Nathanael Yellis

I may have read to many business autobiographies, but this one was better than average. It continues the theme of learning history through biography, an emerging trend in my fifty books effort.

It's no surprise to my regular readers: I'm behind. The goal for 2014, which Andrew inspired me to set, is to not only read fifty books, but also to write about them, here. Thus this series of posts. I've read eleven books, putting me over 20% of the way there, but have four or five read but not blogged, thus putting me further behind. Here's a book I read in January, after picking it up at a used bookstore in Alexandria. This is the placeholder I wrote to remind me to make the full post:

Another weekend, another book. Read this great, short story in a few sittings yesterday morning. Aside from increasing my usual premonitions of guilt and lingering doom, not bad for a weekend. We found this book on the sidewalk Saturday afternoon. Another reason to love Capitol Hill: we have erudite, generous neighbors that just leave old books on the sidewalk for us to read.

This book was more personal than I expected. My grandfather, great uncle, and others of that generation in my mother's family were religious leaders. Life Magazine profiled my great uncle, Rev. Dr. Robert Emery Baggs, in his pastorate in Illinois. He and three others led a large mainline Baptist church. My grandfather led efforts around Boston for the Salvation Army. Both contributed to the grand social visions of the postwar church.

This book is well worth your time: online advertising isn't fundamentally different from offline. Internet marketers, I'm talking to you: take a lesson from 1927.

Learning history through biographies is a lost discipline. I hope to regain it during this 50 in 2014 effort.

The Sea is My Brother by Jack Kerouac
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While you have to endure several characters whose role is to preach Eggers' views on the Internet, this is an inspiring book.