Book Review – Trump How to Get Rich – Donald Trump with Meredith Mclver

Writer: Donald J. Trump with Meredith Mclver

          After the first book, I was very excited when I discovered this book while reading Trump Think like a Billionaire. I was very interested in his thoughts about how to get rich. After all, he’s a billionaire. And this book really doesn’t disappoint me; it provides many good tips. It covers six aspects: The Donald J. Trump School of Business and Management, Your Personal Apprenticeship (Career Advice from The Donald), Money, Money, Money, Money, The Secrets of Negotiation, The Trump Style, and Inside The Apprentice. Although there’re some contains (such as tenacity, focus, think big and etc) that he has repeated many things in his other books, I think it’s good to read about those contains again and again to really absorb them, to make them become a part of me. Overall, the book is quite interesting, but I’m not sure about the last two parts, which are A Week in the Life and Inside The Apprentice, because I didn’t read them due to the fact that Trump Think Like a Billionaire has them as well. And I found them boring although quite inspiring.

As usual, I would pick up three points from the book to think about them and try to apply them.

The first one is about reading. In this post I don’t include everything about his reading habit, as I’ve mentioned some of his reading habit in my previous post, Book Review – Trump Think Like a Billionaire (http://www.lucusweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/book-review-trump-think-like.html).

Here are some excerpts from the book:

“… realize how much I need a certain amount of quite time – usually about three hours a day – in order to stay balanced. It’s time I use to read and reflect, and I always feel renewed and refreshed by this. It also gives me material to feed my extroverted nature.”

“I’m an early riser, usually up by 5A.M., which gives me a few hours to read newspapers and magazines of all sorts – local, national, and international.”

“Once I’m home, I read books – usually biographies. Now and then I like to read about philosophers – particularly Socrates, who emphasizes that you should follow the convictions of your conscience, which basically means thinking for yourself, a philosophy I tend to agree with”

“The New York Post has developed a truly great business section – and one that is fun to read”

“If you read these financial publications for a while, you will start to pick up on the cadence and get a feel for what’s happening in the market, which funds are the best, and who the best advisers are.”

“Buy them a subscription to Money or some other personal finance magazine.” (Them here refers to kids)

“I find reading psychology and self-help books useful. Carl Jung’s theories fascinate me, and keep my mind open to my own – and the collective – unconscious.” (In the book, he also gives many other reasons.)

“Know everything you can about what you’re doing. – Fred Trump”

The skills of learning are very important in order to succeed; Hence, I always pay one hundred and twenty percent of my attention when an author mentions about his learning habits. From the excerpts above, we can roughly know how Donald’s reading habit is like. After reading Donald’s books, I started adding reading magazines and newspapers into my daily routine. From this about-one-month experience, I discover three secrets about reading magazines and newspapers.

1-     I learn that newspapers and magazine are great tools to help us get to know the environments related to us, and the knowledge about the environments are really important, for example, I want to involve in English teaching business in the future. By reading newspapers, I learnt about what people in the industry are doing now, the government policies, and the problem students are facing and etc. Knowing the thing is the beginning step to innovation, and developing useful products that suits the market. I also study USA and China via newspapers. Learning more about the two countries are really important for me, as chances are that I will immigrate to either America or China in the future. Studying the two country will help me make sharper decisions in self development, and also choosing which country I should go and etc. The above is just two of the many examples.

2-   I also realized that having a target in mind is very important while reading newspapers. When I read newspapers, I keep looking for 5 things which are important for me, which are news on education, news on China and US, news on entertainment, important knowledge, and news on business. This habit of keeping my targets in mind are very helpful, and make the reading process a lot more productive.

3-   As for the magazines, I also choose a few magazines focusing on finance, health, and entertainment to supplement the newspapers.

I’ll also try biographies, philosophers, and psychology when I’m free. There might be hidden gold inside them as Donald Trump also reads them.

            As for investment, the tip Mr. Trump provides it’s simple yet wise, which is to invest simply

Two more excerpts from the book

 “When you look at legends like Alan “Ace” Greenberg and Warren Buffett and marvel at how good they are, you will likely see that what makes them so successful is the same quality you should apply to every one of your own investments – common sense. … I’ve read many of Warren Buffett’s annual reports. In every case, what fascinates me is that he is able to reduce things to the simplest of terms.”

“The wisest thing I can tell you is to invest only in products you understand, with people you know you can trust. Sometimes the best investments are the ones you don’t make.”

Reading magazines and newspapers, I realized that business world is very big. There’re many kinds of investment tools. And very often, they can be very complicated for a person who is not specialized in business like me. This tip provides me with a direction on what things I should focus on, which are the simple thing, and things that I am more familiar, and also tries to simplify things I’ve learnt about investment.

In Connect with Your Audience (The Art of Public Speaking, Part1), Cover These Eleven Bases (The Art of Public Speaking, Part 2) from part 2, Mr. Trump also provides many brilliant tips about public speaking. I’ll go through them again and again before I do presentation.

At the end, I want to thank Mr. Trump for spending time writing so many books providing us a good platform to study him and learn from him. THANKS!!!

Book Review – Trump: Think Like a Billionaire – Oct 16, 2012

Writer: Donald J. Trump with Meredith Mclver

            Trump: Think Like a Billionaire covers real estate, which is the core of many businesses, money, the Business of life, slices of the billionaire’s life, and inside The Apprentice; it’s quite comprehensive. It’s also very special, as Donald even includes a 42-page schedule of a typical week of his life. I mean how often you can get to see a schedule of a billionaire, or a celebrity. Overall, I think it’s a very great book. I enjoyed the first three chapters very much. As for the last two chapters, which are Slices of the Billionaire’s Life, and Inside The Apprentice, although they’re quite dry I think, I’ve learnt quite a lot from them. And they’re very inspiring. The other reason I love this book is that Donald is very motivational; I always feel like applying myself when I see him work so hard, and hear him talk about the benefit of fame. Although fame and big money can also be big problem, I do think it’s good to taste them.

            As usual, I like to pick up about three points from the book I read to give them some special attention. If you’ve read my book review of Rich Dad Poor Dad, and Rich Dad’s Guide to Becoming Rich without Cutting up Your Credit Cards, you might have discovered that I concern about what we should learn very much.

Here’re two paragraphs I take from the book.

“I spend hours each day reading the financial media (The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, Fortune, The New York Times, Financial Times). I also read a lot of books and other magazines; you never know where you next great idea is going to come from. You should be on top of all the news within your industry and, beyond that, all local, national, and global news as well. Ignorance in current affairs can go a long way toward destroying your credibility – and your account.

People always ask what I like to watch on television. Typically, I only watch television that I know will improve my financial IQ. My one indulgence when it comes to television is sports. For news and financial advice, of course, I watch The Apprentice, but I also watch the CNBC business report, Larry King, Bill O’Reilly, the Today show, and Fox cable. Whatever you watch or read, study something every day. It’s essential that you keep your mind open and alert.”

Quite often, I hear people mention that it’s very good to read newspaper. At first I didn’t know why. I was thinking there’s no point to know about the new government policy, or the accidents, and other things. And we only had to mind our own business, and work hard on improving it. It’s until recently I realize that reading news can be very important even for small player (a big player in the future) like me. We need to know the rule of the market, and the market in order to play well in the society, for example, I want to be an English teacher in the future. By reading newspaper recently, I saw that the new national educational blueprint states that only the top 30% students will be employed as a teacher, which is an important message for me.  Other than that, I also learn about the English Essentials Programme provided by the corporate social responsibility of Carlsberg and also the English standard of our country. Knowing this, which is the market, will be of vital importance for me when I’m designing English courses or want to start up my business in English teaching industry. I think that’s just part of it. We can also get some great business ideas, business opportunity, and news of recent seminar by reading papers regularly.

            In the introduction of the book, Donald mentions that it’s not necessary take vacation, “Don’t take vacations. What’s the point? If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job. Even when I’m playing golf, I’m doing business. I never stop, and I’m usually having fun.”  Except from not taking vacation, Donald actually works seven days a week, and he usually sleep about four hours per night. He’s in bed by 1A.m. and up to read the newspapers at 5 A.M. From here, we can see that it takes tremendous effort to stay on the top. It also inspires me of a new reading method, which is to wake up at 5, or 4 to read about 3 hours, before going to school or work to ensure that I do spend about 3 hours a day reading books, newspaper, and listen to financial news each day. Because if I do my studying job at the other time, I might not be able to spend about 3 hours on it, as things might come up.

            Since I’ll have to work for others sooner or later, a good tip of working is very important for me.

“Always pretend that you’re working for yourself. You’ll do a wonderful job in that case. It’s simple, but it works. If you’re finding that you don’t love your job or that you’re not doing a good job, demand a meeting with your boss immediately. If the situation doesn’t improve, fire yourself (and your boss) and do something else”

I still remember one of the problems I faced when I was working in a hotel in 2010, and I could only work there back then, was that I really hated the tremendous paperwork which I thought was not necessary. I was very angry about it. Now I realize that there’s a better way to face that problem. If I have known this tip at that time, and have pretended that I was working for myself, I would’ve asked boss the function of each of the paperwork, and thought about how I could cut down the work. If I’d done that, the job would’ve been more interesting, and I also could’ve learnt something, even though I might now be able to cut down the paperwork at the end. I think this tip will be very useful for me when I start my career.

            At first, I actually decided to pick up three points, but I realize that there’s one more point which is too good that I can’t afford to forget that, so I decided to add one more.

“… if you can’t dream about new products, they will never happen. I also pointed out how important it is to set their own standards. That will ensure that they remain innovators in their field.”

This is one of the things he said in a speech. I think this is the core of the huge success of Apple and many other products. And it’s a very important point for me to keep in mind, when I develop my own product. No matter, it’s a book, or an English course.

Overall, I think this is quite a good book. And I feel so blessed to read this book. I’ve learnt so much from it. And I’ll read it again and again from time to time.

Book Review - Rich Dad’s Guide to Becoming Rich without Cutting up Your Credit Cards – 10 Oct, 2012

Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki

            

            I’ve been mad on Robert’s books, since I read Rich Dad Poor Dad a few days ago. And this book I read today really lives up to my expectation. In this book, Robert discuss the price of becoming rich without being cheap, crooked, or needing to marry a rich person. Like Rich Dad Poor Dad the books are filled with insightful and unconventional thoughts about money.

            

           As usual, I like to pick up a few points which I think are the most important ones to me among the things I learn from the book to review. The first chapter of the book starts with the quote by his rich dad, “Most people want to get rich. They just don’t want to pay the price.” This reminded me of a book I read months ago, Think and Grow Rich written by Napoleon Hill. In the workbook of it, there is column asking us to fill in what we will give/do in return for the money we desire. The idea behind them are the same, which is if you want something, you need to pay for it. Coming across the idea again makes me realize the magnitude of having the mindset of price which is often ignored, for example, I want to be healthier and heal my vocal problems quickly without a surgery, but very often I skip my plan to exercise in the park, or consume too much fried food, or cold drink and think that by changing my habit a bit from time to time, I would eventually reach my goal. Well, I failed to realize that to get what I want I’ve to pay the price which is to change my lifestyle immediately and drastically. In the book the author also mentions a study by one government of tracked people from the ages of 20 to 65. The study found that by the time they’re 65 years old. 1% were wealthy. 4% were well off. 5% were still working because they had to. 54% were living on support from family or the government. 36% were dead. 35% percent of that wealthy 1 % and a large percentage of the well off 4% actually inherited their wealth. It really stunned me. It’s like a wake-up call telling me that Lucus, you need to be prepared to pay more price, to do more than you’re doing now if you really want to achieve your dream of rebuilding your own house for your mother, immigrating to America, and being a successful person by the age of 30.

            

            In Rich Dad Poor Dad, they author suggests us to study accounting, investing, market, and the law to enhance our financial intelligence. In this book, the author says that except from financial education, which teaches us how to have money work for us. We also need to pay attention to the other two kinds of education which are academic education (teach us how to read, write, and do arithmetic), and professional education (teach us the skills to work for money). Japanese famous author, and businessman Naoyuki Honda advocates learning Finance, IT, and English, and Dr. Kenichi Ohmae suggests people studying finance, problem solving skills, and English. My personal view is that except from paying attention to the three kinds of education we still need to invest in English, since English is not the first language of all of us. And it is still the lingua franca, and many good books are written in English. As for problem solving skill, I think it’s a skill you would master automatically when we’re on our way to fight for success. What interests me the most is IT. Well, for sure, it’s really a money-making business. At least many of the world leaders in business are actually from IT industry, like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Larry Page. It has also changed many industries and still changing them, for example, the teaching industry I’ll probably be in. There’re more and more people studying a nonline degree rather going to a university with a campus. Rumor also has it that there’ll not be any campus in the future. Hence I personally think that except from paying attention to the three fundamental types of education Robert mentions in the book, it’s also very important for us to invest in English, and pay attention to the development of IT, and gain more IT knowledge, or it might limit our growth.

            

            In the book, Robert also talks about what his rich dad told him about good debt and bad debt. His rich dad defined good debt as debt that someone else pays for you, and bad debt as debt that you pay for with your own sweat and blood. An example of the usage of the knowledge of good debt is buying a house with a loan, and then renting it to renters after some paint jobs, or renovation. And use the rental to pay for the mortgage, and the left rental will become the passive income. What worth a mention is that very often the house will also appreciate from time to time. Not only will you earn the passive income, you will also earn the appreciated house after years. Personally I think this is another framework which is as important as the framework of assets and liabilities which is mentioned in Rich Dad Poor Dad. I always think of framework as something very important because it can help us make more accurate decision in the shorter time, so it can be very helpful to remember this framework.

            

           Except from this, the book also mentions lots of other important knowledge like, financial statement, the values of mistakes, the importance of change, and etc. I really recommend people who aspire to succeed financially, especially those who want to get rich by studying hard, and getting a good job to read his books. I’m sure they’ll be very helpful for them.

Video Review - The Secret on Oprah – Oct 5, 2012

Guests:

Rhonda Byrne,

Jack Canfield,

Lisa Nichols,

James Arthur Ray,

Dr. Michael Beckwith

            

       Except The Secret, The Magic, and The Power, there’re actually many books talking about the law of attraction on the market. Many of them published before The Secret were very famous, for example, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind written by Joseph Murphy. Quite often there’re author talks about the importance of some thing which I believe are the law of attraction in their books like, Kazuyo Katsuma, Masanori Kanda. They really enhance my faith in it. When I saw Oprah Winfrey talked about the law of attraction in the way showing that she totally believe in it yesterday in Larry King’s show, it stroke me like a beacon of hope. It was like a solid proof telling me that the law of attraction was as true as Newton’s laws of motion. Except that, Jack also mentioned that the law of attraction can actually be proved by quantum physics. It shows that everything is energy. And our thoughts and feelings can control the flow of the energy. The guests of the program also mentioned that our feeling sends a wave into the universe. Anything that’s vibrating in the similar level gets attracted into our life.          

The program gave quite a clear explanation about the law of attraction, I really learnt a lot from them. Among them, there’re three things, which I think are of vital importance.

1.      What you focus on it expands. What you give your attention to gets bigger.

2.    Thoughts, feelings, and your action all have to be working simultaneously in the same direction.

3.    Nothing new can come into our life, unless we’re grateful for what we already have.

What you focus on it expands. What you give your attention to gets bigger

In the program, Ryan, a woman who is in debt was suggested to make a decision to put one hundred, two hundred, or whatever it’s to the debt. Then, forget about debt and focus on how she can create more financial freedom. Jack also pointed out that she couldn’t try to focus on getting out of debt, because in that sense, the key word is still debt, instead she should try to focus on what her life would be like. I realized that I tend to focus on bad things very often, for example, when I’m sick, I tend to think about surgery, or the doctors aren’t going to be able to help me, as they don’t know my circumstances, instead of good things like many doctor says it’s not something serious. When my father’s association decided to give me RM700, I kept thinking about how bad it was like to stay in the banquet with people I don’t know, and forget about how the RM700 can help me. It’s really horrible to realize that it is me who attract those bad things to my life. Really have to direct my thoughts into the right direction. In this program, James always reminds me of something very important, which is that every single thing has a gift hidden in it. In fact, I’ve mentioned this last week in my other post, Tuesday with Morrie, but human is just forgetful, but I’ve just hammered it into my brain. I’ll never forget it again. Lol.

Thoughts, feelings, and your action all have to be working simultaneously in the same direction.

James mentioned that anybody who don’t achieve what they desire or deserve must have missed one of them. We should feel it, act on it, and make action based on where we’re going. It really has a point there. It explain why many of us fail to attraction what we want by the law of attraction, for example, I tried to use the law of attraction to attract chicken chop before, but I failed. Other than that, I also have the habit of visualize my soul mate almost every day, but I’m still single. I think that’s because I failed to fulfill all the three criteria. So except from visualizing it and feel it, I must act on it. I must do as Lisa said from now on. If somebody asks me how I’m doing, I must say, “I’m phenomenal”, or “I’m great”, even when I’m in the midst of crisis, and think that I’m great as I made it through.

Nothing new can come into our life, unless we’re grateful for what you already have.

I think this is the most important one among the three, or Oprah won’t encourage people to write gratitude journal. Rhonda Byrne won’t start The Power with gratitude journal. Lisa mentioned that when we are dealing with weight, family, and friends. If we want to change it, we need to appreciate what’s there, find the thing about it that works, find the thing that infuses us, all everything, by doing this, we create the space for it to get better. What James told the woman who had weight problem in the program is really inspiring. He used the different way to look at thing. James asked her if she’s grateful when her doctor tells her she’s healthy. James suggested her to start every single day, waking up saying thank you for the health she has, saying things like ”I love my legs, because it’s working functionally…”. Start to love her body and grateful for it, for the way it’s at the moment. He asks her to choose to become healthy and whole. Instead of losing weight and saying she wants to get rid of it. He asked her to choose to become healthy and whole. Be grateful and the outcome would be healthy and whole. By continuing focus on her health and whole every single day, and she’s attracting more and more health and wholeness to herself. When your hand it’s fat, you think about the good thing about it, like it is healthy. This is like what I said just now, instead of focusing on the fact that I can’t talk long due to vocal problem. I should focus on at least there’s nothing serious about it. I was given a long vacation to read the books I have been longing to read, to watch this program which will change my life dramatically, and spend time to digest it. This vocal problem also teaches me so much. It teaches me to never overexert my body and loves my body that helps me achieve my dream. By teaching me not to overexert my body, it prevents more serious health issue happening on me. Oprah also mentioned when she was in crisis, she asked crisis, “What’re you here to teach me, so that I can get whatever lesson it’s, and gets out of it, and move on.” This is also a good way to look at crisis positively.

At the end, I would like to end with what Lisa asked the woman with weight problem to say. Let’s say “I choose today to give myself the best life ever” together, if you believe in the law of attraction like me.

Book Review - Rich Dad Poor Dad – Oct 3, 2012

Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki

As everybody knows, Rich Dad Poor Dad is an international blockbuster of personal finance book. The author strikes me with his insightful thoughts on personal finance. In the book, the author talks about the difference between the concept of money of his rich dad, who is little educated (eighth grade), and his poor dad, who is highly educated, for example, the rich dad said,”Learn to manage risk.”, but his poor dad said “When it comes to money, play it safe. Don’t take risks.”; his rich dad paid his bills last, his poor dad paid his bills first; his rich dad said, “How can I afford it?”, but the poor dad said, “I can’t afford it.” “How can I afford it?” put his brain to work, but “I can’t afford it.” stopped his brain. The author believes that one’s thoughts are very important, as they shape a person.

The author or his rich dad really has a knack of teaching. He is able to talk about personal finance in a way that even laymen are able to understand, as the author believes in KISS (Keep it super simple.). The author points out the difference between assets and liabilities, and believes that becoming rich is to gain assets. He defines assets as things that put money in our pocket, and liability as things takes money out of our pocket. According to the book, assets are the following: businesses that do not require our presence, stocks, bonds, income-generating real estate, Note (IOUS), royalties from intellectual property such as music, scripts, and patents, and anything else that has value, produces income or appreciates, and has a ready market.

Robert also believes that our brain is our biggest asset, so he encourages us to invest in our brain by enhancing our financial intelligence, which compose of four things, Accounting; financial literacy, which uses left brain, the ability to read and understand financial statements which allows one to identify the strengths and weaknesses of any businesses (The more money you’re responsible for, the more accuracy is required.), investing; the science of “making money”, strategies, formulas, which requires creativity, understanding market; the science of supply and demand, including technical aspect of the market, the law; tax advantages, and protection from lawsuit, which includes the knowledge to use corporation to protect and enhance assets, which can be used by anyone, but the poor don’t know how.

At the end of the book, the author also provides action list. Overall, it’s a very insightful, understandable, practical, and complete book on personal finance. It’s a book worth reading again and again to fully absorb it.

Book Review – The Alchemist – Oct 1, 2012

Author: Paulo Coelho

At first, I thought it was a fantasy novel. You know. The book name really makes it sound like one; however, after about 20 pages, I realized it’s a didactic novel which makes you contemplate your life while reading it, which is like Tuesday with Morrie. Although it talks a lot about Maktub, and omen which I couldn’t understand, maybe because I have no inkling of Islam or because I was rushing through the pages, or just simply because I have not experienced much, I still benefited a lot from the book from the fables, insightful thoughts and conversation of the characters sprinkled in the entire books. It made me decide to read it again and again as I grow up so that I can interpret it better, although I didn’t find the story entertaining.

          

          The story unfolded as Santiago, a shepherd had a recurring dream of treasure, and started a journey to search for it after being approached by the king of Salem, Melchizedek who asked him to search for the treasure.  During the journey, he came across many people, like a thief stealing his money, a merchant, an Englishman looking for an alchemist, warring tribesmen, Fatima whom he fell in love with, an alchemist, a camel driver of a caravan, and experience many things which made him learn a lot. And at the end, he found the treasure.

          

          As usual, when I review a book like this, I like to pick up a scene that stroke me to think about it.

Here is the conversation between the shepherd, and the king the extracted from the book.

“The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza ’When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he’s an old man, he’s going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.’

‘he should have decided to become a shepherd,’ the boy said.

‘Well, he thought about that,’ the old man said. ‘But bakers are more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds.’

…

The old man continued, ‘In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own destinies.’”

          It reminded me that when I was in secondary school, I chose sciences. At the end, I realized I would never excel in sciences. I simply didn’t love them. And I had very strong passion for languages. I decided to be a translator then, because people think translation is hard and it’s more prestigious than English teacher. Gradually, I seemed to start to think I wanted to be a translator, and decided to study translation. When I am in university, I realized I want to be a famous English teacher and I know that being an English teacher wouldn’t be any less successful than a translator, and I know I’m gifted to be a teacher. I can be very successful as an English teacher.  Still I tend to say I want to be a translator when people ask me what I want to be in the future. Recently, I realized my passion for writing English novels, but again I tend to avoid saying my penchant for writing when people ask about what I want to do in the future. I tend to care too much about what people think of me, and forget to listen to my heart, and it make me lose myself, and dare not to express myself. This book reminded me to listen to my heart, and express what I think it’s right, rather than to impress others. I’m sure this would make me happier. 

Book Review – The Lightning Thief - Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book1 – Sep 29, 2012

Author: Rick Riordan

         

          The Lightning Thief is the first book of the series of fantasy novels, Percy Jackson and the Olympians which are based on Greek Mythology. As the topic suggests this book is about Percy Jackson, who has ADHD and dyslexia, and was expelled many times from school. In the first night of Percy’s trip to Long Island with his mother, his best friend in the school who revealed as a satyr came and warned them that Percy’s in danger. Then, Percy’s mother drove them to Half-blood Camp. They were chased by Minotaur on the way. And Percy’s mother was caught by the monster and disappeared in a shower of golden light. In the camp, Percy’s discovered that he’s the son of Poseidon and started a quest with Grover, the Satyr, and Annabeth, the daughter of Athena to save his mother and recovered the Lightning Bolt to prevent the war between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. During the quest, they faced different attacks from the Furies, Medusa, Echidna, the Chimera, the Ares, the God of war, Procrustes, and etc.

          

           I think it’s really a brilliant idea to create a novel based on Greek mythology. Not only is it a very funny book with many gods, monsters, and places in Greek myths, it’s also very educative. I’ve learnt so much about Greek myths from this book. To be perfectly honest, I actually had no inkling of Greek myths before I read this book.

The book is quite long; the hardcover version is 384 pages. In the 384 pages, the author covered their encounters with different monsters, incidents, and special places, at least 10 of them I think, which is enough to satisfy my appetite for more gods, and more interesting things. It’s also a fast-paced book. I felt like every thing it’s solved in a few minutes, which is also one of the reasons I liked it so much. What I loved the most among them was the hell, which is the realm of the Lord of the Dead, Hades. The author made quite a detailed description of it, including, elements like, the Asphodel Field, Elysium Field, River Styx, the palace,  Cerberus, the pit of the Tartarus, which made it sound real.

As a non-native English speaker, the language in the book is what I concerned very much, as if the language it’s too difficult, I would be very tired of looking up the dictionary. It’s good that the language used is simpler compared to many other novels which suit my demand very well.

Movie Review - The Lucky One – Sep 25, 2012

Directed by    Scott Hicks

Produced by   Denise Di Novi

                         Kevin mcCormick

Screenplay by  Will fetters

Based on         The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

Starring          Zac Efron

                        Taylor Schilling

                         Jay R. Ferguson

                         Blythe Danner

The story is about Logan Thibault (Zac Efron) a marine, who found a photo of a beautiful blonde on rubble during his tour to Iraq which written “keep safe X” on the back. At that moment a mortar attack occurred at that place. And he was the only one survived; hence, he thought the girl was his guardian angel, and started a journey to find that girl after the war, which led him to a dog kennel in Hamden, where he found her, Beth Clayton (Taylor Schiling). Then, Logan worked for her. At first, Beth found Logan very odd but her grandma Ellie (Blythe Danner) liked him so much. Soon, they were in love, and Beth’s son loved him so much. However, Beth scored Logan because she was mad, when she found out the photo, which she gave it to his brother, Drake, which she meant it to protect him. Beth’s ex who was the father of the son also tried to separate them, because he was jealous, I thought. At the end, the conflict was resolved; they’re together again.

            I think it's like other escapist melodramas, which have the typical story line. The handsome, athletic Logan who was also portrayed as a good gentleman man who played piano well, who cared about Beth’s child, who was with Beth when she felt bad about her dead brother Drake, or when she was bullied by his ex, who opened door for a woman and etc. At first, they weren’t so good to each others due to some misunderstanding. Later, they were in love. It’s also where some bed scenes came in. Followed by a big conflict which was solved easily, and the story ended when the conflict was resolved.

            It's definitely a good choice for people who love escapist melodrama as not only was it starring handsome Zac Efron, but it also has romantic storyline, and sprinked with some romantic love quotations, and covered with beautiful country view.

Book Review - Journey to the West – Sep 24, 2012

Adapted & Illustrated by Chang Boon Kiat   

It’s the abridged version of Journey to the West, which is about the holy monk Xuanzang’s pilgrimage with his disciples Sun Wukong, Pigsy, Sandy, and White Horse to the holy realm of the Western Paradise to fetch Sutras, and the trials and tribulations of the journey they faced during the course of they journey.

Since most of the people actually know the story due to the TV series about it, I’ll talk about the founts of the writer’s inspiration which I found them quite interesting. According to the book, Wu Cheng’ en was a very talented and learned person, but never achieved high rank. Due to the fact that the candidates had to bribe the proctors and the examiners in order to pass the imperial examinations. Sun Wukong’s wrecking havoc in celestial court, or challenge of the authority were believed to express Wu Cheng’en’s own wish for social justince, and embodied the desire of contemporary people to escape the oppression of the corrupt Ming government.”

         In addition to that the story is actually based on the true story of Xuanzang, a Tang Dynasty monk. Some of the elements in the novel are also believed to be inspired by something in real world, for example, in realistic, there’re actually two “Mountains of Flowers and Fruit” in China. Wu Cheng’ en might also get the inspiration of Flaming Mountain from a red, hot mountain in northern Turpan, Xinjiang.

        

        The similar thing can also be found in Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s good friend Sean Harris who would drive her into countryside, when Rowling was feeling down about her mother who suffered from multiple sclerosis was the inspiration of Ron Weasley. Sean’s car was actually the inspiration of the turquoise flying car rescuing Harry Potter in the beginning of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Severus Snape was also inspired by her teacher John Nettleship who was very strict. There’re many other examples as well.

         

         Based on this, and some of the novels I know, I believe very often fictional events and characters are the results of embellished incidents and people in author’s life, or other thing.

          

          Of course, this abridged version is not as good as the complete version, for various reasons, like it’s not long enough to show how much they’ve grown, how big the trials and tribulations are, and etc. However, I do think it’s really a great work for children or perhaps young teen readers. Themes can also be emphasized if it was read in a classroom by a teacher.

Book Review – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Sep 21, 2012

Writer: J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the sequel of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The plot followed Harry’s second year at Hogwarts. The disaster started since the school caretaker’s cat was petrified and the words on the wall saying “THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE” and followed by a series of the trio’s searching on the chamber; it’s also has the elements of detective except from the elements of fantasy.

Like Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, it’s a richly textured novel. Things that look normal happening in the front were strongly related to what happened at the end, for example, the spell Expelliarmus Harry learnt in the dueling became a very important spell that saved his life.  Harry’s coming across Hagrid in Knockturn Alley (a place where there’re lots of evil wizards) became one of the reason they suspected him of being the one opening the Chamber of Secret. There’re also lots of twist and turn in their process of searching on the Chamber of Secret.

The other reason I like the novel is that author J.K Rowling added lots of interesting things to the book, like house elf, Ron’s house (house of a wizard), whomping willow, floo powder (one of the ways they travel), flying car, deathday party, polyjuice potion, special diary, aragog, and the Chamber of course, and interesting characters,  like Gilderoy Lockhart, a self-centered wizard, who was proved to be useless at once. The dialogues were well created; they clearly shown the reader the characteristics of the characters, whether being brave, or self-conceited, and so on.

In this book, sometimes author J.K. Rowling explained things that had already been explained in the first book, like how Quidditch worked, but it’s okay. They’re precise, and she did use different ways to say the same thing, like she explained the rule of Quidditch by using the conversation between Harry’s fan, Colin Creevy who was a new student and him.

            Except from those merits, there’s one thing I didn’t like about book, which is that the author used many pages in the end of the books, explaining things, like in the first book, which I found it quite boring and a bit irritating, but maybe this’s the way it should be in a detective fiction.

Some interesting fact about the books

The author used third person narrator, who was following Harry and applied matter-of-fact tone.

Movie Review – Chinese Paladin 3 – 19 Sep, 2012

Written by Deng Zishan

Directed by Lee Kwok-lap

Starring Hu Ge

    Wallace Huo

    Yang Mi

    Cecilia Liu

    Tiffany Tang

    Jerry Huang

Chinese Paladin 3 is a TV series in wuxia genre with elements of fantasy and romance, like the last year’s hit, the Sorcerer and the White Snake. It starred Huge (Jingtian, the stuff of a pawnshop, who previously was a divine general in heaven), Wallace Huo (Xu Changqing, a monk from Mount Shu Sect), Yangmi (Tang XueJian, from Tang Clan), Tiffany Tang (Zixuan, the descendant of Nvwa Goddess), Cecilia Liu (Long Kui, the younger sister of Jingtian).

The movie is about Jing Tian, Xu Changqing,  Tang XueJian, Long Kui , and Maomao started a quest to collect five elemental pearls, which can seal all evil spirits and demons in the Demon Prison Tower in Mt. Shu Sect. During the quest, they had to face different difficulty and be tested, and at the end they had to fight against Xie Jianxian (the strongest demon), which was formed by bad emotions of human, like jealousy, greed, selfish, and etc.

The entire movie has 37 episodes. It’s quite long or perhaps too long for impatient and busy people like me, but the uptake is that it’s long enough to narrate how things shape them into better persons at the end. It’s also long enough to create a sense of peril while fighting against the Xie Jianxian at the end of the movie.

The entire story is wittily written, but there’re still a few things I dislike: two of the protagonists, Jingtian and Tong Xuejian are two petulant people who keeping squabbling, for example, Jingtian kept gambling after he had collected money in the heaven to save the descendant of Nvwa who used her life to protect them. They might even squabble or throw a tantrum at the dangerous moment. I believe the screenwriter originally intention was to make it entertaining, but I think it’s too much to an extend that it’s irritating. However, I still believe it does have its audience. Some part of the stories wasn’t logic to an extend that it sounds a bit stupid rather than romantic, for example, a goddess fell in love with a human, Xifeng who sung beautifully, and wanted to meet him ,but Xifeng was an ugly man, in order to meet the goddess he traded with the Lord of Demon, Chonglou with 500 hundred year time and his voice for a good-looking face, so that he could meet the goddess for a day, and then the goddess waited Xifeng for more 500 hundred years after Xifeng left, which I thought was stupid. For God sake, nobody with sane mind would wait for somebody for more than 500 years and ultimately became a statue just because she loves his voice and has met him for a day.

The movie talks a lot about the truth of life, nature and lots of the spells are created based on the Classic of the Way and Power of Virtue and Nature or Tao Te Ching which stroke me that the screenwriter was someone who have insightful thoughts about life, nature, and Tao Te Ching.

One thing I felt very bad about was the part that Nvwa was asked to leave Xu Changqing and consequentially they all had to suffer, just because Xu Changqing wanted to meditate to be a God, when they actually loved each others so much. It’s quite similar to the one in The Sorcerer and the White Snake, Xuxian, a Chinese physician who was in love with the demon snake was separated by Fahai a monk, saying that human shouldn’t be in love with demon, which I found it not understandable, but maybe, I might understand it one day.

Book Review – Tuesday with Morrie – Sep 15, 2012

Author: Mitch Albom

           Tuesdays with Morrie is about the conversations between a dying sociology professor, Morrie who is suffered from ALS (a kind of disease the melt your nerves from your leg to your upper body) and his student Mitch Albom, who is the author of this book. Topics covered in their conversations are the following: the world, feeling sorry for yourself, regrets, death, family, emotions, the fear of aging, money, how love goes on, marriage, culture, forgiveness, and the perfect day.

           Partly because professor Morrie’s about to die, he saw thing differently, which made the witted insights of Morrie into life sprinkled in this book so precious. It’s really a book about life especially for people who feel lost, as it talks a lot about life.

           One of my favorite words from the books is the following:

Morrie: It’s horrible to watch my body slowly wilt away to nothing. But it’s also wonderful because of all the time I get to say good-bye.

           Since Morrie is suffered from ALS, a kind of disease often starts from the feet and works its way up. At first he was unable to move his legs. Then, he was unable to sit straight, at the end he has to breathe through a tube in a hole in his throat; hence, it’s like the person spirit is in an unmovable husk. It’s a very horrible disease, but the uptake is that Morrie has plenty oftime to say good-bye before he leaves the world.

，        My understanding to these words are that bad things are inevitable in our life, but they’re like a knife, which can be used to help people dice meat or to harm people. Beneath the bad thing happening to us, there’re always good things, for example, I can’t attend school now because of some illness, but it gives me time to read vigorously and time to contemplate my life. Numerous examples can be found in everywhere. To find good things from the horrible things that happen to us is a very important mindset that we need to have, because it can make us stronger, or perhaps change bad things into good things.

Book Review - Matilda – Sep 8, 2012

Author: Roald Dahl

Type: Children’s Novel

Main Elements of the Novel

1.     Opening: Matilda Wormwood, a child prodigy who read lots of books.

2.    Her wrenched family life

    How was she ill-treated by her mother and crooked father

    How did she take revenge on her parents (3 times in the books)

3.    Matilda’s school life

    Her cruel headmistress, Miss Trunchbull and how Trunchbull abuse her students (about 3 times in the books)

    Her caring form teacher, Miss Honey.

4.    Ending: Matilda helps Honey gets back her inheritance from Miss. Trunchbull

Plot

            The protagonist of this novel Matilda is a child prodigy who was ill-treated by her parents. She loved to read so much, but her dimwitted parents discouraged reading. Hence, she went to public library alone, when her mother was other playing bingo. She read all the children books in the library. And then she read a classic, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. In the next six months, Matilda read many books, including, books of Jane Austen, George Orwell, and Rudyard Kipling.

            Matilda is a child prodigy, but, be that as it may, she was ill-treated by her parents. She played a trick on her parents to punish when they did something bad: she poured superglue into her father’s hat, put a parrot in the chimney to trick them into believing that there is a ghost in there house, and switch her father hair tonic with her mother peroxide to change her father’s hair color.

            When Matilda started school, her form teacher Honey could tell that Matilda was extraordinary and determine to help her move into higher class, but was rejected by the villainous headmistress. Many students of Crunchem Hall Primary School were abused by Trunchbull, who punished them inappropriately by methods such as, asking Bruce Bogtrotter to eat entire cake, throw students like throwing a hammer.

            Trunchbull taught each class once a week. During the first class, Miss Trunch tricked my a student. She thought the culprit was Matilda while it’s somebody else Infuriated, Matilda discovered her telekinetic abilities. After telling Honey her special power, Honey brought her to her small cottage in the forest to discuss her special power. At that time, Honey also recounted her childhood; she was brought up by Trunchbull who abused her, and took her inheritance and wages.

Matilda helped Honey gain back her inheritance by controlling a chalk with her special power to write on the board as though it was written by Honey dead father to frighten Trunchbull. The frightened Trunchbull did a bunk and returned Honey everything.

At the end, Honey gain consent to take care of her from Matilda’s parents when they were leaving for Spain after her father deceptive practice in business was discovered.

What I think of the book?

Overall, I think this is an interesting book with simple plot (a children’s novel). The plot is pretty simple (look at the main elements of the novel), but I don’t think it’s easy to come up with this book. It took some creativity to come with three interesting ways to revenge and about three interesting ways to punish the kids that children will find them intresting. The author also made the story more captivating by adding some dramatic elements, such as the headmistress lifting up the students by clasping their ears, or holding the students by the head, swing them, and then throw them far away.

What dislike about the book is that there are lots of old-fashioned words in the book, because it’s published in 1988. Although it’s a children’s novel, the language is not really easy for me especially the language Trunchbull used to curse her students. Maybe, this is because I’m not a native English speaker.