Monday, January 19, 2015

Business Adventures by John Brooks

When I requested this book from NetGalley, I had no idea that it was recommended by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. I just thought that the title was interesting, and I really like reading case studies, so I thought it was a book I might enjoy.

Then I actually started reading it. The first four chapters (which is the first third of the book) was so dry I really didn't want to finish it. I was about to give up, when I heard and realised that this book was highly recommended by Warren Buffet, so I decided to take it slow.

Once I got to the fifth chapter, about Xerox, things started to pick up. Perhaps it's just that the first four topics didn't catch my interesting, but the writing style finally stopped bothering me. I no longer felt like I was reading a dry textbook (Then again, my textbooks are in Japanese, so that means my knowledge of textbook styles are 3 years out of date D:). After that, the book improved, although it was a bit of a hit-and-miss. I found that I like that reading the stories where people were the main character (Like Piggly Wiggly, Goodrich vs Latex and the like), and less when it was looking at a phenomenon (like Tax, or Stockholders).  At times, the prose was even entertaining, in a dry sort of way.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I enjoyed parts of it, but other parts bored me. So I can't say "don't read this" or "read this", especially since a large part of the reason why I was bored was because of the narrative style. That's a really subjective thing. (And also, I'm loath to admit that Warren Buffet can pick a boring book).

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

No comments :

Post a Comment

I really do appreciate all comments, and I'll try my best to reply within 24 hours!

^_^