Oprah Jr’s Book Club

With all my leisure time these days, I’ve made a goal to get caught up on my reading. And I’m not just talking about Maxim and Rolling Stone. I have amassed a small collection of books and recommendations I have started to read which I thought I’d pass along. In addition to the list that follows, I must highlight and highly recommend the purchase of one book which will enlighten everyone, written by one of my very good friends. And this is NOT the book I recommended from my friend in Spain that caused the litany of ‘reply all’ emails highlighted by Jim Schmidt’s bashing of my poor VP of banking friend.

A little about the author, Tony Cantor. Tony Cantor and I met at Penn State after his second year, which he spent the entire year abroad, and my first year, where I was heading abroad. We met through a mutual friendship with my roommate that year, Michael Pescherine. Tony and I have remained good friends ever since and he has journeyed from his current residence in DC to San Diego a couple of times over the last few years. Tony is one of my most stand-up, loyal, funniest, smartest friends. Tony is a great guy I wish all of my friends could meet. He has an incredible gift to talk to anyone anytime. On his first visit out to SD, I had to work and let him roam around LJ. He met more people in 5 hours than I had in 5 years. Tony is also angry, following in the footsteps of pioneer angry men, such as Pesh, Jim Schmidt, Jeff Nicholson and myself, all PSU MBA alums. Coincidence??

Tony has written two previous novels, has a wealth of travels, great business experience and is getting married in September. He’ has started his own company providing career counceling and vocational training, www.docvoc.com. Tony has recently written a book called, “Lights, Cubicle, Action”. Its what I describe as a self awareness book for any business person. It examines the inner self within any business environment. It offers a realistic and true perspective of what corporate America is and what we need to do to cope and succeed. Its written thru directives, so is somewhat a different format. But each directive will ring true to you, help you and make you think. Besides yourself, everyone will know someone particular that this book is geared towards. I highly recommend picking up this book. Its currently available on Amazon.com. Is $12 going to kill you?? Don't be a cheap bastard & buy it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970872801/qid%3D1045323833/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-8029869-0428825

One more thought. If you were at a wedding, at work, a party or at any other place where you heard me scream “TOUCH IT”, Tony Cantor is the man who brought this into my vocabulary.

Once you buy the book, if you have any contacts, leads or recommendations on how Tony can better sell his book, please let either of us know. I am committed in helping Tony make a huge success of his book. He is currently selling in Office Depots and will be doing book signings and sales in Borders.


Oprah Jr’s other recommended books:

A Cooks Tour
Kitchen Confidential
Both by Anthony Bourdain. Both great books I just finished. A Cook’s Tour is his guy’s journey around the world in search of the perfect meal. He travels from Vietnam to Morocco to Portugal and lots of other exotic locals ending up at the French Laundry in Napa (where our good friend, Tony Baldini’s brother now is employed once again). Kitchen Confidential describes his culinary career and provides a ton of insights into the restaurant business and how your food is prepared. Takeaway: Don’t order fish on Mondays. It’ll convince you to look into the kitchen of every restaurant you eat at, never invest in one (unless its me asking), and never complain about your food.

Kurt Cobain Journals
Unbelievable. As I told everyone in 1990, as I played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” over & over, this guy is a genius. Nicholson (we’ll spend an entire blog on my other PSU roommate nicknamed Costanza) made fun of my Cobain shrine in our apt and knocked my candles with his golf balls chipping. Schmidt & Pesh mocked me when Cobain died. But you all will see his talent in this book. And why he could have killed himself.

Milton’s Marlyn
The ultimate coffee table book. I’ll spend another entire blog on my friend, Joshua Greene and his father, Milton H. Greene’s incredible work.

Books I’m currently reading:

Under the Tuscan Sun by Francis Mayes
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakuaer
WINE by Konemann
Pros & Cons by Jeff Benedict
The Toa of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Alright, so I’m not reading all that much. But I subscribe to 10 magazines and a daily newspaper and can’t even get thru those. For the record, I only subscribe to MAXIM for two reasons: Tony Keeler and Tony Baldini. There were complaints at the B&B in 2002 that their favorite reading material was not on reserve.

Crap, I just called the lake where I was planning on going fishing today and they told me nothing is biting mid-day. That means I have to wake up early.

Today’s quote & quiz of the day:
Scenario:
Seated at Jose’s bar (the local LJ drinking establishment) with me after several cocktails, staring at one particularly attractive female:
“Fuc@ me or I’ll kill your family.”
Guess which one of my demented friends said this and win a Phogenix lens cleaner.