Tag Archives: author interviews
Here’s A Useful Way To Catch Up On Blog Posts (Inc. Reviews & Interviews) from Bob Morris You Might Have Missed
It does not take long to fall behind in your reading.
Bob Morris
One place to fall behind is with the writings of the prolific Bob Morris. Bob has been our blogging team colleague since our blog became a genuine blog. I do not know anyone who reads as much as he does – and he remembers what he reads! He has become an important business resource for so very many of his reader, including me.
Seth Godin calls Bob a critic that matters, and just today Heidi Grant Halvorson called him simply: “noted business book blogger and Amazon Top 50 Reviewer.” His has gained the respect, and trust, of a long list of important, and valuable, business book authors.
So, if you are like me, you wish you could read every one of his blog posts. I try to… but I fall behind. As, I suspect, you do. And then, there are some who have just recently discovered Bob, so there is a lot of “older material” worth discovering.
So you wonder: “Can I find his book reviews, and his interviews, in one place, without just scrolling through the archives?”
I’ve got good news. The answer is yes. On his own blog, BobMorris.biz, Bob has tabs for his book reviews, his interviews with scores of authors, and other valuable content. But it is especially valuable for this: say you wonder if Bob has reviewed a specific book, or interviewed a specific author. Here is the fastest way to answer this question, and find what you are looking for.
So, here are your links.
Click here for Bob’s web site.
Click here for the book reviews on his web site. (arranged alphabetically, by book title)
Click here for interviews on his website (arranged alphabetically, by last name of the person interviewed)
No, these lists are not yet exhaustive. (Bob has reviewed over 2,000 books over the last few years!). But they are a great starting place.
We are so appreciative that Bob shares his reviews and interviews and other offerings here on our blog. And, of course, I invite you to browse through our archives to find what you might have missed from Bob. But when you want to “catch up,” or just browse through specific types of offerings from Bob, follow the links above. You will find them valuable, useful – a business education goldmine just a click or two away.
Five Marks of a Great Interviewer
There’s a scene in the movie Life or Something Like It where Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina Jolie) ignores what is “expected,” and chooses her own questions to ask the legendary TV personality Deborah Connors (Stockard Channing). It, of course, made for a great interview.
{from the script:
Producer: You’ll find your list of questions in here.
Lanie: Oh, I have my own questions.
Producer: Uh, Deborah Connors doesn’t answer any questions she doesn’t already know.}
Bob Morris
I thought of this as I read, quite thoroughly, Bob Morris’ interview with Laura Vanderkam, author of the book 168 Hours, on our blog. (Read it here). Bob won’t like it that I praise him so visibly, but for those who like to read interviews, let me state the obvious: he is a master at the art of conducting an interview. What does he do?
First, he actually has studied his interview subject – thoroughly. He has read their books, and paid careful attention to their backgrounds. This greatly informs his choice of questions. If you read many of his interviews, you will see that he does not use “boilerplate” questions.
Second, he crafts questions from the content of the books of the interview subjects. Because he has actually read their material, he knows what they said, and he asks them to summarize key concepts, and then to elaborate on their insights.
Third, he interviews “from overflow.” There is no predicting what other authors, poets, or other sources will be used to frame a question. And every such “unexpected” question fits the interview perfectly. For example, in his interview with Ms. Vanderkam, he quotes from English poet William Ernest Henley, and other authors/people that Ms. Vanderkam profiles or quotes in her own work.
Fourth, he puts each interview subject into a larger context. He realizes that no author, no book, stands alone, and he draws from his wide-ranging knowledge in every interview. By the way, I don’t know the exact count, but Bob has posted dozens of interviews with authors on our blog, and many more are on the way.
Fifth, he starts by choosing interview subjects that he respects. It is clear, in all of his interviews, that he respects the authors and their work. I happen to know this about him – he loves to learn, and he respects authors who write books that are worth our time. This respect comes through in his interviews.
In all of these, there is one very obvious, yet critical factor – he prepares for each interview, one interview at a time.
We are fortunate to have these interviews on our blog. Authors are finding his interviews valuable to them, and many of them link to these interviews on their own web sites. And, most of all, reading his interviews adds greatly to our own never-ending pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.
So, thanks Bob.
