Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

I felt like I needed a bit of a change after the boredom of 'Creating a world without poverty' so I decided to read some fiction. 

Ender's game got some great reviews and I like a bit of Sci-Fi so I thought I would give it a shot. I think the audio book was 14 hours long which I hadn't really thought about before starting but I was happy with this by the time I got into it. 

Enders game is about a boy who has been bred to lead the world against invading aliens called "buggers" (they look like bugs). In fact the whole world has been breeding (I'm guessing through genetic engineering) to produce a leader, genius enough to do this. The only reason earth survived the previous invasion was because of such a genius. 

Ender turns out to be the cleverest person alive. 

The book is set in the future though I don't remember it saying when.  I expected there to be a big emphasis on new technologies like in most futuristic stories, this wasn't really the case.  One of the new things that you will notice is the language.  Kids talk in a kind of pidgin occasionally, it would be interesting to see if Scott Card has a connection to this language for some reason.

There are quite a few things that keep you guessing in this book and keep you really involved with characters. Including Ender;s evil brother (Peter), strict commanders, interesting sounding strategy games and some details that are left out that make you feel clever when you realize what really happened.  

Spoiler Alert-click to show

I did manage to guess the big twist at the end

but only because I'd been thinking about it a lot between readings.  It really was very engrossing.  I listened to it on short car journeys and during breaks at my other job.  And as I said I thought about while not listening to it.  I think a big part is the humble heroship of Ender.  Unassuming perhaps a bit naive but genius.  

The best fiction book I've listened to so far ;)  Let's see if the movie that is meant to be coming out in November this year will live up to the book.  

Creating a World Without Poverty... Things that made me think

Why am I reading this book?

Creating a World Without Poverty - Muhammud Yunis

So as you will probably be able to tell I have an interest in business.  I also have an interest in how business can change peoples lives and even cultures.  This seemed like a good book (at least the title was in the right ballpark) to glean from.  

Muhammad Yunis was the creator of Gramin Bank and pioneer of micro lending.  This is basically a bank that loaned small loans mainly to women in Bangladesh so that they could start a small business and get out of the poverty that they were in.  Good start to the book.  

However, after a few hours of listening to Grameen this and Grameen that it got a bit tiring.  It turned out to be more of a 'look how good my company is' book rather than something I could learn from.  I looked into the company and noticed that there is quite a lot of controversy around this bank and accusations of them exploiting the poor.  Perhaps this book is trying win people's favor.  

Anyway, I dont recommend this book unless you have to write a paper on 'the pros of Grameen bank'

Inside the Jihad... Things that made me think

He talks a lot about his strategies of how to take down people he is following and how the French and British secret services don't do a very good job.  Also his stories seem to go all his way, he escapes situation and passes through places that other wouldn't.
    Are all his stories true?  Yes this is an autobiography but there is no one to verify any of it.

    Where is this guy now?

Inside the Jihad - Omar Nasiri

I picked this one up thinking it would be a thriller kind of like the movie Traitor with Don Cheadle (good movie, by the way).  It wasn't really what I expected but it still kept my attention through out.

The main character, Omar (not his real name), is a Morrocan Muslim who seems to be more materialistic than devout.  Although he does seem to manage to slip in and out of these two modes when he wants to.  When he is in France he is all about girls and money and when he gets to the camps its like that side of him doesn't exist and he is an uber pious Muslim.  Rather than being an awesome spy, I think that both of these sides are part of him, plus the extremist terrorist side.  This puts an interesting slant to reading this book because rather than fully supporting the main character, (which tends to happen even if they are not someone you would like in real life, see most tv shows) I tended to be wary of him.

I think his stance would probably be as follows:

       Jihad is not simply war of the mind as more liberal Muslims would claim it to be
       Jihad is war against those who who oppose Islam
       Jihad does not include killing innocent people
       There are people who are non-Muslim and innocent (key)

His main concern was going to war with the Chechen jihadists against the Russians,as Russians had invaded their land and threatened Islam.

The insight into the training camps was interesting.  Basically like an army training camp but very hands on.  They seem to be able to experiment with any kind of weapon and it scary what they have access to.  All funded by people like Bin Laden

The redeeming side is his work with the DGSE and MI5 and MI6.  He identifies and turns in a few extremists and possibly averts some terror attacks.

The book doesn't really end with any resolved cliff hangers or dramatic twists or even a real conclusion.  I guess this guy is still out there possibly hiding from all the extremists he talks about.

I'm not sure about recommending this book, it was fairly long and had bad language in parts but it was interesting to see a different mindset than mine.

Total Money Makeover... Things that made me think

"97% of 65-year-olds cant write a check for $600"
      I think its easy to think about retirement as a time of relaxing and playing golf but it seems like this isn't reality for most people.

"49% of Americans could cover less than one months' expenses if they lost their income"
      Good reason for an emergency fund.  Buffer against debt.

"If your mortgage payment is $900 and the interest portion is $830, you will pay that year around $10,000 in interest. What a great tax deduction! Right? Otherwise, you'd pay $3,000 in taxes on that $10,000. But who in their right mind would chose to trade $10,000 for $3,000?"
      I dont know many people who pay cash for a house.  How bad are mortgages really?  Thoughts anyone?

Total Money Makeover - Dave Ramsey

I probably read this a couple of months ago, now I think about it, but I have been processing it quite a lot since then.

As the slogan shows this book is written as a way to move people toward financial fitness.  There are a few other slogans that Dave Ramsey tries to get into your head through the book, the main one I remember is "live like no-one else now so that later you can live like no one else."  

Basically, he is addressing one of the downfalls of western culture the "I want it now" mentality that has made credit cards so popular.  I definitely saw his point that America especially has some severe problems with over spending and so I really thought about his approach to solving it. He has a seven step plan as follows:

       Build up a $1000 emergence fund

       Get out of debt

       Build up an emergency fund of 3-6 months

       Save 15% income for retirement

       Save for children's college

       Pay off home earlier

       Build wealth and give

These seemed like pretty simple steps and the way he illustrated his points, which includes lots of sarcasm and yelling, made me think this was something I should be doing so I started on this process.  

Prior to these steps was making a budget.  I did this with my wife fairly easily. The harder part has been sticking to it.  Mint.com has been really helpful for this though, I would recommend it.

We had some money saved already and this became the $1000 emergency fund. We recently figured that we had the money to pay off the loan we took to pay for my green card. Next is the much larger student loan debt. 

It feels good to have some financial goals at the moments and I would recommend this book to most people especially those in debt. I would recommend the audio book if you don't mind being yelled at by a southern accent.  It is also not a get rich quick book.  The way these steps really work is by, as he says, "getting gazelle intense."  This requires getting serious, making sacrifices and probably working more.  Hence, live like no one else. 

A couple of things I'm not so sure about though is his numbers for the return on mutual funds. He claims an average of 12% yield. You would definitely struggle to find that right now, if some one can please show me.  Also, he is extremely anti-credit, which is fine, even saying that experts are wrong and that America would be fine if all credit was gotten rid of. However. As my friend pointed out you can go to his website and pay for his classes by credit card. 

Book Gleaning

I guess I should explain the title of my blog.

I really get a lot out of reading books - I usually read non-fiction.  Weirdly, though, I get it in to my head that I don't have time to read or its not worth it.  I think it could be that I like to do multiple things at a time, visually, auditory and kinesthetically, which you can't do while reading.

So the time I have at one of my current jobs I get to read and gather lots of information and get some inspiration.  A season of gleaning.

Starting Off

A few days ago I encouraged my wife to start a blog, which she did - Food Film Fiction.  I kind of got a bit jealous watching her write and put together these posts so I thought I would start one.  The problem is that I work about 50 hours a week so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to write.

One thing I have been doing though, is listening to audio books.  One of my jobs is pretty monotonous and isolated so I figured "why not learn some things while I work?".  I found that the library has a decent selection of books on tape and even more online that you can be put in a waiting list for.  So every Thursday my wife and I go to books and babies at the local library with our 15 month old and afterwards I browse the audio books for things that look interesting.

In the last month I have read 2 books on business, 1 on money, 1 autobiography and 2 fiction books, which is a lot more than usual.  I'll start by reviewing these.  I'll probably throw some regular books in there at times as well.