The New York Times has come out with its first Best Sellers List for 2013 for Hardcover Business Books.  At the top of the list is Tap Dancing to Work, “A collection of updated Fortune magazine articles on Warren Buffett, published between 1966 and 2012.”  A few “long-timers” are on the list:  The Power of Habit; Thinking, Fast and Slow; Steve Jobs; Great By Choice; Switch; 4-Hour Work Week; Strengths-Based Leadership.  (The only one from these “long-timer” titles published in 2012 was The Power of Habit, Feb., 2012.  All the rest were published from 2009-2011).  We have presented synopses of many of these (#s 3,4,5,9,10,13) at our monthly event in Dallas, the First Friday Book Synopsis.

By request, I’ve selected the new Nassim Nicholas Taleb book, Antifragile, for presentation at the March First Friday Book Synopsis. (For February, I am presenting Daniel Pink’s new book, To Sell is Human.  Just published, I fully expect this book to make it to this best-seller list soon).  Earlier, I presented my synopsis of Taleb’s still much talked about volume, The Black Swan.

Just a note: the New York Times also published its Best Sellers List of Paperback Business Books.  Just ten titles, here is that list, in order: Outliers, The Tipping Point, Drive, Boomerang, Freakonomics, Checklist Manifesto, Three Simple Steps, That Used to Be Us, The Big Short, and Moneyball.  We have presented 9 of these 10 titles at either the First Friday Book Synopsis or for a client at the client’s request.  The only title we have not presented is Three Little Steps.  Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis combine for five of these ten titles.  Pretty amazing!

My blogging colleague reminds me – and he is right about this – that not all best sellers are great books, and not all of the best, most valuable books make it to the best sellers list.  But most of these offer insights of value.

As I think each time I see this list…  so many books, so little time.

Here’s the January 2013 Hardcover Business Books Best Sellers List.

1	TAP DANCING TO WORK, by Carol J. Loomis.
2	ANTIFRAGILE, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
3	THE POWER OF HABIT, by Charles Duhigg.
4	THINKING, FAST AND SLOW, by Daniel Kahneman.
5	STEVE JOBS, by Walter Isaacson.
6	HOW WILL YOU MEASURE YOUR LIFE?, by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon.
7	TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER, by Dave Ramsey.
8	MASTERY, by Robert Greene.
9	GREAT BY CHOICE, by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen.
10	4-HOUR WORKWEEK, by Timothy Ferriss.
11	STRENGTHS-BASED LEADERSHIP, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie.
12	LEAN STARTUP, by Eric Ries.
13	SWITCH, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
14	WHY NATIONS FAIL, by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.
15	WHY I LEFT GOLDMAN SACHS, by Greg Smith.

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You can purchase our books synopses, with audio + comprehensive handouts, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbookscom.  It really is a fast and efficient way to learn some of the key content of many of these valuable business books.