Books I've Read

I’ve read books in English, French, and Arabic. Both fiction and non-fiction.

Mostly, I’ll post here non-fiction English books. At least, the ones that I can recommend and might be relevant to most of you.

Also, I’ll skip the books that I read but don’t remember much of them. I spent a decade reading without taking notes. Please don’t do like me. It’s such a waste.

This section is only meant to spark your interest in books. So I’ll only write my impressions and three notes from the books. For more details, summaries and reviews, you can find them on Amazon or any other source.

For a faster research, you can click on any tag below to find the books of your interests.

Revolution 2.0

Revolution 2.0

The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir

Wael Ghonim

I had no idea who Wael Ghonim was until I was researching for my article "(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Media". I came across the work of Martin Gurri—author of The Revolt of the Public—who praised the book so much that I decided to buy it. I wasn't disappointed. Wael is definitely not an ordinary person. He moved from creating a Facebook page called "We Are All Khaled Said" to becoming one of the organizers of the Egyptian revolution. Moving people from the virtual to the real world and breaking the fear barrier was a great feat. And this book tells the story.

Three notes from the book:
1- The more you can get everyone involved in trying to solve your problems, the more successful you will be. I found it natural, a few years later, to apply this philosophy to political and social activism.
2- The strategy for the Facebook page ultimately was to mobilize public support for the cause. This wasn't going to be different from the "sales funnel" approach I learned at school. The first phase was to convince people to join the page and read its posts. The second was to convince them to start interacting with the content by "liking" and "commenting" on it. The third was to get them to participate in the page's online campaigns and to contribute to its content themselves. The fourth and final phase would occur when people decided to take activism to the street. This was my ultimate aspiration.
3- The rapid pace of events drove home one of the key strategies I learned from the revolution: to achieve your vision, you need friends and communication channels more than you need plans. The world moves too fast for even the best-laid plans to hold up.

Tags:

  • History
  • Media
  • Marketing
  • Politics
Your Music and People

Your Music and People

Creative and Considerate Fame

Derek Sivers

I like the concise way Derek Sivers presents his ideas. His book follows the same logic as his blog: one tiny idea per chapter. Even if the title mentions music, any content creator can benefit from it. Art, people, money, marketing, mindset are some of the ideas discussed in the book.

Three notes from the book:
1- It’s impossible to fail if your only mission is to see what happens: test, test, test.
2- Beware of putting people on a pedestal. It can prevent real friendship. You can’t have a real conversation if you are self-conscious and terrified. Forget titles.
3- Don’t try to beat them at their game. Play a completely different game.

Tags:

  • Art
  • Marketing
  • Business
  • Relationships
This Is Marketing

This Is Marketing

You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Seth Godin

I listened to more interventions of Seth Godin than I read his books. I like his way of thinking about how marketing should be. It's a more respectful approach to how we present our work (product or service) to the world. If you ever had a bad image of marketing (like I used to), you'll end up with a different opinion.

Three notes from the book:
1- Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.
2- For the independent creator of intellectual property (a singer, perhaps, or a writer), it turns out that a thousand true fans might be sufficient to live a better-than-decent life.
3- If you want to make change, begin by making culture. Begin by organizing a tightly knit group. Begin by getting people in sync. Culture beats strategy--so much that culture is strategy. 3-

Tags:

  • Marketing
  • Business
  • Work
  • Communication
Building a Story Brand

Building a Story Brand

Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

Miller Donald

The one who tells the best stories win. Storytelling is an art by itself. This book gives a simple storytelling framework that is used in movies and businesses. Our ideas and products can be great, but without a great story to present them, they won't be attractive.

Three notes from the book:
1- Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands.
2- How many sales are we missing out on because customers can't figure out what our offer is within five seconds of visiting our website?
3- in a story, audiences must always know who the hero is, what the hero wants, who the hero has to defeat to get what they want, what tragic event will happen if the hero doesn't win, and what wonderful thing will happen if they do.

Tags:

  • Marketing
  • Communication
  • Business
  • Work
Influence

Influence

The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert B. Cialdini

The first time I read this book, I found it dangerous. The principles of this book can be used both ethically and unethically. Once you learn them, you’ll start seeing them everywhere, especially in marketing. So it’s better to know about them so that you can defend yourself from dishonest influence attempts.

Three notes from the book:
1- A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have a reason for what they do.
2- The tactic of starting with a little request in order to gain eventual compliance with related larger requests has a name: the foot-in-the-door technique.
3- The principle of social proof states that one means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.

Tags:

  • Bestseller
  • Psychology
  • Life
  • Business
  • Marketing