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The other real estate books I read gave a more beginner approach to buying and holding houses, but this one used that as a starting point to theorize on how far you could go if you kept it up. Now, I don't think that's for me, but it's interesting to hear about what kind of commitment you would need to buy that many houses, or manage that many.

While the other two books I read were more focused on dealing with tenants or building a large base, this one focused almost entirely on the why and how of investing in houses with the idea of holding them for a while.

Lately I've been reading a lot about buying real estate to rent out. This book provided a solid base to scare me into reality on what that would involve. The concept of being a landlord seems like a good idea when everything is working well. If you get the finances right, the tenant isn't too pushy, the property doesn't have too many issues – well then you can probably enjoy the additional cashflow and appreciation on the property. If not, well it might be more similar to my past landlording experience where the tenant stopped paying, had a friend of his move in, had to be evicted with police. Hopefully that means I've at least seen (some of) the bad side to know what to expect.

Short story taking place in the cadet training area over Christmas. The idea fits in with the rest of the world – removing all religious practices from the students there – but still did not draw me in enough to appreciate the characters.

These uncluttering books are great motivation to get things done. I especially appreciate this one, because it's targeting Japanese households which lack the space we tend to have here in the US. This helps with focus more on what you should keep and get rid of it. The main concept of this book is “Do you love it?”. If yet, keep it, if not, then don't buy it or get rid of it.

Great follow up to the first of the series. Sanderson develops on the world in just the way you'd want - with twists and turns leaving you wanting more. I already can't wait for the next one in this series.

The 2nd book in the legion series is a little longer than the first. This one answers some of the questions I had after the first one about the background of the main character. The problem being investigated in this one (I won't spoil up) was interesting to me as well.

The final book in the Maze Runner series was easily the worst. The world, which was still mostly unknown to us readers, was simplified perhaps too much with an easy solution out.

Short but interesting alternate storyline during the climax of Elantris.

It's not often the 2nd one in a series is better than the first one. For me though, I enjoyed this one more than the original. That's not to say it was a great book, but I did enjoy where it took the story. After reading the first in the series, I wasn't sure I would read anymore of it. After re-watching the movie with some friends, I knew I had to see where the story went.

This short story is a follow up to Steelheart, elaborating on the story with the same characters. I enjoyed where it took the city and the characters after the book left me wanting more. The main villain Mitosis, an epic who can split into multiple versions of himself, serves to both advance the characters and our knowledge of the world – just what you would want in a short story set in the same universe.

Not as deep a world at Mistborn or The Stormlight Archives, but Steelheart starts what promises to be an interesting world, filled with villains and heroes. Unlike the Marvel and DC worlds, heroes in this world are general mortal, while villains have unexpected powers which defy physics. With each power also comes a weakness, which can be used to bring them down. For being as short as this was (half the length of Mistborn), it had an impressive story arc. I'm looking forward to seeing where this series goes.

I can only hear about a book so long before eventually reading it. Although 1984 is known for it's totalitarian state where everything is watched by the government, what interested me most were the ideas around war involved in the book. The perpetual war idea hits closer to home now than anytime in our countries history – with the Afghan war hitting 12 years.

Having loved Starship Troopers (the movie), this one was always only my list to read. The story, thought of by Heinleins Wife, is simple – take The Jungle Book, but make the man from Mars. The story went in unexpected places – to politics, metaphysics, sex and commune lifestyles. I see why this one was such a big hit in the 60s.

The 4th book in the Dune series was my 2nd favorite so far. The 3rd book build on House Atreides in an unexpected way, veering away from Maud Dib to another darker path. This book takes that darker path and runs with it.

Although Dune Messiah (Dune #2) wasn't one of my favorites, this one was much more interesting. The way the Atreides family evolves and works its way into the Dune planet went in some unexpected and interesting ways. The interesting parts for this one though, took a while to come out.

This one seems to more set the stage for the 3rd book than to be a great 2nd book in a trilogy. As much as I loved the first one, this one left me thinking it was half a book – and not the better half.

This one so closely follows the old BBC miniseries that I had to laugh along with it. All of the parts I remember from when I watched it as a kid – Deep Thought, Norway, the Earth, the Highway. Hitchhikers Guide was the first comedic science fiction I ever learned about and I see why this is a classic.

When I grew up, my parents would occasionally go to Gurdjieff group meetings. We weren't a religious family, so that was the closest we came. Although I was hanging out with the kids rather than participating, I always wondered what was going on and meant to read about the concept somewhere down the line. I decided to finally check it out, and this seemed like an approachable guide.

To put the entire idea into a few sentences it would be something like this: We have control over our emotions and being. The Wikipedia article says it more abstractly: ‘Gurdjieff claimed that people cannot perceive reality in their current states because they do not possess consciousness but rather live in a state of a hypnotic “waking sleep.”'. It reminded me a lot of the This is Water essay which focuses on a similar idea. This very introductory guide surely only touches on the basics, but many of the principles I could see influencing my parents, and my development growing up as well.

Although the book is a good introduction to The Work, it only touches skin deep.

Having re-watched the movie many times, I thought it was finally time to give the book a shot. It matches up surprisingly well with the movie, with smart cuts from the book - I was actually impressed by that. The book goes more into Elles family life, which has a different dynamic than the movie.

The part I enjoyed the most in the book were the discussions between Elle and religious leaders. The book went much more into these discussions than in the book. Probably my favorite quotes from the book was by Elle when discussing world overpopulation: “A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.”

Overall some definite differences between the book and the movie, but not so much that you're going to be surprised by what's happening.

Even though this is Sandersons first book, it hits many of the same chords. The magic system isn't as well developed as in his following works, leading to revelation moments which had me scratching my head a little. The story itself was a bit long for how little happened. The overall story ended up leaving me wishing some of the mysteries were revealed sooner, giving more time for elaboration.

Oh boy. As much as I like the idea behind the Illium/Olympos series, this one required some suffering to make it through. I loved Hyperion, and the wealth of characters, and how well their stories intertwined in time, but for this one, most characters I could not connect with. Perhaps it has to do with basing the story around a first person point a view, which made it more difficult for me to think the story was more than the main character. The Illium storyline and the Gods were easily the most interesting, but when it came down to an explanation I wasn't satisfied with it.

Simmons creates an intriguing world, but somehow this one didn't draw me in nearly as much as Hyperion. A world with time travel, Trojans, Achilles, Odysseus, Mars, Gods and other mysteries which are unraveled sounds amazing, leaving me unsure of what the missing piece was. Either way this did leave me wanting to read the next in the series.

Orbital elevators have always been an interesting topic to me. It's something about having a train, but one that takes you to the stars. This Hugo and Nebula award winning story has been theorized about for many years. The story itself is more a book about an engineering project than science fiction, which drifted to religion at times. I appreciated the concept more than the presentation.

After loving Childhoods End, I wanted to check out more by Clark. Rama is different book than I imagined. In a future earth where we've settled the solar system, a large cylindrical spaceship decides to make its way to us. The book explores the interactions with this unknown ship.

It is the first in a four-book series, but it could also be thought of as the first half of a story. I felt somewhat incomplete with the way it ended, although it is as likely an ending as any.