Dave

This is the sleazy super hero book you didn't know you wanted. And maybe didn't want, idk.

This book asks the important question “What if the bad guy won, and also was dtf and murderous?”

This was a large collection of anecdotes of people successfully becoming wealthy. There was a couple of interesting points where it talked about common personality traits of the successful people detailed in the book most of it revolving around a healthy amount of self-esteem. I felt front there was a fair amount of trying to redefine what wealthy was which made me suspicious that it was not really trying to talk to me about the psychology of wealthy people but rather how to find inner happiness even though you're poor.

If you want to provide some anecdotes of people succeeding and attitude a presentation or talk this book might be interesting for you otherwise I would pass.

I'm marking it read, although I didn't actually get to finish the book. I went in thinking it would be practical advice about living frugally but it was more of a reminiscence coupled with folksy wisdom on random topics. I wouldn't say the advice was bad, a couple of bits stick out as quite solid (Don't carry credit card debt, take the plunge on a long foreign trip when young, others). But I felt like the book read more like a mildly interesting reflection on the author's life instead of practical advice. This was very different from my expectations, and also I don't like even themed autobiographies that much so I don't rate it very high.

The writing was fair, it doesn't feel too dated, but it wasn't what I was looking for.

That was kinda silly. Sometimes I can ignore silliness if they are trying to talk about a human problem but this was just being weird.

Read the ebook, I don't have the limited edition actual copy.

A couple of these stories were pretty creepy and good, and a couple of them were just kind of musings of a middle-to-late aged man. I give it a clear ‘meh' except the man in the black suit. That had an old timey feel with some real menace that I quite liked.

I read this looking to understand what people see in Trump and what they think Trump has done for them in the time he's been president. The title of the book implied that it would help me understand why the state of America should be considered winning and why I would want to vote for Trump in the upcoming election.

Unfortunately, the title is a promise not kept. It is a meandering slog of ranting about how various people in the political spectrum suck and are contemptible. This is usually Democrats, but he touches on suckage for many different people. Would not call it a balanced amount of rage in any way, just wanted to note that he doesn't like some republicans either.

There is an incredible amount of vitriol for Ted Kennedy, which makes me want to ask “Where did Ted touch you? Can you point to the area on this doll?” I mean, seriously, how this has anything to do with Trump and winning is beyond me.

Anyways, if you listen to AM talk radio with a conservative bent, you've got the jist of what this hack is laying down. You can save yourself the trouble. I really was hoping to hear stories of people, ordinary people tell me the positive things they are enjoying because they voted for Trump. If anyone has a line on that book, please let me know. I have an open mind but I just see Trump as a clown that failed up way too far. I want to understand why others don't see the same thing.

This is the memoirs of a intersex person telling you how they've struggled with this identity. I'm glad she can talk about it and I appreciate learning about more messy biology. I really respect and appreciate Wendy Davis. But I don't think the memoirs were that interesting so I only give it a meh-good rating.

I came looking for stories about people who have retired or not and reasons why they have (or not) and whether they regretted these choices (or not). Kind of some data blended with anecdotes to make it memorable and help me with my decisions about retiring (or not).

This is really the story of a about to hit 70s guy who is a reporter so he knows tons of famous and connected people. He'll tell you a little bit about their reaction to his thinking of retiring and why it's not selfish or horrible for boomers to just work high paid gigs until they drop dead. Also, he has a lot to tell you about his daughter who is going to college.

I tapped out after 2/3rds of the book. Maybe a tiger shows up and it gets interesting but I'll never know.

This story supposes that an earth ship runs into a long lost colony that has adopted a bartering style and obstinacy as economics and principles of society. Shenanigans ensue.

Fairly short and sweet, didn't have a lot of exposition that I get from someone like Heinlein when explaining how awesome a society organized around radically new principles would be.

This is horseshit ranting.I wish it wasn't so tinfoil hat crazy, I'd like to get some insight into conservative thought that isn't just pissing in pants fearful about showing empathy.

I on the nose satire about consumerism.

If you ever wanted to read a book that had a similar feel to say Goonies - quite a bit goofy, dorky but lovable heroes, epic quest for treasure while being doggedly pursued by bad guys - then I've got the book for you. I found the countless regurgitation of my childhood a bit much which is why I just “like” the book. The story is a feel good yarn, nothing really amazing happening in here. The story is a well-worn but loved one.

While I think it's important to have a no asshole rule, this book is really about relishing saying the word asshole repeatedly in a semi-serious discussion. It is pretty light on ways to actually implement such a policy and/or how to deal with assholes in your midst. It does give about equal time to the idea that sometimes you should be an asshole and people have to put up with it because you're awesome.

IDK, it was a really light read but I don't feel like I picked up anything new to think about. I don't care to deal with assholes and I'm none the wiser on how to practically make less of them be in my life.

I thought the premise and the overall story was very interesting and original. I'm a sucker for end of the world/post-apocalyptic stories and I don't think I've read one that's alternate history.

Pros:
- Interesting premise about germ warfare coming in the final days of WWII and changing the world.
- A scrappy dog is probably the best person in the story.

Cons:
- I hated the protagonist/teller of the story. He's a jackass and having to be told the story from his wretched point of view sucked.
- There was a lot of action sequences that were described, the story in fact opens in a long drawn out action sequence where people you don't know for reasons you don't understand are chasing someone telling you a story from their point of view. Imagine reading “Fury Road” instead of watching it.

Thanks to Phoebe reading me a mystery, I have ‘read' this one.

I liked this story better than I like most Agatha Christie books I have read. It's very interesting to see cutting edge tech of yesteryear applied to the solving of mysteries.

I've been reading this over the past couple of weeks. Reading reviews from others as well as thinking about how I have internalized the information here I think the book has some very good points and a few different data backed conclusions that I would like to be explored more. Particularly striking is the claim that open markets do not benefit the nation being opened up if it is developing, I felt like there was some information given to back this claim but not enough to make me feel like it was proven. And I'm rather center-left pro-regulated capitalism. Also striking was the exercise around describing countries without naming the time frame being looked at and guessing what the country was. This was very telling in my opinion.

In some cases the author was preaching to the choir, at least with me. I think I align with the author's views quite a bit. Overall, I liked the book but I do not think it works well to convince people that are dogmatically pro-market without nuance.

This is a pretty amazing story. I won't rehash it, it's a quick read. But this book is both an amazing sci-fi story and the terror communicated by the story teller comes through still today.

I knock it a star because of the ending. I feel like it's a bit cheap. I'd give it 4.5 if I could though.

I am a huge fan of the first 4 books in the gunslinger series. This filled in a little bit of missing time when Roland was chasing the man in black and I liked that pretty well.

There were a little things I saw changed here or there from what I remember the original book having, but I don't think it was huge changes so far.

I couldn't finish it and skipped chunks like pages of songs to have sex to and the sex horoscopes.

This reads like a bunch of cosmo articles. The author seems alright enough and she tells plenty of amusing anecdotes but it's really just not my bag.

It is interesting to hear what libertarians were dreaming about before the internet bubble burst. Lots of VC in the air, cyber-(whatever) was on everyone's lips and evidently people wanted to write a manifesto about tax evasion while grossly misunderstanding how technology works. This is a manifesto of sorts of an adolescent multi-millionaire's son, the inspiration for Bioshock's Andrew Ryan.

There are some glimmers of accurate prediction here. People that think the book predicted cryptocurrency evidently don't remember the virtual currencies that were circulating around in the 90s. The description in the book seems to be hanging on these, rather than a decentralized virtual currency. I think this distinction is more than a quibble and won't award points for thinking about this. The description in the book seems more like what was used in the US pre-civil war where every bank had it's own currency and people had to trust these various notes depending on a variety of factors.

Most of the broad sweeps of the book's predictions were counting on the rise of cheap and easy computing to make assessing the true state or trustworthiness of things trivial or basically free or both. We have instead traded our vast computing power for likes and thirst traps. The few attempts I've seen where people have tried to liberate themselves from the parasite government have ended in fraud and theft. One might argue that I am viewing the world through a loser's lens, and that there are people that are already operating as sovereign individuals but I'm too loser to know about it. Certainly I know of people that have changed citizenship to avoid taxes when living abroad, but that's a far cry from what the authors describe.

Towards the middle and definitely in the end there is some pretty blatantly racist shit being said. And the viewpoint the authors' espouse certainly makes them the most contemptible of human beings in my eyes. I can't really think of a reason to read this book, I'm sorry I broke my recommendation rule (I wait for 2 people to recommend a book before reading) it was a big waste of time.

I really like it when sci-fi writers try to imagine the impact a technology would have on society. This book is glimpse into several different people's life in a post-scarcity world. It centers on the tale of a girl coming by a very special book and how it shapes that girl's life.

The book had some very fascinating ideas about what shifts society would take given trivial creation of people's basic needs. I enjoyed the snapshots of different parts of the world and cultures trying to come to grips with all the upheaval that this brings.

This is a whole lot of words to say “I see workers as chattel”

There is so much union-bashing, libertarian assertion going on here I only made it half way through. I have better things to do with my life than here someone be hatefully wrong headed about their fellow human beings.

I don't give it 1 stars because he's not disingenuous with his hatred, he comes right out and tells you who he is.

A romantic story set during World War 2. It reminds the reader that Hungary was into Nazis and working jewish people to death, just more lightly. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of pre-war Paris, Budapest and Europe from a regular person's point of view. I got very tired of the longing glances, secrets between lovers, repeated questions and answers and ruminations. This book could have been like half the size. I don't like the benevolent generals saving Andros on multiple occasions, it reeks of aristocratic ass kissing. It's not historic, so it's the author's choice and that really took me out of the story and see it for just that, a very sentimental story with eastern front trappings.

A good yarn about post apocalyptic America

This was a good page turner. I liked the descriptions of societies in post warish America. Nothing really silly in the future tech department is employed. Recommended if you like distopian with a dash of hope and patriotism.

I thought this book was well written and provided detailed critique of Beck's schtick and how he has ruined people's lives and influenced violent people when they act out. It lacks a call to action, so that if I agree with the central premise of the book (Glenn Beck is a shyster contributing to national disunity and making it difficult to have a shared truth) there is nothing I can do about it personally to feel like I am helping the world bend towards justice.