The 5 Best High School Graduation Gift Books

What's the lamest high school graduation gift you've seen? How about a good book instead, for college prep or just for pure fun. Hey, I had to sneak my book onto this list.

The Best High School Graduation Gift Books
via Amazon Lists

My new blog: Social Media & Harassment Training for Employees

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.

Warren Buffett

I started a new blog a few months ago and will actively post newsworthy items:

Binder Law Training - Social Media & Harassment Training

Recent posts include:
Deleting online content is a tough task
Offended employee's tweet sets off a social media tsunami

The inspiration for this blog came from my years of conducting law training combined with teaching Social Media Law and Internet Law.  Through these experiences, I co-published an article entitled:

Social Networks and Workplace Risk: Classroom Scenarios from a U.S. and EU Perspective, 
30 Journal of Legal Education, pages 1-44 (2013)

I hope you find my past and future posts on this cutting edge topic useful.

Perry
Binder Law Training - Social Media & Harassment Training
(PerryBinder.com)

TOP TAKEAWAYS: SUCCESS IN ADJUSTING TO COLLEGE LIFE

TOP TAKEAWAYS:  SUCCESS IN ADJUSTING TO COLLEGE LIFE

-  Every college has many social and career-focused organizations.  Figure out which groups to participate in for fun and for your future.

-  Learn what your strengths are and how to use them in stressful situations.  You already know what your weaknesses are – now figure out how to compensate for them.

-  Live life with no regrets but understand the consequences of your decisions, whether they relate to classes, your future, or personal matters.

PERSONAL MOTIVATOR GOALS

Based on Motivators 67-99, list three specific goals you will work on this year.

1.

2.

3.

College Success Motivator #99 - If possible, study abroad for a summer or semester. You’ll learn more about...

COLLEGE SUCCESS MOTIVATOR

#99

  

If possible, study abroad for a summer or semester.  You’ll learn more about life and yourself than you will at your home institution.

Florence, Italy: http://perrybinder.blogspot.com/

College Success Motivator #98 - Here’s proof that there are many avenues to happiness...

COLLEGE SUCCESS MOTIVATOR

#98

Here’s proof that there are many avenues to happiness.  Preliminary findings in a research study on Happiness reveals that the most happiness-inducing activities in descending order are: Intimacy; Sports/running/exercise; Attending theater/dance/concert; Singing/performing; Attending an exhibition/museum/library; Hobbies/arts/crafts. 

See the Mappiness Project at http://www.mappiness.org.uk. 

College Success Motivator #97 - Recommend to others the books which move you. Ask them...

COLLEGE SUCCESS MOTIVATOR

#97

Recommend to others the books which move you.  Ask them to do the same for you. 

 Appendix E

Books that Motivate Professor Binder

The following books motivate me for different reasons, whether it’s a book’s message, humor, or carefully crafted words:

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn – A historical perspective written about those who never get to write the history books.

Biographies: Ted Williams by Leigh Monteville & Rod Serling by Joel Engel – I love reading biographies of people who are no longer alive, so you get a glimpse of their vibrancy in youth and the fragility of life toward the end.

Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe - The best written book I’ve ever read.

Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerney- A wild and dizzying novel written from the hip.

Fire in the Streets: America in the 1960’s by Milton Viorst – This book discusses a lot of the volatile issues facing America in a turbulent decade.

Essentials of Screenwriting by Richard Walter, Four Screenplays by Syd Field, and How to Write a Screenplay in 21 Days by Vicky King – Any writer can learn a lot about structure from these books on the screenwriting process.

Heaven is a Playground by Rick Telander – The best sports book ever written.

On Writing by Stephen King – The word master offers a memoir with insights into his writing madness.

The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne – A short story which reminds readers to appreciate what they’ve got, and not obsess over trying to make a good thing perfect.

The Buffalo Creek Disaster by Gerald Stern – An excellent book which details a lawyer’s effort to hold a mining company accountable for the deaths of several miners and family members.  This book does not offer the fast-paced Hollywood glamorized version of a law case.  Instead, the reader learns about how slow the litigation process can be.

The Fifties by David Halberstam – This 800-plus page book provides parallels between United States politics in the 1950’s and politics near the turn of the century.

The Pre-Historic History of the Far Side by Gary Larsen – Larsen, a legendary cartoonist, adds commentary about his cartoons in the funniest book I have ever read.

College Success Motivator #96 - Take a law or philosophy course if you seek different perspectives on...

COLLEGE SUCCESS MOTIVATOR

#96

Take a law or philosophy course if you seek different perspectives on justice.  “Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity.” 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago, in a letter written in October 1967

College Success Motivator #95 - Take a Personal Finance course. Even philosophy majors can’t debate...

COLLEGE SUCCESS MOTIVATOR

#95

Take a Personal Finance course.  Even philosophy majors can’t debate the meaning of a balanced checkbook.

College Success Motivator #94 - Empathy towards others is not a weakness. It is a...

COLLEGE SUCCESS MOTIVATOR

#94

Empathy towards others is not a weakness.  It is a quality of maturity, strength, and clarity.

The “Did You Know” Footnotes from 99 Motivators for College Success book

“Did You Know” Footnotes

Motivator #3 - Did You Know… The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has not attempted to estimate the number of times people change careers in the course of their working lives.  However, in September 2010, the Bureau found that from age 18 to age 44, individuals held an average of 11 jobs.  See www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/nlsoy.pdf.

Motivator #6 - Did You Know… In a 2007 survey of 800 attorneys, only 55 percent reported being satisfied with their career.  “Pulse of the Legal Profession,” ABA Journal, by Stephanie Francis Ward (October 1, 2007) http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/pulse_of_the_legal_profession.

Motivator #15 - Did You Know… The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists occupations with the largest job growth projected through the year 2018, starting with registered nurse.  For the complete list: http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_104.htm.

Motivator #22 - Did You Know… In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission approved the practice of employers conducting social media background checks going back seven years for job applicants.  See “Feds Okay Start-up That Monitors Employees’ Internet and Social Media Footprints,” Forbes, by Kashmir Hill (June 15, 2011) http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/06/15/start-up-that-monitors-employees-internet-and-social-media-footprints-gets-gov-approval.

Motivator #25 - Did You Know… While it is true that the founder of FedEx did pitch his business plan in a college class, it is not true that the professor declared the idea as “unworkable” or that the student received a “C” on the paper.  See http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/fedex.asp.

Motivator #68 - A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25.  The “still-developing brain areas govern judgment, decision-making and impulse control.”  See “Risky Business: Dealing with Your Teen’s Behavior,” NIH News in Health newsletter (September 2011) http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/sep2011/feature1.

Motivator #98 - See the Mappiness Project at http://www.mappiness.org.uk.