Time, Time, Time, See What's Become of Me...

I read Stefan Klein's The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity. I can tell you the book was not a waste of time. It offered some interesting perspectives from a number of disciplines plus some useful ideas on how one should spend and manage their time.

To save time, I did skip through certain sections of the book that did not catch my interest.

To be honest, it can take some time to read through the 277 pages of Klein's opus.

The best book I read concerning time and how to maximize it was Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I have kept a copy of that book in my personal library and frequently read parts of it that I have highlighted.

The Bible by Karen Armstrong

I had looked forward to reading Armstrong's The Bible: A Biography when I heard it was about to be published. Armstrong has an excellent reputation as a religious scholar and writer.

I have a lot of questions regarding the writing and publication of The Bible that contains the new and old testaments. Armstrong seemed to possess the expertise and even handiness on such a controversial book.

However I don't think that too many of my questions got answered.

To be honest, it's very hard for any author to do any justice regarding a history or analysis of the original Bible in 229 pages.

I think what I read was a good outline for a future book. I found the book very dry and at times hard to follow.

Readers may find this book ponderous and slow. It reads like a textbook for a religion class.

Killing Rain by Barry Eisler

Is assassin, John Rain getting soft and sentimental?

Killing Rain is fourth in the series of John Rain novels. Rain botches an assassination and has the CIA and the Mossad gunning for him.

But fear not. Rain has his trusty partner, Dox covering his back and his squeeze (from Rain Storm) Delilah covering the rest of him.

Plenty of action. Great fight scenes. You'll read a more reflective and cerebral Rain as he battles various foes on a number of fronts.

On to The Last Assassin, the next book in the Rain series....

On God: An Uncommon Conversation by Norman Mailer with Michael Lennon

Norman Mailer died today.

So it's ironic that I finish his book on his thoughts about God, religion, the devil, the soul and the afterlife.

To be honest, I did not understand Mailer's God. Mailer's God is not all powerful, all good and all knowing. Mailer's God makes mistakes. Mailer says that God is "not a perfect engineer."

Mailer's God is one that I have never been introduced or read about.

Mailer believes in the devil and argues that the devil is almost as powerful as God.

In this book, I read what I considered some wise and thoughtful observations. However I also found much of this book to be more high brow than my intellectual capabilities and interests. Mailer does 0ffer some unusual thinking about souls, reincarnation and the afterlife.

Not an easy book to read or understand....

Innovate Like Edison by Gelb and Caldicott

If you read and enjoyed Gelb’s previous book How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci, you’ll like this book also. You’ll pick up some great advice and strategies that will help you think better, organize and plan your business more effectively and generate creative ideas.

I love ideas to help me become a better thinker and there are a large number of practical steps offered in this book that can help you in the business world and in your personal endeavors.

You'll also read a brief bio of Thomas Edison and see how he was successful in generating ideas and products.

Hint: Edison was a voracious reader and kept notebooks (just like DaVinci) to track his thoughts, ideas and experiences.

P.S. The authors offer a website for additional information. I checked it out and other than the main page plugging the book, the other links only indicated that "More Was Coming Soon." Very disappointing given the topic of the book.

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar by Cathcart and Klein

The subtitle of this book is Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. I'm not sure my understanding of the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, Hume and Descartes are clearer but I enjoyed many of the jokes in the book.

It is a novel approach. My Greek Philosophy and American Philosophy texts in college were not this interesting or fun.

Carry this book around and impress your friends!

Sharing Some Career Advice with My Friends

For those of us who may be experiencing some "job" uncertainty, I pass along this bit of wisdom from Seth Godin.