Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter - Book Review

Title: Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki (with Sharon L. Lechter)
Pages: 208
Publisher: Warner Business Books (New York) 1996

It is very rare for me to say that a book completely changed my thinking on a topic. Rich Dad, Poor Dad did exactly that. I have always been a guy who believed in simplicity of lifestyle and playing good financial defense, but I have never been one to build a good offense when it comes to finances. I am starting to rethink that a lot and it is mostly due to this book.

The central core of this book is the comparison between Robert's two dads 1) his biological dad who was educated, smart but broke all the time and 2) his 'adopted' dad who was uneducated but rich. He contrasts their two different philosophies and shows what his rich dad taught differently than his poor one so that he got rich. it is the lessons of the rich dad that become the driving force of this book.

The lessons are, to say the very least, mentally and spiritually challenging. There are six lessons in all and each of them deals with how the rich think differently and how they teach those concepts to their children. Lessons on: Not working for money, teaching financial literacy, minding your own business, knowing the history of taxes and the power of corporations, how the rich invent money and working to learn are all challenging because our culture is so against the ideas presented in them. The fact is, and this is an overused phrase but it is accurate, the book causes you to either have a paradigm shift or toss it aside.

If there is a weakness to the book it is the author saying that "the love of money is the root of all evil' is a wrong thing to say. Any Biblically literate person might be instantly offended without explanation. If you read the whole book you do get an explanation and rational for saying so and it is about taking on a certain interpretation of 1 Timothy 6:9-10 not the actual meaning. You have to dig for this explanation though and my only concern is that if your going to sell this book and seemingly directly challenge the Apostle Paul, you probably should write a paragraph or two about what you mean before every Biblically literate Christian puts the book down and leaves.

That said, the book makes a great case for pointing out that much evil is caused by want and need. The great difference ultimately is that poor people get taken to the cleaners by their own fear and desires while the rich master their fears and desires. A very solid financial lesson.

Stylistically, you can tell a little that it had another person's input but for the most part it is an easy and fun read at times. The story and contrast of the two dads keeps you engaged and the principles keep you challenged and thinking. A real pleasure to read and the concepts keep you hungry for more.

Rating: 4 and a quarter stars. Everyone should read this one, you will either be changed and rethink how you do financial offense or you will put it down and continue to be poor. Life changing book.

Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein - Book Review

Title: Farmer in the Sky (aka Satellite Scout)
Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Pages: 290
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises (New York), 1950, full version 1953.

This story was originally serialized for the magazine Boy's Life and was originally called Satellite Scout. It was released in 1953 in an extended novel form in 1953 and won a retro Hugo Award for best science fiction story of 1951. Retro because the Hugo Award did not start until 1953 and they went back to 1946 with the first set of awards. This would be Robert's first Hugo but not his last. This is Heinlein's sixth publish juvenile novel (in its final form) and one of his best.

The plot centers around a young man William 'Bill' Lermer as he and his family become colonists to one of Jupiter's moon's Ganymede. Like all of Heinlein's juvenile novels it is a coming of age story that shows a young boy becoming a man. Bill is a boy Scout and throughout the book scouting becomes a central theme. As Bill heads to and settles on Ganymede, he deals with a multitude of issues involving family, farming, colonization in space and the challenges of life. Throughout the story he struggles with one question: Do I stay or do I go back? There are several plot twists and discoveries that help Bill answer that question.

Technologically, Heinlein had yet to engage the problem of actual colonization of a different world by mankind and so this is his first attempt and it is a good one. My copy had an analysis of the technology and methods involved by physicist Dr. Jim Woosley who say basically two things: 1) For what Heinlein knew in 1950 he did a great job extrapolating but 2) knowing what we know now about Jupiter and Ganymede the story loses some credibility. In any case some of his predictions about other technology like microwaves and such are pretty good.

Socially, Heinlein shows his rugged individualism coupled with free community and a distrust of central authority. He also seems very interested in showing the benefits of frontier society on humanity.

Stylistically, this is a great story. It is well written and entertaining from start to finish. Even when he is giving some of the science of things he does it with a dose of humor and never lectures too long. As always, Heinlein's characters are real with strengths and flaws and family interactions realistic.

Rating: 4 and one quarter stars. One of Heinlein's best juvenile novels with a good story and a realistic feel even if flawed by poor understandings caused by modern findings about Jupiter and Ganymede.

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko - Book Review

Title: The Millionaire Next Door
Authors: Thomas Stanley and William Danko
Pages: 258
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (New York), 1996

Millionaire. Guy inherited his money and lives high on the hog at the expense of everyone else. Drives in a fancy car, lives in a big house and flashes a lot of bling. Greedy and selfish, right? Not according to this book which chronicles the research results of the two authors who studied millionaires and their habits and discovered a few things that blow the above out of the water.

1. 85% of millionaires are first generation. The majority of them are self made and didn't inherit a dime.
2. Most of them worked hard to get their money and work even harder to keep it.
3. Most of them do not own expensive cars or bling and live in middle- upper class neighborhoods in $250,000 homes or less.

The Millionaire Next Door paints the picture of the millionaire of today and shows how wrong those people who envy them are on two counts: They are not greedy and they are not hurting anyone. They just have some really boring habits that they keep doing over and over and by the end of the day they come out ahead of everyone else.

Those habits are the central core of this book and they take on the whole gambit: living well below their means, they are efficient, they believe in financial independence, they did not get help from their parents, they raise their children to be economically self sufficient, they target opportunities well and the chose the right occupation. The book takes a chapter on each of these qualities and digs up the real story of millionaires and boy are they dull. In fact, they could be living right next door to you and you would not really know it. Thus the name of the book.

Stylistically, this book has case studies, charts and stories as well as hard conclusions based on facts. It is well written and has some good but dry humor. I loved it but I am a little bit of a nerd but it is also good if you like understanding money and how it affects your life.

The one thing you do come away with very strongly in this book is that there is no real reason to be envious of millionaires or think they came about their money unfairly, they simply are hard working people who know the value of money and use it to make more. They also play economic defense really well by being frugal. Anyone could do this if you had the desire and were willing to develop the self discipline over the rest of your life.

Rating: Four stars. The information alone is worth one star and the gut check worth another. The rest of the book is good solid stuff. Definitely worth the reading time.

The Rolling Stones by Robert Heinlein - Book Review

Title: The Rolling Stones (aka. Space Family Stone)
Author: Robert A Heinlein
Pages: 287
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises (New York), 1952

I was particularly excited to read and review this one because I had never read it before. The sad truth is I write book reviews to justify my book addiction and my 'need' to buy them.

The Rolling Stones was also published as the Space Family Stone and it is Heinlein's fifth published Juvenile book. By all accounts this one was readily received by Heinlein's editor and publisher. The reason is simple; it a great story and a lot of fun to read.

The plot basically centers around a pair of twins: Castor and Pollux Stone and their family: Hazel Stone (Grandma), Robert Stone (Dad), Edith Stone, (Mom) Meade Stone (sister), Lowell Stone (brother) and Buster Stone (baby brother). The Stone Family which lives on Luna (The moon) gets caught up in the idea of the Stone twins of setting out and seeing the solar system. The boys are not saints and they try to scheme there way though a lot of situations. Dad ultimately decides to purchase a spacecraft and set out with the whole family as year long vacation. In a very real way this is a cross between a family trip in a Winnebago, a family of pioneers crossing the old west frontier and a space adventure. The whole lot of them are rugged individualists and that creates some interesting situations in and of it self as the journey from Luna to Mars to the Asteroid Belt. Along the way, they have adventures, sell bicycles and 'flat cats', and the twins grow from being selfish boys to responsible men.

Stylistically, this is a funny book with all the snappy banter of any sitcom but with characters so real to life you almost forget it is a space story. This is classic Heinlein as far as storytelling. Sometimes things go well for the characters, sometimes not and there are some interesting twists and turns.

The Technology issues are great as for the most part Heinlein was trying to show that with some expected advances in technology of his day (1952) such space travel would be possible. In my edition published by Baen in 2010, Steve A. Hughes writes in the end of the book analyzing the technology in the book and basically says that Heinlein did very well with about 80% of his predictions, his big miss being communications, but the rest was very close.

If there is any theme to the book it has to be pushing back the frontier. Hazel Stone at the end of the book sums it up the best: "Why does anyone go anywhere?...To see what he could see...The dull ones stay at home - the bright ones stir around and try to see what trouble they can dig up." In the end freedom and pushing the edge of what we think is possible is the message of The Rolling Stones.

Rating: Four stars. One of Heinlein's best juveniles. I will definitely look forward to reading it again. Very humorous and entertaining.

Reflection - Why I Write

Since the month began (in truth probably since the middle of April), I have been plagued by several questions not the least has been what to do with my writing. I mean throwing blog article out there is great from time to time and it has its moments where people seem genuinely touched, but what is it all for?

Last week I read a reviewed Robert A. Heinlein's Grumbles from the Grave and to be very honest it was challenging book to read from the standpoint of it challenged my motivation for writing. Heinlein in the book answers a letter from a reader answering several questions. One of those questions is 'why do I write?" Heinlein's response is lengthy to explain three simple statements: 1) To support myself and my family, 2) To entertain my readers and 3) To make people think. I believe he is dead on.

I think my problem is related to these answers; in that, I have the last one but not necessarily the first two. Ultimately, it is the first two though that mark the success of any writing venture. Writing takes time and it is time I could be doing something else that actually did number one. So far the grand total made in my writing career is $50 but it was enough that I had the same sort of reaction that Heinlein did when he got his first check for writing his first short story: 'Life-Line'. "How long has this racket been going on?" was his response. Mine was: "Holy crap, it took me ten minutes to write that letter to Musclemag International and it netted me 50 bucks. Talk about easy money!" To be honest, if I could sit an write stuff and net a few hundred a week, I would. If I could make more, even better.

Artistic purists always whine about money ruining art, but the fact is without cash any pursuit will eventually die out on planet earth. More money means more time and freedom to enjoy and pursue what you want. It is not money itself that pulls me but the things I could do with it and if writing were my second career, and it could generate a significant enough paycheck, I would love doing it even more.

The real thing though is number 2 - entertainment. If it is not entertaining, no one will read your stuff. No one has to read your stuff; they have choice. On the Internet there are a google of choices to read out there why should they read mine? The only reason anyone would is that they like it enough ot bypass the others and read mine. Books are about as bad, but the same principle applies.

So, for the last week I have been just thinking positively about the whole thing and doing the one thing I know works - praying and then shutting up and waiting for God to answer. You know this Law of Attraction thing works! Suddenly I was hit with an idea and instructions. The idea was to take the themes of the non-fiction book I have been stuck on and turn it into a work of fiction. What was turning me off about the book is it was basically a series of lecture type essays. The only thing entertaining about them was my sarcastic sense of irony. Taking those same themes (and my sarcastic sense of irony)and weaving them into an entertaining novel would definitely make it better. The only question is backdrop, characters and plot. Story tellers are always far better received than lecturers anyway.

I got instructions as well. Wait till I go on the trip to Romania to start. Why? There are some things I need to see and learn from the trip that will help the book. I have always heard that world travel is as educational and life changing as university or college; I guess this will put this to the test.

My blog is an entirely different matter. The real questions is learning how to connect in the right ways. There are a ton of blogs out there on how to make money blogging, why not read them and see what they suggest? There are a lot of questions here but I know what gets hits: magazine reviews. One post shot up simply because the title made it perfect for Google when you typed in a search that read "scientific method". Learning what does this and how to do it better are essentials here. I need to be the thing people are searching for.

Making people think is what I try to do naturally in all my communication but what they feel, see and hear is important too. Communicating on all levels to get mind, heart and spirit change is the real challenge, but that's what I love about writing and preaching for that matter.

For the first time in a while I have sense of real purpose about this writing thing and it feels great. I can see what I am trying to achieve, I can hear the sound of change falling into my bank and I feel the winds of success. This is great stuff.

Grumbles from the Grave by Robert A. Heinlein (edited by Virginia Heinlein) - Book Review

Ever read a book written by someone after they died? In a sense, this is what this book is. Grumbles from the Grave is a non-fiction work that contains the letters of Robert Heinlein and others back to him from throughout his career. This book was put together by Virginia Heinlein (Robert's wife) after Robert Heinlein's death, but it was his idea including the title.

In essence this book is edited correspondence between Heinlein, his agent and others that chronicles some of his struggles, thoughts and triumphs over the years of his career. There are chapters that cover various aspects of his life from his early career, his juvenile novels, his adult novels, his travels, his thoughts on life and the publishing industry of his time. There is much more as well about other topics. The reason it is called Grumbles from the Grave is that most of the correspondence focuses on the complaints he had about things and when people wanted to change his work.

What this book offers is a unique look inside the mind of Robert Heinlein. you see where he gets his ideas, how he develops his work, his motivation for writing and living and his conflicts with editors and publishers. It is very enlightening for a Heinlein fan to see that much of his realism came from being real. It is also interesting to see some of his dialogue in his books was inspired by some of this correspondence.

Stylistically, it is excerpts from real letters and they have been edited to get to the good parts. There are also several editor's notes from Virginia regarding certain subjects to help clarify and every one of them is helpful. In addition there are many pictures that show the man and his life around him.

Rating: 3 and three quarter stars. The big issue with this book is that if you are not a real fan of Robert Heinlein, it will not be entertaining to you unless you are a writer. In those two cases though, it gives good background on each book and many of the short stories as well. It also gives an inside look into the man who is considered the Grandmaster of Science Fiction. For the writer you can see that even the great writers have their struggles and that sometimes inspiration can come from odd places. I loved it but I am both a fan and a writer.

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein - Book Review

Title: The Puppet Masters
Author: Robert Heinlein
Pages: 340
Publisher: Del Rey / Ballentine Books (New York), 1951

The Puppet Masters marks a great moment in Robert Heinlein's career as writer as it is his first novel that was a) not a reprint of a serialization and b) not a juvenile novel. Even though it was an adult novel, it had some edits in 1951 which toned down the sex and nudity, but in 1990 after Heinlein's death the book was republished with the edits restored.

Alien invasion is a popular theme in science fiction and in this case it is a combination of science fiction and horror as the puppet masters are a parasite that uses human hosts to do so. The 'slugs' become an insidious enemy that take over secretly by riding on their hosts and controlling their actions. They creep into society and only a botched space craft gets them noticed in the first place.

The plot centers around secret agent Sam Cavanaugh who follows the invasion from its earliest beginnings to the final days when all seems lost. In the end, Sam becomes the key to organizing and finally defeating the 'slugs'. The adventure takes him from being possessed by a parasite to learning everything he can so he can fight them.

Technologically speaking the book presented some interesting options for 1951 including the ideas of implant technology, advanced medical technology including burn grafts, and transportation that involves cars that could both fly and ride roads. For the aliens the issue is not technology by the idea of parasite control and borrowing the technology of all the interplanetary races they had encountered.

Sociologically, Heinlein is at his best even in the edited version. Because the parasites can attach themselves any part of the human body, the best defense is for people to be naked so they can be seen to be 'slug free'. At the beginning of the war, the chief antagonists are not the slugs, but the social mores of human beings. This changes very quickly when people become aware of the truth of the invasion. Heinlein was an avid nudist in life so this is an interesting take on it. What happens when nudity is your only defense against being completely robbed of life and humanity? Would the human race get over its own moral taboos or cease to exist?

Stylistically, this is pure Heinlein, his characters a real and the situations equally so. The plot has a lot of interesting twists and turns and the ending soul searching. The man makes you think in this one.

Rating: 4 and one quarter stars. This is truly classic Heinlein. He is still rough around the edges but not very much so. It is a long story, but it still entertains throughout the entire story. It is a combination of science fiction and horror so it has some rough and morally challenging spots but definitely worth the read.