a chapter explaining how to make better powerpoint presentations. 

Adhering to my cycle of “two books of mental muscle followed by one book of mental floss” (ok – I don’t adhere to it – it’s merely a goal) I took on The Innocent by Harlen Coben.  My friend Jenny Lawton who runs Justbooks sends me piles of advanced manuscripts and makes sure I get every one of Coben’s the second they show up in her store.  Coben is one of my all time favorite mental floss writers – he’s deep, dark, romantic, twisted, violent, and logical all in one package, creates great characters, and always has some nerdy stuff in the mix.  His books automagically come together in the last few chapters so they are simply a rapid romp through exotic brain candy for a couple of hours.  Yum. The Innocent didn’t disappoint.