Excursions

Finished reading: The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman 📚

I liked the book for the most part. Humour was nice. But there are too many characters – no longer a close-knit club. Plus, the plot, especially the mystery, is too thin. The last sixth of the book is just mid. A lot is revealed, but nothing happens.

Not disappointed. But I expected better. I will continue the series after a pause.

I finished reading Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson recently 📚

I enjoyed the first Ernest Cunningham novel with its uniquely fresh narration style. Though the second in the series has a similar tone, it felt repetitively bland this time. The story takes ages to kick off. Humour barely lands and feels there only to fill the pages. The same goes for the “cute” and frequent talk with readers—it just didn’t land for me. It irritated me every time.

I listened to this book this time, and the narration was terrible. It was so fast and messy that I couldn’t understand which character was speaking. I couldn’t get involved thoroughly; I was waiting for the book to end.

I haven’t read a more frustrating book than The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi. It has a smart premise. Pavesi was aiming to attempt something pretty unique. But then I feel he got distracted by the lure of surprising readers. The twists and turns were too many to keep the book coherent. There are no characters to connect with. No story that captures your attention. The seven stories narrated by the lead character are silly. The twists are sillier. And are one too many. It was frustrating to see a clever premise wasted through controlled writing.

At the same time, I haven’t heard many better narration performances than by Emilia Fox. She is extremely natural while voice acting in both stories and dialogues. I could visualize every character distinctly just through her voice.

The last time I was this impressed by someone’s narration was when I listened to Ray Porter narrate Project Hail Mary. Absolutely fantastic!

I stopped reading Linchpin today. I don’t think this one should have been a book. It’s very repetitive. Extremely shallow. Plus, it hardly has anything to say beyond what’s written on the back cover.

I finished reading Rework by Jason Fried today 📚

I loved the simple, usually apparent suggestions. Most go against the proven and often advised business best practices. I love the bold ideas and the no-nonsense way the suggestions are delivered through simple short chapters. But, I am afraid I will not be able to benefit from most of them. Jason targets folks like him who are in positions of decision-making regarding how their businesses are run. Not many are in that position. So, as much as I would love my organization to follow even a few of Jason’s suggestions, I am afraid I cannot influence that.

That said, though, I will keep the book close so that I refer back to the clarity of thinking that Jason has lived his business career with. I hope it comes in handy someday.

I finished reading: The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage by Holiday Ryan today 📚

Laced with real-life examples and a corresponding lesson in each chapter, Ryan Holiday presents valuable insight into handling obstacles. Nicely structured in three sensible parts – perception, action and will – this is a good, practical guide to staying balanced without getting bogged down by roadblocks and failures in life. Ryan doesn’t want to make this a guide for stoic philosophy. Instead, he sprinkles the best of the lessons throughout the book. That helps keep things simple, which most books on Stoicism fail to do.

As he mentions towards the end, many people he tells the tale of “embodied the best practices of Stoicism without even knowing it”. Ryan recommends that just doing matters more. For his intention to not complicate the philosophy, he deserves credit.

My daughter just shushed me because I talked to her while she was engrossed in her adventure novel. Now even I want to read the book.

Loved this line from The Obstacle is the Way by Holiday Ryan 📚

Stop looking for angels and start looking for angles.

This in context of persisting with your efforts when faced with failures.

I am reading The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci. It’s a standard action, suspense thriller. But it is built up really well. Interested to find out what comes next. 📚

I finished reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari today 📚

I loved the premise of this book but found the second half unconvincing. Sure, lack of sleep or hunger or extended work hours does lead to loss of focus. But they do harm our society in a lot of other ways. We can’t point to every problem that plagues the world today and say it affects our focus. Similarly, ridding ourselves of the focus problem can help us solve even more significant issues. But without concrete actions, it is all talk.

The extent of topics that Hari wants to cover with the book is too spread for my liking. I wished it was more focused on the subject.