Leglessbird Reading guide

A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes (buy from Amazon) by Stephen W.; Sagan, Carl Hawking
Type: Science
Author: Stephen Hawking
My rating: 5

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
How does the Universe begin or is there a beginning? Was it big bang? Is there going to be a big crunch? How does human fit in? What is the meaning of time? Must it too has a beginning and will it end? Is black hole really black? What is the history of modern science? How do we get to know so much about the universe? What more to learn? How close are we to the final goal "a grand unification theory"?

My review:
A masterpiece by Stephen Hawking that covers all the above questions. I truly enjoyed reading this book and there is so much more to learn.

Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types (buy from Amazon) by Marilyn Bates
Type: Self-improvement
Author: David Keirsey, Marilyn Bates
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
This book attempts to classify people along 4 preferences (with 2 possibilities in each preferences), hence 16 types of character. The 4 preference pairs are:
- Extraversion Vs Introversion
- Intuition Vs Sensation
- Thinking Vs Feeling
- Judging Vs Perceiving
How do different group of people interact? What are the sources of misunderstanding? How can people communicate better?

My review:
I was given this book during a McKinsey training on people's skills. This is an interesting book. We did a test to find out our own preferences and we played some games to illustrate how we interact and ways to improve team communication and dynamics. It made us more aware/sensitive to other people's preference too.

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (buy from Amazon) by Howard C. Cutler

Type: Self-improvement
Author: Dalai Lama, Howard C. Cutler
My rating: 3

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
A Dalai Lama's view on happiness and how to achieve it with Howard Cutler adding his own intepretation.

My review:
The book suggests the purpose of life is to seek happiness, the true kind of happiness is not the selfish kind and true happiness can be inspiring to other people. It has some suggestion on how one can achieve happiness by becoming more compassionate. Prety interesting views and with some analysis on factors that affect happiness i.e. why people are not happy at times.

101 Philosophy Problems (buy from Amazon) by Martin Cohen
Type: Philsophy
Author: Martin Cohen
My rating: 3
Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
This book discusses some elementary questions in philosophy, it forms a good base of questions for beginners in philosophy.

My review:
Although the book has already mentioned that there is no right/wrong answers to the questions in this book, but nonetheless, more guidance that will help facilitate the discussion. The Chinese Translated version was unfortuntately not a very good translation...

The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership (buy from Amazon) by James C. Hunter

Type: Leadership, Business
Author: James C. Hunter
My rating: 4

Posted by irene
Book introduction:
John Daily, a businessman who heads up a company and has a family and good life style, is failing miserably in each of his leadership roles as boss, husband, father, and coach. What went wrong?Find out from his weeklong retreat at a remote Benedictine monastery.

My review:
Is leadership born? or trained? This book explains the simple principles of a good and successful leader. One of the concepts is:
POWER = The ability to force others, by virtue of your position over them, to do what you wish them to do.

AUTHORITY = The ability to have others voluntarily do what you wish them to do as a result of the nature of your relationship with them and the example you set in front of them.

The principles can be applied to different situations of our life.

The Da Vinci Code (buy from Amazon) by Dan Brown
Type: Fiction
Author: Dan Brown
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
The curator of The Louvre Museum, Paris was murdered inside Louvre and he left behind bizarre clues at his own murder scene. The Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon who happened to be in Paris was called in late at night to assist in solving the murder. He was deeply puzzled why he was asked to assist.

A beautiful French Cryptologist, Sophie Neveu warned Robert that he was in great danger. As they slowly unfold the secret left behind by the curator, they realised all the clues lead to Da Vinci and a two-thousand year old secret society called The Priory of Sion that Da Vinci was once the grand master. Robert and Sophie were about to revealed a secret so big that it would rock the very foundation of the Church as we know it.

My review:
The Da Vinci code is an very interesting fiction piecing a lot of the historical facts together and turned into a conspircy theory. A conspircy so deep and important that the church would do anything to stop it from being revealed. True or not, it is your pick. It is a very intense story and once you start reading the book, you can't put it down until you have read the whole book! True or not, the book raised many many questions about the bible and its accuracy, and it will definitely raise your interest in Da Vinci, his work and the secret society Priory of Sion (Issac Newton, Victor Hugo were also once the grand master of the society).

Veronika Decides to Die (buy from Amazon) by Paulo Coelho
Posted by Joanna
Type: Fiction
Author: Paulo Coelho
My rating: 5

Book introduction:
This is another excellent book by Paulo Coelho. Don?t be misled by the title ? this is not some dark fiction about Veronika committing suicide. In fact after reading it, one will appreciate living even more. It is very thought-provoking. Coelho uses the characters at Villete, an asylum to which go they escape from soulless routine and conformity, to convey his message. To quote:

"Each human being is unique, each with their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire for adventure. However, society always imposes on us a collective way of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that....You're someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that, in my view, is a serious illness." -Dr. Igor

My review:
The book is short, which makes it more incredible how it gives you many profound insights. Whether you?re ?normal? or experiencing some kind of quarter-life crisis like Veronika, I highly recommend this book.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't (buy from Amazon) by Jim Collins
Type: Business
Author: Jim Collins
My rating: 3

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
From the author and research team that brought us - Build to last - comes a book focusing on the key factors of how some companies were able to jump a leap and went from GOOD companies to GREAT companies.

My review:
Good is the enermy of great. To become a great, one must not get too comfortable with being just good. Although I find the stories in the book interesting, there is little practical tips that one can follow. The concept of a level-5 leader is too abstract.

Mr. China: A Memoir (buy from Amazon) by Tim Clissold
Type: Business
Author: Tim Clissold
My rating: 5
Book introduction:
This is a memoir of an Englishman who felt really attached to China since late 1980s. He came to Beijing in 1990s to study Mandarin and travel around China. He saw the opportunity of bringing capital from Wall Street to China and started investing into a selected set of industry, hoping to dominate certain market through numerous Joint Venture in the early 1990s. That was the time when it was hard for businesses (SOEs state-own enterprises) to raise capital within China. Together with a successful Wall Street banker, they raised US$418 Million in a number of fund raising round. Soon they find that doing business in China is much harder than they thought, and their investments have started to go terribly wrong. This book is a recount of the various battles that they fought against the Chinese partners of their joing ventures.

My review:
Highly recommended for everyone who plans to work, invest, start business in China. China has changed since, but to read and learn about its past and how/why things have evolved in certain ways and what lessons did foreign investors learn through numerous failed JV are all highly insightful. The situation described in the books are so so so true, the attitude towards foreigners, the opportunity to grab money fast during an infant stage of development of a huge nation and the lack of respect of contracts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Type: Fiction
Author: 片山恭一
My rating: 4

Book introduction:
Sakutaro and Aki are high school sweet heart. Aki died of leukemia. This is the story of Sakutaro and Aki as told by Sakutaro, how they fell deeply in love, how Aki became sick and passed away, what was the joint wish that was unfulfilled. How Sakutaro's grandfather's affection for another lady had inspired both Sakutaro and Aki...
ISBN 988201867X

My review:
A movie and a TV drama called Crying out love in the centre of the world 在世界中心呼喚愛 were made out of this book. Personally, I like both the book and the movie. But the movie is much better, more touching and they have added some clever tricks in the movie that made it more interesting.

Young 1st love that is separated by death is always so very sad and touching. Especially so if there is one last unfulfilled dying wish.

This book broke the best selling record set by 村上春樹 Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood 挪威的森林. It sold over 2.5Million copies in Japan.