July 4, 2007
A friend asked me if I could keep only 5 of my books* (gasp!) what would they be.
*Existing books, already on my bookshelf
*Work/business-related books
So here goes: (in no particular order)
Hang on – this is hard! I’ve had to decide on some criteria – so ‘currently useful’ and ‘well thumbed’ (which I guess means, ‘useful in the past’ too)
Keith Johnstone’s ‘Impro’ – it’s a classic and I used it to inform my facilitation practice well before I knew anything about improv
Sam Kaner’s (et al) ‘Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making’ – lots of really practical processes, and good theoretical underpinning of the process of group decision making
Thiagi’s ‘Design Your own Games & Activities’ – for when I’m stuck and want some inspiration for an intentional activity to reinforce a learning point (especially in training)
Robert McKee’s ‘Story’ – just everything you need to know about story, narrative, mythic structure etc – a great source of all things, well, story
Paul Jackson & Mark McKergow’s ‘The Solutions Focus’ – because I’m a novice at this approach and am enjoying applying it. The book is a great ‘how to’ and reminder.
How about you – what are your Top 5?
PS: My friend then went on to ask which books had been most influential. That’s another story for another time.