My media diet

Cam Beck invited me to share my media diet and, at the risk of having you lose all respect for me or fall into a boredom coma while reading, here goes.

Books:

I've probably already mentioned my favorites here, but here they are again.

The 4-Hour Work Week has helped me get a fresh perspective on how much and how hard I want to work, and how to use my time more effectively.

Made to Stick succinctly and engagingly explains how to make ideas "sticky" and memorable.

Beyond Bullet Points is my bible of visual presentation design. I just bought the new edition, but haven't read it yet. My old one is full of bookmarked pages; I almost hate to start over.

Media Training A-Z puts the potential nightmare of being interviewed for print media or TV into a clean, simple and conversational format. Tons of great advice.

When I'm not reading business books, I'm still reading nonfiction. I just feel too guilty and unproductive reading fiction. Some of my other nonfiction favorites:

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances

Fast Food Nation

Swallowing Clouds: A Playful Journey Through Chinese Culture, Language, and Cuisine

Her Fork in the Road: Women Celebrate Food and Travel

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

I am also a cookbook junkie. Out of the 100+ cookbooks I own, here are a couple of favorites that I read over and over:

Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia

Mangoes & Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent

The Vegetarian Bistro: 250 Authentic French Regional Recipes

The Vegetarian Table: France

The Vegetarian Table: Italy

Blogs:

Where do I begin? I'm subscribed to 108 blogs.

About 40 of those are in my "top blogs" list, of which maybe about 16 will have new posts daily. Most of those are blogs about business, marketing, PR and public speaking, but there are a couple of clients' and friends' blogs, a dietician's blog, a couple of grammar blogs and some indie design blogs.

Some of my favorites:

Cam Beck's Chaos Scenario
Rowan Manahan's Fortify Your Oasis
Kim & Jason's Escape Adulthood
Andrew Dlugan's Six Minutes
Scott Ginsberg's Hello, My Name is Blog
Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen
Seth Godin's blog
Joan Stewart's Publicity Hound
Dan Santow's Word Wise

The rest, about food, tea, design, art and other topics, I get around to when I have time on the weekends.

Newsletters:

I subscribe to a ton and can't keep up with them all, but my favorite is SpeakerNet News, the absolutely most practical and useful newsletter I receive. It's basically a compilation of tips and resources submitted by speakers. It's brilliant.

Magazines:

We used to be huge magazine junkies, but we've pared down quite a bit. I'm subscribed and committed to Saveur, Gourmet, and Health. Yes, I'm a vegetarian, but I don't find that any of the vegetarian magazines suit the way I like to eat.

TV:

I love crime shows. I watch CSI (only the original, though), Criminal Minds, NUMB3RS, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Monk and The Closer.

Shows that make me laugh include Graham Norton, Ugly Betty and 30 Rock. Parts of Saturday Night Live are funny, mostly Weekend Update.

I appreciate a few competition reality shows, the ones where people win something based on a practical skill or talent, like American Idol, Project Runway and Top Chef. And I love Miami Ink and LA Ink, as I get to fantasize about the design and placement of my next tattoo, and to which incredibly talented artist I am going to pay a bazillion dollars for an amazing work of art.

I've gotten hooked on It's Not Easy Being Green, about a family who are attempting to become self-sufficient and sustainable in an old farmhouse in Cornwall, and Little People, Big World, about a family of both little people and average-sized people living on a farm in Oregon.

Maybe I have a thing about farms. . .

News:

Don't read it or watch it. I like Tim Ferriss' philosophy on "cultivating selective ignorance:" if I see something in the headlines on newspaper stands that looks interesting, I'll look it up online later. If something major happens in the world, people will be talking about it and I'll look it up online if I feel the need. Most news is negative and depressing, and is not even "news" most of the time. So I just don't bother.

Social media:

LinkedIn and Facebook are where I spend most of my social media time, although I've signed up for a bunch of other sites that I don't really maintain. I just started using Twitter, which I think is a big mistake. It's really a waste of time (and here I am only checking e-mail twice a day and being really productive), but I can't quit quite yet.

Music and Movies:

I'm already getting exhausted from writing this list, and I'm sure you're exhausted from reading it, if you've made it this far. So I'm going to refer you to my Facebook profile, where you'll find more than you need to know on my movie and music tastes.

I do love music, but I only listen to it in my car and when I'm working out. I have to work in silence, so there is never music in my office. We saw Rufus Wainwright in concert in March, so I'm still playing a lot of his stuff in my car.

Next, I'd like to hear from:

Carrie Sommer at Sommer Designs
Laura Bergells at Maniactive/More Than PowerPoint, and
Nick Thomas at A Public Speaker's Blog.

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