James Sharkey

"I'm passionately interested in the topic, which always helps. But I typically avoid books by so called "social media experts." Generally they really have very little to say, certainly not "a book's worth." Plus, the subject is widely covered in blogs, a handful of which are really quite good.

But I was looking for the equivalent of "Inbound Marketing for Dummies" for a colleague (who, I should add, is anything but a dummy). You know, a survey of the whole subject with enough beef to make it worthwhile. Well written, to the point, etc.

And I've been following these guys for several years and love their blogs, Hubspot.tv, free tools, etc. etc. Anyway, maybe it's because I've gotten so much value from all their free stuff that I finally decided to actually pay for something. OK, so it only cost me 1 credit on my Audible.com account, but I feel better that I've paid back s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g : )

Anyway, back to the point. I told you what I was looking for. This book delivers. In spades. What Seth Godin might call remarkable. I say buy it.

Once I saw how remarkable it is, I actually bought another copy for my colleague (cha-ching, Hub Spotters, if that's what you call yourselves). And, she loved it. I'm sure we'll both be recommending it to lot's more people who'll buy it. And so on, and so on. Oh wait, now I really get it. Inbound Marketing. It works.

"OK, first you probably need to have some level of interest in technology and, ideally, hackers. Next, I'll tell you the book starts kind of slow. But then Kevin's personality and spirit come through and book picks up and, when it's over you wish it wasn't. Kevin Mitnick is both the author and main character (yes I know what you call that : ). If you can believe a word he says (and I do), he was a brilliant, crafty, principled soul who overcame a powerful, all consuming addiction, to what he (and others) refer to as "ethical hacking." Living in near poverty for much of his life and spending many years in prison, Kevin today is a successful computer security consultant and author."