Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success

Portfolio/Penguin (April 2012)

The iPhone has turned five. As Ken Segall finished writing Insanely Simple, he felt that the iBrand and the Apple brand were equally strong. He probably finished his final edit a year or so ago. As I read his enlightening book, I feel the iBrand is now stronger than its parent Apple.

Ken Segall played a key role in Apple’s resurrection. He worked closely with Jobs in the creation of the company’s most critical and memorable marketing campaigns, including Think Different. He laid the foundation for Apple’s product naming framework by naming the iMac. Of all the interesting aspects of Apple and facts discussed, this iProcess was my favorite.

Apple’s deep, almost religious, belief in the power of simplicity is what sets Apple apart from other tech companies. For Jobs, simplicity equals power. The strength to keep things simple, and to protect them from becoming complex, was a Jobs’ driving force. Becoming skilled at simplicity isn’t simple. You have to work toward automatic and straightforward business interactions.

Steve Jobs told you what was on his mind and didn’t really care about your feelings or being nice. He had an honest quality and strove to be that way all the time. Simplicity gives work integrity. Simplicity with business honesty keeps you from having to defend issues you don’t believe in. By keeping information simple and compartmentalized you are in the position to make correct business decisions with proper focus.

I wonder what working with Jobs was like, but a challenge I’m sure of. I’m not sure I would have liked him personally, however,  Ido respect his work ethic. We are all astonished by his creative drive, and simplicity was the root of his process.

Jobs believe his every product was a manifestation of the Apple brand. The goal of the brand to make things easier for his customers. Simplicity, in its most powerful form, connects directly to our humanity. A tone of common sense allows people to feel they understand you which leads to brand trust and more authenticity.

“Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” -Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs believed simplicity itself was the greatest business weapon of our time. He believed that when you make mistakes you should admit them quickly and get on with your other ideas.

Ken’s study of Apple is easy to read, insightful while challenging you to address your own brand and marketing.

It’s time for grilling! I got a new grill for my birthday in May, and have been trying to catch up on my grilling education. If you want to improve your grilling skills, or expand your repertoire, I’d recommend Steven Raichlen’s How to Grill. You may recognize Raichlen as the bespectacled host of the Primal Grill and Barbecue University shows on PBS. I’ve found his shows to be extremely helpful — very clear and straightforward instructions, and lots of clever hints and tricks to ensure success. It’s no surprise that his book is just as good.

How to Grill isn’t a beautiful as some of our other grilling books. It doesn’t have full-page photos of glistening steaks and smoldering charcoals, but it does have lots of step-by-step instructions with clear illustrations. The book starts with the basic grilling information and techniques, and then goes chapter by chapter through beef and veal, pork and sausages, lamb, chicken and poultry, fish, shellfish, vegetables, and desserts. Each chapter covers the techniques involved as well as numerous recipes. It may not be the grilling book you want displayed on your coffee table, but it’s the one you’ll want in the kitchen.

One of the best parts about being a bookseller at Lemuria is all the unusual and fun books I get to come across. Dave Eggers, and his publishing house McSweeney’s, are well known for their unique handling of the book. (McSweeney’s quarterly literary journal has arrived in a box shaped like a head, a collection of eight mini-books that are all illustrated, etc.) Dave Eggers new book, A Hologram for the King came out last week. A cross between the King James Bible that has been in your family for generations and the book Harrison Ford found on his last Indiana Jones adventure, A Hologram for the King is not only a good book (I’m almost finished–so far, so good) but also can double as the “treasure” for any games you play this summer.

Dave Egger’s fur-covered book, The Wild Things, is also a fun book to cuddle up with this summer. Loosely based on Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and the screen-play (co-written with Spike Jonze) for the film with the same title, The Wild Things follows Max as he runs away from home, wearing his favorite wolf-suite, and becomes king of the Wild Things.

Tomas Transtromer, the 2011 Nobel Prize winner in poetry, wrote his memoir the year after he lost his ability to speak due to a stroke, and the paperback English translation is published in a small, pocket-size edition. (I tried it in all my pockets, and it fits in all except the coin-pocket on the left side of my jeans. So don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t fit in all of your pockets either.) New Directions Press also published two other mini paperbacks: a collection of Love Poems by Pablo Neruda (“You too were a little leaf/that trembled on my chest”) and a selection of poems from Rainer Rilke’s The Book of Hours (“God, who can hold you? To yourself alone/belonging, by no owner’s hand disturbed,/you are like unripened wine that unperturbed/grows ever sweeter and all its own”).

A couple weeks ago, Whitney found a poetry book that wasn’t even a book. David Hinton’s Fossil Sky is an epic poem in the form of a lyrical map. Yes, it unfolds.

Some of our blog readers, First Editions Club members and those who might be considering joining our club may be confused as to why The One is our choice for First Editions Club July 2012. Now I believe is a good time to share our club’s purpose and to discuss how we make a concentrated and serious effort to do our best work in choosing these books. With our First Editions Club choice our bookstore expresses its individuality. With this choice Lemuria shows its commitment to real books and author visits all for our community of readers.

Our choices for First Editions Club represent what we perceive to be the most outstanding work that we have the opportunity to work on each month. We try to find first novels or books by undiscovered authors, old Lemuria favorites and what we consider to be the best books published. We balance our choices considering our ability to attract the author or publisher to present this book to highlight in our local community.

Since August 1993, with our first selection of Willie Morris’s New York Days, we’ve been committed to excellence.

The other four books that first season were by William Styron, James Dickey, Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Block. This is a hell of a banner to live up to and we have tried to live up to that precedent of quality. Above Left: Willie Morris signing Homecomings with Bill Dunlap.

Our first criteria is a Lemuria bookseller must believe in the importance of the book. Even at times, the bookseller must sell other booksellers on the reason why this choice is important to our community. The choice is not always easy because travel and author tour plans are decided in advance of the release date.

Our second requirement is that the physical author must visit our physical bookstore to sign and read from the physical book. Publishers are always wanting us to pick for you previously signed copies but so far we have held fast. We believe that for Lemuria to choose an author and their book our local community deserves the respect of an appearance by the physical author. By the author reading at Lemuria, the experience of making your reading selection a more human experience. Pictured Left: William Styron signing Sophie’s Choice at Lemuria in the Highland Village location.

Back to James Brown, in January I started reading The One. I went to work to bring R. J. Smith to Jackson for this literary biography. The publisher was unresponsive. Out of the blue, a phone call came from R. J. stating “I’m coming to Lemuria if I have to pay my own way.” Of course the unresponsive publisher had already distributed first editions and later printings were all they had available. So we hustled about and found enough firsts to go to work for R. J.

By our choice of R. J.’s The One you may ask, “I thought this was a literary club?” It is and this is a literary book. The One is built upon extensive research through a literary presentation. Simply, R. J. got it right and shared his work to us his readers. And that is the same criteria we look for in our fiction choices. You can’t ignore quality in any form of presentation. And quality is what our First Editions Club is all about.

One other thing, Lemuria always tries to pick books that will go into later printings. As printings grow, so does the readership demand. As the book becomes successful so does the demand for that signed first edition. Usually more demand and success lead to increased purchase value. I predict The One will be on many best of 2012 lists at year’s end. Pictured Right: Lee King, who worked for James Brown from the age of 17, gives one of the most convincing endorsements for a book I’ve heard in a long time!

My hope is that this blog represents the seriousness in choosing our First Editions Club books. We also want our readers to consider how much James Brown has influenced our contemporary culture. His impact on music is paramount. Brown bridged the gap from the Chitlin’ Circuit to soul music to funk and I believe rap. Smith’s book opens the door to those who think this master musician is a radio relic. The One gives the reader a clearer understanding of how modern music became what it is today.

Zita is shipping out The One this week and in-store pick-ups are ready to go!

If you’re not already a member of our First Editions Club, you can read a little more about it on our website and see the history of the club since 1993. If you have any questions, please call us!  800/601.366.7619

The cookbook stand on my kitchen counter is home to a battered, food-splattered paperback copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. It never moves from that stand or, if it does, it’s only for a moment, and during that time it sits propped next to whatever other book is being consulted, waiting patiently to be put back in its place.

When my roommate and I are stumped as to what to make for dinner, we’ll look through the fridge and cupboard and use Bittman’s book like a food encyclopedia, finding the connections between the various foods we already have to combine them, magically, it sometimes seems, into a whole meal.

We find ourselves talking to each other about the book as though it’s a foodie friend, “Mark recommends boiling rice this way to make it stickier,” or, “What does Mark say about asparagus?” While I highly recommend “Mark’s” advice on “everything,” his large tome can be a bit overwhelming, and has no colorful food illustrations that can help inspire your appetite. His newest book, How to Cook Everything, The Basics, is the perfect introduction to the more encyclopedic earlier volume. It is thoroughly illustrated, and its recipes are simple enough for a novice cook yet flexible enough for the more adventurous to expound upon.

Mark has something for everyone (and we use them all): for the vegetarians his How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is just as hefty and thorough as his meat-inclusive first volume, and The Food Matters Cookbook is the cookbook companion to his book Food Matters, where he talks about the impact of the American way of eating on our health and the environment. See all of Mark’s books here.

This Thursday, Lemuria will be heading out to the Livingston Farmer’s Market loaded up with cookbooks, where guest chef Derek Emerson will be visiting and signing Wild Abundance.

If we see you there, take a look at what Mark has to say in Food Matters – it just might find a permanent place on your cookbook stand. Check out the Facebook page for Livingston Farmer’s Market for news & directions.