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It's simply amazing that this book is that it's the first of its kind. 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten probably grew out of a conversation.

Most of us who read business books have had that conversation. It might begin with a question: "What's the best business book you ever read?" Or, it might begin with a statement "That jerk thinks The Effective Executive is the best business book ever!"

So it amazed me that no one has ever done this before. But Jack and Todd are the perfect people to assemble a book like this.

The difference between you and me when we have the conversation, and Jack and Todd is that business books are their business. Their company, 800-CEO-READ, is a specialty retailer of business books.

That means that they're familiar with a lot of business books. And it means that they don't have a specialty, the way an academic might. So management and marketing and strategy and entrepreneurship and business history and biography and personal development books all find a place here.

There are two ways to evaluate a book like this. The first is to review how it's written.

The book is divided into twelve topical sections. The contents of relevant books are described. Then there are notes about "Where to next?"

Those notes appear after the entry for every book. They really make the book useful. The authors offer suggestions for other reading that complements the book just described. Some references are to books on the list. Some references are to other books.

Another way to review the book is to critique the selection. Then you have to make judgments.

You have to decide what a "business" book is. For me, a business book should be about business, otherwise any book ever written is fair game. The authors disagree. That's why a Dr. Seuss book and The Little Prince, among other not-strictly-business books, appear on the list.

You have to decide if historic merit or popularity is your criterion for "best." There's no right answer here, just preferences.

The authors chose "popular and accessible." That means that more recent and slimmer books seem to get the nod over books that are harder to find or read. It means that the list is not the best business books of "all time." Instead it's the best readable business books of the last forty years.

I would have preferred to see less children's books and more business classics. I think that Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline or Collins and Porras' Built to Last, for example, belong on this list.

But those are quibbles at the edges. I loved 100 Best Business Books of All Time in part because of the things I disagreed with. After all, that's the fun of those conversations that begin "What's the best business book you ever read?"

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.