Day 06 – Blog Challenge – Books with >400 pages

Welcome to Day 06 of #BookReviewBlogChallenge. Today’s challenge is to review any book with 400+ pages.

Shoutout to Miss Camilla and her blog . All the entries were brilliant. But Camilla’s style of “rebelling” was both unexpected and unique. The bonus of getting to read 4 reviews for the price for one? Awesome!  Hat tip, Rebel Camilla!

Prompt Choice

For today’s challenge I went with another masterpiece by Tim Ferris – “Tribe of Mentors”. At 627 pages, the book is fatter than most dictionaries! This book is basically a compilation of success tactics used by the world’s most brilliant performers. This is literally “Mentor in a Book”.

  • Title – Rebel Talent: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World
  • Author – Tim Ferris

REVIEW SCORE = 4/5

Book Review

The book asks a set of 11 poignant questions to experts in different domains, styled after his podcast interviews. The answers are mind-blowing and immensely practical. Each chapter in the book contains answers and thoughts from one influencer who is considered the leader in his/her field. Industries and names include authors (Neil Gaiman), graphic designers, chefs, actresses (Aisha Tyler), athletes, swim coaches (Terry Laughlin), filmmakers (Darren Aronfsky), CEOs and many more.

Word of warning – If you have already read “Tools of the Titans” (which I reviewed earlier) by the same author, like me, then some parts might seem repetitive. For example, tech genius and venture capitalist Naval Ravikant features in both books. However, his advice is incredibly spot-on, so I did not mind reading it all over again! Consider it “reinforcement learning”.

For those who have not heard of Naval – he is the founder of AngelList, a recruiting platform for startups. He also invested in 100+ companies including Uber, Twitter, Clearview AI and multiple others, making him a billionaire considered to have the “Midas touch”.

The Qs Tim asks are designed to extract pearls of wisdom that these luminaries use – imagine how amazing your life can be, if you followed 3 or 4 religiously! Some example Qs from the book:

  • What do you do when you feel unfocused or overwhelmed?
  • What is the book you have given the most as a gift and why? Books that influenced your life. Special note to readers – this single point alone proves an important fact – all successful RICH people read books! ? If that does not motivate you to read more, I wash my hands off you!
  • Your best investment of $100 or less.

Quotes from the book:

Some of the advice from the book that resonated the most with me are listed below:

  • Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep.
  • It is easier to ask forgiveness than to ask Permission.
  • Play iterated games. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships or knowledge come from compound interest.

Similar Works

  • Books – “Tools of the Titans” also by Tim Ferris. “Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success” by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein. “Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life” by Ozan Varol.
  • Movies – Rocky, Theory of Everything, Slumdog Millionaire, The Intern, Joy (starring Jennifer Lawrence).
  • Genres – Self-Help, Productivity, Popular Development Psychology

Until next time, Adieu and Happy Reading!

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13 Comments, RSS

    • Ann
      May 6, 2020 at

      Hi Finitha,

      I haven’t read a lot of Ken Follet but remember being smitten by “Hammer of Eden”. Sad that this particular story was so negative! Kudos to you for sticking it out! 🙂

      But you are 100% right about the “lockdown” decision being so similar to what we currently have. Quite interesting, given the book is in an alternate age and was written 13 years ago. Presumably humans do not have much originality as the Bubonic plague (18th century) and Antonine plague (smallpox affecting Romans in 165 AD) also elicited similar reactions.

    • Ann
      May 6, 2020 at

      Aww.. I feel so bad about the criticism, you do write well. I think many professors just resent writing that sounds like a conversation. Thankfully those are the exact type of authors who end up becoming bestsellers, so who knows? 🙂

      I like your book choice because its hard to read such books. Mainly to keep track of the two parallel story lines when the author switches between past and present. Adding the book to my TBR pile.

    • Ann
      May 6, 2020 at

      @Unidragonfrag, what a fabulous book to gift – I just looked up the story for “A Monster Calls”. that is such a poignant story!

      Also I really admire your patience – story spanning ~7000 pages! Mind-blowing! Like the entire Harry Potter series as one story! Wow! Fabulous choice!

    • Ann
      May 6, 2020 at

      Another book by Maas, how lovely! I seriously need to get in touch with the author’s cover designer. What a stunning job!

      I think its worth reading any writer who evokes the kind of passionate response, like your review! 🙂
      Another addition to my TBR pile.

    • Ann
      May 6, 2020 at

      600+ pages; good job!
      This book vaguely reminded of the movie “Total Recall” which I loved [mainly because I likes Schwarznegger movies! ] Plus, since vampires are supposed to live for centuries, imagine the author can weave tons of backstories ! Oh, the possibilities! 🙂

    • Ann
      May 7, 2020 at

      Years since I read a Jeffrey Archer book – I’d totally forgotten about this brilliant masterpiece!
      I’ll have to hunt down my ebook copy to read it again!

      Excellent entry! 🙂

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