Gregor
This is far from the first book I have read on FIRE but I still found interesting takeaways, especially when it comes to the possibility of travelling and actually saving money whilst doing so. I also appreciated the author's honesty when describing the panic she felt experiencing her first market downturn. Overall a solid FIRE book that would serve as a good introduction to the subject.
A worthwhile read for anyone interested in learning more about how data has changed the Premier League. I knew the basics of xG going in but left with a much greater appreciation for it and the myriad other statistics that are used to analyse football matches. I also never knew that if it were not for xG, Jurgen Klopp would never have got the Liverpool job!
An excellent starting point for anyone interested in learning to manage their money. There is hardly any jargon and each chapter is short and sweet, making this an easy read for those new to books on personal finance. For my part, this served as a welcome refresher on investing concepts, even if there are a handful of US-centric chapters. Overall, an enjoyable read and sound investment advice. Simple is best!
This novelisation was my first experience of Black Coffee, having never read or seen the original play by Agatha Christie. The tone is spot on throughout, however the plot itself felt middling compared to earlier Poirot stories. A strong ending is enough to lift this whodunnit a little higher in my estimation but it is not a top-tier Poirot mystery for me.
Not the strongest Poirot adventure, but still an enjoyable read. I found there to be a few too many characters, many lacking in development to the point of being easily forgotten. Furthermore, the victim is not particularly sympathetic which makes this less of a page-turner. On a more positive note, the setting of a train is an excellent backdrop for a murder mystery and there is some intrigue around different compartments and who left the train at what time. All in all, a weak Poirot novel but still one I am glad to have read.
A change in style from previous Poirot adventures, but not a good one in my eyes. This book feels very disjointed, which is not a surprise when you discover that it was originally twelve distinct short stories that were later cobbled together to form one novel. The grander scale is an interesting change of pace, and Poirot's fallibility is appreciated, but that is not enough to warrant a high rating for a novel that even Christie herself thought was poor.
An enjoyable collection of short stories involving Poirot and Hastings. It was interesting that the author included a couple of cases where Poirot failed, in one case relying on karma to catch up to the guilty party. I particularly liked one story where Poirot plays up his belief in the supernatural, much to his companions' disbelief. The mystery and tension that builds up over the previous Poirot entries are of course absent here, considering that these are short stories, so they did not grip me in the same way as Christie's earlier offerings. Nonetheless, this was an enjoyable collection and made for very easy reading.
A worthy follow-up to the first Poirot story, this book swaps England for France as the setting. The inclusion of an arrogant rival detective from Paris is a good source of comedy as Hastings is invariably impressed by his industry, only for Poirot to be the one in the right as usual. I found the romantic subplot to be a bit threadbare, although Christie does manage to weave it into the main plot at the end, albeit not a hundred percent satisfactorily. All in all another enjoyable whodunit and I look forward to reading the next.
This is the first Agatha Christie book I have read and it has left me very keen to dive into some more of her work. Poirot is full of life and there are some great moments of comedy as the narrator, Hastings, gets irritated with Poirot's nonsensical actions or thinks that he has got it right and Poirot is barking up the wrong tree. The country estate setting is classic for a murder mystery and the ensemble cast is well flashed-out. A great introduction to Agatha Christie's oeuvre.
An interesting insight into the history of hygiene practices and why we might have gone too far nowadays. The exploration of the history of soap and its usage was eye-opening, and it is clear that companies have muddied the waters around cleanliness such that we feel the need to buy an assortment of lotions and potions from them.
A good refresher on what Bitcoin is and why it matters. I cannot say that the book had any new points for me but it was still a worthwhile short read and would be a great introduction to Bitcoin for anyone who is curious enough to read about the subject but does not want to commit to a longer book such as The Bitcoin Standard.
An eye-opening exploration of how Bitcoin is being used around the world to resist financial oppression. I found the chapter on the CFA franc particularly disturbing as I had never come across it before. I would recommend this to anyone who currently thinks that Bitcoin is unnecessary and a frivolous waste of energy.
A very thorough biography of one of the world's most creative people, but too dry for my liking. If you are looking for a deep biography that covers all aspects of Leonardo Da Vinci's life, then this book will not disappoint, but I found it quite a slog to get through. There were large portions of the book that I found irrelevant to me and boring, which is my own fault for picking out a biography rather than a shorter book covering the highlights of Da Vinci's achievements and his ways of working.
A good introduction to what life is like living with OCD. I knew very little about OCD going in so I got a lot out of this book - I imagine that if you are already well-versed on the subject then you will probably not learn anything new here. Even so, the excerpts from the author's life keep the book well-paced throughout and make it easy to empathise with him. All in all, an eye-opening read that I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about OCD.
This essay is short enough that it could easily be read in a single afternoon, yet I still managed to make more highlights in it than I usually do in a book five times the length. Such is the sensible nature of the advice that the author shares. Despite being a century old, much of the wisdom still holds, and I appreciated the unpretentious handling of whether or not you ought to spend your free time on high literature. One point that particularly resonated with me was that there is no value in reading a large number of books each year unless you spend time after each one carefully considering its ideas and truly taking something from the time spent reading it. This is an excellent book that I would recommend to anyone, especially considering how short of a time commitment it would be!
An interesting exploration of some hot-button issues in our society today. I learned a lot from the "Trans" chapter and the author makes some compelling points. My one criticism would be that the author at one point criticises someone for cherry-picking "unusual events" as if they were commonplace, when the same thing could be said of the examples highlighted in this book, such as American students demanding the resignation of a professor. All in all, I enjoyed the book and was able to get through it in a couple of days which suggests it was well-paced.
A good exploration of a selection of Facebook's many scandals, although much of it was already familiar to me. It was interesting to read about Zuckerberg's ambition to combine Facebook's messaging apps into one in contrast with the WhatsApp founder's candid admission that he had sold his users' privacy by selling his app to Facebook. A decent read overall and I would recommend it for those who currently use Meta's apps without concern.
This fairly short read is packed with information and serves as a very useful introduction to the topic of central banking. The focus is very much on the USA's central bank as opposed to central banking overall, although there are references to the BOJ and BOE. I found it quite dry in places but since it is a short read that was not a deal breaker. Overall, the author has achieved their goal of writing the primer that they would have wanted when they got their start in the industry.
An interesting exploration of why we fall into self-destructive habits and how we can attempt to overcome them. I was especially interested to learn about slot machines and how they have been fine-tuned over the years to be as addictive as possible. I struggle to give it more than 3.5 stars due to a lack of tangible takeaways, although that is perhaps the point considering the latter part of the book, which focuses on monks who all have their own, personal reason for living at a monastery and how, in turn, each of us must find our own way of getting meaning from life.
The book was packed with useful nuggets of information about exercise and the dangers of our modern, sedentary lifestyle. I particularly enjoyed the point that exercise has now been commodified into disparate gym sessions rather than being part and parcel of our daily lives. The section on rucking read rather like a brand deal, although the author does mention that you do not need fancy equipment to get started. A worthwhile read, kept well-paced and never too dry thanks to the regular cutting back to the author's hunt in the Arctic.