Neural. Romancer. Necromancer. Neuromancer, Gibson's genre-creating book still holds lots of undiscovered corners for me, and I go back to it's familiar pastures, once in a while. This time the excuse was the .epub version I got for the iPad Air, and the beautiful rendering of fonts and typography in iOS 7.
I found sentences, and even paragraphs, that I completely missed before. New plots opened up, that I completely overlooked before, especially in my audio book version listening. This is the fourth time I am reading "Neuromancer" and only now I completely understand Rio's world, and when he says "when you live here, you live."
Wintermute. Steppin' Razor. Chiba Night City. Midnight in Rue Jules Verne. Maelcum Righteous Dub. Villa Straylight. Molly Millions. Black Leather and Chrome. Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority. The Screaming Fist. Console Cowboy. Tessier-Ashpool. He never saw Molly again.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
"Make Yourself Unforgettable: The Dale Carnegie Class-Act" by Dale Carnegie Institute
This book is re-hashing of Dale Carnegie's famous three books, while updating the examples and metaphors for the XXI century, including internet references and all that jazz. If you've read the previous Dale Carnegie's books, this one would seem like a hacked up concoction quickly put together with some annoying jingles in order to extract whatever money is left to be had in the name of Dale Carnegie.
If you are a young reader, or never before heard about Dale Carnegie, this book can serve as a good overall introduction to the material covered in greater detail (but less accessible) in the actual Dale Carnegie books. The book is divided in 12 lessons, each concentrating on a certain topic of what constitutes a "Class Act."
The book begins by explaining that in the modern workplace, it is not enough anymore just to be smart, well-educated and hard-working. Many people today have those qualities. However, very few people are "Class Acts," that is, have the soft skills to be socially successful and popular in their circles, which, in turn, is the basis for life success and overall happiness and fulfillment, according to the Dale Carnegie "System."
If you are a young reader, or never before heard about Dale Carnegie, this book can serve as a good overall introduction to the material covered in greater detail (but less accessible) in the actual Dale Carnegie books. The book is divided in 12 lessons, each concentrating on a certain topic of what constitutes a "Class Act."
The book begins by explaining that in the modern workplace, it is not enough anymore just to be smart, well-educated and hard-working. Many people today have those qualities. However, very few people are "Class Acts," that is, have the soft skills to be socially successful and popular in their circles, which, in turn, is the basis for life success and overall happiness and fulfillment, according to the Dale Carnegie "System."
Monday, March 24, 2014
"How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie
The mother of all self-help books, published in 1934 for the first time (though the updated 1981 edition is the most widely read today). Dale Carnegie was a hustler, let's be realistic. He was a sly man who knew how to turn things to his own advantage, often without the other person noticing, but not always. He would have made a great used car salesman, just like his more modern follower Jack Rosenberg/Werner Erhardt with est and the Landmark Forum.
The book contains very common sense truths. Smile. Don't be rude. Don't be extreme. Control your impulses. All these things were taught to us by our parents and grandparents when we were children, but most children don't bother to listen. This is my 3rd or 4th time reading this audio book (never read the paper version) and each time I marvel at how simple the truths are and yet how effective. Why would something need to be complicated to be effective?
There are criticisms for the book, of course. It is too simplistic. We already knew all that (but why not use it then?). The anecdotes are about (mostly) irrelevant today industrialists and businessmen from the early XX century. There's too much "brownnosing," Dale trying to show his importance by association, dropping names, describing who he met and how he "handled" them, which comes across as bragging (even humblebragging).
None of the criticisms prevented me from re-reading it once in a while. It is a very loose writing, so it is great for reading (listening) on the train and subway. Even if you miss a sentence in the ruckus, Dale repeats himself so much, you're still fine with the comprehension. Try that with William Gibson's novels - doesn't work.
As one reviewer put it, the whole book can be summarized in one sentence: "Be a good listener, don't take the acute angle on issues, don't disagree violently, talk about things that make other people happy and use every trick in the book to make the other person feel important."
The book contains very common sense truths. Smile. Don't be rude. Don't be extreme. Control your impulses. All these things were taught to us by our parents and grandparents when we were children, but most children don't bother to listen. This is my 3rd or 4th time reading this audio book (never read the paper version) and each time I marvel at how simple the truths are and yet how effective. Why would something need to be complicated to be effective?
There are criticisms for the book, of course. It is too simplistic. We already knew all that (but why not use it then?). The anecdotes are about (mostly) irrelevant today industrialists and businessmen from the early XX century. There's too much "brownnosing," Dale trying to show his importance by association, dropping names, describing who he met and how he "handled" them, which comes across as bragging (even humblebragging).
None of the criticisms prevented me from re-reading it once in a while. It is a very loose writing, so it is great for reading (listening) on the train and subway. Even if you miss a sentence in the ruckus, Dale repeats himself so much, you're still fine with the comprehension. Try that with William Gibson's novels - doesn't work.
As one reviewer put it, the whole book can be summarized in one sentence: "Be a good listener, don't take the acute angle on issues, don't disagree violently, talk about things that make other people happy and use every trick in the book to make the other person feel important."
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