So Long, and thanks for all the Fish (1) book review

I love the title, but the fourth book in the Hitchiker Quintology just doesn’t do it for me. For those unfamiliar with the series, it’s a series of books about the literally out-of-this-world adventures of an ordinary earthling, Arthur Dent, thrown into space after the Earth is demolished to make space for an intergalactic bypass. It’s as crazy as it sounds, and each volume is jam-packed with impossible happenings, fantastic new locations and colorful characters of all shapes and colors (my personal favorite is the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, btw).

Then you come to So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and everything takes a turn for the worse. I’m about a third through it and I bet it picks up later, but I’m really bored so far. Actually I’ve read the whole series before way back in high school and I don’t remember this one being quite so bad, so we’ll see.

What’s wrong with it? Firstly, you’re just dealing with Arthur Dent so far. He works as the straight man to a host of nutters, but as a character on his own he’s dreadfully boring. Secondly everything takes place on Earth, and not just Earth…Britain! The least romantic nation on the planet. Thirdly, nothing’s happened except Arthur’s got a crush on this girl and he doesn’t know how to handle it. Well whoopdy-doo! Welcome to puberty! Color me unimpressed!

Ah, it’s good to get that off my chest. 90-10 odds that things will pick up very shortly and make this slog worth it (I distinctly remember Arthur and Fenchurch making out on the wing of an airplane, which is seriously gross), but man, what a let-down after the last three.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1)

If you’re at all interested in self-improvement, you must have heard of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. It’s become something of a ‘bible’ in this modern day. Schools recommend it to their students, bosses to their employees (and vice versa), I bet even hospitals recommend it to patients sometimes.

Just because something is popular or bestselling, though, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. I will come straight up and admit I haven’t read the whole thing yet. I’ve only read the first few pages. I agree with his overall idea, that instead of changing our personalities we need to change our principles and our deep thinking in order to be more effective. That’s a good idea. Better than good, it’s true.

What I have a problem with is the preachy, excessively wordy, downright disheartening way these ideas are expressed. A book at least has to hold your attention before it can proceed to inform or educate you, or even educate you. Stephen R. Covey fails at the very first step, with his cheesy metaphors, self-flagellating examples and plodding writing style. I’m thinking of buying the audio version instead. I mean, there might be something good in there since it’s spawned so many spin-offs and rip-offs, but getting to it…that’s another matter.

The Richest Man in Babylon (2)

Seeing as it’s such a short book, it didn’t take me long to finish The Richest Man in Babylon. The very last chapter was a short history of the Babylonian kingdom. Nothing you couldn’t look up on Wikipedia in five seconds, but extremely interesting nonetheless.

I also liked the debt reduction plan Clason introduced in later chapter: devote 10% of your earnings to savings, 20% to paying back your debts and 70% to profit-making investments. Of course the nature of your debt determines whether this is feasible or not, e.g. if your house is on the verge of foreclosure I’m not sure the bank would go along with this plan. But for someone with a reasonable amount of debt, it’s a feasible method that should pay off in the long-term.

The Richest Man in Babylon (1) book review

I’ve made it my goal recently to read a few self-improvement books every month. Today I picked up an old copy of The Richest Man in Babylon lying around the house and dug in. It’s very short, less than 150 pages, and packed with common sense advice. On one hand this is all stuff any finance-savvy person would know, seeing as the ideas in it appear in just about every wealth-making book to date. On the other hand, this book was published in 1926, so it’s likely they all copied The Richest Man in Babylon.

I’m only about halfway in so far, so this is just the first part of the review. The writing style is interesting, if archaic, and all the ideas are simply and lucidly presented. The major ones: save 10% of your income, invest only in sound opportunities, only take financial (and other) advice from people in the know, own your own home (easier said than done) and improve yourself so you can earn more. All sound, solid advice. So far, so good.

Sekai no Chuushin de Ai wo Sakebu book… review?

I’ve been too lazy to post anything, but rest assured I’m still working as hard as ever. Right now I’m reading a Japanese novel, Sekai no Chuushin de Ai wo Sakebu (translated into English as “Socrates In Love“) There was a big fuss over it 2 or 3 years ago so I finally got around to checking it out only to find out it can be summed up as “BAWWW, MY GIRLFRIEND DIED, BAWW!” And she died before he could pork her too, that’s his real beef, I bet. I’m not done yet, about 4/5 in there. It was fun going at first but then the hospital descriptions started to turn me off. I don’t know whether to be flattered or sad that I understand Japanese well enough to be creeped out by Aki’s illness but in any case I’m kinda forcing myself to go through it now. I have to stop myself from giving in and just reading a summary on J-wiki.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to for the past week. When I’m done with it, I have some other books I might work on as well. One of them is about Yoshiki. Hmmm… Surprisingly enough, pulling out Japanese books in the bus or car doesn’t attract much attention from the other passengers, which I’m grateful for. Guess I’ll get on with it, then.