Book review : The Art of Living

“The Art of Living” is written by Bob Proctor. I have listened to the audio book. I think its mostly a transcript of some of the seminars he has conducted. Some parts of the book is like he is talking to us in some speech and others would be like dialogues between Bob and someone who is attending his course. Bob in many places highlights he’s own journey from rags to riches, how he was able to achieve so much wealth by creating his company to clean offices. His secret is law of attraction. The more one’s thoughts are focused towards positive and aboundance, the more it becomes part of one’s life. He makes many reference to the book by Napolean Hill “Think and Grow Rich”.

Rating: 3/5. And inspiring book with nothing new to offer but pleasant to have gone through.

Book Review : Resilient

“Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness” is written by Rick Hanson. I have listened to the audio book. Its a sensible book, a bit over stretch. Its quite long and for most part repetitive and boring. There are many places where you can relate. The book is about centering one-self even when there is struggles going on in life. The book offers good advice and some practical exercise to follow with them.

Rating: 3/5. Book and approach could be contained. Provides many practical ways to work with one’s deficiencies to attain stability.

Book Review : The Science of Self-Learning

“The Science of Self-Learning: How to Teach Yourself Anything, Learn More in Less Time, and Direct Your Own Education” is written by Peter Hollins. I have listened to the audio book. The author speaks about the SQ3R technique, taking Cornell notes and employing Feynman technique. There ar many such tools and techniques mention which will help one to understand and retain knowledge while educating one self.

Rating: 3/5. A well organized book. The author does not deep dive into the topics.

Book Review : The Great Mental Models

“The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts” is written by Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien. I have gone through this audio-book. In it he provides a brief overview of some of the mental models. To make decisions one should have basic understanding of all the related areas and not just stick to one.

Rating: 3/5. Its a small audiobook and I don’t remember much of it. May be I will revisit and give better review sometime later

Book Review : Master The Day

“Master The Day: Eat, Move and Live Better With The Power of Daily Habits” is written by Alexander Heyne. I have listened to the audio version of this book. The basic philosophy of the book is instead of having a very rigid goals regarding health like loosing x pounds of weight in y days, one could just have a goal as to loose weights. Then think about what habits would help to achieve that goal. Try accomplishing the habits on daily basis. Keep track and refocus on the habits with some changes. This way one does not lose confidence about one self and would keep trying for better. Habits could also be build up incrementally and its important to start first.

Rating: 3/5. The main theme is quite short and rest of the book just beats around the bush for the same theme.

Book Review : Deep Work

“Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” is written
by Cal Newport. I have listened to an audio version of this book. This book basically talks about developing focus on work and the many practical ways to achieve it at work place. The author present ways to manage a busy schedule, keeping minimal use of internet and social network, planning the day, etc. Deep Work is meant for most, except may be those who get involved in frequent interruptions sort of job.

Ratings 3/5. I learnt a lot of time management techniques. Many places the author seems to be boasting about his achievements. I think many topics could be found in any book concerning on focus.

Book Review : Inner Engineering

“Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy” is written by Sadhguru. I have listened to the audio version of this book narrated by Sadhguru. Its book that mostly deals with Indian mystiscism, yoga and gives some practical exercises to get in sync with one’s inner self. The book starts with short biography of Sadhguru’s initial journey towards his spiritual enlignment. Some things he discusses from the view point of a mystic. Many he discusses on the practical aspects of spirituality. He discusses things more wrt sharing rather than emphazing his viewpoints. Topics like Yoga, Adiyogi, Tantra,Mantra,Isha Foundation etc are discussed.

Rating:4/5. A good book, written honestly with the aim of improving the quality of life, lessen the burden of material possession and bring overall happiness to one’s existence.

Book Review: Rich Dad’s Guide to Becoming Rich

“Rich Dad’s Guide to Becoming Rich…Without Cutting Up Your Credit Cards” is written by by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter. I have listened to an audio version of this book. This book mainly talk about the topic of good debt and bad debt. A good debt is a loan that you take for buying an asset and a bad debt is the one where the loan takes care of your expenses. As long as its a good debt there is nothing much to lose. Better than this would be to use other people’s money. The book also has most of the advertising of his products. He does not talk about the how and only leads a direction.

Rating: 3/5. Its a good book and mostly repetitive concept. Not much researched, nothing much to gain.

Book Review : Mindwise

“Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want” is authored by Nicholas Epley. Its a book concerned with mind reading so to say. The author lays the foundation that is very difficult to guess what the other person is thinking. Even if we put ourselves in the other person’s shoes its difficult to imagine what she/he thinks, unless we have had a very similar experience ourselves. So to really understand someone we need to communicate and ask the other person. This is the most simple way to understand the other. Body language may reveal a lot but it will never be precise.

Rating: 4/5. The book has many findings which I may have already come across. Its theme resonates a unique good idea that communication is the key to understanding others.

Book Review : The Art of Thinking Clearly

“The Art of Thinking Clearly” is written by Rolf Dobelli. I have listened to an audio version of this book. This book I had completed last year and am reviewing it after long gap. Might not be accurate. This book about a number of tips which will help one in decision making. Its a book that takes note of our baises that go into decision making. It gives us a sense of why we are subjective rather than objective when approaching various circumstances in life.

Rating: 3/5. Book with lot of discussion on out biases. Nothing new but is interesting.