Three years ago I read Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick, a story about a young bootblack who grows up to be a respectable young man. I have just finished reading the sequal to this story called Fame and Fortune.
This story continues on from the original story and sees Dick being blessed with a respectable job by the father of a boy whose life he saved. The generosity of this man as well as this new job of Dick's ensures that a number of people are jealous of him. As a result, those who are envious of Dick's success plot to frame him for a crime he did not commit.
This sequal is very much like the first story Ragged Dick (and probably like every other Horatio Alger story) in that this story is very much a fantasy and a moralistic story (some have described Horatio Alger fiction as male Cinderalla stories) about how even the poorest and disadvantaged man can gain riches and respectability through honesty and hard work. Nevertheless, I believe that the lessons taught in this book are very positive, and I would not hesitate to encourage young people (children and teenagers) to read it because of the lessons it is meant to teach.
Some of the negative points about this book and this idea that honesty and hard work will result in success is that it does not address the possibility that in some areas and in some instances hard work does not pay off. Although the rags to riches story is very popular in America, there is some evidence to suggest that there is not much social mobility in America, a country that is characterised by an immense gap between rich and poor.
Download Fame and Fortune at Project Gutenberg
Buy Fame and Fortune at Book Depository
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
14 August 2011
The Virgin and the Gypsy
I have recently purchased a second-hand HTC Desire, which I mainly purchased because I wanted a phone with a fairly large and high-resolution display for me to read ebooks on the train on the way to and from work. I downloaded D.H. Lawrence's book The Virgin and the Gypsy to read.
This is the story of a young virgin girl who is the daughter of a rector and her fascination with a big and masculine gypsy man. This story is short and intense, unlike the meandering and boring David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (a book I am also currently reading but struggling to finish).
I enjoyed Virgin and the Gypsy immensely and high recommend it. Read or download the ebook below for free:
The Virgin and the Gyspy, eBooks@Adelaide
This is the story of a young virgin girl who is the daughter of a rector and her fascination with a big and masculine gypsy man. This story is short and intense, unlike the meandering and boring David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (a book I am also currently reading but struggling to finish).
I enjoyed Virgin and the Gypsy immensely and high recommend it. Read or download the ebook below for free:
The Virgin and the Gyspy, eBooks@Adelaide
04 August 2010
The Alpha Strategy
I have just finished reading The Alpha Strategy, which is a book that I simply downloaded off the internet (see the link earlier) and put onto my mobile phone using a free software called EBookMe. In other words, I paid nothing to read this book. I think there is no need to pay money to buy a book because ebook programs like EBookMe are free and there are virtually infinite free books out there on the internet that you can easily find.
The Alpha Strategy is a good book. It is about the problem of inflation and what individuals can do to protect themselves from inflation. This books pretty much claims that a good way to protect wealth from inflation is to stock up on goods, e.g. toilet paper, wine, honey, and so forth. The ideal is that you stock up on goods that you will need anyway so that it won't matter if the price of these goods go up. If this is not possible e.g. because it is difficult to store wine, etc, then the next best move is to stock up on raw commodities like copper. There is a whole section near the end of this book that explains how to buy copper from the futures market. This book was probably written during a time when there was no exchange traded commodities (ETCs) for sale.
I think stockpiling goods is a great idea, but the main problem is that a lot of what the author is explaining is just too difficult. It is very unrealistic for me to start stockpiling because I still live with my parents. If I were to start piling up toilet paper in my bedroom, my parents would not be happy. Because most goods deteriorate (e.g. wine may go off if exposed to too much light) then you have to be very careful about the storage conditions and you have to make sure everything is stored securely because of the threat of theft. It is all very difficult. While reading the book I got the feeling that this investment strategy of the author was just an excuse he was using to justify his love of shopping, e.g. he describes in detail different types of wine.
I think the author's stockpiling strategy is good and I definitely will think about using it, but I won't put all my wealth in stockpiled goods. I think putting, say, 10 per cent of your wealth in stockpiled goods is a good idea, e.g. I might stock up on some soap or some breath mints or tic tacs.
The Alpha Strategy is a good book. It is about the problem of inflation and what individuals can do to protect themselves from inflation. This books pretty much claims that a good way to protect wealth from inflation is to stock up on goods, e.g. toilet paper, wine, honey, and so forth. The ideal is that you stock up on goods that you will need anyway so that it won't matter if the price of these goods go up. If this is not possible e.g. because it is difficult to store wine, etc, then the next best move is to stock up on raw commodities like copper. There is a whole section near the end of this book that explains how to buy copper from the futures market. This book was probably written during a time when there was no exchange traded commodities (ETCs) for sale.
I think stockpiling goods is a great idea, but the main problem is that a lot of what the author is explaining is just too difficult. It is very unrealistic for me to start stockpiling because I still live with my parents. If I were to start piling up toilet paper in my bedroom, my parents would not be happy. Because most goods deteriorate (e.g. wine may go off if exposed to too much light) then you have to be very careful about the storage conditions and you have to make sure everything is stored securely because of the threat of theft. It is all very difficult. While reading the book I got the feeling that this investment strategy of the author was just an excuse he was using to justify his love of shopping, e.g. he describes in detail different types of wine.
I think the author's stockpiling strategy is good and I definitely will think about using it, but I won't put all my wealth in stockpiled goods. I think putting, say, 10 per cent of your wealth in stockpiled goods is a good idea, e.g. I might stock up on some soap or some breath mints or tic tacs.
13 June 2010
Reading Ebooks on the Train with EBookME
I face a thirty minutes commute to work in the morning and when I come back it is another thirty minutes. I had to commute to the city when I went to university as well, so I've been commuting to the city for about nine years now.
Most of the time when I'm on the train I love to just look out the window and space out. It's nice to just let your mind wander when you've just woken up or when you've just had a long and hard day at work or university. But sitting or standing in the train and doing nothing sometimes makes me wonder whether I'm wasting time. If I read a book or listen to something on an MP3 player, I might be able to use this idle time to learn something rather than do nothing.
Listening to MP3 players on the train can be useful, especially if you are trying to filter out the conversations of people around you. Sometimes other people say the most annoying and offensive things, and when they say these things it's not easy to denounce them because these people are strangers.
The problem with MP3 players is that the train is a noisy place. It is not just the noise of people talking that bothers me. Most trains in Melbourne are so old they make loud noises. To be able to hear your MP3 player amid all this noise, you have to turn the volume up, and by turning the volume up, there is a risk that you might go deaf.
Reading a book can prevent you from focusing on other people's conversations. You're so focused on your book that the conversations of others just becomes background noise. You can read not only books but also newspapers.
The problem with newspapers is that they take up space. Broadsheet newspapers like The Age are a nightmare to read on the train because they are simply too big. Even when you're sitting down they are difficult to read. Tabloid-size newspapers like Australian Financial Review and Herald Sun are readable if you're sitting down but during peak hour when you have to stand up, they are not easy to read because you need both your hand to hold the newspapers and if both your hands are busy holding the newspaper then you have no hand left to hold on to something for balance. Thus reading the newspaper can put you at risk of falling over if the train jerks around. With Melbourne's massive population growth, it seems likely that commuters on trains will have to stand up more and more. Reading newspapers just ain't easy anymore.
Reading books presents the same problems as does reading tabloid newspapers. You generally need two pages to read a book. Most books are small enough that you can hold them with one hand, but if you want to flick to the next page you generally need two hands.
The best move then is to read an ebook on your mobile phone. I have recently downloaded on my computer a very good program called EBookME. This is free software that allows me to convert a text file into a JAR file, which can be uploaded on my phone. A JAR file is a file that is used for phones that run Java apps. The great thing about this is that I can now download from the internet free books and then put them on my phone. There are plenty of free books from Project Gutenberg. These books are usually written before the 1950s, which means that copyright has expired and you are legally allowed to download them for free. I have just downloaded a text version of The Great Gatsby and I'll be reading it on the train.
Most of the time when I'm on the train I love to just look out the window and space out. It's nice to just let your mind wander when you've just woken up or when you've just had a long and hard day at work or university. But sitting or standing in the train and doing nothing sometimes makes me wonder whether I'm wasting time. If I read a book or listen to something on an MP3 player, I might be able to use this idle time to learn something rather than do nothing.
Listening to MP3 players on the train can be useful, especially if you are trying to filter out the conversations of people around you. Sometimes other people say the most annoying and offensive things, and when they say these things it's not easy to denounce them because these people are strangers.
The problem with MP3 players is that the train is a noisy place. It is not just the noise of people talking that bothers me. Most trains in Melbourne are so old they make loud noises. To be able to hear your MP3 player amid all this noise, you have to turn the volume up, and by turning the volume up, there is a risk that you might go deaf.
Reading a book can prevent you from focusing on other people's conversations. You're so focused on your book that the conversations of others just becomes background noise. You can read not only books but also newspapers.
The problem with newspapers is that they take up space. Broadsheet newspapers like The Age are a nightmare to read on the train because they are simply too big. Even when you're sitting down they are difficult to read. Tabloid-size newspapers like Australian Financial Review and Herald Sun are readable if you're sitting down but during peak hour when you have to stand up, they are not easy to read because you need both your hand to hold the newspapers and if both your hands are busy holding the newspaper then you have no hand left to hold on to something for balance. Thus reading the newspaper can put you at risk of falling over if the train jerks around. With Melbourne's massive population growth, it seems likely that commuters on trains will have to stand up more and more. Reading newspapers just ain't easy anymore.
Reading books presents the same problems as does reading tabloid newspapers. You generally need two pages to read a book. Most books are small enough that you can hold them with one hand, but if you want to flick to the next page you generally need two hands.
The best move then is to read an ebook on your mobile phone. I have recently downloaded on my computer a very good program called EBookME. This is free software that allows me to convert a text file into a JAR file, which can be uploaded on my phone. A JAR file is a file that is used for phones that run Java apps. The great thing about this is that I can now download from the internet free books and then put them on my phone. There are plenty of free books from Project Gutenberg. These books are usually written before the 1950s, which means that copyright has expired and you are legally allowed to download them for free. I have just downloaded a text version of The Great Gatsby and I'll be reading it on the train.
21 September 2008
A Study in Scarlet
I have just finished reading A Study in Scarlet, a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This was the first book to feature Sherlock Holmes.
In this book, Sherlock Holmes is called to a murder of two men in London. Together with some other characters, he chases down the killer and catches him very quickly. The book then moves into what seems like an unrelated story about a man and daughter in the desert who find a group of Mormons. At the end of story, the seemingly unrelated story about the Mormons is tied into the killings in London.
What I like about this book was the nice language used to describe the desert in the Western frontier. What I didn't like about the book was the fact that all the explanations for everything that happened were lumped in at the very end, although this I suppose may be normal for a detective novel. The character of Sherlock Holmes I find is very annoying. If I were working in the police force I would not want to work with a man with that sort of attitude.
In this book, Sherlock Holmes is called to a murder of two men in London. Together with some other characters, he chases down the killer and catches him very quickly. The book then moves into what seems like an unrelated story about a man and daughter in the desert who find a group of Mormons. At the end of story, the seemingly unrelated story about the Mormons is tied into the killings in London.
What I like about this book was the nice language used to describe the desert in the Western frontier. What I didn't like about the book was the fact that all the explanations for everything that happened were lumped in at the very end, although this I suppose may be normal for a detective novel. The character of Sherlock Holmes I find is very annoying. If I were working in the police force I would not want to work with a man with that sort of attitude.
24 July 2008
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is the sixth Harry Potter book. The first three I remember were very good. I read them quite a number of years ago. I especially liked the third book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban because I thought the time travel was very ingenious. The fourth book Goblet of Fire was okay, but kind of long, and the fifth book Order of the Phoenix was extremely long and quite forgettable.
It has taken me about two years to read Half Blood Prince mainly because I tend to read books long after the hype is down and because for the last two years I have spent much time stressing over university. Now that university is over and I have a six-month holiday before I start working full time next year, I have time to finally read all those books I've been wanting to read. Half Blood Prince is one of them.
I'd like to start off by saying that Half Blood Prince is very dull at the beginning. In fact, one of the reasons why I found it difficult to read this book was because of this dullness. The books throws up hundreds of names and places. I feel like I'm reading Lord of the Rings again. To survive this onslaught of jargon I have to have Internet connection nearby so I can do quick research on various characters and spells I have forgotten.
The fact that many of the characters are older now means that many of them are starting to date others. While many people will like this, I do not like it at all because Harry Potter now seems like a gossip magazine.
At the end, a major character dies. I won't say who it is but I think that Rowling's decision to kill off a character is sensationalist. Obviously death is something that provokes a lot of emotion in people, but when it's overused by artists it starts to lose its effect.
After finishing Half Blood Prince I am now going to start reading Deathly Hollows now, which is the last book. I am also reading a number of other books at the same time, so I will talk about them later.
It has taken me about two years to read Half Blood Prince mainly because I tend to read books long after the hype is down and because for the last two years I have spent much time stressing over university. Now that university is over and I have a six-month holiday before I start working full time next year, I have time to finally read all those books I've been wanting to read. Half Blood Prince is one of them.
I'd like to start off by saying that Half Blood Prince is very dull at the beginning. In fact, one of the reasons why I found it difficult to read this book was because of this dullness. The books throws up hundreds of names and places. I feel like I'm reading Lord of the Rings again. To survive this onslaught of jargon I have to have Internet connection nearby so I can do quick research on various characters and spells I have forgotten.
The fact that many of the characters are older now means that many of them are starting to date others. While many people will like this, I do not like it at all because Harry Potter now seems like a gossip magazine.
At the end, a major character dies. I won't say who it is but I think that Rowling's decision to kill off a character is sensationalist. Obviously death is something that provokes a lot of emotion in people, but when it's overused by artists it starts to lose its effect.
After finishing Half Blood Prince I am now going to start reading Deathly Hollows now, which is the last book. I am also reading a number of other books at the same time, so I will talk about them later.
08 November 2007
Review of Anne of Green Gables
Link: Anne of Green Gables (Librivox)
Anne of Green Gables is about a couple, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, who plan to adopt a boy with the intention of using him around on the farm. By mistake a little girl is sent to them. Marilla is not happy and intends to send her back to the orphanage, but after spending some time with the little girl, Anne Shirley (Anne with an E), they decide to keep her. This story, by Lacy Maud Montgomery, is very nice. The main character Anne talks a lot, and she is very vain.
After the Cuthberts decide to keep Anne, the story moves into descriptions of her time at school. Anne also gets up to many antics around Green Gables. If there is anything wrong with this book it is that after Anne is adopted the story read like a journal of someone's childhood. The rest of the chapters are a series of small events that are quite typical of children and teenagers, such as exams and boyfriends. There is not much substantial things that happen. But otherwise, it was an enjoyable book because Anne is a very likable character.
Anne of Green Gables is about a couple, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, who plan to adopt a boy with the intention of using him around on the farm. By mistake a little girl is sent to them. Marilla is not happy and intends to send her back to the orphanage, but after spending some time with the little girl, Anne Shirley (Anne with an E), they decide to keep her. This story, by Lacy Maud Montgomery, is very nice. The main character Anne talks a lot, and she is very vain.
After the Cuthberts decide to keep Anne, the story moves into descriptions of her time at school. Anne also gets up to many antics around Green Gables. If there is anything wrong with this book it is that after Anne is adopted the story read like a journal of someone's childhood. The rest of the chapters are a series of small events that are quite typical of children and teenagers, such as exams and boyfriends. There is not much substantial things that happen. But otherwise, it was an enjoyable book because Anne is a very likable character.
23 October 2007
Review of A Little Princess
Link: A Little Princess (Librivox)
I have pretty much no time to read novels nowadays. It's a pity because I used to love reading when I was little. Now that I'm a uni student I find that I just don't have the time. My bedroom has been rearranged and there is no lamp near my bed anymore, so I cannot read just before going to bed. When I walk around with my backpack I like to travel light and so try not to carry around too many books, which means that I only bring the essentials. Furthermore, I find reading tiring on my eyes. I already have textbooks and lecture notes to read, and so reading a novel is like overworking my eye.
I now listen to novels with my MP3 player. I purchased an LG UP3 MP3 player from oo.com.au for only $40 and it's amazing how many free public domain audio books you can find online, especially at Librivox. Why pay for anything when there are so many great free things?
A Little Princess, written by Frances Hodgeson Burnett, is about a wealthy little girl named Sara Crewe. Her wealthy father puts her in a boarding school. Miss Minchin, the headmistress, treats her well because of the father's wealth. But then when the father dies, Sara is treated badly. It's a sad and really sweet story at the same time. I have read Burnett's biography and learned that she herself lost her father and had to endure poverty. This story then is probably an autobiography to a degree.
I forgot to mention that another reason why I like to read audio books is for privacy. A big tall young man reading A Little Princess on the train is not attractive, but when listening to an audio book using earphones, people just assume you're listening to music, and they can't hear what you're listening to.
I have pretty much no time to read novels nowadays. It's a pity because I used to love reading when I was little. Now that I'm a uni student I find that I just don't have the time. My bedroom has been rearranged and there is no lamp near my bed anymore, so I cannot read just before going to bed. When I walk around with my backpack I like to travel light and so try not to carry around too many books, which means that I only bring the essentials. Furthermore, I find reading tiring on my eyes. I already have textbooks and lecture notes to read, and so reading a novel is like overworking my eye.
I now listen to novels with my MP3 player. I purchased an LG UP3 MP3 player from oo.com.au for only $40 and it's amazing how many free public domain audio books you can find online, especially at Librivox. Why pay for anything when there are so many great free things?
A Little Princess, written by Frances Hodgeson Burnett, is about a wealthy little girl named Sara Crewe. Her wealthy father puts her in a boarding school. Miss Minchin, the headmistress, treats her well because of the father's wealth. But then when the father dies, Sara is treated badly. It's a sad and really sweet story at the same time. I have read Burnett's biography and learned that she herself lost her father and had to endure poverty. This story then is probably an autobiography to a degree.
I forgot to mention that another reason why I like to read audio books is for privacy. A big tall young man reading A Little Princess on the train is not attractive, but when listening to an audio book using earphones, people just assume you're listening to music, and they can't hear what you're listening to.
28 July 2007
What is Wrong with The Secret?
"The book perverts reality by encouraging people to equate a positive outlook on life with a childish, idiotic narcissism." --Longhorn24
One of my co-workers gave me a book to borrow. She claimed she saw it promoted on Oprah and after seeing it on Oprah she figured she had to get it. She hasn't read it but instead gave it to me. She gave me The Secret.
The Secret is a self-help book that claims to be able to better your life by giving you a secret that has been passed on from generation to generation. It is the law of attraction, that you attract things with your thoughts. The book tells you how to be successful, how to be rich, etc.
First off, I just want to say that this is one of the worst books I've ever read. It claims that everything in the universe is exact and that the law of attraction is exact, yet it provides no real evidence of this and then goes on to provide superstitious claims such as "Ask the universe for what you want and the universe will give it to you." How in the world do I communicate with the universe? How can the universe comprehend what I want? Can a subset of the universe, e.g. my mug on my desk, understand me when I try to talk to it?
The law of attraction states that everything we get in our lives is attracted to us from our thoughts. If you want a Lexus, picture yourself driving the Lexus, imagine yourself driving the Lexus and then magically the Lexus will come to you. I wish this were true. Right now I am thinking about a Lexus in my mind but I see no Lexus flying out of the nearest dealership towards my house. Of course, perhaps what the author is trying to say is more subtle than that. If you want something, you need to focus on it. E.g. if you need to study for a math test, if you think about the math test, focus on the math test, etc, then you will more likely actually study for test whereas if your mind is occupied by Harry Potter, pornography, sports, etc then you are distracted.
This book gives some examples of how you attract things with your thoughts. One example is the hassle of trying to find parking. If you drive into town and you are overcome with the fear of not getting a parking space, you will attract those negative outcomes. If however you drive into town expecting to get a parking spot, the universe will magically give you a parking spot because you expected it and because you were thinking about it. The reason why many people may think this works is, I hypothesize, because of a cognitive phenomenon knows as confirmation bias. "Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs."
Update 10/9/2007: The Chasers denounce The Secret in a very funny way.
One of my co-workers gave me a book to borrow. She claimed she saw it promoted on Oprah and after seeing it on Oprah she figured she had to get it. She hasn't read it but instead gave it to me. She gave me The Secret.
The Secret is a self-help book that claims to be able to better your life by giving you a secret that has been passed on from generation to generation. It is the law of attraction, that you attract things with your thoughts. The book tells you how to be successful, how to be rich, etc.
First off, I just want to say that this is one of the worst books I've ever read. It claims that everything in the universe is exact and that the law of attraction is exact, yet it provides no real evidence of this and then goes on to provide superstitious claims such as "Ask the universe for what you want and the universe will give it to you." How in the world do I communicate with the universe? How can the universe comprehend what I want? Can a subset of the universe, e.g. my mug on my desk, understand me when I try to talk to it?
The law of attraction states that everything we get in our lives is attracted to us from our thoughts. If you want a Lexus, picture yourself driving the Lexus, imagine yourself driving the Lexus and then magically the Lexus will come to you. I wish this were true. Right now I am thinking about a Lexus in my mind but I see no Lexus flying out of the nearest dealership towards my house. Of course, perhaps what the author is trying to say is more subtle than that. If you want something, you need to focus on it. E.g. if you need to study for a math test, if you think about the math test, focus on the math test, etc, then you will more likely actually study for test whereas if your mind is occupied by Harry Potter, pornography, sports, etc then you are distracted.
This book gives some examples of how you attract things with your thoughts. One example is the hassle of trying to find parking. If you drive into town and you are overcome with the fear of not getting a parking space, you will attract those negative outcomes. If however you drive into town expecting to get a parking spot, the universe will magically give you a parking spot because you expected it and because you were thinking about it. The reason why many people may think this works is, I hypothesize, because of a cognitive phenomenon knows as confirmation bias. "Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs."
Update 10/9/2007: The Chasers denounce The Secret in a very funny way.
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