Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

It’s Friday and I’m going to do my very best to not even turn on the computer this weekend! One thing I plan is a long evening ‘tooni time browse through some books I consider timeless classics. (No, I’m not talking about Milton, James Joyce or Henry James. I don’t want to work that hard.)

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.- P.J. O’Rourke

Mr. O’Rourke’s books may not make me look good post-mortem. But what do I care? I’ll be dead. He’s what pathetic self-anointed wits such as Ann Coulter would like to be. He hones in on the sheer absurdity of everything from family life to foreign policy. Nobody is safe from his well-written pithy barbs. To give you an idea, Mr. O’Rourke is a martini-swilling, conservative/libertarian/Republican (!) who was once the foreign policy correspondent for Rolling Stone. Here are three classics on my bookshelf:
Holidays in Hell
Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government
All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty

For more recommended reading (both serious and just for fun), go to My Bookshelf.

Have a great weekend! I’ll be back in business mode next week with new posts on Start-up Suicide (and Success), Branding Blah-Blah, and Service Stars & Snafus.

Got a reading recommendation? email me! I always enjoy hearing from fellow reading addicts.

For all the irreverent, serious ‘n silly end-of-week posts, visit my new category, Friday Martini Time. People tell me my off-topic Friday posts are some of their favorites, so I made them easier to find.

Tags: P.J. O’Rourke, Mary Schmidt , Friday Martini Time