Vacant Mind

52 Books in 52 Weeks

As part of the up coming new years resolution I wish to read more and be more widly read about the world in general. While doing some research I came across this challenge to read 52 books in 52 weeks

It’s a grand plan and one that probably won’t finish, but I plan to give it a go and see what happens, in the absolute hope that I will infact be better educated by the end of the year.

Business Section

Do any of you read/own business or entrepreneurial type books?
If you do what are they and did you find them useful?

Anyway I was in Angus & Robertson today and just strolling through as you normally do when I stopped at the business section to see what new releases where about, when I saw a book by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki called Why We Want You to be Rich I gave a little laugh ( at the absurdity of it), and it was probably a little too loud because the lady who was standing next to me also noticed and commented on it.

We ended up having quite an interesting conversation about business and books and I later found out that she is in the business of helping people with theirs, I felt rather embarrassed recommending books to her when she was already well read on the subject.

I had always wanted to start a business but being a student and not having heaps of money doesn’t really help the situation. Most of the ideas haven’t been anything useful in the end. I don’t think that I would survive well running and IT company, running a take away pizza or buying into a franchise has crossed my mind. I have always been interested in investing, mainly the stock market but again needing a reserve of funds has stopped that going too far.

I left her because I had things to buy and places to be but it did get me thinking on a forgotten subject again which is good, and she had given me some tips on a few books that I could look into which I might pick up when I have some spare time. I have been meaning to look into buying some shares, I’m not going to go for the T3 offer but something else like Optus or something in the Health Care sector I think, but I would probably be after something that was safe rather than risky I know that being the age that I am I could go for something with more risk but I just don’t think that I have the money for it. Maybe when I get older.

So if you are here reading this…got any tips - books, stocks or otherwise?

Uni Books

I hate the fact that when ever a new semester starts we are always expected to buy new sets of book, not because I am opposed to the unnecessary waste of text books when they could be used in electronic form. But because of the sometimes excessive cost of them. Most lectures know full well the cost of books and the fact that the vast majority of student enrolled and attending subjects are undergraduates which in most cases means that they are on tight budgets.

All four of my subjects require me to purchase text books that are $100 and above the most expensive being a double book reaching the $170 mark. So as a result this week I have been running around looking for second hand books for most of my subjects, so far I can only find one, I will soon try the other channels such as ebay and non-academic second hand book stores. This cost of text books pushes my start up costs for each semester up to about the $500 mark which can impact quite a bit on the back pocket and force me to be tight with money for the next couple of weeks until everything stabilise and debits are paid off.

I have been told and I have heard that there can be some influence as to which book is chosen to each subject because there are sometimes connections between the author, university, subject coordinator and lecturer making the book not always the correct choice for the students particularly if it ends up being rather expensive. I am unsure how true this is and there are cases where it could be legitimate but thinking back I could see this happening on occasion.

My other gripe is that for many of the subjects the books could just as easily be offered in electronic form. Many subjects only use sections, parts of the book or certain chapters it is a little bit of a waste when you consider that you paid $100 of the book and only using $50 worth. University libraries already pay large amounts of money to have digital libraries of books at their disposal for students to use, and in some cases when an electronic book has been accessed a number of times the paper/hard back version of the book is bought. This I see can have two effects for both students and the university; firstly the University will be able to better track it’s book inventory because it will see more accurately what students are reading and where the money should be spent, the second reason I can only speculate but considering that students might end up having more money (although we might pay more in uni fees each passing year) and therefore have a better University experience or even spend more money at Uni on other things.

Just on a side note, I have started to notice the cut backs that the VSU faced are coming through on higher fees for University activities. I guess that I’m just among the many disgruntled University students with no money.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist is meant to be an inspiring book about following your dreams and living out your life to the full. It certainly might be and due to it’s immense popularity.

But I’m not too sure how inspired I actually was after I finished it. It wasn’t a hard read and compared to some of the books that I have read rather small (and costing $29.95 which I thought was a bit much for it’s size)

It is essentially a story about a boy who has a dream and through a series of events and meetings with people eventually goes on to realise that dream, even though he encounters obstacles and set backs. He meets a few different people along the way how teach him a few things about life and himself.

I found the story good and inspiring in some parts and I did enjoy the whole book, but I’m not too sure if it’s personal opinion here but I felt that some of the spiritual and personal messages a little too fantastic and over emphasised for my liking and put me off a little bit.

Personally I probably should have borrowed it first before I bought it.

A Game of Thrones

At the end of the book in the acknowledgments section there is this line
“The devil is in the details”

This book certainly has a immense amount of details beginning at the characters and the world that they
live in. The story telling and the character development is subtly effective, one minute a new
character is introduced the next you feel like you already know them.

For me the story telling was rather unique, never unnecessarily repeating it’s self and always from
a different angle which is rather refreshing. The story is able to get you involved and keep you hooked either
when something happens or when you have finished the chapter and need to know what is going to happen next.
All done without needless violence and without leaving a sour taste in your mouth and disappointed.

It’s essentially a story of two warring families who want the iron throne for various reasons.
This is the main thread which revolves around the cunning and deceiving house of Lannister and the proud
and noble house of Stark. There are other threads within threads such as the world beyond on the wall in the north
and the dethroned royal house that lives beyond the sea who lust for their return to the iron throne.

It is obvious that the book from the outset is meant to be part of a bigger series, instead of a stand alone that did
well and other books expanded upon where the story left off, and besides the world is just too big for one book.

I liked the non-use of magic with only hints of the super natural in the background, it made it necessary to
concentrate on the the people, characters and plot development.

Stern(10,g)