Fab

Love this book. Trying to live by its teachings. Don't really believe that you can just sit back and manifest things into reality, I think you still need to be proactive with certain things, but hey! thats just me! But found the book very inspiring and realised where I had been going wrong for all thses years. I actually bought a copy for a friend I thought it was so good.

Just marvellous

This wonderful book combines so many good qualities: it is immensely readable, enormously informative with detailed footnotes and references, but also extremely moving in its depiction of the terrible things it describes. You will be lost in amazement at the courage of some of these women. And then, at the end, it tells you how you can 'make a difference',giving details of many different charities and groups.

Excellent read

May be a preview to what is gonna happen! If I knew exactly what is going to happen, I'd be a billionaire......................

More of the same...but fine for it

Leavitt and Dubner's Freakonomics was one of the surprise popular hits of 2007, bring behavioural economics to a wider audience, who lapped up the mix of pop analysis and serious discussion of the quotidian. Superfreakonomics reasons that, as the original wasn't broken, there's no point in fixing it.<br /><br />This is not a problem, as the writing style is as crisp and personable as ever and he content is equally engaging. Examples this time around include the economics of prostitution at both ends of the market and the profiling of suicide bombers ('Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance'). Some of the material is, understandably a touch shallow, but is well fitted to a populist market. There is nothing to quite match the wonderful chapter in the first book that describes the market behaviour of drug dealers but there is plenty of good stuff to enjoy.<br /><br />The encouraging message of this book is that populist doesn't necessarily mean stupid; the public will buy into interesting academic material if presented in an accessible and engaging way, as it is here. You can dip into individual chapters or do the whole book in sequence and, either way, have a fun, undemanding and, at times, enlightening read.

Fantastic - helped a lot!

I found this book went into a lot more depth than the highway code does and it covers a lot more signs - some that you won't come across on your day-to-day life like toad crossings! But otherwise brilliant! Also the further help about motorways and trams!

Good and cheap

The book arrived sixs weeks later, due to inmigrational isues as I live in Spain and the book was sent from USA. But the company was kind enough to inform me, that the product would take this time.<br />The book is a hard cover, black and white version.<br /><br />I am happy with my purchase.<br /><br />

Great material, but poorly organised

This is a really interesting and sometimes exciting book - but I found it frustrating and unclear. <br /><br />The time-line is hard to follow, as it jumps between characters (against an unclear time frame for world events that he seems to assume you know intimately), and while it does make some attempt to explain market terms it seems to assume a general level of stock market related knowledge. This may be true of USA readers but I do not think it applies to your average European.<br /><br />This lack of clarity does not spoil the book and it is certainly an interesting insight ... but it could have been so much more. I am not sure what a books editor is supposed to do but somewhere between the author and the editor I think they missed an opportunity.

Provocative title, fantastic book, excellent tips

This book has been so helpful to me. Although I was anyway on the point of re-engineering my consulting business, this helped me see HOW to do it, and the steps to take. I have recommended it to start-ups and they love it too. And at only £6.08 on Amazon, it's extraordinary value! Just think,for the price of three coffees you can change your life!

Such an easy book to use

I bought this book for my husband which arrived a week before his test. It was easy for him to read and has the answers on the bottom of the page. He passed first time and it only took about 20 minutes for him to answer the questions. Definately recommend this book.

Gladwell is a genius

Malcolm Gladwell is uniquely gifted in being able to first identify common assumptions and beliefs of social importance that are in fact questionable, then to make inspired connections that build a case for a contrarian perspective, and finally to present the evidence in a totally compelling, non-patronising and inspirational way. I have now bought 14 copies of Outliers for family and friends. Anyone with half a brain and an enquiring mind must read it. What a xmas present it makes! And, by the way, his latest book - 'What the dog saw' is just as inspirational - a fantastic expose of error and misunderstanding on matters of huge significance. We should treasure visonaries and communicators like Malcolm Gladwell.

REWORK is REVOLUTIONARY

Buy this book if you are interested in starting a business or already running one. It's brilliant. Very easy to read and full of relevant and inspiring views that have been proven by Jason and David @ 37Signals.<br /><br />I will keep this book with me and refresh my ways of working regularly with the advice written. Thank you both for the inspiration!

An absorbing read from a man you don't have to agree with.

I chose this book as my holiday read. And what a good choice it was too. Hitchens is a man who usually polarizes people into one of two camps - you either love him or hate him. I try not to engage in such ideological flag waving, suffice to say, I would consider myself to be one of those who he seems to have left on 'the left' ....so to speak. His memoir takes us through his early years, with chapters devoted to his father and mother ( who i hadn't realised met with such a grizzly end). He treats us to his stint at Oxford, his experiences of the sixties, there are chapters devoted to other great loves in his life such as James Fenton, Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and needless to say Edward Said. <br />Hitch elucidates upon how he first had misgivings about his ultra-socialist leanings, and he provides us with insight as to his dismay at the tendency of some 'comrades' to ignore the rather brutal underpinnings of the spread of the socialist revolution, and how the obvious warts were seen as beauty spots by 'the party faithful'. He has a chapter on his burgeoning love affair with all things American, which is a little rose tinted it has to be said. He seems to refuse point blank to consider that any behaviour of the USA might, in part, explain the attacks of 9/11, which for a man who easy fillets others for such naivety, is quite surprising. His chapter on Edward Said angered me a little, as the late great professor is no longer with us to defend himself to the charges Hitch lays at his door. But it is his memoir, so his rules. His attempt to defend his seeming volte face to the right, reads like the worlds longest excuse. He portrays it as if he was able to find that which Hans Blix wasn't and he refers to being a conscious part of history making as quite an 'intoxicating feeling'. Perhaps it is this which helps explain his apparent abandonment of his earlier principles. It seems to me that Hitch views himself in the same mold as George Orwell (who gets many a mention), as a chronicler of great and interesting times and an iconclast to long held fallacies in our world. The difference being that in Orwell's time, western civilization really was facing an existential crisis. It is this missing component in Hitch's world which explains his apparent desire to ratchet up the hyperbole of the 'threat of Islam' and odious regimes to the east of us, the need for 'civilized' nations to go about spreading civilized notions of 'democracy' and 'freedom'....all at the business of a gun of course.<br />Toward the end Hitch treats us to a detailed account of his awakening to his Jewish ancestry and how he never viewed zionism as a solution to 'the jewish question'. We see how he traced the footsteps of his jewish ancestors in Eastern Europe, which is tragic to read.<br />He has an unattractive tendency to ad hominen against those he dislikes, such as Clinton et al, the book would have been so much better if he had reined that in. All in all, I would recommend this book to his fans and opponents alike (of which I count myself as both). He had led a life the quarter of which would make most of us proud to recount, and no matter what his old friend Martin Amis might say, he has a great command of the language, all resulting in this wonderful book. To the man himself I forward him my best wishes and hope that he beats the big C, because like him or loathe him, Im sure we all hope theres a few glasses left in the old boy yet !

Who moved my cheese?

This book is one of the most famous and successful management tools. It can be read in under 2 hours and leaves the reader to assess which of the characters in the story represents them.<br />It has changed my life in the way I teach people and make them understand that, if one does not change, then success is left to chance.

Great INSPIRATION!!!

Firsst of all if you dont watch the dragons den programme its fine you will still enjoy it infact if watch the programme after reading this book you might just get attracted and pulled by Mr. Bannatyne's magnetic personality. I enjoyed thoroughly and is a great motivator to an individual which forces us to think everything is possible the only thing needed is we"DOING" something! His life has been very well written and for sure will inspire the reader. It also shows duncan's softer side unlike the programme where he is seen as tough. Trust me grab a copy where each penny spend on it is worth it! <br /><br />HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

A good book built upon a good philosophy

I've just finished reading David Allen's"Getting Things Done" and whilst I thought it was, at times, a bit long-winded and tiresome to follow, it is on the whole a very good book for doing exactly as the title states. It isn't some sort of miracle solution, namely as one doesn't exist, but it, above all, puts in place a logical system for you to follow and one which without a doubt will improve greatly productivity and organisation.<br /><br />Perhaps most significantly, it raises, in the conclusion, a point which struck me as extremely relevant. Allen uses the analogy that if someone arranges to meet you at 16:00 and you are waiting for them and they don't show without any explanation, then you are quite rightly irritated and the trust in that particular relationship is dented and you're left with a sour taste in your mouth. In exactly the same manner, every time you say to yourself"I must lose some weight" or"I must cut the grass" you are making such agreements with yourself, and if you fail to act upon them then in the same way you begin to become irritated and lose an element of respect for yourself, just like your friend not showing up. It is this very behaviour that Allen states a great deal of frustration in life stems from, and I must say I completely see his logic. Incidentally, the"rearranging the meeting" phone call that you would have expected from your friend who didn't show up is compared to the"logical and realistic planning" of tasks you intend to do in the real life analogy, as opposed to expecting yourself to do everything in a mass of raging thoughts in your mind all day long.<br /><br />I hope my above paragraph made some sense, as I'm not sure how well I explained it!<br /><br />In any case, this book is certainly worth a buy and the information inside, if applied correctly, could well be very valuable indeed.<br /><br />

A lot of interesting facts

Fascinating if you know something of the background and the characters. Sorkin has clearly had access to pretty much everyone. He doesn't go much into the detail of why the crash happened (and when he does dabble in the details of that he sometimes gets it wrong), but as a dramatic description this is hard to beat. By the end, it does start to feel just like a lot of description, and perhaps too many details. I would say though that it is one of the essential books about recent financial history.

Pretty dull reading

After reading the reviews, especially those that suggested this was 100 times better than City Boy, I was looking forward to reading it. In the end I was very disappointed, there's really nothing to it and just describes what happened at Salomons over a 3-4 year period. There were a couple of interesting stories in here but overall it was very dull. City Boy is a much more entertaining read with laugh out loud stories. This was just very disappointing.

Absolutly Brilliant!

Ok where do i begin, this book had me hooked as soon as i picked it up! Very hard to put down and i must say very cleverly written by Robert Cialdini! If you have a business or even if you do not and just need to know what techniques the high street and many marketing techniques companies employ, this is the bible! There are many real life examples in this book which the author relates to when he is describing persuation! All in all a must get and if not you will regret it!

Wish I'd read it earlier

Great lessons for life. Wish I'd read it earlier! How to gain control of your life for financial independence. An enjoyable read that get you thinking & begin looking at life work and money from a different perspective. A positive perspective.