Amazon Business Best Sellers Offer Steve Jobs, Economic Outlook

A snapshot of Amazon.com's list of Best Sellers in Business & Investing on August 17 includes an upcoming biography of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, as well as multiple books scrutinizing the economy and related policy, among others.

The titles "Aftershock" and "Outliers" both alternated between fifth and sixth place throughout the course of the day. Amazon notes it updates its rankings hourly.

1. The Old Rules of Marketing are Dead: 6 New Rules to Reinvent Your Brand and Reignite Your Business by Timothy Pearson

Pearson's book, published two days ago, deals with what he considers the outdated methods used by business marketing departments. He claims that while other departments have adapted to advanced technologies, marketing has remained stagnant.

"A must-read for any business leader or marketer," Levi's Global Brand president Robert Hanson said on the book's cover. "It explains how brands must be true to their essence and be reinvented to remain relevant in this radically-changed, information-rich, and Internet-oriented world."

2. StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Rath is the global practice leader for Gallup and leads the company's workplace consulting business. His second look at finding employee strengths, published in 2007, has been on Amazon's top 100 best sellers for 1,656 days.

"Those who are familiar with the StrengthsFinder assessment know that it is designed to uncover certain key talents," Rath said in an interview with the Gallup Management Journal.

3. After America: Get Ready for Armageddon by Mark Steyn

Steyn argues in his latest book that the United States is on the road to self-destruction. The book was published on August 8 and has received praise from noted conservative political commentators such as Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt.

"Mark Steyn's book is essentially a challenge to the bien-pensants among us: an insistence that we recognize an extraordinary threat and thus the possible need for extraordinary responses," Christopher Hitchens wrote in his review of the book. "He need not pose as if he were the only one with the courage to think in this way."

4. Steve Jobs: A Biography by Walter Isaacson

Isaacson's biography of Apple's famous co-founder and CEO should be an interesting read, as Jobs "asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published," according to the book description on the Simon & Schuster Web site, which also said that Jobs put nothing off-limits and spoke candidly himself.

The book, which is available for pre-order, is listed on Amazon for a March 6, 2012 release. However Simon & Schuster announced this week it has moved the availability of the book to Nov. 21 of this year.

5. Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown by David Wiedemer, Robert A. Wiedemer, and Cindy S. Spitzer

Published earlier this month by Wiley, "Aftershock" discusses the U.S. economic recession and says that rather than being over, it is just a sign of times to come.

"Saying the recession is over is more like saying 'Mission Accomplished' before the real Iraq War even began," the authors argue. "It's hiding from the underlying problems that have been created by thinking we can cheerlead our way through it."

6. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell's book delves into the world of high achievers and what makes them different. Published by Little, Brown and Company in 2008, the book is still garnering positive reviews.

"It's not enough to ask what successful people are like," Gladwell wrote, in an excerpt. "It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."