It's a common reaction. When I explain to people that I work for a bookstore that specializes in business books, most people either furrow their brows or wrinkle their noses. Sometimes this reaction is caused by confusion as bookstores, to most people, are brick and mortar locations that display New York Times best selling fiction, spin racks of greeting cards, and children's pictures books. When that happens, I try to explain, in a nutshell, the origin of our company: we are what is left of the Harry W. Schwartz bookshops, an independent chain of bookstores in Milwaukee that regretfully closed their doors last year. Then I briefly tackle the evolution of our branch of the company: we began selling books mainly to corporate libraries, but that service grew to include speaking events and corporate training programs, then blossomed further into all the work we do online connecting with lovers of business books and connoisseurs of great ideas.

That is the other cause of the consternation. Most people I talk with outside of work aren't business book lovers. In fact, for many people, the only business book they remember hearing about is Who Moved My Cheese, and regardless of how you feel about that particular book, most people don't have any clue just how broad and deep the business book genre is. I've had a plain-speaking tennis league teammate of mine ask, after an explanation of what I do for a living: "So...who reads that stuff?" And just last night, another attempt to explain my job was interrupted with: "Well...I don't think there really are any business books out there worth reading."

Now, I don't like to turn a night at the bar into a lecture on the value of business books, but when confronted with a face that is scrunched up in skepticism or confusion or simple disbelief that there can be anything interesting or even enchanting about the business book category, I try to quickly explain that while you may sit next to someone on an airplane or exercise bike who is reading something practical (though possible unappealing to you) like Getting Things Done, there really is something for everyone in a genre of books that stretches from investigative non-fiction, to novel, to screenplay, to practical advice, inspiring biography.

I find myself recommending books like Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success to my tennis teammates; The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work to my graduate school friends; Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die to my husband, a high school teacher.

This defense of the business book genre and all the sub-genres within echoes the current--and continual--debate about the true value of literary fiction, the undervaluing of genre fiction like fantasy and sci-fi, the misnomer that all fiction by women read by women qualifies as "chick-lit." The fervor over the unrestrained praise of Jonathon Franzen's new novel, Freedom (read more here, here, here, here, and here) is just the most recent example.

For whatever reason, elitism is alive and well when it comes to one's reading preferences. (I'm going to ignore here the current, very elitist, discussions about how reading or publishing a paper book is or is not superior to using an e-reader. I think we've all had a lot of that this week.) Some of this is stubbornness. We put blinders on when it comes to crossing genres. I know that I am loathe to listen to someone expound on the high-quality of science-fiction as I'm not one to be drawn into fictional and fantastical worlds, but at the same time, despite my literature degree, I'm a fan of English police procedurals and a variety of other crime and detective novels. I think I'm an able enough critic to know whether I like a book strictly based on entertainment value versus some truly good writing, but regardless, I'll defend my preferred genre. Some of it is ignorance. Because the business book genre was indeed limited to technical titles or fables about moved cheese for quite a long time, it is hard to spread the word and have people take you seriously that the genre has simply exploded over the course of the past decade.

And so it is that I find myself often defending the business book genre. Whether you have an interest in game theory, a fascination with the sharks on Wall Street and Washington, a desire to create a more balanced work environment for your employees, a need for a retirement plan, a fear of change, or you want to read a great story reminiscent of Mad Men, you can find (with our help if you don't know where to start) a quality book with depth and nuance that strives to be something more than a series of action steps. People in the United States spend a predominant portion of their lives working, and I am a passionate believer that the business book genre contributes to better work environments, improved personal happiness, and increasingly keener intellects.

Jurgen Appelo at Noop.nl has created and algorithm that takes the number of Amazon reviews, average Amazon ranking, and number of hits on Google to create the Top 100 Best Books for Managers, Leaders & Humans. In talking about some of the analysis Appelo says:

The book with the largest number of Amazon reviews is Freakonomics (#53, by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner). And the book with the largest number of Google hits is The World Is Flat (#56, by Thomas L. Friedman). However, both books scored a somewhat low average rating, which means they didn't end up among the top 10. The book with the best average rating is Love 'Em or Lose 'Em (#36, by Beverly Kaye, Sharon Jordan-Evans), though this book scored only a moderate number of reviews and Google hits.

1. The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer
2. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, E. B. White
3. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
4. Made to Stick by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
5. Peopleware by Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister (out of print)
6. Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
7. What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
8. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
9. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
10. Getting Things Done by David Allen

Channel Insider recently posted a slide show of 21 Must Read Books for Business Success. It was compiled by asking "successful solution providers what books have both inspired them and shaped their approach to making their businesses a success." You can get detailed descriptions of the books by viewing the slide show, but the list itself, with links, below. If you're interested in knowing which books are also in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, they are starred.

• In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies* by Tom Peters & Robert Waterman
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity* by David Allen
• The Power of Process: Unleashing the Source of Competitive Advantage by Kiran K. Garimella
• How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business by Dave Hitz
• Balanced Scorecard Strategy for Dummies by Chuck Hannabarger, Rick Buchman & Peter Economy
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins

• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne
• How to Win Friends and Influence People* by Dale Carnegie
• The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr
• The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business* by Clayton M. Christensen (They throw in The Innovator's Solution here as well.)
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference* by Malcolm Gladwell (They cheat a little here, too, adding Gladwell's subsequent books, Blink and Outliers to this.)
• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers* by Geoffrey A. Moore
• The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It* by Michael E. Gerber

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change* by Stephen R. Covey
• The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker

• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done* by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan Ram Charan
• The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg & John David Mann
• Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, & Priorities of a Winning Life by Tony Dungy
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Jack and I have this book coming out. You might have heard about it :)

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time hits shelves February 5th, a mere 29 days from now (not that anyone is counting).

We have a lot of things planned as we run up to the launch.

• We hope you are taking advantage of the free books we are giving away on inBubbleWrap. This week, we are giving away 100 Best selection Getting Things Done by David Allen along with his new book, Making It All Work.

• We are doing some speaking around the country. If you are in the Bay Area, you can see Jack and I at The Commonwealth Club on February 3rd.

• Finally, Jack and I are going to be writing about the book here at the 800-CEO-READ Blog. We are going to shoot for 100 posts about The 100 Best for the next several weeks. That will give us the opportunity to stories, outtakes, and extras that we couldn't (or wouldn't) put in the book. Jack started yesterday with his quick post on Execution. Tomorrow, I am going to share one of the more painful outtakes that we couldn't put in the book (it still make me sad).

So, we hope you don't mind too much the focus over the coming weeks. This blog has always been business books and nothing is going to change there. We are just going to spend a little more time highlighting the classics and why we think they are worthy of your time.