Another NOBS book - a candidate for the best book of 2006

I read quite a lot (still not fast enough) and though it's only mid of June I have another candidate for the best book I've read in 2006. "Never eat alone" by Keith Ferrazzi surely will appear  in my NOBS (No BS) list.

I greedily swallowed a library's copy in a couple of days and was so excited and impressed that ordered own copy at Amazon. This book should be a table book until you practice the ideas it preaches so deep and often that they become organic part of you.

As you may see from the title the book fights isolation and loneliness during a meal. It's not a metaphor though not the gist either. The essence of the book is "your network and connections are the pledge of your success; build your network via becoming useful to people, become a hub of connections, eagerly seek opportunities to help others, and never keep score".

It may seem that the ideas are not very innovative and it's true - they're not. But Keith succeeds to deliver such a simple message to readers' brains and hearts. A mix of bright and descriptive problem explanation, concrete and pragmatic advice (the book is organized as a set of such), and real life (actually Keith's life) examples makes reading experience gripping and inspiring.

I was quite sceptic when I took this book in my library. It's definitely a challenge to teach somebody on a very basic topic such a network building and nurturing relationships. Readers may soon find the content boring, repetitive, and obvious to keep reading. The problems are known, there is a variety of networking-101 tips published in magazines and the net, and illustrative examples of how right networking changed so-and-so's life. Still Keith amazingly broke the ice of scepticism with the very first pages turning the 'another-business-book-reading' exercise into very pleasant conversation (yes, while reading the book a strong feeling of a dialog doesn't leave you).

The books makes you look at your life's values again from another point of view. I won't re-tell the book's content and ideas here but strongly encourage you to find the book and read it. I wish I found it 15 or 20 years ago but happy that even today I ran across it. I'm sure I'll meet Keith in person one day and we'll eat together:-)