Summer reading list
I know that this it is old-fashioned to read books. But I still do it; and I am not ashamed. For those of you who also still do it, here is my “summer reading list” of real estate books. I hope I haven’t missed your beach week!
If you want to understand the real estate buying process:
10 Steps to Home Ownership, by Ilyce R. Glink -- really anything by Ilyce Glink. She has a good outlook and her books are similar, but formatted differently for different learning styles.
House, by Tracy Kidder
Homes and Other Black Holes, by Dave Barry
If you like to look at the "how and why" of houses, marketing and the way we think:
The Walls Around Us by David Owen
Sex and Real Estate, by Marjorie Garber
A Scientist in the City, by James Trefil
Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
While I am at it, I enjoy books which turn what I learned in school on its head:
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 by Brian Fagan
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler if the 14th Century by Ross E. Dunn
Also, these don’t count as reading books; they are reference books everyone who owns a house should have:
Dare to Repair by Julie Sussman and Stephanie Glakas-Tenet
101 Cost Effective Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home by Steve Berges
Reader’s Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual
Please share your favorite books in these categories, or give a new category and your favorite. I would especially like to know what you read in these categories:
Economics
Negotiation
Urban Planning/Future of American housing
Popular Science
Social Science
(this entry is dedicated to the memory of Edie Howe 1946-2008)
Hi Rona, like you I read a lot of books. To save money I get them from the library when I can instead of paying for them.
On negotiation my favorites are:
"Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In" by Roger Fisher and William Ury and "Getting Past No: Negotiating with Difficult People" by William Ury.
Yes! Thank you for the money-saving tip. Libraries are a great resource. I would go broke if I had to buy everything I read.
I know that this it is old-fashioned to read books?
I read that this it not make sense.
EZ,
Since I write for a blog, I am aware that lots of my readers don't read books. Many people really do get all their information from magazines and the web and don't ever read books.
I am not serious about reading books being out of style. But look at the link to the funny article from the Onion. I have had people tell me that books will be obsolete in the future. I hope not!
I suppose this book wouldn't be considered important to most people. But if you're going to live in an old house, you might want to know what it is. That's why I am fond of A Field Guide to American Houses. Perhaps if one sat in every realty office, agents would stop referring to every house style from Victorian to Brady Bunch '70s as "colonial."
Marcus,
I am with you about the mis-use of architectural names on real estate listings!
If you like A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia McAlester, you'd like American Houses: A Field Guide to the Architecture of the Home by Gerald Foster.
I try to keep my summer reading light and *fun* so I don't read real estate work-related books. I'm reading a Sue Grafton mystery, "P is For Peril".
...Oh, wait. Maybe that is a real estate book.....
But seriously, I'm with you in regards to architecture and history. It makes being a real estate agent enjoyable. I learn something new about architecture and building every time I go to an inspection. We have such a wide variety here in Massachusetts.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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