Books and Interesting Stuff

I went to Book Expo which is the big convention for book publishers and book sellers. It's huge and I certainly didn't get to everything but there were some interesting things I did spot. Some books that are useful, a trend that shows the importance that Chinese will have in the future and some interesting ideas from Cornell University about how people taste things and whether people who have similar types of tasting reactions have similar ways of thinking through things.

I'm always surprised at how many people don't have wills. Even people who are professionals and have considerable assets but for whatever reason have never made a will. I bring this up to clients and at speaking engagements but it's obviously something difficult for people to deal with. Nolo books www.nolo.com, the people who bring you a whole line of legal books, now has a new one that is very appropriate for people who haven't been able to deal with making a will. It's called The Busy Family's Guide To Estate Planning. It takes you through the whole process in a very in a simple, easy-to-read book and has a CD-ROM with 15 legal forms.

For those interested in home schooling Peace Hill Press www.peacehillpress.com has a very nice line of books called The Story Of The World. It's four volumes and one of the nice things about it is that it really does cover world history. Instead of the usual Europe and America it also covers Asia and Africa.

Do you want your young child to learn Mandarin Chinese, the language of the future? Well that's going to become easier and easier. For the first time I saw books and DVDs teaching Chinese that are aimed at very young children. www.manyandpandy.com is a line of books for young children and two women from San Francisco have a very impressive line of DVDs www.EarlyStartMandarin.com.

If you want some quick healthy food (who doesn't) the Cook-Zen Cookbook has recipes for 80 Japanese-style dishes that can be made in the microwave. www.cook-zen.com

The Planning Shop has very nice books for entrepreneurs in a simple easy-to-read format. www.planningshop.com

I took a short taste test given by some students from Cornell University trying to find if people who like certain kinds of food like certain kinds of literature. They said they've foudn that people who like spicy foods like Harry Potter. They did a short taste test with a mint and their questionnaire asked what kids of books you read and your specific likes. Their handout from the Division of Nutritional Sciences www.tastescience.org explains that certain types of tasters, broken down into mild tasters who "eat to live", modertaly sensitive tasters who "live to eat" and highly sensitive tasters who love what they like and hate what they don't like may have different ways of thinking. They say that:

* mildly sensitive tasters tend to rely more on logical reasoning to arrive at decisions than do others tasters

*moderately sensitive tasters are more likely to "play things by ear" and improvise

*highly sensitive tasters tend to spend time mulling things over, often "sleeping" on a problem if it is complex.

Does this mean that when hiring people companies should think in terms of their taste sensitivity to get people who fit their job needs? Do creative people eat different foods than people who think in a more linear manner?