Here’s a review of a couple of books I enjoyed reading recently:

– Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven ways to be Persuasive – This was a fascinating book. I really enjoyed reading it. Some of the book is just interesting quirks about human behavior, but another 1/2 of the book is great insight about how to be persuasive. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be a more persuasive person. What I also loved about this book is that it was 50 short (4-5 pages) chapters. All books should be written like this.

– The Ultimate Sales Letter – This book by Dan Kennedy was really helpful to me in writing good copy for series descriptions, churchwide emails, and other promotion that we do as a church. If you write an email to your church every week, a newsletter, or do direct mail or some other promotion that involves words, I’d pick this book up. Plus, it’s a quick read.

– The Encore Effect – I like Mark Sanborn. I heard him speak at Catalyst in 2004 and have enjoyed his books. The encore effect is about how to become so good at what you do that people are asking for more. Since he’s a professional speaker, he talks a lot about speaking in his illustrations, which was really helpful to me as a Pastor. It’s not a long book, so you should be able to put it away in an hour of so.