Sunday, July 22, 2012

Book reviews!

I've been promising to post an update on the books I've been reading as part of my short (and long) term goals:

From the Telegraph List of (mostly fiction) books, I've recently read:

Gulliver's Travels

The Catcher in the Rye

 The Handmaids Tale
This was a fantastic book, I really liked it. I would definitely recommend it. It's set in the future in a society where there aren't enough children being born and wealthy men get extra women with whom they try to procreate. It was well written and was a pretty quick read. I'm going to rate it 10/10.

From the Marc and Angel List of (mostly self improvement) books, I've recently read:

Siddathara

This was an interesting read. It wasn't a brilliant book, but I enjoyed it. It didn't really hold my attention, but it did bring up some interesting questions about what makes people happy. I'm rating it 7/10.

The Power of Full Engagement

This was a brilliant book. I really really enjoyed it. It was basically about how people think too much about managing time, but how managing energy can be a more effective way of enhancing productivity. A lot of the book focussed on putting effective routines into place to help improve productivity. I've tried to implement some of them into my day to day life. The one I'm focussing on now is to take a proper lunch break (not just eat at my desk like the rest of my co-workers). I'm also trying to take a short break or walk around 10:30 am and 3 pm, and I'm finding its really working well. I'm definitely going to give this on 10/10.

1984 

I definitely enjoyed this book, and I'm glad I read it. I like books set in the futuristic societies and this definitely fits the bill for that! It was a pretty quick read which was nice. I'd rate this one 9/10.
4 hour workweek

This book had some good ideas, but mostly I hated it. To me, the author came off as selfish and self centered and way too full of himself (he suggested calling leaders in the field you're interested in, but also made it pretty clear that he wouldn't talk to someone like that who called him). He was also in favour of basically outsourcing your life to a virtual assistant, which seems a bit iffy to me. However, I did think there were some good ideas in the book...

C er agree that there is a tendency in the world today to focus on making stacks of money and then retiring. I do think that it is good to make sure that you don't just focus on making money to the exclusion of making the most of life.

I thought that the idea that 20% of the work gives you 80% of the result was pretty interesting and often true. That's definitely an idea that I want to keep in the back of my mind.

He talks a lot about how often the "worst case" isn't actually that bad or completely irreversible.

Overall I'd rate this book 5/10, some good ideas, but a lot of very annoying drivel.


PS all images from google

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