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Category: Books

Book Review: Christopher Browne – The Little Book of Value Investing

Book Review: Christopher Browne – The Little Book of Value Investing

Introduction: This book was gifted to me by a family member around 5 years ago, and although I read it around 3 years ago, I only recently stumbled across my notes. Having this gap between reading the book and reviewing my notes was really interesting, as it provided me with the opportunity to understand what content from the book I’d naturally kept and what I’d forgotten, fortunately more was remembered than I expected! Whilst I am not currently investing in…

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Book Review: Alain de Botton – Consolations of Philosophy 

Book Review: Alain de Botton – Consolations of Philosophy 

  Introduction I have always had an interest in philosophy and took a few modules on the subject at university. I was even tempted at one stage to take philosophy as part of my degree, but I chose not to because I was turned-off by how disconnected it had become from the real world. Looking back over the centuries, philosophy was a pursuit to help people understand the world around them and how to achieve happiness and success in life,…

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Book Review: Téa Obreht – The Tiger’s Wife

Book Review: Téa Obreht – The Tiger’s Wife

‘The Tiger’s Wife’ is the beautiful debut book by Téa Obreht. The setting is across two generations within an unidentified Balkan country before, during & after a civil war. The style of this book reminded me a great deal of the incredible Khaled Hosseini (author of ‘The Kite Runner’ & ‘And the Mountains Echoed’). The book focuses on the life of Natalia Stefanovic and her grandfather, following their lives through different stories and fables. Téa leaves you on the edge…

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Book Review: Johann Hari – Chasing The Scream

Book Review: Johann Hari – Chasing The Scream

  Whilst book reviews are a core and fundamental part of my website Johann Hari’s ‘Chasing the Scream’ may not immediately jump out to you as fitting in with the wider theme. The reason I read this book and wanted to share the key things I found out and learnt from the book is because we millennials will one day soon be the generation running the world, and we have the opportunity to learn the lessons of the failed ‘War…

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Passion – constraint or enabler?

Passion – constraint or enabler?

  Introduction The concept of passion is an emotive and contentious topic, a thorny issue and that’s why I want to cover it. Is it a good thing (an enabler) or a bad thing (constraint)? Let me start with a brief definition so we are all on the same page, I am defining a passion as something which you have a strong and intense love for, or interest in. I have two fundamental views on the importance and role of…

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Power of Social Accountability

Power of Social Accountability

Introduction Social accountability has been a significant buzzword in the blogosphere in recent months and years, yet it remains a massively encompassing topic and can take on a many different means. The aim of this piece is to focus on why social accountability can be good for personal growth and help you reach the targets you’ve been struggling over for a long time, I’ll also touch upon how it can help society improve at a macro-level. I should start by…

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Book Review: Steve Case – The Third Wave

Book Review: Steve Case – The Third Wave

Steve Case is a huge name in the tech world, having been a founder of AOL, so I was really excited to read his take on where technology is leading us next and what the future of the industry could look like. Overall I was really impressed and riveted by the book, he covers some very interesting topics and touches on the areas that could be next in line to be transformed by technology, namely education and healthcare. This isn’t…

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Book Review: John Le Carrè – The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Book Review: John Le Carrè – The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

I had heard very good things about John Le Carrè and his spy novels, my first real taste was watching the ‘Tinker, Tailor, Solider Spy’ film in 2011, but it wasn’t until I watched the recent BBC drama of ‘The Night Watchman’ that I was finally convicted I needed to read him. I did a bit of research and found that despite ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’ (1963) not being his first novel, that was Call for…

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Book Review: Urijah Faber – The Laws of the Ring

Book Review: Urijah Faber – The Laws of the Ring

Summary This was something of a left field book choice for me, I’ve never been into any form of martial arts or wrestling , but had heard so much about the rise of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) that I thought it was time to take a peak into a new world. I am not usually a fan of books by current athletes, often get the feeling they are a money spinner written by a ghost writer, and their best work doesn’t…

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Book Review: Robert Kiyosaki – Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Book Review: Robert Kiyosaki – Rich Dad, Poor Dad

  Summary: Robert Kitosaki is a very famous name in the world of self-made money and the massive machine around ‘how to get rich’, so this was one of the first books I came across when I starting looking. I didn’t really like the book or his writing style, he comes across rather condescending, also he has a tendency to write and write without actually giving the reader anything tangible to actually use. One of the main positive qualities is that…

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