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The first of many marketing books that I'm going to read, kick started by a recommendation from a marketing consultant that a company I freelance for has hired. I've been brought in as a social media consultant, mainly on the back of my being friends with the business owner and the fact that I have photography and video skills and equipment. I'm going to build this into a career and will be devouring books over the next few months as I grow into my new business.

This book was a very good start to that process and I couldn't be more excited. The book is a nice length and talks about techniques that I was peripherally aware of but had never had it all laid out in a concise way. I use or have used many of the services that are mentioned (Spotify, Uber, Hotmail et al) and it's nice to have some of their strategies explained in such a simple way.

Reread in November 2021 after watching the TV Show
I still feel that what I wrote below is accurate, but I'm enjoying the story and world-building so much after watching the TV show that I was encouraged to reread the book and, this time, continue with the series. I kind of switched off halfway through my first read because I wasn't particularly enjoying it, so I kind of missed a lot of the action and had totally blanked out the ending. I'm excited to continue this time around, particularly to learn how Egwene and Nynaeve develop into whatever the wheel has weaved for them.

Original Review from April 2021
Juvenile storytelling that I would probably have enjoyed in my 20s. The writing is wooden and the story is derivative and predictable. I won't be continuing with this series.

Well written and thorough. I made notes of many passages. I'm at the right part of my life to have read this. I studied Russian language and literature many years ago and feel my passion's being rekindled. I learned a lot about Tolstoy that I either didn't know or did but learned too young. A prophetic author to be sure.

 This biography was brought to my attention in a guest post by David Josef Volodzko on Konstantin Kisin's Substack. It had to do with the author's being fired from The Seattle Times for criticizing Lenin. I won't go into the article here—you can go and read it for yourself—but he does cite Service's biography of Lenin, in particular quoting this paragraph:   In Lenin: A Biography, Oxford professor of Russian history Robert Service writes that Lenin was an “often unkind” child, abusive and destructive, with “malice in his character.” Service notes, “moral questions for him were an irrelevance,” adding that Lenin was “coldly calculating” and displayed “massive” antisocial behavior. During the Russian famine from 1891 to 1892, Service writes that Lenin showed shocking “emotional detachment.” So that gives some insight into the tone of Volodzko's article, and of Service's biography. A quotation from Molotov is cited in Volodzko's article:  People sometimes make the claim that it was Stalin, not Lenin, who was the great evil of Soviet Russia. I like to remind them, as New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Lenin's Tomb, that someone once made a similar comment to the Soviet diplomat Vyacheslav Molotov, one of the few people in history who personally knew both Lenin and Stalin. Molotov replied, “Compared to Lenin, Stalin was a mere lamb.” I'll back this up with another quotation from Robert Service's book:  Machiavelli, he confided to Molotov, ‘correctly said that if it is necessary to resort to certain brutalities for the sake of realising a certain political goal, they must be carried out in the most energetic fashion and in the briefest possible time because the masses will not tolerate the prolonged application of brutality'. Chilling. I've been interested in Russian—particularly Soviet—history for a few years now, and have done some reading. But my brain is such that I tend not to retain information very well. It is my hope that writing reviews and making videos for BookTube will help me learn how to read more deeply and retain information better. So, V.I. Lenin. Or Volodya Ulyanov, as he was known to his mum and dad. Obviously, he's the father of the October Revolution in 1917—I'm sure most people know at least that much. But why? And how? Having an interest in learning the answers to those questions is really what drew me to this book. Did it deliver? Well, yes. It absolutely did. The book is split into four parts: One: The Rebel Emerges Two: Lenin and the Party Three: Seizing Power Four: Defence of the Revolution The October Revolution doesn't happen until page 308 of a 494-page, so that gives some idea of just how much detail Service gives us of Lenin's life up to that point. There's lots of detail about his family life, and it plays heavily on the influence of his brother Alexander's death by hanging for his participation in the attempted assassination of Tsar Alexander III at the age of 21 (Lenin was 17). We learn a lot about how that affected the family, how they were ostracised by the townspeople of Simbirsk, and led to the family's moving away. There was one section that really stood out to me, which was when Lenin and his entourage were travelling back to Petrograd from Switzerland in 1917 after the fall of Tsar Nicholas II on the famous sealed train. First of all, the notion of the train's being sealed wasn't entirely correct. People were getting on and off at stations to buy supplies—booze and cigarettes, by the sounds of it, with some snacks, I would imagine, because Russians can't drink without their zakuski! Lenin was getting annoyed with the revellers in the next carriage and tried to get them to quieten down, but it didn't work out very well. A couple of standout sections of writing that made me laugh are these ones:  The participants, led by Lenin, decided to replace the Foreign Organisational Commission with a Committee of the Foreign Organisation and to empower this new body to hold a party conference. That one made me think of the Judean People's Front scene in Life of Brian. I don't suppose a book about Lenin is supposed to have much humour in it, so it was a welcome reminder. And this one, from p298:  In particular, the Congress agreed to drop the slogan ‘All Power to the Soviets'. After a lengthy debate about slogans, it was decided to replace it with ‘All Power to the Proletariat Supported by the Poorest Peasantry and the Revolutionary Democracy Organised into Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies'. A clumsier slogan can hardly be imagined. Perhaps his Bolsheviks needed the absent Lenin more than they recognised. Lol, right? It's a slow read, with small text and lots of detail. I felt that I had to take my time over it in order for it to sink in, but I'm not sure how much it did or has. I'd like to go back to the beginning again and read it with the knowledge of the rest of the story, but I think my time would be better spent reading other authors' takes on the same information or adjacent information. Or perhaps if I were to read the same author's biographies of Stalin and Trotsky. Maybe that was Service's goal because this book was light on information on both of those characters. Of course, they are mentioned, but they're given short shrift. Kautsky gets more airtime and I'd never even heard of him. Ah, but Service hasn't written a biography of Kautsky. Ha! The detail of Lenin's health condition was covered in great detail. I suppose a lot of this information is only recently available, so it makes sense. It's actually quite astounding how much work Lenin was able to achieve while dealing with headaches and burnout. He was nothing if not driven. Even after getting shot and being so close to death, he was determined to carry on working as soon as he possibly could. It's also made quite clear just how tenuous the October Revolution really was. It felt like it could have collapsed many, many times. Yes, Lenin was, of course, its architect, but circumstances also played a big part in its longevity. The same could be said about Stalin's succession. If Lenin had lived only six months longer, Soviet history could have been very different. I'm very glad that I read this and I'm tempted to buy my own copy after reading this library copy. I made a video review of this book for my BookTube channel: Lenin: A Biography 

Beautiful!

This book has been pretty massive for me.

I bought OmniFocus over a year ago and struggled with it based on David Sparks' excellent screencasts [Link]. For some reason, it just never integrated its way into my life, other than to give me weekly reminders to put the kids' pocket money into their piggy banks.

I know that I need something in my life to help me deal with my stuff, and I knew that OmniFocus was more than capable of doing that. I just found it so overwhelming!

I listened to the author talking to David Sparks on an episode of Mac Power Users [Episode 78], which is when I learned that he'd written a book about how he used OmniFocus. My interest was piqued once again.

So, I watched DSparks' screencasts again and then bought Kourosh's book. A few of my Twitter contacts had read it and recommended it, so I knew it was worth my while.

Observations
Firstly, I must say that the application is so feature rich and flexible that teaching someone how to use it is no easy task. All one can really do is explain how they use it and hope that that helps.

Kourosh certainly has a system in place for working this app!

His background as a psychiatrist undoubtely gives him knowledge of the human brain that can be applied to OmniFocus. And he does do that, with explanations of procrastination and why we do it, that sort of thing.

Templates
The explanation of template projects was executed flawlessly and highlights the power of OmniFocus in a way that I would never have imagined. So much is covered in that one section of the book: sequential vs parallel projects, putting projects on-hold, grouping tasks, keyboard shortcuts. In short, I found this to be the most valuable section of the book.

Perspectives
This section was difficult to take in, particularly the core perspectives section. I don't know if it's just me, but I read the descriptions of setting up the core flagged and core start-date perspectives twice and I'm still not sure that I get it. Giving options is probably useful for a lot of people, but I found it confusing. I'd rather he'd just said ‘here's what I do now' and explained that, rather than going through how he got there. Now I've got two core perspectives, neither of which I really understand, so I will undoubtedly have to read this section again.

That said, I knew as soon as I started reading those parts that I'd need to come back to them. It is my intention to use the app for a month or so, see how I can tweak it when I understand it better and then come back to those sections in the book again.

The tickler and due perspectives in particular are ones I'm having trouble understanding. Where the tickler is concerned, I don't think it was explained very well at all. I think I understand it, I'm just not sure how to set it up.

And the Running Projects was also troublesome. Is it actually called that, or is it called 30k feet? There was some inconsistency in the book and it is that that had me feeling confused.

Pomodoros
This was a fascination section and one which I will need to consider. Of course the danger here is the rabbit holes. Maybe I could devote a 25-minute pomodoro to investigation the rabbit holes and learning bits here and pieces there about how to tweak my project managing!

Conclusion
As a reference book, this will be invaluable to me as I learn the app. It is jam-packed with information and the short-cut keys were repeated over and over, which I found very helpful. The appendices contain yet more useful info, so just when you think you're nearly done, there's more!

But I feel that some things could have been explained a little more clearly, i.e. the instances mentioned above. That is why I gave it 3 stars.

And my final gripe? Please stop writing GTD with the registered trademark symbol. It's extremely distracting. Sure, do it the first time, but after that, we already KNOW.

Grrrrrr.

Now I get Merlin Mann's funny little ‘davidco 2001' thing.

My God, what a slog this was. I think it took about 18 months to get through. It kind of felt like a book I knew I should read and was making myself read but finding it a chore, a bit like reading Russian lit at university – fantastic books but a real slog at times. Yes, I read War and Peace.

I love the first and second chronicles, particularly the second. In fact love might not be a strong enough word for the second chronicles. There's barely a day goes past that I don't find myself thinking of the Sunbane. Hellfire! Even my website is sunbane.com. I'm not a Linden hater - I know there are many of you out there, but I'm not one. I find her inner struggles to be quite relatable. Not sure what that says about me, but there you have it. She struggles with self esteem and self confidence and is acting out of love. She herself is a bit of an ‘unbeliever' - Covenant didn't believe in the land so felt he could act with impunity; Linden doesn't believe in herself, despite her earlier achievements in the second chronicles. But now there's love of a child and that's her motivation for seeing her decisions through, even though she's not sure that they are the right ones.

Is the decision she saw through at the end the right one? I really don't know, but it's sure going to make for an interesting book 3.

I love the history that we get in this novel – I wonder how much of it was already in Donaldson's head during the writing of the previous books. Did he always plan this story right through I wonder? I guess some of you might know. Let me know if you do.

I put the book down for months and months and picked it up again right as the giants appeared, then battered through to the end. I don't know if it was the story that drew me in and hooked me on the last 100 pages, or maybe it was just my state of mind, that I was ready for the book where I hadn't been before. I don't know.

I did actually groan a bit when the giants appeared. Like ‘Really? You're bringing giants in at a seemingly random point?'. It felt a bit like - ‘I know. Lets put some giants into the story right here cos giants are awesome'. And yes; giants ARE awesome. So I got over that and started to enjoy them, even though some of the names are pretty ridiculous.

And talking of ridiculous – that vocabulary. Seriously. That's the worst thing about these books. Some of the words aren't even in the Kindle dictionary and some that are I find myself looking up again and again because I just can't get my head round them. There really is no need for it. I read and loved the Gap series without a dictionary. I looked up only a few words in Mordant's Need and the other one - demesne being one that I recall. But this? Mansuetude? I mean come on. That's just silly.

So - history - yes.
Story - kinda.
Editing - nope; Too long.
Vocab - ridiculous.
Plot - okay.
Giants - awesome.

Will I continue? Naturally. I'm expecting another slog, but a worthwhile one. Maybe not as worthwhile as Les Miserables, but worthwhile nevertheless.

Anna Karenina essay, First Arts Russian lit, St Andrews Uni

‘Don't steal rolls.' (Levin to Oblonsky). Is this the real message of Anna Karenina?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sloofdvjw27arlb/Anna%20Karenina%20Essay.pdf?dl=0
58/80

Tutors' comments:
This last sentence is the only explicit attempt to tackle the question. You must in these essays do more than give information about plot and character in the text, you must discuss the question, assembling arguments (your own or those of critics) and presenting them. You do not, however, say anything that is incorrect about the novel. You do show considerable knowledge of the text.
AH

I really enjoyed this one. The writing was top drawer and the characters had depth and were completely believable. I will definitely be following up Harry Hole books.

When I say depth, the whole book has a kind of depth to it that, up till now, I've found lacking in crime fiction for the most part. Maybe I've just not been reading the right ones.

Not his best. When I saw it in Audible, I figured it was new, but turns out it was early Murakami. It has the makings of what's to come, although no cats? And sex only gets a mention with no actual shagging or descriptions. But there is a well.

I came to this after having heard Lisa on the Rich Roll podcast. I knew from that episode that I was going to enjoy the book, but not quite how much.

Lisa describes the loving and connected human that I wish I were and inspires me to get closer to being that person. I turned 50 a few months ago and have been doing a lot of self reflection around that. It's clear that my disconnection is harming me and my relationships, but I didn't know how to do anything about it.

Depression has featured in my life a few times, and medication has both helped and hindered my recovery. This book outlines not a method for recovery, but a explanation of what can bring about recovery. The big book of Alcoholics Anonymous says that the point is “that we were willing to grow along spiritual lines.” This book explains just how life-changing that willingness can be if one makes changes to allow that growth to happen. And I intend to do just that!

Just not my cup of tea. 

Oblomov essay

What is Oblomovism and can it be cured?

74/80

An excellent piece of work. Stylishly written. Concisely and succinctly answered.

Listened on Audible at 2x and enjoyed it so well that I'm going to read the Kindle version so that I can take notes and build out my story-telling method.

Potentially life changing. He puts into words thoughts and ideas I've been cultivating for some years now.

Life changing book

This was recommended to me by my own coach, although he admitted to not having read it! Some honesty right there! Reading this book has shown me that my decision at the age of 49 to start a brand new business as a coach is the right one. The way the book is laid out is just right at building the framework in my mind, without being too esoteric. It also does not read like a sales pitch for the coaching credentials, which I really liked about it. Although it does mention the ‘tools' a lot. I imagine that as soon as I open up the tools page, I'll get pixelled, but that's actually fine with me. I need to learn how to do that myself and keep in mind that marketing my business is not cringeworthy!

I have a lot of highlights and notes from the book and will be going through them shortly in a progressive summarisation way. There was just so much value that I feel like writing up maybe an article would be a great way for me to consolidate what I've learned and internalise it.

My first ever literature essay at St Andrews in 1993:

How well does Дама с собачкой illustrate Chekhov's belief that the artist's task was not to solve problems, but to pose them correctly?

57/80

Tutors' comments:
Although it is not a brilliant literary essay, it is a start and it will gradually get easier. Specifically, you need to stick more closely to the assigned question and not talk about other (irrelevant) matters, e.g. narrative viewpoint.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h49x7958z6nwjty/Dama%20s%20Sobachkoy%20Essay.pdf

Outstanding. I'd love actually to get my daughter (15) to read this, but it's unlikely I suppose.

I might just read it again in a year or so, as I'm a bear of very little brain and it would do me some good I think. I'm not saying it's a difficult book — quite the opposite in fact, but I find these concepts a little challenging to grasp fully.

Highly recommended and thank you Waterstone's for having this as a book of the month, else I wouldn't have seen it.

I found this pretty boring. I'd have given up on it if it had been longer, but it was short, so I persevered. Can't really say I'm glad I did. Not like SK to do a straight-up murder mystery, albeit with a psychic disabled kid. I just didn't care whodunnit.

This was a bit above my pay grade but I'm glad I persevered through the somewhat boring history sections. I'm here after listening to Hazony's interview on TRIGGERnometry, which I've watched twice and actually transcribed to get a better handle on Hazony's teachings.

I'm 51, married with two teenaged kids, and I'm seeking meaning for my life after 17 years following the teachings of Alcoholics Anonymous. I've never really known who I was, politically speaking, but reading Hazony's book has gone a long way to helping me figure that out. I may follow up by reading some of the source material cited in the last chapter.

This was such a powerful book and will inform my content creation for sure, particularly on YouTube. I listened to the audiobook and may well go through the Kindle version to highlight and synthesise.

This was a nice wee change of pace from what I normally read. As a recovering alky myself, I could relate quite well to a lot of the main character's problems and it seemed pretty well researched in that respect. I never did have memories gradually come back though after blackouts. The author explains that short term memories aren't actually made, yet Rachel's memories gradually begin to return. I found that a little too easy of a device to reveal more of the plot.

The pacing was terrific though.

It didn't blow me away and I found that disappointing as I really enjoy Scott's blog. It was just a bit too scattered and surface-level for me to get any real value from it. Shame.

This is utterly candid and revealing. The audiobook is read by Stephen Fry himself, which, in this instance, makes it all the more enjoyable. It's quite incredible how open and honest he is in this book, although I suppose that's what autobiographies are all about.

This follows the first 20 years of his life and gives a great insight into what it's like at prep school amongst other things. I didn't even know what a prep school was, so it was most interesting for me.

I read this alongside his new autobiography and enjoyed one as much as the other.

I got a lot out of this book, but how to take smart notes wasn't one of them. I know what they are and how they work, but there were no examples of how to take them and I'm still not really sure how to start.