Hello, dears!
I hope everyone is having the best possible start to their New Year, and that all those post Christmas blues are as good as gone!
I personally had a quiet one, and I mostly spent time with family over Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year. The rest of the time I was indoors, curled up on the couch with a book, recovering from all those huge meals!
Buy the Book
Which leads us smoothly into the subject of today’s post: books. Specifically, books about courier work and the courier industry as a whole. That’s right, today we will be talking about one of my most requested topics - and one that fits in perfectly with the ‘New Year, new me’ kind of thinking we often have around this time. So if you're one of those people who have always wanted to learn more about the industry you work in, but never had the time or patience, read on! The lines below will provide you with three fantastic suggestions for books dealing with courier work – as chosen by your old Aunt Gertie herself!
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson. I know what you’re thinking: a book about boxes? Are you having a laugh, Gerts? Well…no. It’s actually really interesting, even for someone who doesn’t know a shipping label from a shipping dock. If you've ever been curious about how a simple box can affect a whole heap of sectors and change the way courier work is carried out, read this book! Even if you haven't, honestly, it's way more interesting than it sounds.
The Innovators: How a group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, by Walter Isaacson. Online shopping has made the modern courier industry what it is, and this book takes a look at the fellows that helped make it all happen. It is not just for tech-heads, either – even a little old dear like me understood (most of) it!
The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends That Will Disrupt the World, by Shaun Rein. Most of our products nowadays come from China, and some of them are not as cheap or tacky as they used to be. This book explains why, and takes a look at how improved conditions in China have affected delivery and courier work the world over.
There you have it, then – three suggestions for books to seek out if you want to learn more about the courier industry. Of course, these aren’t the ONLY books of this type out there, but most of the others have to do with specific companies, and I didn’t really want to name names… So if you think you may be interested, why not look for them yourself?
From me, though, all there is left to say is…
Ta-ra!
Gertie x