Overall rating: 6/10
Atomic Habits is a book that provides a framework for a new way to improve your life. It is structured around making small daily changes, attempting to prove that this method will increase your productivity, and essentially every other factor in your life better than making larger changes or setting targets. Ahh setting targets is the one thing over all else that James Clear despises and makes very clear in this novel. Instead, James suggests that one not set these as these limit what one can do. This point was very interesting to me as I listened my way through the audiobook. Recently, I have gotten into listening to sales and marketing books, attempting to better myself in these areas of my life which I have such little experience with. Many of the books/podcasts that I read/listen to repeat that these are some of the most essential life skills. One such podcast named The Cardone Zone had a specific episode called “How to get great at sales”. Interestingly, the one thing that this podcast promoted above all else was the necessity of setting targets! What could cause such a drastic difference in mindset? Both speakers had the same goal, attempting to make a person more fulfilled and better themselves. Yet they had such differing ideas on how to do this. Cardone mentioned many times that without targets, a person has no idea what to do, and will just meaninglessly live or work their job, and will do less than they can achieve. On the other hand, James routinely mentions how these targets will hold you back from your true potential. From thinking over this point for a bit, I believe that the difference is the audience. Cardone may be used to dealing with people who lack the drive to get started. Without drive, not setting targets may lead you nowhere, as the reader/listener may not even have a clue where to start. On the other hand, if you are listening to Atomic Habits, and have purchased a book on betterment, you are most likely already off to a good start and may have that drive that would lead you to be held back by setting targets for yourself.
Although this is certainly a reason this book was given a lower than average score, there were also some significant positives that this oversized book wrote in its many…too many pages. Some of these were the idea of making little changes, and often pairing something that you want to do more of with something that you enjoy. For instance, I wanted to get outside in the morning, nearly as soon as I woke up, and I wanted to start eating breakfast in the mornings. So, to accomplish this, I paired doing something that I enjoyed (watching YouTube on my laptop), with these two things and began a routine. This routine included accomplishing reading and going outside every morning for 20 - 30 minutes.
Overall I recommend a brief reading of this book to go over the main points. It ends up being pretty repetitive.
Overall rating: 9/10
Rich Dad Poor Dad gets a lot of hype for being one of the greatest finance books ever written. Grudgingly, I have to agree and stand by the hype. Rich Dad Poor Dad perfectly blends storytelling and content in an easy and engaging format. Many times when I read finance books, my mind begins to drift, losing focus and leading me to miss important things. This book with its quick ideas, and engaging stories certainly kept me on the edge of my feet, excited for the next chapter or subject. I believe that much of what was shared in this book could be utilized in my daily life, and I have already begun to see changes in the outlook that I have in my life. I am glad to have read this book and am looking forward to how this will impact my success in the future.
Overall rating: 8/10
Ahh, How to Win Friends and Influence People. A literary classic, a book which has sold countless copies, and continues to be one of the most famous books to ever be published. I have now read this book twice, and certainly got more information out of it the second time through. This book is much more focused on storytelling, rather than the direct content format. Nearly every chapter of the book is filled from start to finish with tales of people and their experiences using the principles that Dale holds so dearly. Many of the things that he shares, such as “Think from someone else’s point of view” or “Talk less”, seem to be common sense, however, it was nice to be reaffirmed that these small things can make considerable impacts on daily life. I would certainly recommend this read to anyone trying to get into the world of reading finance books, as it is an easy read and a fun one at that. I do not believe that it balances the storytelling elements and the content elements as well as a book like Rich Dad Poor Dad, but it is a literary classic and its values still hold after nearly a century.
Overall rating: 8/10
Another finance classic, The Richest Man in Babylon entered my “Must Reads” from countless mentions and quotes from other finance novels. In this book, a single story is told of a young man, a tablet scribe, and his adventures to obtain wealth, and the lessons he learned from his attempts. This book is written in a more aged version of English, which in my opinion was a joyful change from the usual current English type. It is quite impressive to me how these simple aged values still hold so true in everyday life. Such things like the famous 10% rule are increasingly used today, and in my personal opinion should be a value that is taught in school (That is how important some of these teachings are). This is a must-read in my opinion, not just because it helps you further understand the future of finance readings, but also because it teaches some pretty straightforward values that can easily be utilized in your finances. The only factor that led this book to not being a 10 was the overall simplicity of the values. I believe that there should have been 1 or 2 different, or more complicated things that someone could do to ultimately increase their worth. Instead, this book focuses on the mirror basics.
Strong 8, and is still a book that should be added to your reading list.
Overall rating: 7/10
Zero to One is a highly regarded book in the realm of startup culture. This book has many extremely high ratings online, and although I do find that it has many important points, I also feel like it is missing a few important elements of a great/must-read novel. This book started slow, and I felt like dropping it an extra point after it was so tough to stay focused. The novel goes through the beginnings of startups and common mistakes that many make upon launch. Among a fair amount of what I would call gloating (this guy co-founded PayPal and another billion-dollar company), there are certainly some real valuable gems to be found amongst the rough. One of these things was the principle that competition is not good, even though many people say the opposite. Peter Thiel goes through and explains how in many cases, when trying to make a startup significant, you should not be trying to recreate an existing market, but to create a monopoly should attempt to create a new market, one of which will not take things out of your competitors. This and many strong points can be found in this book.
This read is certainly a bit different than my usual finance reads and took a new mindset to power through, however, once I got into the book, I did not want it to end. It was exciting, especially in the final pages, and I can see a strong use case it for someone confident in creating their own business, especially in the tech world.
Must read for potential startup founders.
Overall rating: 7/10
Man’s Search for Meaning is a detailed account of a Psychiatrist who had gone through the horrible years of the Second World War concentration camp. This account goes through many elements of the psychological mindset that allowed him to get through, along with accounting for the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the many other occupants. This area is not often discussed when going over the horrors of these camps but shone an interesting light on this situation. I often read self-help books and finance books in an attempt to better my understanding of the world in areas that I don’t often experience. This book was certainly very different from most of the things that I often read, and was surprised at how interesting and significant it was. Although it does not directly give information that can be readily used, it
Overall rating: 5/10
Straight up this book is not what it is chocked up to be. The book was full of many phrases, many very simple and painfully obvious. It was downright pretty boring at times. Some parts of this book were cool and neat, like some specific war tactics such as “Wait for your opponents to get halfway out of the river before you attack to prevent retreat” and other cool topics. I read this book because of the hype, and how often I hear quotes from it, however, I do not think that this book was very interesting or very amazing. That's alright, on to the next.
Overall rating: 4/10
Did not like this book. From Crichton's lack of character development to the sheer awfulness of the children's characters, this book was a mega-miss for me. Some people might say “Henry you just must dislike dino” which to that point I would say that you are dead wrong. I love dinosaurs and always have, this being the only thing that kept me moving through this novel of a book. I did enjoy hearing the talk about the Rex and the Velociraptors as they wreaked havoc on the island, and the basic plot line was very strong. However, the more the book got into the details of things, the more convoluted this text became. I would not recommend this book, skip to the movies as they in my opinion are much better.
Overall rating: 9/10
This book is a bit different from my usual reads and was a fantasy novel that I took on vacation. The book had a slow start, initially making me uneasy as this was the only book that I decided to bring that week. However, this book did not leave me disappointed. This book was awesome, a great class between good and bad, where the good and bad flipped over and over again. Always caught me a bit off guard, there were so many interesting plot twists and intricate details that kept me constantly coming back for more. The characters were strategically built, a massive switch from Jurassic Park (the book I had read before this one) which only kept the novel more interesting, and made the loss of a character more impactful. I am very impatiently awaiting the next book of this series and cannot wait to read it!
Overall Rating: 7/10
This book was my first take on a murder novel. I know that it might be a bit strange that THIS is my first but I have a good defense…it was free! I just had fun reading this book, it was certainly not of the depth of many of the other novels that I read, but it was pretty exciting and fun at times, and certainly kept me interested for more. I do this thing that I bet most people do when they read a book like this and try to predict who was the killer from the beginning, and at last this time I was at least 50% correct (one of my two guesses was the one). Although I don’t think I'll read the rest of the series, I might pick up on the recently released Netflix show. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a simple fun book, or a teenager who enjoys mysteries that are not too spooky.
Overall Rating: 6/10
Boring. Nothing new, just hit on similar basic points like “Do what you say you are going to do”, and “Don’t just say things you are not going to do”. Not my favorite audiobook I have ever listened to, and was just something that I turned on in the car because it was available.
Overall Rating: 8/10
This podcast episode (Which I am including here because it was 2 hours long) was excellent and is one that I would recommend to anyone trying to get into the self-help/finance audiobook scene. In this episode, Steven goes over many cool and new tips and tricks as well as a few fun stories to detail his financial successes and failures and give ideas on how to be successful yourself. My dad recommended this podcast to me (As I read a lot of finance books), and it blew through my expectations. Simple, fun, and very funny.
Overall Rating: 6/10
This book was recommended to me by one of my neighbors, who is a financial advisor and who I assist in maintaining his insanely large garden space (it’s his entire backyard). To put it politely this book was a drag. It went over very simple concepts over and over and over again to the point where I felt like flinging my headphones (when I was listening to the audio version) into the lawnmower's crushing blades. “I UNDERSTAND THAT I JUST NEED TO SPEND LESS AND MAKE MORE” I would scream in my head as he would repeat essentially the same sentence over and over like a tik tok which was never swiped passed. Maybe I would recommend this book to someone who knows this was their first finance book, or someone who is struggling with their own money. However, if you check upwards on this book review list, there are many others that I feel would do a much better job.