Business books

 

Recommended Reading: Books for Building a Biz By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN (See Corrections & Amplifications item below.) Thinking about launching a new venture or expanding your existing business? For inspiration and sound advice, try these suggestions from Craig Newmark, founder and chairman of craigslist Inc., a network of 175 classified-ad and discussion Web sites for users in 34 countries. Mr. Newmark, 52, was previously a systems engineer for 17 years at International Business Machines Corp. He launched the San Francisco-based network in 1995. It now has 18 employees and more than 5 million classified ads, over 1 million discussion posts and an average of 2.5 billion page views a month. "Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary" By Linus Torvalds and David Diamond "Linus Torvalds is the guy who wrote Linux, a computer-operating system like Microsoft Windows, and he did it by creating a big collaborative project involving thousands of people. His book shows that collaborative efforts work and how a lot of small businesses have been formed around Linux-related services." "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving" By Roger Fisher and William Ury This book "helped me learn how to take the other person's point of view in any transaction. It teaches you how to negotiate effectively." "We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People," By Dan Gillmor "It explains how small-business guys now have a better chance of working with major media and offers advice on how to get the word out about your business." "Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs" By Leonard Cohen "Its poetry reminds you of the role of conscience in running a business as well as all other aspects of life." "Freaknomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner "The authors show you that 'conventional wisdom' is frequently wrong and can get you into trouble...and they provide many examples." "The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Front" By Bruce Sterling "It shows the reader that the relationship between online bad guys and good guys is really complicated, and if your business is online, you're involved." "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" By Malcolm Gladwell "It helps you understand how your business can move from being ignored to becoming really popular, and it's a really big deal for online businesses." "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World" By Lawrence Lessig "The best preparation for what's happening for intellectual property throughout media." "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad" By Fareed Zakaria "It shows how the cultural atmosphere of the world is changing and talks about the interplay of liberty, democracy and culture in ways you need to understand for expanding a business globally." "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror" By Richard A. Clarke "It helps you to understand that the government sometimes has the same problems as the small [business owners]...[This book] also explains how and why it is now more difficult for Americans to do business overseas." And a Web site to check out: wikipedia.org "This site shows how the collaboration of thousands of people and many world cultures works and that small-business guys can work with others to make something big or even historic. It's also a great resource that's better than many search engines, because you won't get a lot of useless hits." -- Ms. Needleman is associate editor at StartupJournal.com. Email your comments to sjeditor@dowjones.com.