Making Beaded Jewellery: Over 80 Beautiful Designs to Make and Wear David & Charles ( March, 2003 ) Book Our Price : £ 9.09 List Price : £ 12.99 You save £3.9 (30% off) Prices subject to change. usually dispatched within 2 to 3 days.

Beware the Beast

Many years ago, I read a book which was a collection of humorous but less-than-impressive job applications, together with the replies to them. Michael Lee has, after a shaky start when he applied to be Mayor of EL Paso City just as the real elections were due, gone one better by applying for jobs which dont, generally, exist in the sane world. Probably, some of them should. This book is a collection of his delightfully inventive applications (perhaps to be The Lincolnshire Poacher, or a letter to Himself the Pope enquiring about vacancies to be Fisher King) together with the replies, which range from the Po-faced to the ridiculous. Mr Lee places great emphasis on his talents, in particular, his experience as a fell runner is oft to the fore. But it is the replies which make this book, proving that a sense of humour is still to be found amongst British (and even French) officialdom, and that the art of diplomacy in politely deflecting and declining his enquiries is not dead. There is even a happy ending: Mr Lee has secured for himself a new, official post as.... well, that would be telling.

a manifesto for the human economy

A really stimulating book this, and I think that some of my fellow reviewers may be missing the point here. This book is all about immersing yourself in the underlying spirit of the human economy - think of it as the new manifesto for companies and individuals who can compete on being different and compete on economies of soul. What it is not is a bandwagon book about the dot com "new economy". That may or may not have come off the rails, but if you actually read this book (and its not hard - this is engaging stuff) youll find out that it doesnt talk about hyped dot coms at all. This is about diversity, creativity and competing on personality. Like the Cluetrain Manifesto and No Logo, this wont deliver a big checklist, but it will make you think afresh about business. Funky Business might even just make you feel excited about business life again. Whens the last time a business book made you feel that?

So bad its a classic

This is not your typical business book, its fun and funky just like work is, er only most work isnt fun and funky. Thats kinda the problem with this book. Its writing about the way wed all love our work to be but unfortunately for 99% of people 99% of the time it isnt. Rewarding, yes, satisfying, yes, enjoyable, quite possibly but fun and funky...? My guess is that the authors visited lots of dotcoms during the boom and saw lots of chillout rooms and fussball tables and thought "WOW, this is funky". What they probably didnt notice is that (a) very few people had time to use them, (b) they certainly arent using them now! However on the plus (?) side the book doesnt tax the old grey matter and its got lots of pretty pictures.