Has the well of inspiration run dry?

A few years ago, I'd always have a business book on the go as well as a novel. But I can't remember the last time that I've felt inspired to read a business book, let alone buy one. I don't feel as if there's been a real buzzy must-read book, a Seth Godin, a John Grant, a Malcolm Gladwell.

I had a look at amazon's top sellers on the subject of advertising and it all felt rather like deja-vu and don't-wanna-do. It's reassuring, of course, to see the legends still up there in the best sellers - Ogilvy and Arden. But the rest of the list seems full of those "how-to" books with titles suffering from verbal diarrhoea.

"The Power of Kindle Books: Selling and Marketing Your Ebooks for Residual Income - Promoting Sales" by Lambert Klein was top of the list. Something similar for Smashwords appeared further down, along with a number of similarly-titled how-tos about Social Media.

I suppose it's inevitable that in these days of "brand me" and "self-publishing" and "own businesses" that there's a need for these kind of tomes. But I also have a wish to be inspired, challenged, even, by some clever young thing who can show me what a dinosaur I am and point the way to the future.

One book looked a little more promising - having a one-word title, "Velocity" was a start (although the publisher had obviously cajoled the authors Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander into having a LinkedIn style sub-title "The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital"). But I still couldn't bring myself to press the "buy" button.

Pissed in by the planner or not (or however the quote goes), it would seem that the well of inspiration has dried up.

Do not covet your ideas

It was terribly sad to read yesterday that Paul Arden, the former creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi, has died. The world of advertising is now missing one its greats - a man who was batty, baffling and brilliant. I'm going to reach for my copy of Paul's book "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be" and re-read it.



There's a wonderful thought (among many) in this book that gives me encouragement that blogging is the right thing to be doing. I quote from Paul Arden: "Do not covet your ideas. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish. Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you."



There's an interesting article from the Independent here about Paul and his books.