Bookworm

As interesting as reading someone's Strava entries

Revisado: 06-07-20

I had high hopes for this book. I thought it would document how he got to the championships, trials, lessons learned, etc. Nope. He basically dictates his Strava entries: "I did a trifecta of 20 miles run, 75 miles bike, 30 minutes of swimming and was worried that it would affect my vacation to St. Lucia ..... we arrived on vacation and I did a 40 mile run and 3 mile swim in an hour .... we returned home and I had to deal with private things I do not want to discuss ... the next day I did a 44 mile bike ride and got 5 flats .... " Pretty boring. In between that, he gets preachy about how blessed he is by God. Great that you have a relationship with God but could you leave that for the religious books?

To summarize - he was a really good athlete to begin with. He talks about doing a 30 mile run at 7:30 pace like no big deal. I have a few hours left and am wondering if at any point, he deals with adversity, injuries, etc.

I will probably return this book because it is so boring. I've only done that once before in all the years I've had Audible and that says a lot.

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Worse than I could imagine.

Revisado: 04-04-18

I have finally found the worst book on Audible.

The reader sounds like she dictated it through a potato. She mispronounces key words “quit pro quo,” she rushes through the read, her words are garbled, the sound is tinny, and it sounds like she’s reading a high school paper on the topic.

Setting aside the performance, the book is legally wrong on so many levels. They just got information off the internet and tried to make it sound like it was an analysis. I’m an attorney who is giving a seminar on the topic so I decided to listen to this to give me ideas that I might have missed. I was cringing within 2 minutes.

At least I didn’t pay more than $3.

Seriously. Do not waste your money on this.

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More accurate title: My Perfect Life

Revisado: 05-13-17

Parts of the book are really good but parts of it are annoying.

The Good: I enjoyed listening about her dedication to the sport and her back problems which led to a disappointing Olympics games in Rio.

The Bad: She really had a blessed life – parents who love and support her, no issues regarding money and ability to train with the best coaches, natural swimming talent, tons of friends, popular, smart, etc. While that is wonderful for her, it doesn’t make that interesting of a story. It’s hard to relate to someone who had the perfect life and no problems to overcome. Her biggest complaint was that her back injury prevented her from getting a medal in an individual event in the Olympics. Uhhhh …. ok. Not really a struggle by any definition. Towards the end of the book, there was too much God this, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to hear more what the Olympics was like, but London was told from her parents’ perspective. She wrote that she was not going to talk about London because everyone heard about it already. How dumb to leave out the most interesting part of your life in an autobiography. The parents’ biggest complaint was that their FREE seats to watch the Olympics were nosebleeds. But don’t worry, this was resolved when the owner of a sport team upgraded them to front rows. This family must live in the most pristine world ever where there are absolutely no real problems. Another part that was contrived is at the very end where she says her favorite thing to do is to visit cancer patients in the hospital. Yet, she makes no mention of doing anything like that in the first 99% of the book. I wasn’t a fan of the side whispers, “by now you know I love puns” and dropping the article “the” in sentences. So instead of “The best part of swimming…” it read as “Best part of swimming…”

The book is ok, but not great.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Amazing athlete

Revisado: 05-01-17

I liked reading about her running career but in general the book was very shallow. Example - she talked about her anorexia, how she went to a "retreat" and was cured immediately because she didn't want to be as bad as the other people with disorders. Ok - that was fast. I didn't realize that curing an eating disorder was so easy. (Sarcasm)

In the beginning of the book, she boasts about being "crazy" for running so much and then in the end, she says she wants people to know that runners are just runners. So why perpetuate the myth that only crazy people run long distances?

I know she has mom guilt but I didn't think it was necessary to be in this book.

The book would have been better if she had provided more details about her races and mentally, how she accomplished her goals. I definitely wanted to know more about this legend who should be known all over the world.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Horrible

Revisado: 12-14-16

I couldn't even finish this book because the author comes across as such an arrogant jackass.

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Interesting modern history of Burma

Revisado: 09-04-15

This book discusses the modern history of Burma - from the British occupation, the deal made with the Japanese in WWII, Aung San's father's rise to power, his death and how Aung San became the voice of the Burmese people. The good stuff is in the middle when it discusses the history. The beginning of the book makes Aung San into a saint and sounds like pure propaganda. She didn't have any inner conflict about this role? The book basically makes it sound like her shit doesn't stink. I didn't like the person reading the book. She spoke in a robotic staccato voice, with a fake soft British accent for Aung San. I put the book on 1.5 speed just to get the reader to move more quickly.

I learned a lot from this book and it is especially relevant to current times.

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Fascinating

Revisado: 08-05-15

The author is exactly what every college professor should aim to be - passionate about his subject, knowledge, funny, and interesting to listen to. He goes through the basic tenets of Buddhism and discussed the different types. He even have great reading suggestions. I very much enjoyed learning about a subject that is not well understood in western culture.

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Another great book

Revisado: 03-02-15

I will read anything by Dean Karnazes because he is such a humble amazing athlete. This book briefly describes each of the 50 marathons that he did in 50 days in 50 states. It was fascinating to hear how the races evolved and what lessons he learned from each race. I can't even imagine being this talented of an athlete.

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Not feeling it

Revisado: 02-11-15

This book gets such consistently high reviews from critics and people but I just didn't get it. It was painful to get to the next chapter because everything was so slow, disjointed, and lacked organization. I just wanted him to get to the point. I think it helps if you buy into the whole yogi magic thing from the beginning because it is hard for a skeptic to believe these things really happened - people turning invisible and appearing out of nowhere, people never eating, etc. I found myself frustrated with the feeling that the yogis were just wasting their life sitting in a room meditating. Great if it makes them one with god or whatever, but so what? I would be much more impressed if they put their efforts into helping others and being of service to those who need it.

I have no doubt that people who are way into the book, the teachings, and this yogi will get all defensive and go on the attack and say I didn't understand it, that I didn't read the book, and the other criticisms when they don't like the reviews. (I read some of the critical comments on the negative reviews - boy are these people defensive.) Book reviews are personal - either we like the book or we don't. The fact that that I didn't like this book has no effect on you - you can continue to like it.

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Fantastic

Revisado: 02-07-15

Great story, really good acting, touching ending. I never thought about how integration would hurt the Negro leagues. Paul was annoying but he had some good points to consider.

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