Admittedly, it is hard to choose just one favorite business book. I'm probably devouring about 50-plus business books a year, but something always brings me back to The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Part of it has to do with the writing style. Even though it was written by four different authors at different times, there's this feeling that you're listening in on a conversation with some of the smartest people out there as they discuss and debate where business should be going because of this developing technology called the Internet. The way they mesh their passion for technology, communications, media and business into four very divergent - and at the same time, complimentary - voices, allows you to take away varying perspectives on how business will change as the Internet takes hold.

It's crazy to think that these thoughts and ideas were put forward in 1999. We're talking years before broadband and in a world where there weren't any major online social networks. While the book is most famous for the line, "markets are conversations," the book was written in a time when the Internet had neither a market or any conversations that were available and accessible to the masses. Back then, it was just the freaks and weirdos with their hyper-expensive computers and very unpowerful modems for limited connectivity.

The book set my mind on fire with the potential of the Internet back then, and it's a pretty staggering read in 2009 when you consider what these guys were tinkering with in terms of what the Internet was able to do. A great business book should be one that can stand the test of time. It's pretty incredible to read The Cluetrain Manifesto today because it's just as moving and insightful as it was back in the day.
- Mitch Joel - Twist Image

Cluetrain was a like a cold shower the morning after a drunk. It woke me up and cleared the wak-wak from my old-school marketing mind. It gave me clarity. It screamed, "no more!" And I agreed with it.

It was irreverent, smart and startling and unlike any book that's ever been written on the subject of marketing/advertising/communication/the internet. It was the seed of what we today call social media.

But it's all this and more. In the new-marketing bible, Cluetrain is the old testament, and I am forever a disciple.
- Jeff Risley