You might be surprised to know that I don’t just read blogs and e-articles. I mean… I do. A lot. And below is a list of blogs I have been reading pretty religiously this summer, but I also read books. Real books. Sometimes in analog format (you know… paper, ink and whatnot) and sometimes in digital format via my Nook, which is quickly becoming my trusty companion on long trips and the occasional quiet morning on the beach. (At $149 now, it’s too good to pass up.)

So anyway, without further fanfare, in case you were wondering, here is what my summer reading list looks like:

Blogs (long):

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/ by Jeremiah Owyang

http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/ by Geoff Livingston

http://www.conversationagent.com/ by Valeria Maltoni

http://www.brasstackthinking.com/ by Amber Naslund

http://aarongouldagency.com/blog/ by Scott Gould

Blogs (short):

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ by Chris Brogan

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ by Seth Godin

http://kriscolvin.com/ by Kris Colvin

http://3angelsmarketing.com/ by Karima-Catherine

I read lots of other blogs too, but these are the ones I am visiting most often lately.

Magazines (Print, not digital):

Esquire (UK), GQ (France) and Fast Company (US) – or as I call it, the triumvirate. When I can buy enhanced versions of all 3 on iPad, I’ll know that iPad is ready. Before then… Eh. We’ll see.

Here are links in case you want to subscribe:

http://www.gqmagazine.fr/magazine/ , http://www.esquire.co.uk/ , http://www.fastcompany.com/

Other occasional reads: Wired, Dwell, Men’s Health, Men’s Vogue, Inc., Runners’ World, Triathlete, GQ (US), National Geographic, ID.

News:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

http://www.lemonde.fr/

http://www.lefigaro.fr/

I keep it simple. Other occasional sources of news (aside from radio and TV): CNN.com, Yahoo, Google.

Books (Print):

Business: Sally Hogshead’s Fascinate, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents, and Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah’s Inbound Marketing (They’ve been sitting on my desk for a while, waiting to be read. It’s time.)

Fiction: (see images below) Ben Kane’s The Forgotten Legion and The Silver Eagle.

Books (Nook):

William Napier’s Attila trilogy: Attila, The gathering of the Storm, and The Judgement (to be released)

Simon Scarrow’s continuing Eagles series: The Eagle’s Prey and The Eagle’s Prophecy (Not exactly literature, but pretty fun and relaxing beach or poolside reading. Scarrow does a pretty good job with this series. I’m a fan.)

Chuck Palahniuk’s Pygmy: Because a reading list without ChuckyP isn’t much of a reading list.

Mira Grant’s Feed: Zombies and bloggers. Need I say more?

Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games: I hear good things.

See? It isn’t all Marketing and Social Media, is it? (I spend all day working with business stuff, marketing, brand management, communications and Social Media, so when I unwind, I like to unplug from the work stuff and read well-written fiction that has nothing to do with twitter, facebook, customer retention and corporate communications.)

Though to be fair, there’s more to it than escapism: The Attila Series are solid leadership books, and so well written that they are already helping me become a better writer. Ben Kane’s stuff deals with the nature of the human spirit and is also superbly written. The rest, I don’t know yet, but I’m sure each book will inspire me to write a few dozen blog posts at least. And there’s something to be said for just turning off the TV, ungoogling yourself, and sitting down with a good book for a few hours.

I will probably be adding more books to this list, but that’s how it’s shaping up so far. Have a great summer of reading. 🙂