The word is starting to get out about the book. The folks at Advertising Age like what they see:

The authors' methodology for deciding who made the cut is simple: Texts should be accessible (no jargon), applicable (no outdated theories or practices) and present a sound business idea. Bookstore's selection process is similarly organized, if we may say so, which is why this list gets our stamp of recommendation.

70 days and counting....

Four months before publication date, our sales ranking is already 280,000, but who's counting.

Check us out here.

Also, we're sending out month two of our 6-month Countdown Book Club later this week.

As Todd mentioned, it's a six-month book club. And since we launched it last week, a few questions have come up.

A few folks asked how the book club worked internationally. Dylan answers that here.

And a few folks have asked why we're keeping the five books a secret (the sixth book being Jack and Todd's book). For us, the element of surprise is part of the package.

I say this realizing that people are worried about, (a) receiving a book they already have; (b) receiving a book that's not applicable to theirself.

While I won't give away the book names, let me try to disperse some of that fog. First, the likelihood of someone owning these titles is quite slim. A hint, Good to Great, a great, common business title, isn't in this club. In choosing the titles, we considered the likelihood of people having had read the book, their applicability and whether they're a good read.

And second, on the question of whether the books are worth reading. Their subject lines follow that of Management, Leadership, Communication, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. I'm sure you'll find a subject (or six) that work for you.

Hope that helps in your decision! Any other questions, shoot them my way. Happy to help. Here's the link, if you'd like to join our club.

The book has a name:

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You

It has a beautiful cover:

The words have been written and most have survived the first round of edits. We are now in the polishing stage known as copyediting.

While we found ways to personally celebrate the completion of the manuscript with our families and the 800-CEO-READ team, we now want to share our growing excitement about the book with you.

The title is a bit of a giveaway, but our book is about business books. So we decided the best way to celebrate is to give you a sneak peak of some of the books we've included in The 100 Best.

We invite you to join The Countdown Book Club: Six Months To The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

You'll receive six books. The first book will be sent to you in September. We'll send you five books, one a month, through January. And then in February, you'll receive your copy of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

The cost is $99, which includes the six books and all the stamps to get them to you.

Now, we won't tell you which books we will send to you, but we promise you that they are more than worth your time and dollar.

Writing a book is not a small undertaking. Jack and I are spending between 10 and 15 hours a week writing this book. The challenge with this particular book is we have to go back and read all the others books before we even start writing. To meet our April 1st deadline, both of us each week need to read a book and write a review. As Fool's Day approaches, I am certain a majority of our time will be spent completing the manuscript.

My statement about the workload is not a complaint. It is a statement of fact and one that we knowingly took on. The commitment though makes a strong statement about the value of the project.

For our company, this is a stake in the ground with 800-CEO-READ solidifying its position as an expert in business books. With our strong ties in the author community, we will be able to speak more easily to them as peers. The book gives our fans and supporters a rally point. The broader business community gets an unparalleled resource for facing the challenges in the marketplace.

We felt we needed to write this book. Certainly, there is the challenge of individual achievement for Jack and I, as one might choose to run a marathon, but what we spend most of our time talking about are things like "Who is going to be reading this?", "Is this book worthy?", and "How can we make this review better?" The answers to those questions make a better book for all of you.

I realize both of these post may sound high-minded, but we both believe the best journeys start with a noble purpose. Built into the DNA of our company is the primary idea that we need to help people and that is why we are writing this book.

There are a number of routes we could have gone with this project. A simple email with the 100 books could have gotten readers talking. People love lists.

We could have blogged our favorite books and created a couple of ChangeThis manifestos with some clever category slices. My top five books for executives post got a lot of traction and generated some great comments. Josh Kaufman's Personal MBA manifesto has been hugely popular.

Writing a book requires a different level of concentration, both internally and externally. It is not good enough to challenge your co-worker with the five books she'd bring with her to a desert island. Choosing and describing in the right terms 100 titles is a different task. Writing a book gives you the motivation and the impetus to do that work. I am not saying we couldn't do this without a publisher's deadline, just that it helps.

It is the same way a publisher signing the project helps. They sign projects that are going can be commercially successful. That eye can help a book find a larger audience. You also get the sales, distribution, and production capabilities. Those still matter too.

Don't think we aren't going to write the email and manifestos I described at the start as well as a dozen other things. We just think writing a book makes the end result better.

This all happened before Todd joined me here at 800-CEO-READ, but when he arrived, he and Tom Ehrenfeld started discussing the possibility of putting together a book that would showcase our experience with business books. As the discussions moved forward, I was excited by the idea of taking a fleshed-out version of our JCS reviews, adding some cool graphics, and tying it all together to give the reader a pathway or travel guide to this world of business books...and, by conjunction, the world of business.

We are excited to announce that we are writing a book. The topic will not surprise you--the 100 business titles everyone should read.

800-CEO-READ is an expert in the business book category. Jack has written over 300 reviews of business books since 2001 and, in 2004, we really stepped it up with our Daily Blog. We now feature audio, excerpts, and essays from authors we think have compelling things to say.

We felt it was the time to go back and create the 800-CEO-READ Best-Of-All-Time list. There are so many books that have been published in the last 100 years (and a few before that) which people have probably heard of, but have never taken the time to go read. Our book is meant to be that little nudge.

We are very excited that Portfolio, the business imprint at Penguin, has agreed to publish the book. They have published a variety of authors and titles you are familiar with, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Smartest Guys In The Room to name a few. The book is slated for publication in late 2008 or more likely early 2009.

Since this is a long process, we thought we would document our experiences as we go. We are going to talk about everything having to do with the project: the deal, the writing, what we plan to do when we launch the book, what we plan to do in addition to the book, etc. We will mention some of those things here from time to time, but if you want to follow along with the whole story, check out our blog devoted to the book.