Author: J. Patrick Lasher

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

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Trying to decide on where to start with Vagabonding by Rolf Potts is about like trying to decide on which one of the adventures he recounts in this book you’d like to go one first. Totted as “an uncommon guide to the art of long-term world travel” is actually a bit of an understatement. And with a forward by Tim Ferriss, it definitely peak my interest for a quick read.

Vagabonding is not a particularly long book. And given that a good chunk of it is listing external resources to tap into for your own travels, it is even shorter still. However, this is definitely an example of where quality outmatched quantity. Potts’ broad stroke guiding points is the perfect way to motivate someone to pursue the nomad lifestyle without pigeonholing them into doing exactly what he did and missing the point completely.

There are definitely several different types of people I would recommend Vagabonding to. The person who hadn’t really traveled much and wanted to expand their horizons. The person who has traveled a lot just to tick notches off there metaphorical belt and everyone in between. If there is even a faint hint of the adventurer bug in you, this book will find it and kick it into high gear.

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The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss review!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a telling of Stephen Covey on how to be more efficient, productive, and happy in your life starting from the very bottom (which is you) and working your way to the top (which is everything else). Through his different analogies and personal stories, he guides you through how to be the best you can be. There are a lot of great points in this book.

Mr. Covey has his process broken down into 3 parts. Private Victories, as he calls them, are the first three habits dealing with getting yourself where you need to be to be the best you. Public Victories are taking the Private Victories and applying them into how you interact with other people whether professionally or personally. And the final part, Renewal, takes the previous six habits and putting in a cycle of constantly fine tuning or re-sharpening the saw if you will.

I found this book to be a bit wordy like the title is. Though I plan to take several of the lessons outlined to heart and apply them, I thought a lot of the examples were a bit too personal to the author to help me relate to the particular topic. I would have liked to have seen something that was a bit more generic instead of spending so much time learning way more than I wanted to about Stephen Covey. I would recommend this book but with the disclaimer the reader should be prepared for the content.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

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The Prisoner of Azkaban is by far my favorite book in the Harry Potter series. The third book in the 7 book series by J.K. Rowling, the Prisoner of Azkaban really builds the backstory of the characters. It also introduces some history to the world of Harry Potter that hadn’t been portrayed before.

Going along with the previous two books, the Prisoner of Azkaban takes place during Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s third year at Hogwarts. Unlike the first two books, however, this is the first book where the main villain isn’t the feared Voldemort. This is a nice touch as it breaks up the repetitiveness in the series of the ever growing battle between Voldemort and Harry. The Prisoner of Azkaban also dives deeper into Harry’s parentage as well as what the Potter universe looked like before book one.

This book was a great springboard for the magical world of Harry Potter to explode into what it is today. Without Rowling going into more detail about Harry’s parents and really building the foundation of this fictional world, the attachment to characters later in the series wouldn’t have been as strong and thus some of the events less meaningful. This is why this book had the most impact on the success of the story about the boy who lives under the stairs.

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Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

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Ender’s Game was one of my favorite books when I was growing up. Orson Scott Card’s story of a young boy named Ender who finds himself in a world of fear and hate towards an alien race sounds like just another science fiction novel but the plot goes into so much deeper ideas. This is another book I would highly recommend reading before seeing the movie.

A world that is rebuilding after an invasion attempt from an alien race finds itself tipping the scales from being defensive to offensive. Ender, a young man in the esteemed military academy, receives the honor of being enrolled in the officer’s school. Here he accels in his work accomplishing more and more victories until he is promoted to an even more prestigious position. However, this position isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and Ender soon finds his superiors haven’t been entirely honest with him leading him to think deeply about who he is and where his moral compass is pointing him.

I read this book at a great time in my life when I was faced with deciding on what kind of person I wanted to be. Reading Ender’s Game in high school was a happy accident and one that I am going to try to pass on to my son when he gets older. I’ll probably reread it with him and we can go through it together for even more enjoyment.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second installment of J.K. Rowling’s wildly successful series about a The Boy Who Lived. Picking up right where the first book left off, it’s impossible not to get excited about what is coming next. Once again, if you haven’t read this one, what are you waiting for?!

In this book, Harry and his friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, return to the wizarding school of Hogwarts for their second year of education in the mystical arts of witchcraft and wizardry. Rowling shows her skills as an author by keeping up with the continuity from the first book in this very well thought out universe. Furthermore, her ability to show the gradual maturing of the three main characters as well as all the friends and enemies around them is impressive for a second time author.

If you haven’t already read this series, I would highly recommend it and if you have the opportunity to read it alongside children of your own, it is that much more rewarding. Reliving the magical world of Harry Potter with a young one has been very fulfilling experience. I can’t wait to read his review, hopefully coming soon to this blog. Stay tuned.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone review

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

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Though not a very long book, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, or Sunzi, has had a substantial impact on the world since its inception. From military strategy, as the title implies, to business tactics, many people have put its teachings to use in a variety of settings. I am not sure I am one of those people for better or worse.

The Art of War was published in the 5th century BC. Composed of 13 chapters, it was meant to be and is still used as a guide for military tactics in China. Translated into French in 1772 and English in 1910, The Art of War has made it around the world and into the playbooks of many of powerful and influential people. Kind of amazing it was originally written on little bamboo sticks.

I actually listened to The Art of War as an audiobook while I was doing my dishes one afternoon. And that’s about how long this book is. Though I didn’t have any kind of battle or situation in mind other than completing my task of cleaning the kitchen, I honestly don’t think I got a lot out of the book other than whatever your opponent is doing, do the opposite and be ruthless about it. Unless they are being ruthless, than be compassionate. Maybe someday I will go through it again and see if the meaning changes. What are your thoughts?

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The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

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The Three Musketeers (I never really got the name. They primarily use swords. Not muskets) is an amazing adventure tale from Alexandre Dumas. Though very long winded in its original form like The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers has just as much if not more adventure than it’s successor. The Disney adaptation was pretty good as well.

The story of the The Three Musketeers is a coming of age tale of d’Artagnan, a young man looking for adventure in the early 1600’s. After leaving home for Paris, he finds he can’t fulfill his dream of becoming an honored Musketeer. He does meet 3 of the Guards’ more interesting members: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. The four of them uncover a plot to assassinate the king and go off on an adventure all over France to thwart it.

This is a great story and with many different versions out there, it is easy to find one for all reading levels. I think at this point I have read several starting at a young age and who knows how many times I’ve seen the Disney movie with Charlie Sheen before he went crazy. I would recommend this book to just about anyone.

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The Count of Monte Cristo review

The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

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I ended up with mixed feelings about The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Mr. Ferriss is a very successful entrepreneur and I found many things in common with him as I read this book. Having said that, this book didn’t leave me feeling warm and fuzzy inside at the end.

The Four Hour Work Week outlines Tim Ferriss’ keys to minimizing your work day. From only answering emails twice a day to working towards telecommuting, there are all varieties of ways to shave minutes or even hours out of your work day. He even boasts that he runs a company from anywhere in the world in about four hours per month. He also goes into what to do with all this newly created free time such as travel the world or learn a new exciting skill.

I think this books is a great read and definitely dovetailed into The 4 Disciplines of Execution quite well. The reason I ended up with mixed feelings was due to hearing all the amazing things Tim Ferriss had manage to accomplish with little to no more knowledge and experience than your average person. It made me really look into what I’m doing with my day, month, year, life. I didn’t feel great about that but it did motivate me to look for new opportunities. Let me know how this book sat with you in the comments below.

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The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) review

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) review

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading1 Comment

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As a person who tries to be as efficient in my work as possible, The 4 Disciplines of Execution was a great read. The CEO of the company I work for had given it to me when I was added to a team in charge of one of our product lines and said “we try to incorporate these disciplines in this company.” So, naturally, it sat on my shelf for over a year. Shouldn’t have done that.

4DX outlines a thought process or behavior that many extremely successful companies have adopted over the years. The authors spent a long time implementing this process in companies both large and small before pinning this book. The basics are find a wildly important goal (WIG) that will impact your company the most, figure out what drives the success or failure of that goal, track that driver, and hold people accountable for the success or failure. Seems pretty simple but as you read, you’ll undoubtedly see and probably have experienced the challenges this simple process can run into but have no fear, they will guide you on how to overcome them.

A lot of thought and research went into this book making it very thorough and easy to understand. After reading it, I find myself trying to implement aspects of 4DX into various parts of my day both at work and at home. I will say that the second half of the book gets a bit repetitive when they go into how to scale the process from a team to a company to even at home. However, this book would be a great read for anyone who leads people both in and out of the office.

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The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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The Automatic Millionaire is a book I wish I would have read at a much younger age. David Bach’s book on how to automate your finances to financial security and freedom in the future is a valuable tool for anyone who has ever made even a dollar. Even if you don’t worry about money or don’t know anything about financial topics, this books breaks the fundamental knowledge every person should have about what you are probably working for, income, and what to do with it.

In case the title didn’t do it for you, the Automatic Millionaire primarily focuses on how to automate your finances. No one likes to worry about paying the bills or keeping a budget. Bach’s book teaches you how to not only get the time back you are spending on budgets and bills with the added benefit of preparing to be in a better place in the future as far as your finances go. With simple explanations and examples, anyone can understand and implement his suggestions easily.

As mentioned, I wish I would have read this book when I was in high school or early college. Though I am an accountant, there were still several ideas in The Automatic Millionaire I had never thought of and immediately put into place after reading this book. I think this book would be a great gift idea for any graduate. Hint. Hint.

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