B-School Beach Reading

What are B-school professors and students planning to read during vacation or internships? Here's a sampling

by Francesca Di Meglio

Reading is one of life's great escapes. That's never truer than during the summer after a grueling year of trudging through titles chosen for you by others. By now the B-school community is probably itching to pick its own lineup for reading on the beach or more likely on the commute to and from work. To help you come up with a summer syllabus, BusinessWeek went straight to the experts—B-school students, deans, and professors—and had them give us their own personal reading lists. Here are some of the titles on their shelves:

More than 60 years old, The Unwritten Laws of Business (Currency, February, 2007) is a classic that gained a cult following among senior executives when Raytheon (RTN) Chief Executive Officer William Swanson recently published a pamphlet drawing from the original book. Published in early 2007, the updated book remains relevant, say believers.

"This very short treatise provides obvious, yet oft neglected observations about how we ought to act on the job," writes Steven Lubrano, assistant dean of administration at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. "This book reminds us of the important things that are usually lost to the minutiae of the day." Chock full of tips—such as meetings are only successful if you leave with a plan of execution and know what's coming next—The Unwritten Laws of Business might help future managers keep the office running smoothly.

Free From Existential Pain

This next one has the potential to get a few laughs even out of serious businesspeople, which is no easy task. Amazon.com describes Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes (Abrams Image, May, 2007) by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein as "Philosophy 101 for anyone who knows not to take all this heavy stuff too seriously." The book tackles topics such as the philosophy of language. For instance: how to express what it's like being stranded on a desert island with Halle Berry.

Descriptions like this one were enough to draw in Columbia Business School professor Bernd Schmitt. "A sense of (dialectical) humor is key in life," writes Schmitt. "And we all (including MBA students and business professors) need to free ourselves at times from the existential pain of our habitual existence. Why not read Plato, Kant, and Halle Berry then?"

Schmitt also plans to finally read An Inconvenient Truth (Rodale, 2006), the book on which Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary film on global warming was based. An important read for informed citizens, says Schmitt, the book—even more so the film—has sparked a movement, inspired thousands, and apparently reinvigorated Gore's career. Since many probably already read this book, they might opt for Gore's newest release, The Assault on Reason (Penguin Press HC, May, 2007) about what is breeding modern hostility toward good sense.

Kitchen Business

Tuck Professor Sydney Finkelstein plans to read Heat (Vintage, June, 2007), a book by Bill Buford about how the author immersed himself in the world of celebrity chef Mario Batali. Buford becoming Batali's kitchen slave and numerous treks to Italy to meet Batali's relatives highlight this non-fiction work, which demonstrates how immersion reporting often makes the writer part of the story.