Bookworld Book reviews

Well what can I say about this book.  Having read it all, I must admit I enjoyed his seemingly charming could not careless persona.  However reading into it he surprised me with how seriously he took the task of trying to imagine a new britain.  I was not a fan of his to start with but after reading this, I must admit despite a seeming lack of seriousness in planning, he does take on several parts from the way that america runs the world via capitalism and how it can be shown that capitalism effects can pervert your own way of thinking.

Got me thinking about the song Imagine by John Lennon and that is how I take this book, got me to try and imagine what life could be like.

So Russell Brand you have a new Fan, wish you good luck for the future and thanks for an enjoyable book.

Well finally back, had a minor problem with viral outbreak on computer, was not good, but sorted out now.

Well now to the next book i shall review. This is The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil by Phillip Zimbardo. This name maybe familiar to some people in the United States as the man in charge of the Stanford prison experiment. It was not to me until I began reading this book.

Book Review

Well after reading this book, i have to say it did have an effect on myself. It started out covering details about several situations where people behaviour turned from good to evil. It covered the horrible atrocities carried out in the past, from Rwanda to how people were effected by the situation which the author was in charge of in the stanford experiment. The book then moved on to cover more recent torture crimes committed in abu ghraib in iraq and also in guantanamo bay
Now after reading this book, it was definately a suprising experience. It did make me wonder, how would i have coped under the circumstances under the terrible psychological pressures that were inherent in the situation. The author main argument that situations are responsible for the evil carried out, rather than the individuals has strong backing from the evidence and i found myself more persuaded by it than before reading it, although i am not totally convinced by it. This is because, thankfully leaving some room for hope, that some people resisted this pressure. I was also impressed by the author honesty in admitting his own failings in the stanford experiment. I found reading this book made me look at my own behaviour more closley than i had before. One word of warning, this book can make you cringe at some situations, how people could be so callous can make difficult but important to see reading.

All of this is why i shall award this book the AK 5 star rating of excellent.

Labels: Abu Ghraib, Book review, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Reading, Situational Pressure, Stanford Experiment, The Lucifer Effect Rwanda atrocities, Torture

Well the book by sun tzu The art of war is quite famous, especially since it gained the reputation in the 1980s for being a buisness book manual. Made famous in the film Wall Street (which is one of the films i actually quite like). Now Sun_Tzu, is obviously not around anymore (if he even existed, which is not entirely clear).

Review

This book was an interesting read. For instance Sun tzu does come up with some good advice, which does sometimes sound like common sense. One example of this is that the best way to win a war is to avoid fighting one, as well as some very good examples of points being made, which were of interest in getting into the eras of the warring states period of chinese history.

However the book in the end did not seem as good as i hoped it would be. Much of the chapters were irrelevant, despite having some interesting quotes and detail examples of interest.

In the end i have given this book the Ak 3 star rating of good. This means that i did find it an interesting book to read, but not one i would say is a must read.

Labels: Book review, Buisness manual, China, Chinese History, Education, Gold Star, Literacy, Reading, Sun Tzu, The Art Of War, Wall Street, Warring States

Well i have decided to cover a biography again today. Will try and review a different book type tomorrow. For today i selected George Orwell by Gordon Bowker.

George Orwell or Eric blair his real name, is the United Kingdom Author who was one of the most influencial people of the 20th century. He wrote several very influencial books, including 1984 and Animal farm amongst others. Now for the review below

Review

This book did provide some interesting details about orwell life. For instance it was very thorough and covering his life from boarding school, to burma, life in paris poverty. The book was more difficult to read than obama autobiography, but that maybe due to something i have noticed (with one big exception) that autobiographies written by the person themselves are often more personal and involving. Nevertheless, i found this book a very useful guide and introduction. It does also point out some of orwell (eric blair his real name) faults as well, which i found interesting as it helped to show orwell as a person.

In my review i shall give this book the AK 4 stars of Very good. Now do not misunderstand, i still enjoyed and recommend this book, but i believe it might have been better if easier to read.

Labels: 1984, Animal Farm, Author, Autobiography, Biography, Book review, Burma, Eric Authur Blair, George Orwell, Paris Gordon Bowker, Reading, Spanish Civil War

Well now to review a more topical, if more controversial book. The book i will now review is the Audacity of Hope By Barack Obama.

Well i am sure that i do not need to make much introduction of the author, who is running for president of the United States (for those that have been asleep for the last 10 months or so). One reason i got this book was to try and learn more about this person (even if i am not american, the US elections have got me interested in them) But the question remains, was this a good book or not.

Review

Well when i read this book, i was not sure what to expect. After all it was being written by a politician and politics is notorious for self serving people (and i have read political biographies which have not been so good).

However, after reading it i found this book to be refreshingly optimistic. It was an easy book to read, being a mixture of Obama views on politics with opinions about Hurricane katrina, US Iraq policy where he wondered whether he was wrong after celebrations by iraqis in baghdad, to his opinion of President George W Bush when he first met him (which is much different to what you would expect it to be). It also covered a lot of Obama life, from his struggles commuting between Washington DC and Chicago and problems with having a home family life.

In the End i did enjoy this book and it did have an effect of making me more determined to work at making my own life better. Which is why this book will be getting the Ak 5 star rating of excellent.

Labels: Audacity Of Hope, Barack Obama, Book review, Literacy, Optimism, Politics, Reading, United States Elections

Well here is my first book review.

The first book i shall review is How to be a Complete and Utter Failure in Life, Work and Everything: 44 1/2 Steps to Lasting Underachievement by Steve Mcdermott

Now you might be asking, why review a Self help book. Surely a more serious topic to start with. Well the reason for picking this book i shall outline below

Review

This book is a fun filled unusual self help book. Unlike several other self help books it turns upside down the conventional wisdom of hyper optimism and nauseating at times go win it attitude.

This book instead uses humour, describing how not to have goals, with great attention paid in each step to show how to become a complete and utter failure. This book is also one that you can read again and again, being simple to read. You can open this book and read a page a day, easy enough done even for those that are not exactly the most avid readers. Sadly i failured to complete the book target and ended up falling into the trap it warned about of success, but i am sure if you take this book literally you too can end up a complete failure.

Well i read this book, it remains one of my favourites and i can recommend this book to anyone that is interested in it.

I shall now use my review of this book to give this book Ak 5 star rating of excellent.

Labels: Book review, How to be a Complete and utter failure in life, reader, Reading, self help, Steve mcdermott, work and everything 441/2 Steps to Lasting Underachievement

Hello and welcome. I have set up this blog to review books that i have read and wish to review.

I believe this site will be of interest to anyone that is interested in getting to know whether a book is worth buying or not (not to worry i do not intend to reveal intricate plot details, eg i will not tell your who dunnit in murder mystery books i review).

I shall review books and give them marks out of 5, with 5 stars being a book i would recommend as excellent and 1 star being a book, i would suggest staying away from.

So i shall now begin with book reviews, enjoy and hope you enjoy your stay.

Also feel free to comment or ask i review a book and i will try to accomodate any requests.

Labels: Ak, Book review, Buying, Interest, Reading