All 451 degrees: Book #21 ~ #14 for Tweety Pie

Finished 451 Fahrenheit by Ray Bradbury. Really amazing and insightful.

Happy 14th bday to Alyson aka to her Dad as Tweety Pie. She makes me happy.

DVD and .05 book review

Doubt Review: I wanted to see this in the theaters but never did. I was glad to find it on DVD yesterday. Here is my review: I DOUBT if it was worth the $1.06 it cost me to rent it. I DOUBT if I would ever recommend anyone to waste 90 mins of their life on the movie. I have no DOUBT that the cast, writers and directors were very smug and self congratulatory on what a clever artistic movie it was. Thus I DOUBT they understand why it was and is such a goose-egg. I have more I could say but I DOUBT it is worth my time to do so.

On the other hand Fahrenheit 451 is EXCELLENT!! I'm only half way through but the whole premise of how books and thus ideas and the life of the mind is done away with to be replaced by giant wall TVs and days filled w/ fun and entertainment is so relevant. Again, excellent.

Reviews...DVD and book #20

DVD: Bella. Good movie. I'm not sure why. I think it had some weightiness.

Book: Who Stole My Church...It is a fictional acct of a pastor who attempts to bring an out of date church into the 21st century.

The thing I liked about the book was it was written by a 65 year old actual pastor who sees the necessity of a church being able to thrive in this generation.

Otherwise it was fairly predictable.

Book #19 for 2009

I just finished the 'leadership' classic 'The Prince.'

Machiavelli wrote this some 500 years ago in the context of Middle Ages rulers and their leadership. So some of the quotes are far from what a business man or contemporary leader would adhere to but the principles are still very relevant.

Some quotes...

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."

"Never was anything great achieved without danger."

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

The Prince being just a little more than 100 pages is well worth the short investment of time

Book #18

It has been said that leaders don't read about leadership. They read about people who lead.

The dream is about "G" who was somewhat of a teen entrepreneur prodigy.

I love reading about people who do start ups, pioneers and church planters.
Long story short "G" started an internet based business out of his bedroom when he was 16 and later sold it for $40 million when he was 18. A few years later he started another internet venture and sold it for $300 million in his early 20s.

I liked the business side of the book. His personal life was boring, so it was no surprise it was boring to read about.

Overall a quick read of a couple hundred pages, double spaced.

Recommended.

Books 16 & 17

Finished two books...

1. Greatness: A comparison between Churchill & Reagan.
Starts off sllooowww. Some of the beginning as filler material. Such as is it necessary to compare the elementary and high school educations? It did get interesting near the end when there was the comparison on Communism. It was there that greatness was really exhibited.

A good read if you can stay with it.

2. Spark! The brain/exercise connection.
Interesting theme. Some good anecdotes. For my reading taste too much content trying to over-prove the main thesis. Exercise effects mental health.

A good book to skim.

Book #15 The Death of Ivan Illych

The Death...Illych is a fictional Russian classic by Leo Tolstoy.

The premise is a young man spends his life climbing the social ladder. When he appears to be secure in all the right circles, having the right friends and earning the right salary he comes down with a painful terminal disease.

He then embarks on an internal journey that fluctuates between bitterness and wondering if his live had any meaning.

My analysis: Clearly great literature. Truly engaging. Depressing.

It is worth the read but make sure you read it on a sunny day with a roomful of cooing babies. Otherwise it just drags you down emotionally.

Book #14 Dream Manager

The premise is the fictional account of Admiral Cleaning Co fighting turnover by hiring a Dream Manager.

The DM is tasked to help the employees meet their dreams and thus add value to their lives and a sense of meaning to their jobs.

I am not a big fan of the parable business book genre. But all in all it has a good premise and is worth the time it takes to read this short work.

Books 12 & 13

Since the last post I have been working through a couple of different books. Both these are by Ed Stetzer.

The first is Planting Missional Churches


The second book is Breaking the Missional Code



Both books focus on the understanding of your particular context (building a church in Alexandria KY is different than building one in NYC).

In addition building a church that understands reaching out to see others truly saved and also serving in the world. The dangers have been liberal churches are strong on serving but weak on Gospel. Fundamental churches are weak on serving but strong on the Gospel. Missional churches want to be right on both.

Stetzer is a solid thinker and able author. These two books are strong contributions to the continued understanding of the shifting spiritual landscape America is experiencing.

Book 11...Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior

I'll just say it Richard Marcianko is the man.

He's crude, foul mouthed and generally offensive. But in the number of books I have read that he has authored he appears to be the real deal when it comes to leadership.

I have read this book probably 3 times in the last 10 years. I always come away challenged and motivated.

I highly recommend this for anyone who has the stomach and maturity for 'salty language' in an excellent and focused treatment of real world leadership.

Book 10...Good to Great Social Sectors

Collins who is famed for Good to Great and Built to Last does the non-profit community a favor in this thin volume.

He deals with the differences in leadership, 'the bus', the hedgehog etc within the environment of volunteerism and non-profit metrics.

Here is a book that is concise and clear. Highly recommended.

I surrender...

I took the "Leadership Challenge" (book) and failed.

It is good enough, it's just like so many books I read...more book than is necessary.

200 pages of my life down the drain.

Book #9...A little cheating

I am still working through The Leadership Challenge as was mentioned in a few previous posts.

I am somewhat of a UFC fan. Not fanatic just a leisure fan. So when I saw Octagon at the library I couldn't pass it up.

What's the cheat? 99.985612% of the book is strictly pics.

Nevertheless, it is a book and I did read it. So there is #9 for 2009.

Book #8

Sometime back I read the Fred Factor by Sanborn. It was generally a book on loving what you do enough to do it well.

The Encore Effect didn't seem to brim over w/ originality.

Sanborn covers things like enthusiasm and passion. But to be honest about every business/self help book talks about things like passion.

The Encore Effect wasn't without some redeeming value. For instance: I found his PDA formula memorable: Passion + Discipline + Action = Results Achieved.

If Sanborn or general business books are new to you the Encore Effect is a sufficient, short introduction to the genre.

You can check out Mark Sanborn here.

I think book #9 will be a little slower in coming. I am starting the Leadership Challenge today.

Finding Ben...Book #7 2009

I powered through this one.

It is about a young man who had a rather severe case of Aspergers/Autism.

You feel sorry for the guy. There is certainly a cringe factor about the mother's brutal honesty about her feelings toward her son.

If all the other books evaporate from the Earth I might would re-read this. Maybe.

Book #6...The Myth of Multi-tasking

This was a small volume based on the popular parable approach to business books.

The greatest takeaway I got was mistaking multi-tasking for switch tasking.

In essence you really can't do two mentally demanding things at once. The brain is set up to give attention to one thing at a time. So what appears to be multi-tasking is really stopping and switching between tasks.

Crenshaw also illustrates how that due to concentration and needing to restart your previous task that it really is a time wasting approach.

Good, short read.

Book #5 ...2009

Finished the autobiography Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammett today.

Tammett is a savant. What is a savant? It is the uncanny ability to calculate or compose music or a prodigious memory etc. For instance, Rain Man is a fictional movie on a true savant named Kim Peeks.

Tammett's savant abilities is being able to do lightning calculations in his mind.

The exceptionally odd thing about Tammett is that the numbers in his head have colors, textures, personalities and patterns. Each number appearance is unique up to 10,000.

Interesting subject, but like so many autobiographies I've read lately the subjects may be interesting but they do not make good authors.

Book #4 2009

Just finished Jonathan Goforth's book 'By My Spirit'.

If you are unfamiliar w/ Goforth he was a Canadian missionary to the Chinese in the late 1800-early 1900s.

By My Spirit are a first hand account of the great revivals that he saw and participated in during that time period.

It is a classic that I have read multiple times over the last 15 years.

Finished...2 for 1 (Book #3 for 09)

Just finished Weapons of Mass Instruction. A good read if you are into alternative-educational theory. I burned through it in about 6 hours.

Some of the author's theories seemed a little massaged for my taste. For instance, the idea that it's a good thing that Washington, Franklin or Jefferson didn't have any real formal education. If they had they may not have been the founding fathers.

It is clear that there is somewhat of an axe to grind @ the educational system as well.

Nevertheless, his view of the bureaucracy attending education, the focus on rote memorization over critical and creative thinking struck a chord with me.

I also watched the steroids documentary Bigger Faster Stronger...



A very even and thought provoking approach concerning the debate on steroid use. I especially enjoyed the powerlifting segments.

B,F,S is worth your time if you find a couple hours of nothing to do. But be warned, the language earns every bit of the PG-13 rating. Wear the headphones or make sure the kids are outside playing.

Newly Read Books for 09...Book #2.

I would like to think I would be disciplined enough to track all the books read in this calendar year. Sadly, I know me too well. Nevertheless, here's book #2. The first being The Rise of the UFC.



Before I am tarred and feathered. One, Alice is cool. So says a child of the 70's and 80's. Second, the Christian faith bookmarks his life. It was a big part of his life up until his late teens. Then it re-surfaced now as a member of the AARP.

So for all you who didn't get my Halloween outfit @ Upward a couple of years ago it was no other than the man himself.