Why did you choose this book?
When I first finished graduate school and was hunting for jobs, I met a more experienced librarian who told me I needed to continue studying by reading business and management books to learn the skills I would need to further my career. I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t done nearly as well at following that advice as I would have liked to. This book was my attempt to get back on the proverbial horse.
What’s it about?
Ross McCammon went from being the editor of Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine to one of the editors at Esquire. This is the story of the mistakes he made along the way, with plenty of asides and humor thrown in.
Categories
Nonfiction – business and leadership
Other recommended reads?
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Review
I really enjoyed this book, more than many nonfiction books I’ve read, and certainly more than any other business and leadership book I’ve read. That being said, I’m also not sure that it had that much content to it. I appreciated the fact that while McCammon is successful today, he still clearly remembers how he felt beforehand. That makes him easy to relate to and his advice believable. I didn’t intend to take notes while reading but he has a ton of quote-worthy lines that I’ve actually told people now in my everyday life. To give you a sense of the humor, there’s a quiz entitled “Are You an Asshole?” You’ll be happy to know that, according to the quiz, I am not. I also recommended this book to my coworkers and one of the managers took it home to read.
Up next?
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
