The Lifelong Learner :: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are -Roosevelt ::

Here are the books that I finished reading so far in 2006. This is to be updated throughout the year. My goal is to read/listen to at least ten.

This book is filled with good advice. The best part of the book is on how to manage well: mainly to play to each individual’s uniqueness and strengths. However, this book was monotone at times. This would be an excellent book if the most important parts were abridged into a 3-4 hour book, vs the 8 hours this book is. A useful book. I might re-read if when I become a manager.

I don’t know too much about Theodore Roosevelt but I do know that he was the US president. From this book, where I had hoped to learn a lot more about his political life, I did not accomplish that. This book is more about the Roosevelt family (which was interesting, and dramatic) than just about Theodore himself. Actually, this book does not do justice to Theodore’s life — more time was dedicated to his life with the cattle than his political life. This book was boring at times. I wanted to put it down since the beginning, but I did not, hoping it will get better. Not really. I believe there are better books on Theodore. After listening to autobiographies of John Adams, Franklin, and Hamilton, I am disappointed.

This book is loaded with useful parenting information. A lot of it is common sense, but hearing it from the author just puts a confirmation stamp on it. The main message I got: be consistent; when you say you’re going to do something, do it. One other thing, punishment might work, but most of the time it does not (I discovered this before — see my previous post, Parenting: How To Talk so Kids Listen & Learn). Taking away something they desire, does. Timeouts work as well.

I plan to re-listen to this book later.

A decent book (very good plot), but I think it’s overrated. It starts out great. However, from the middle on, even though it was creative, I did not think it was that interesting. I am not sure if I like fiction books. Knowing that it was a fiction, kind of killed it for me.

Enjoyable and informative book. It’s very easy to listen. You will hear about different things that happen that you never thought of. The one about abortion and crime is really fascinating. Good book but I think it’s a bit overrated.

America should really be thankful to their founding fathers. They did so much. They basically made America. And nobody did more, work harder and had more lasting effect than the work of Alexander Hamilton. He was a very plorific server for America. He did accomplish a lot. This is a fascinating story about a remarkable man. I cried at the end like I never did even in real life. Just a warning: it’s a 30 hour book and I wished it could have been a little shorter, as some stuff could be cut out.

Benjamin Franklin was a remarkable man. He accomplished a lot: he was a great printer, a scientist, a politician (and a girl lover ). Benjamin Franklin did a lot for America. In this book, I learned all of that, and a lot more. The material is presented in a series of lectures, very hard to put down. Interesting style. I learned a lot about Mr. Franklin and about his times from this book.

By reading this book I learned how to work better, more efficient. I started taking breaks every 90-120 mins. It allows me to recharge my brain (if you’re doing a brain intensive activity you need to do it). I am sure that you can find something in this book that will make you work better. A helpful book.

A book on how brain works. Overall, fairly good stuff. There was one excellent chapter, Chapter 3, Genius and Superior Performance, which talks about how even I can become an expert. Because of this chapter, I’m going to keep the book for a while. The rest of the book is a little boring, though. The author talks about different aspects of the brain, how it works, how it reacts to different things. Might be interesting, but I had hard time concentrating.

This is a book written by a true leader, and an untainted executive (you’ll find out more in the book). The author, an executive who’s had the most success while at Medtronic, concentrates on timeless leadership values. The way he presents them, backed by examples really drew me in to the book (from start to finish). The title should have been more like “Authentic Executive Leadership” since it concentrates on CEOs of companies, but the values are applicable to every type of a leader, every type of a person. This is the best book on leadership I’ve read (listened).

A good book. It contains some good information, but there are better leadership books out there.

oks&v=glance&n=283155", /*my-review-url*/ "", /*authors-url*/ "", /*pic-location*/ "2006/RobertsRulesOfWriting.gif", /*isbn*/ "1582973261", /*date-read*/ "2/2006", /* stars -- number*/ "4" ); ?>I’m giving it four stars because it is a book geared towards writers. I’m not a writer and I don’t want to be a writer. I want to improve my writing. This book contains a lot of help in that regard. There are 14 tips in the book that I marked as either excellent or very good. Chances are, you will find something good for yourself. A very good book.

I’m not a history buff. I’m actually pretty bad in history, but this book was amazing. John Adams was a man of character. America has a lot to be thankful to John Adams for what he did during the time of Independence movement. I learned a lot about John Adams, about the early struggles, etc. This is the best non-tech book I’ve listened to.