Audiobooks – the ones I’ve read recently and short reviews of them

As a result of my commute having gone up to over 2 hours one-way since the beginning of September, I’ve been breezing through audiobooks lately. Infact, I had to upgrade my subscription to “2 at time” (roughly 8 to 10 CDs, depending on the book, at a time, each CD being on average 70 mins long) to keep up with how quickly I was going through them. Here are the books I’ve read lately, and what I think of them. Hope this is especially of use to other commuters.

• Create an abundunt life – this book was total crap, I’m not even going to waste more words describing how bad it was
• Personal Finance for Dummies - this book had some useful tips, but I would not recommend it overall
• Kitchen Confidential & A Cook’s Tour – I covered both of these in previous posts, highly recommended.
• French Lessons -This book is excellent! A must-read for any food lover. It is written by an Englishman who was completely oblivious to the pleasures of food, but visited France when young, fell completely in love with not only the cuisine, but also the French culture of food, and soon moved to France. This book is his story of him travelling to all regions of France to explore the best the country has to offer in terms of all sorts of food, with a special focus on cheese, and also wine. It is very humorously written and the narration is brilliant. Very highly recommended!
• Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger – This book is a biography of Arnold Schwarzenneger, former bodybuilding champion of the world, top movie star of hollywood, and currently governor of California. It begins with his childhood in a remote village in Austria, and follows the entire course of his life. If you do have an interest in learning about Arnold, then I would recommend this book, I found it fascinating and inspiring.
• The 7 habits of Highly Effective People - not recommended
• Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal - I went into this book expecting it to be something like Morgan Spurlock’s movie ‘Super-size me’, in other words a strong criticism of the eating habits of America, and thats about it. However, I soon realized, the title is actually quite decieving. While the book does focus on the fast food industry of the US, it is much more an economic and cultural study of the rise of the fast food industry, and more importantly its current and future effects. This book has countless more dimensions than ‘Super-size me’ and is one of the most educational books I’ve read. If anything, it is much more like the (also exceptional) documentary ‘The Corporation’. I am eagerly awaiting the movie of this book, which is coming out in 2 weeks time. It is going to be truly powerful to watch in image and video everything discussed in the book, and it will also be even more up-to-date (the book was published in 2001, with research primarily from the mid to late 90s).

The book I am currently reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel

Upcoming books:

• Experts Guide to 100 things Everyone Should Know How To Do
• Into Thin Air
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
• World of the Ancient Maya
• My Life (Bill Clinton)
• Blue Gold: The Political Struggle for the World’s Water
• Don’t Eat this Book
• Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• World Is Flat

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