Strategy and the Fat Smoker

I am currently reading (one of my favorite business thinkers), David Maister's, new book Strategy and the Fat Smoker.  [Did I get the apostrophes right there?]

The book has got almost nothing literally to do with fat people who smoke, apart from David's confession that until a recent health crisis he was a fat smoker.  He's recently lost weight and given up smoking as a result.  The book is about why people don't make changes even though they know they should - something every parent, manager and consultant will appreciate.  The book is full of great ideas.  I'm just over half way through the book and I've had several "ah ha" moments already.  If you've read any of David's other books then you'll lap this one up too.

The weirdest thing about this book is that since I've listened to all of David's podcasts and videocasts, I actually hear David's voice in my head as I read.  I've never experienced that before and it's kind of off-putting. 

Now, don't take the following as a negative comment because it isn't: I feel a little awkward writing this blog entry, because David sent me a review copy and I hate to write anything negative about someone-who-I-admire-so-much's work ... but to be honest, I'm struggling to finish the book.  That's a reflection on me, much more than on the book: this is the sort of book I'd normally demolish by listening to it as an audio book, rather than siting and reading.  I've found that I have a huge appetite for reading but I'm a painfully slow reader; audio books have been my savior.

I do hope that The Fat Smoker sells enough to warrant an audio book.  In fact, since this book is already self published, I'm really hoping that David self-publishes an audio book version too.  His podcasts are very high quality - I think he could pull it off.

Update: David's just emailed to say that he will soon be publishing an audio book.

Comments

[David Maister]

Many, many thanks for the review Clarke - and an audio version is on the way!