On Words and Business

In my college application essay, I wrote about the three things I’d take with me to a desert island. I still remember one of the things–the dictionary. Because it has all the other books in it. (I’m sure I made a compelling case.)

Herewith a twist on that question. What three blogs would you take if you could miraculously have access to them and only them?

I’d take Seth Godin’s blog, the Blog of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks, and Gawker. Seems like these would keep things interesting.

What would you take?

Literally.

Bookmark this page: RealSnailMail.net

It’s officially launching on August 11, but you can test it now.

An email is loaded onto a chip on the back of an a live snail, when it comes near enough to the pick up point. Then, whenever the snail gets near enough to the drop off point, the email will be picked up and sent on to the recipient. Speed of light everywhere except on the snail’s back–so who knows how long it’ll take to arrive.

So cool!

There are at least 30 books in a pile in my living room, new to me but still unread.

Yet, I’ve gone back to my paperback bookshelf and started rereading all my Dick Francis books. I was introduced to the books of Francis, a former steeplechase jockey, in high school. And I’ve read almost every one of his books (about 30 of them, incidentally) at least twice.

Everything I know about steeplechasing and horses I learned from his books.

Reading his work is like visiting a trusted old friend. Perhaps that’s why they’ve bumped other books temporarily off my reading list.

“Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.”

W. Somerset Maugham

For many freelancers, the dream is to have the freedom to work from far off, exotic locations.

While my travel life routinely find me working on the west coast instead of my home base here in the east coast, here’s a freelancer taking it to the next level. He’s been working remotely, traveling around the world for months now. And it’s working for him, so he shares some tips to help the rest of us make it work.

So…if you ever read an entry I posted at 4:00 a.m., stop to think: Am I in Boston and actually awake at 4:00 a.m. or am I in another time zone, living the dream.

Lev Grossman’s column in this week’s Time magazine is all about commenting on blogs and giving people a voice. It applies less to business blogs than personal ones, but it’s still a great read. Especially for those of us who grew up in a world where there were no blogs, and for whom this commenting thing is a late-learned art.

“Maybe commenters are just on one side of a cultural disconnect between two incompatible ideas of what the social conventions of the Internet should be. One is based on the standards of real-world, offline politeness. The other is a kind of communal game in which whoever is cleverest and pushes the most buttons wins.”