The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Book List’ Category

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, Black History Month – Maggie Lena Walker, First Female Bank President in the US, and Jo Ann Langer, Senior Level Retail Executive.

Adventures in Learning

Here is Craig Murray’s (http://www.phoenix-training.co.uk) guest post. I thought it was an interesting infographic on mentoring.

Infographic: Mentoring at a Glance 

Booked for Mentoring

The setting for The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy is in France and England in 1792 during the French Revolution. France was radically transformed during the Revolution, the monarchy fell, the aristocrats lost their privileges, and the peasants rebelled in masses. On top of that, the left-wing political groups assaulted the aristocrats. All this form the backdrop for the story.

Booked for Mentoring: Review – The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Maggie Lena Walker was the first female bank president in the United States. She used her economic and social position to make the lives better for other women. Walker urged women to better themselves educationally and financially and encouraged them to save a portion of their pay. “A Richmond Times Dispatchnews article of August 23, 1924, reports that “the $31 that was placed in her hands has grown until the order has collected $3,480,540.19.”

Image via Wikipedia

Black History Month – Maggie Lena Walker, First Female Bank President in the United States 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured senior level retail executive Jo Ann Langer. A big message from Langer is to keep moving forward. Do not waste too much time looking backwards at history because you’ll get stuck. Here are Part One and Part Two of Jo Ann Langer’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Related articles

• Booked for Mentoring: Review – The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Black History Month – Maggie Lena Walker, First Female Bank President in the United States (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Mentor Yourself: Interview With Invisible Mentor Jo Ann Langer, Senior Level Retail Executive (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Mentor Yourself – Interview With Invisible Mentor Jo Ann Langer, Senior Retail Executive Part II (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Infographic: Mentoring at a Glance (theinvisiblementor.com)

Before I launch into my SummaReview (hybrid book review and summary) of The Scarlet Pimpernel, I would like to say something that may be useful to you. Last year, I committed to reading many of the literary classics and I failed to do so. Yes, I read a few of them, however, I didn’t honour my commitment to myself, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. I started several books and put them down after a short time because they didn’t captivate me. Additionally, many of the literary classics are quite long because they were first written in serial form and published in magazines, and the more the author wrote, the more he got paid. Have you seen the length of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (Penguin Classics) and Nicholas Nickleby (Arcturus Paperback Classics), which are on my books to read this year?

Cover via Amazon

I am doing a lot better this year because I have started doing something I used to do in the past, which I had forgotten to do. Reading the classics is an important goal for me, so I allocate one to two hours at one sitting to read, so that I can get through enough of the book that I will get to a point where I will want to know what happens next. Another reason why we often stop reading books, it’s not because they are boring, but because we do not read fast enough and get bored because of how little progress we made in the time we spent reading. To overcome that, I went back to using speed reading techniques and have been reading four words at a time instead of one and that has made a difference.

Free Speed Reading Course

Cannot view the speed reading course, click here.

Last year, I also selected How to Read Literature Like a Professor as my book of the year, and this book is truly helping me to get through the classics. I am asking a lot of questions as I am reading, and questioning the significance of every scene and that has helped me to foreshadow accurately what’s going to happen next. How to Read Literature Like a Professor was very useful while reading The Scarlet Pimpernel. The Scarlet Pimpernel wasn’t a page turner like The Count of Monte Cristo, but it was still a very good book.

The setting for The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy is in France and England in 1792 during the French Revolution. France was radically transformed during the Revolution, the monarchy fell, the aristocrats lost their privileges, and the peasants rebelled in masses. On top of that, the left-wing political groups assaulted the aristocrats. All this form the backdrop for the story.

Prior to the French Revolution and the fall of the monarchy, the clergies and aristocrats had privilege and power, which they sometimes abused. In the The Scarlet Pimpernel, you see the aristocrats using their position to oppress others, but it is impossible to continue to oppress the masses without pushback from them.

In one instance, Armand St Justs, a mere plebeian, had the “audacity” to try and court Marquis de St Cyr’s daughter, and the aristocrat responded by having him flogged so severely that he could have died. The only person St Justs had left in the world was his sister Marguerite, who was devastated by the beating. She wanted to pay back de St Cyr for what he had done to her brother, and others knowing her feelings, used what she said as evidence which was used to sentence de St Cyr to death by the guillotine. The aristocrat and his family were killed. That wasn’t what Marguerite had expected or wanted, and she realized how she was manipulated. She tried to intervene before the sentence was carried out without success.

The aristocrats in France are being hunted like animals and slaughtered every day by guillotine, and the masses rejoice, because to them they deserve the punishment. But before many of the aristocrats are guillotined, they are rescued, often in a very daring way by a master of disguise, the Scarlet Pimpernel. There are many checkpoints to prevent the aristocrats from escaping, yet the Scarlet Pimpernel passes through and make the guards look foolish, and some have paid with their lives for not uncovering the disguise. As you might have guessed, the signature the Scarlet Pimpernel uses is a rendering of the scarlet pimpernel, which is a red flower, found in England.

Twenty young English aristocrats, the Scarlet Pimpernel taking the role as leader, have made it their mission to save as many French aristocrats as possible from death by guillotine, rescuing and taking them to England. The focus in the story is on a few characters, with Lord Percy Blakeney and Lady Marguerite Blakeney (formerly St Justs) taking center stage. Lord Blakeney is portrayed as a handsome, sharp dresser, but a not too smart person who always has a lazy look on his face. Lady Blakeney is portrayed as a very smart, young, witty woman, and while she was living in France, many wondered why she would marry someone who has looks but not much intelligence.

Shortly after the pair had gotten married, Lord Blakeney heard rumours that his new wife had a hand in the death of the French aristocrat Marquis de St Cyr and his family. He is quite devastated, and thinks that she has made a fool of him. Marguerite tells him about the incident, but doesn’t fully explain that she was manipulated, because her arrogance gets in the way, and she thinks that if he loved her deep enough every thing would be okay. But everything isn’t okay. Blakeney changes toward her, and no longer trusts her, though they remain married and he showers her with gifts. She can get anything from him except his love.

The French regime is desperate to find out who the Scarlet Pimpernel is so they send government agent, M. Chavelin to England to gather intelligence. The regime already has some of the names of young English aristocrats who free the French aristocrats from certain death, but they are stumped by who the leader is. While gathering intelligence, Chavelin discovers that Marguerite’s brother Armand is not working for the French government, but is in collusion with the Scarlet Pimpernel and his gang.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Cannot view The Scarlet Pimpernel movie, click here.

What does Chavelin do? He approaches Marguerite and blackmails her – her brother’s life or the name of the Scarlet Pimpernel. At the time, Marguerite doesn’t know that her husband is the Scarlet Pimpernel. If the reader reads the story carefully, they figure it out very early, the clues are there. The Scarlet Pimpernel is a master of disguise and eludes those who take it on themselves to mete out justice. Of all the characters in the story, who is the person they would least likely suspect? And that’s the question.

What does Marguerite do? Initially, her arrogance gets in the way, and instead of approaching her husband who has great wealth, to assist her, she unwillingly caves in to M. Chavelin. What she has done weighs heavily on her mind, and that’s when she approaches Lord Blakeney to rescue her brother. Marguerite sets aside her arrogance and speaks to her husband, explaining everything, but is that enough? Lord Blakeney assures her that he will take care of everything. She still hasn’t figured out that her husband is the Scarlet Pimpernel even though there is mounting evidence – a metaphorical veil is over her eyes.

Lord Blakeney leaves early the following morning before his wife wakes up, leaving a note outside her door telling her he had to go away for a short period. For the first time, Marguerite enters her husband’s office and starts to search, and that’s when she discovers that her husband is the Scarlet Pimpernel, she gave up her husband unknowingly to save her brother. Everything now makes sense to her and she can see everything quite clearly. The evidence was there all along but she was living in a bubble and looking but not really seeing.

Marguerite has to save her husband, and she gets assistance from Sir Andrew Ffoulkes one of the 20 swashbuckling rescuers. Marguerite returns to her homeland to save her husband, and she does, redeeming herself in the process. The pace of The Scarlet Pimpernel is slow like most classic literature, and I am beginning to realize that that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We are living in a very fast-paced world, and there has to be quiet moments in our lives.

I enjoyed and appreciated this book, and kept on asking myself what the significance of each scene was, which helped me to unfold the mystery. Key lessons in The Scarlet Pimpernel include:

1. If you oppress people they will eventually push back.
2. Two wrongs never make a right and revenge is never a good thing.
3. Relationships can only flourish when there is trust, respect, and open and honest communication.
4. In life we are constantly making tough choices and you always have to weigh the options.
5. Have a support network to talk things through with because you make better choices if you have people who hold you accountable.

I recommend The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Video Credit: The Scarlet Pimpernel Uploaded by openflix on Oct 5, 2010; Free Speed Reading Course Uploaded by speedreadingclasses on Jun 2, 2011

Book List

The Scarlet Pimpernel

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)

David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)

Nicholas Nickleby (Arcturus Paperback Classics)

Related articles

• Adventures in Learning: Books to Read in 2012 (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Baroness Emmuska Orczy
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865-1947)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Black History Month – Booker T Washington, Principal, Tuskegee Institute and Author of Up From Slavery and Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe.

Adventures in Learning

How does a phenomenon get started? You’ve all heard the phrase six degrees of separation, which is the idea that any two people in the world can be connected through six steps or less, through a chain of intermediaries.

Adventures in Learning: Six Degrees of Separation 

Booked for Mentoring

The Count of Monte Cristoby Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) is one of the best books that I have read, and if you love a good story filled with drama, then this is the book for you. I was very captivated and wanted to find out how the story ended. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, but you do not always get what you want. With any good book, there are many life lessons embedded in the story, as well as big ideas.

Image via Wikipedia

Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Born into slavery, Booker T Washington was one of the leading African American figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1881, on the recommendation of his mentor Samuel Armstrong, a former Union Army general, Washington was placed in charge of the Tuskegee Negro Normal Institute. He received $2,000 from the government for salaries, but there was no campus, buildings, students or staff. When Washington died in 1915, Tuskegee Institute had 1,500 students enrolled, 250 faculty members and the largest endowment for any African American Institution, not bad for someone who was born a slave.

Black History Month – Booker T. Washington, Principal, Tuskegee Institute and Author of Up From Slavery 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe. A big message from Gunn is radical self-reliance – mentors are great, and having partners are great, however, there are times when you have to move forward even if it means going it alone. Here are Part One and Part Two of Nathon Gunn’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Related articles

• Mentor Yourself With Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe Part II (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Mentor Yourself With Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: Six Degrees of Separation (theinvisiblementor.com)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) is one of the best books that I have read, and if you love a good story filled with drama, then this is the book for you. I was very captivated and wanted to find out how the story ended. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, but you do not always get what you want. With any good book, there are many life lessons embedded in the story, as well as big ideas.

At over 500 pages, the Penguin, Signet Classic version of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is an abridged version, so the original must have been very long. While reading the book, I didn’t feel as if I missed anything. The book was first published in a serialized format from 1844-1845.

The Count Of Monte Cristo Theatrical Trailer HD

If you cannot view the YouTube movie trailer of The Count of Monte Cristo, please click here.

In the story, 19 year old Edmond Dantès, a sailor, has just returned from a voyage. Dantès has a very happy personality and is very grateful for life. After being away for a few months, he goes to visit his father and then on to see his beloved Mercedes. While on the voyage, Captain Leclère dies from brain fever, but before this happens, he givse Dantès two envelops to deliver. Though Dantes is quite young he captains the Pharaon to their final destination – Marseilles. Before he docks the ship, Dantès takes the time to deliver one of the letters.

Dantès and Mercédès are deeply in love and plan to get married. Monsieur Fernand Mondego is also in love with Mercédès and is jealous of Dantès. Monsieur Danglars, the purser of the Pharaon, is envious of Dantès because the owner of the Pharaon, M. Morrel makes him the new ship captain. During the bethrothal feast, Dantès is arrested for being a Bonapartist faction, but is not told anything about the charges.

During Dantès’ examination by M. de Villefort, the Deputy Procureur Du Roi, believes what he is hearing, but when he reads the second letter that Dantès is supposed to deliver, he is quite frightened and burns the letter, telling the young man not to ever tell anyone about the letter suggesting that the contents would harm him. The letter that Dantès is supposed to deliver is addressed to M. de Villefort’s father, who is a Bonapartist. If anyone sees the letter it would be damaging to  M. de Villefort’s career. Dantès is very naive and believes that he will be freed, but that wasn’t to be the case. He is imprisoned at the Château d’If for 14 years.

While in the prison dungeon, Dantès is quite distraught and thinks of ways to kill himself. He also thinks of ways to escape his prison, and tries to dig his way out. One day he hears a sound and realizes that there is another prisoner as well in the dungeon of the prison. He calls out to the prisoner, and after a short time they are able to meet each other face-to-face via a tunnel they dig.

The next part of the story is critical to the plot because it’s the point in Dantès’ life when he becomes awakened. His fellow inmate is a learned priest, Abbé Faria, who is also condemned to lifelong imprisonment. Abbé Faria also has an escape plan. Both can relate to each other because they are wrongfully accused. Abbé Faria asks Dantès to relate everything that happened to him prior to imprisonment and they would figure out what really happened. The important thing that Faria wants to know is who stood to gain the most from Dantès imprisonment – surprise, surprise, Fernand and Danglars.

The priest was regretful that he helped Dantès to figure out the people who did him wrong, because he loses his innocence and now wants revenge. Abbé Faria becomes a mentor to Dantès, and he is a worthy one. At the time, Dantès had been in prison four or five years. The priest commits to teaching Dantès all he knows during the next two years and they draw up a plan to do so. He teaches Dantès history, mathematics, physics and the three or four languages he knew. Dantès’ mind was like a sponge, “Dantès had a prodigious memory and a great facility for assimilation. The mathematical turn of his mind gave him aptitude for all kinds of calculation, while the sense of poetry that is in every sailor gave life to dryness of figures and severity of lines.

Abbé Faria and Dantès develop a true friendship, one of give and take, and they develop a great trust between each other. The priest however suffers from cataleptic fits and has one. He had the opportunity to tell Dantes what to do and the young man gives him the medicine and brings him back from the brink.

Abbé Faria discloses the whereabouts of a treasure that he will seek when he escapes from prison and offers Dantès half when they escape. These two men demonstrate patience while they execute their escape plan. Though Dantès wants revenge against those who did him wrong, there is much goodness within him, and even when freedom is close by, he decides to stay with the priest. The priest tells him when he dies, Dantès should execute the escape plan and all the treasure is his. When Abbé Faria has the third attack, it’s fatal.

When the gaolers do their daily check on the prisoners in the dungeon they realize that Abbé Faria is dead. The priest is placed in a death sack for burial. Dantès gets the idea to swap the priests body and lie in the death sack, so he makes the switch. He makes sure that he has an implement to dig himself out of the grave. Dantès does not realize that inmates have a watery grave because they are thrown into the sea. They weight him down so the body will sink when thrown into the sea, and fortunately for him he has a knife and uses it to free himself, and his ability as a strong swimmer saves him.

Dantès is picked up by pirates and has a prepared story about who he is. Even though he is free, he doesn’t seek the treasure immediately, instead he spends months working as a sailor for the pirates until the time is right, timing is always everything. The treasure is exactly where Abbé Faria figured out where it would be and it is vast. Dantès becomes the Count of Monte Cristo, and because so many years has elapsed since he was imprisoned, his features have changed, so his old “friends” are not able to recognize him. However, he is able to recognize all of them.

Abbé Faria trained and mentored Dantès well, so he knows what it is like to be patient, and one of the things that I admire about him is that he also uses some of the treasure to do good. The story really takes off from here as he investigates and learns how his father died and what became of his love, Mercédès. Fernand has married Mercédès and is now known as Count de Morcerf.

The story is actually quite gripping, and Dantès masterfully executes his plan of revenge against those who harmed him. Mercédès discovers that Dantès is the Count of Monte Cristo and appeals to him to spare her son’s life, when the two are supposed to fight a duel. He listens to her, which says that he has not lost all his compassion and goodness. The key players who had a hand in his imprisonment suffer terribly.

Maybe I expect too much, but I didn’t find the end of the story gratify, it feels unfinished to me.

Lessons from The Count of Monte Cristo

• Having mentors in life is so important.
• Money should not be hoarded but used to help others to do good.
• Revenge is never a good thing.
• Feed your mind and master the fundamental knowledge in your field.
• Be compassionate.
• Forgive, forgive, and forgive.

People who read The Invisible Mentor regularly know that I am trying to read the classics, and have been struggling because they move so slowly. The Count of Monte Cristo is gripping and has so much to offer, especially when you read actively. The book is not among the must read classic literature, but I highly recommend The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. If you want to to purchase The Count of Monte Cristo movie (Click the link. I recommend that you read the book, but I recognize that not everyone enjoys reading as much as I do).

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Further Reading

• Interview With Invisible Mentor Sean MacDonald, Lawyer for the Wrongfully Convicted
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Sean MacDonald, Lawyer for Wrongfully Convicted Part Two
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas – BBC Radio Drama
• Review: The Count of Monte Cristo
• Alexandre Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged)
• The count of Monte Cristo Download from Gutenberg.org

Book link is affiliate link.

Video Credit: Uploaded by ShauntProductions on Apr 3, 2010

How many books do you read each month? And when you read, what do you read? I have always enjoyed reading, even when I was a child. Today, I work hard at expanding my menu choices when it comes to reading. Over 10 years ago, while listening to Earl Nightingale’s Lead the Field, he recommended that we should read a book a week. I took that to heart, and was very intentional about reading four books a month.

Two years later, I decided to push myself and read more, which I have kept on doing, until last year I read 200 books. I am not saying this to brag, but reading forces me to think, and I find that I get to know myself a lot better in the process. As an active reader, reading often transports me into another world, and if I’m reading fiction, I am taken into the lives of the characters, and often have to check the qualities in myself that I detest in the characters. Setting a reading goal a achieving it, has taught me that when I commit fully to achieving a goal, I do so.

The Invisible Mentor blog is an educational one, so with that in mind, I’m inviting my readers on an adventure in learning, which is taking place all of 2012. You do not have to read 200 books – I read a lot for my consulting business – but I would like you to read one book a week, so at the end of 2012, you would have read 52 books. It’s a couple of weeks into the new year, so you have to play a little bit of catch-up.

Here are a few books that are on my reading pile for this year. Some of the books I have seen the films, but have never read the books. I will be more intentional about reading classic literature. I have struggled with focusing on classic literature, and the reason could be that the plots often move at the speed of molasses, so I put them aside and read books that I find more exciting. The best approach for me is to carve out at least three hours, or until I get to the point where I know that I have to finish the book. That’s the only way I will get through more of the classics this year.

As you will notice from the books on the list, some of them were all the rage in 2011, but I don’t necessarily follow the crowds, I skip to the beat of my own drum. All the books on the list I have them already. Choose some of the books from my list. As soon as I read and review the books, I will return to this post and add the links to the review.

I have this idea, which has been percolating in my mind for a while now, and that is to have a faceoff between books, when I do the reviews for Booked for Mentoring. What I have in mind, is to have two reviews of very different books, then find a way to connect them with the key takeaways. Let’s see how that works out.

Booked for Mentoring 2012 Reading List

1. Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1), Frank Herbert
2. The Letters of Pliny the Younger
3. Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini
4. The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy
5. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
6. Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
7. The Sleepwalkers, Paul Grossman
8. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
9. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Blake
10. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials), Robert Cialdini
11. From This Moment On, Shania Twain
12. Why I am So Wise (Great Ideas), Friedrich Nietzche
13. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World, Penny Colman
14. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, Julie Powell
15. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert
16. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
17. How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker
18. The Fountainhead, (Ayn Rand Box Set: Atlas Shrugged/ The Fountainhead) Ayn Rand
19. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackery
20. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
21. Moby-Dick (Vintage Classics), Herman Melville
22. Nicholas Nickleby (Arcturus Paperback Classics), Charles Dickens
23. Dracula (Dover Thrift Editions), Bram Stoker
24. Silas Marner (Dover Thrift Editions), George Eliot
25. David Copperfield (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
26. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink
27. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
29. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine Benyus
30. Anne Of Green Gables : Three In One Set : Complete And Unabridged: Anne Of Green Gables : Anne Of Avonlea : Anne Of The Island, L. M. Montgomery
31. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
32. Emma (Dover Thrift Editions), Jane Austen
33. Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Dover Thrift Editions), Thomas Hardy
34. Profiles in Courage (P.S.), John F. Kennedy
35. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
36. The Portrait of a Lady – Volume 1, Henry James
37. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
38. The Old Curiosity Shop (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
39. The Last of the Mohicans (Signet Classics), James Fenmore Cooper
40. Little Women (Sterling Classics), Louisa May Scott
41. Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
42. The Magus, John Fowles
43. Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry, Stephen Denny
44. Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us, Erik Calonius
45. Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, Paul Allen
46. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
47. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
48. Roughing It, Mark Twain
49. Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda
50. Of Human Bondage (Modern Library Classics), W. Somerset Maugham
51. Captain Cook’s Journal, First Voyage
52. Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzche
53. The Invisible Man, H. G. Wells
54. Paradise Lost, (Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Signet Classics)) John Milton
55. Paradise Regained, John Milton
56. Ulysses, James Joyce
57. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
58. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
59. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay
60. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Other Books for Mentoring

Founders and VCs Reveal 21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

10 Great Beach Reads That Will Make You Sharper When You Return To The Office 

As you will notice from the list of books that I intend to read in 2012, only a few of them are business books. I do not read many business books because most of them do not make you think. The most successful people do not read business books either, instead, they read the kind of books that are on my list. Let’s read together in 2012!

Further Reading

Life Lessons from the Great Books

The Business Case for Reading Novels

Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books

10 Benefits Of Reading!

Read a Book a Week

Watch This. No. Read It!

10 Ways Reading the Great Books Can Improve Your Life 

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.