Let me first say that I have realy enjoyed reading many of the threads on this great forum.

I am very new to the world of copywriting. So I am currently reading "The Copywriter's Handbook" and I have already ordered "Tested Advertising Methods".

My aim is to start with a clear vision.

Nobody is mentioning erotica. I must be a perv.

I've been reading Larry Beinhart's book How To Write A Mystery. I'm not a reader of mysteries, but I like Larry Beinhart and I'm seeing that Mystery writers stake out a turf and relentlessly cover some ground that fascinates them. They apply tension as often as they can. They entertain as they educate. AND THEY EXPECT THEIR FANS TO BUY. I figure that's a decent model for a DR practitioner. Besides he wrote American Hero on which Wag The Dog was based.

Blair Singer's Sales Dogs is what I'm reading write now. He discusses 5 basic styles for selling and when each style is most appropriate. He names these styles after types of Dogs: Pit Bulls, Poodles, Chihuahuas, Golden Retrievers and Bassett Hounds. This is opening my mind to what my natural tendencies are and when other styles might serve me better. I'm enjoying that.

I just finished Orson Scott Card's Treason. He released a 20 year old manuscript of his and this piece is chock full of ideas but with less story and it is a short read...just fabulous.

I miss Neil Stephenson's science fiction. His historicals are fantastic and good for me, but I like his brain candy and miss that.

This is an interesting video on reading and freedom...
http://frequency23.org/component/opt...1/key,2/hit,1/

You have to click on the download button.

From King Willy, aka Bill Hicks...
I was in Nashville, Tennesse last year. After the show, I went to a waffle house. I'm not proud of it, I was hungry. I'm alone, I'm eating, I'm reading a book, right? Waitress walks over to me and says, "Hey, what you readin' for?" Is that like the weirdest ****ing question you've ever heard? Not what am I reading, but what am I reading for. Well, goddamnit, you stumped me. Why do I read? Hmm...I guess I read for a lot of reasons, and the main one is so I don't end up being a ****ing waffle waitress.

But then, this trucker in the next booth gets up, stands over me and says, "Well...it looks like we got ourselves a reader." What the **** is going on here? It's not like a walked into a Klan rally in a Boy George outfit, it's a BOOK!

If it makes you feel any better, I don't just read erotica. I read things that are slightly dirtier, but then this is a G-rated forum, so I think that's why people aren't fessing up to being pervy.

This is me, fessing up- I'm a perv.

I'm also a dork. The last three books I've read have been

A Life of One's Own (all about the economics of the welfare state)
Constitution in Exile (a natural law perspective on constitutionality- very cool)
and I've re-read one of my favorites, the earth-changing The Mystery Of Caplital by Hernando DeSoto, the brilliant peruvian economist who's changed how people understand poverty in third world countries.

Okay. I'm not just a dork, I'm a boring and predictable dork. If anyone wants to know about economic policy and how it impacts growth rates and standards of living in third world countries, let me know. Especially if you have an interest in systems analysis and systems impact on poverty and crime.

I can't belive I'm admitting to this in public, maybe I should just fess up to more erotica reading!

Oooo, Hernando de Soto's books are on my to-read list. I am so impressed with him! (Saw him interviewed in a documentary on world economics recently). Nice to hear someone else is as inspired by him as I am!

I was at Cato's property rights university session this summer- it was amazing, and everyone there had read his work. It's really awe inspiring and fantastic stuff, but he dosen't quite have all the answers yet. Talking to some other top-of-the-line economists who have traveled extensively in the third world, especially Africa, they said that property rights was only part of the solution. In South Africa, no one will take a mortgage on their house to start a small business- with 1,000% inflation, deflation, bank closings, and a massive housing shortage, the house is too precious to risk. So, the risk management systems aren't what they need to be to encurage economic growth, and there's a lot of very cutting edge research going on there to figure out what, exactly, is going on.

Like I said, it's very exciting stuff. If you'd like to talk about it more, feel free to PM me. This is my passion.

Seannon Grace

Just read again:

1. "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi

and

2. "Networking With The Affluent" by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley.

Regards,

-Mike