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Showing posts from February, 2018

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (2005)

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TL;DR: You make snap decisions all the time. It can be biased so learn how to affect it. It begins with what Gladwell calls a "thin slice". It is a small sample size of a moment or moments. It is often indirect or emotional. ie. viewing a person's room or his bookshelf, a couple's 15 minute talk about mundane things, a doctor's interaction and not necessarily his diagnosis. 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1964)

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TL;DR: Seriously though, it is 180 pages with the font, the size of a thumb. It's a short read. Take the time. Anyway, if you've seen the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, it is extremely close to the original by Roald Dahl. Around 97% close. I'm saying 97% because the part about Willy Wonka's back story in the Movie was not in the book. Roald Dahl may not have thought of giving Willy Wonka a back story, and it was pretty sad now remembering it. Daddy and Family issues may not have jived with the lively and warm tone Roald Dahl had in the book.  I wonder what Roald Dahl had in mind when he was writing the book. It reads like a sweet cautionary tale for kids about being too gluttonous, eating too much gum, being too spoiled and watching too much TV. Essentially, how to not be bratty hidden inside a Fantasy Chocolate world, like a caramel inside a chocolate kiss. Hey,  Charlotte's Web by EB White   is an...

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (1532)

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TL;DR: To stay in Power as a Prince, you must be sly defensively, and offer fear offensively. You must play a certain way, have the right army and allies, and have the right character and behavior. It is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares, and a lion to terrify the wolves. This is terrible. Terrible in a stomach churning way. Hence, the term "Machiavellian".

Sense and Sensibility (1811) | Jane Austen

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TL;DR: Two sisters come of age. Elinor is serene. Marianne is more passionate. They meet two men who it appeared they will not marry, but eventually they end up marrying. One big story in the middle of what seemed like a suspense leads to the two sisters being happy with their marriages.