God Save the Fan: How Steroid Hypocrites, Soul-Sucking Suits, and a Worldwide Leader Not Named Bush Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports Review

God Save the Fan: How Steroid Hypocrites, Soul-Sucking Suits, and a Worldwide Leader Not Named Bush Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports
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Will Leitch's book is a nice blend of laugh-out-loud satire, spoofs, and funny truth in the ridiculous, over-priced, ego-maniacal world of sports. The editor of the popular "Deadspin" blog is more than just funny, he's insightful.
I really don't read "Deadspin" very often, but the cover and title of this book -- not the blog -- was what drew me to it. I'm a huge sports fan, but I'm so tired of the overflow of cash and ego that if pro sports ended tomorrow, I wouldn't care. Sadly, Division I college sports now just mirrors professional sports, they're just less honest about the money. I'd wished Leitch would've addressed the greed of college sports, but what the heck, he lives in New York City, the worst college sports city in America. He's a pro guy ... though his take on interviewing a former University of Michigan basketball player was a complete riot.
Fans can be pretty dumb, too, as Leitch points out in his take on Barbaro. The article and hilarious drawing of the horse was very funny.
Some of Leitch's takes don't work -- does Scott Van Pelt's rejection of a date really need to be posted, is that news? Leitch found Van Pelt's phone message "humanizing." I found it boring. But Leitch is more often on target than not. And yeah, Chris Berman's "YWML" episode isn't news either, but if anyone needed to be a victim of "gotcha" journalism, it's Berman, who has become a caricature of himself. Yes, ESPN needed to be taken down a few notches and Leitch is just the guy to do it.
A quick and funny read, I hope Leitch has another book on the way. Will there be a fan revolution? Nah, fans are too emotional and gullible. If the NY Giants said tomorrow that end zone seats were $5,000 apiece, they'd get sold. Will ESPN's egos shrink? Are you kidding me?
Leitch is a little too much of a believer in the fan revolution and not a realist. I see no uprising from fans.
But hey, at least Leitch is trying, and having fun while doing it.


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Diving the Pacific: Volume 1: Micronesia and the Western Pacific Islands Review

Diving the Pacific: Volume 1: Micronesia and the Western Pacific Islands
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I went back and bought 2 more for my travel companions! We just came back from Truk & Yap and I never saw my book, it was traveling around our group so much! We are planning to return to Palau, so I bought extra copies as self defense! The best dive guide I have found to the islands.

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Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet Review

Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet
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James P. Othmer is one of the funniest writers at work today. Period. His keen eye for the absurdities of the modern world rivals the likes of George Saunders and Sam Lipsyte. You could sharpen knives on Othmer's sentences.
Prior to his 2006 debut novel, The Futurist, Jimbo was honing his mad skills in the advertising racket, as an exec at Young & Rubicam. And though I daresay it was a colossal waste of his talents, I, for one, am glad he endured it, or we wouldn't have Adland, a hilarious and insightful chronicle of the rise and fall of a modern ad man.

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Sports and Entertainment Marketing Review

Sports and Entertainment Marketing
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I was in Ken Kaser's marketing class for two years and i can honestly say with utmost certainty that Mr. Kaser's sports marketing book is the greatest, most compelling story of human drama and intrigue that i have ever read. It is a poignant and touching journey into the human psyche and inded the very nature of man. Through his stunning portrayal of the book's main character (a Jewish man named Trey), Kaser delves into the relms of intelectual enlightenment and human sexuality. While many subjects are explored through the main character's search for the meaning of life, he ultimately confronts the eternal questions of existence such as "Why am i here?", and "Why is Tenney such a bastard?". This book is a life changing epic full of all the things that make great literature great. Ken Kaser has given the world a gift it will appreciate forever and he will go down in history as the greatest writer in the English language. I give it 5 stars.

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SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING 3E continues to use sports and entertainment topics as the foundation for teaching marketing concepts. Each marketing function is incorporated throughout the text and is highlighted with an icon to indicate how it is used in the marketing process.

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Home of the Braves Review

Home of the Braves
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"Legend has it that Lawndale High is HAUNTED!" Joe Brickman, aka Brickhead, is the captain of the Lawndale soccer team. One day this guy just shows up at the school. His name is Antonio Silva, although everyone calls him "the Phenom." He "was" a Brazilian soccer star. No one knows why he is here at Lawndale. Joe's best friend Kris decides that she would rather hand out with "the Phenom" instead of hanging out with her friends. Read "Home of the Braves" to see how the story unfolds.
Soccer fans, this is the book for you. This book deals with a bad soccer team who gets transformed into a great soccer team. This book shows how one person can make a difference in sports and after school relationships.


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You vs. You: Sport Psychology for Life Review

You vs. You: Sport Psychology for Life
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I will keep it simple cuz im lady..
very informative, very motivational!!! best self-moti book i have read!!!!!!!
ps. if u dont believe me, check this book out on google books. (it allows u to read a portion of books)

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Written by a college coach, this book tries to ties together sports and life lessons.

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"May the Best Man Win": Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935 Review

May the Best Man Win: Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935
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This wonderful book does an excellent job of both providing in-depth and thought-provoking historical analysis while maintaining the fast pace of a sports book. It also is very illuminating of the everyday workings of imperialism.

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As Britain's great power status came to be increasingly challenged in the decades before the First World War, one by-product of the resultant uncertainty was the weakening of the Victorian middle-class consensus of what constituted ideal manhood. Not only a source of wealth and power, Britain's Empire also provided alternative models of masculinity and nationhood. Consequently, the empire and the commonwealth played an important role in defining imperial gender relations in both Britain and in the colonies and dominions. "May The Best Man Win" investigates the continual re-assessment and reassertion of various masculine ideals associated with sport in the British empire between 1880 and 1935.

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Boy Racer: My Journey to Tour de France Record-Breaker Review

Boy Racer: My Journey to Tour de France Record-Breaker
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I bought this book out of my love of cycling and not in particular a love of Mark Cavendish. I have always admired Cavendish as an outstanding athlete and thought he might have some interesting stories to tell. I love his blunt way of speaking and story telling. I have to say, I am now a Cavendish fan.
As an avid fan of the Tour De France you can't help but notice Mark and his unbelievable ability to sprint. At the end of any race you hear him give all credit to his team when he wins or see the broken heart. He is a true sportsman.
While the stories jump around a bit, it is a great inside look of how a sprinter survives the Tour de France and even has the opportunity to win a stage or more. I found it inspiring to hear his stories of people telling him he was fat, and that his numbers indicated he would never make it to the pro tour and how he told the sports scientists to basically "stick it".
I encourage any fan of the pro tour to pick up this book and enjoy a few days of new stories and insight into the sport.

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Boy Racer unmasks the manic, brutal world of professional cycling from the candid viewpoint of the sport's brash young superstar, Mark Cavendish.

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The Secret Lives of Girls: What Good Girls Really Do--Sex Play, Aggression, and Their Guilt Review

The Secret Lives of Girls: What Good Girls Really Do--Sex Play, Aggression, and Their Guilt
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What a liberating book. The author of the book writes about the secret play and games of girls in childhood (and secret aggression) and makes us all feel that what we did wasn't so unusual, wasn't so bad, was ok. As a mother of a daughter, I think I'll think about my own daughter a little differently now, and with a little more acceptance and happiness about her developing sexuality. I think it would be so fun to read this book in a book group and talk about what we all did as children. The book was easy to read and the stories from the adult women looking back were really really interesting, especially the ones in the chapter called "Playing Dead but Feeling Tingly." Great book.

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Flying Scotsman : Cycling to Triumph Through My Darkest Hours Review

Flying Scotsman : Cycling to Triumph Through My Darkest Hours
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This is the first autobiography I've ever read. Obree's life hold's intrigue as he was quickly launched from amateur to pro in the cycling world almost before he really considered himself a cyclist.
As he was setting world records, he was battling with a low self-image, and when you parallel his thoughts with what he accomplished, you cannot deny that this book does more than just show one man's struggle to be a cycling champion - it explores the true heart behind the actions we do, and forces us to realize that money and fame are not an end in themselves. Ugly thoughts from childhood still haunt him through the very moment he wrote them in this book. It's interesting that as he writes this book, he is still uncertain about what the future holds for him. He has survived truly phenominal challenges, and is amazing in his brutal honest opinion of himself.
He has a very informal style, and his mind flows on the page through his pen, and it is an adventure till the last page.

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Little-known Graeme Obree became international cycling's most unlikely star, capturing the public's imagination with his innovative engineering and design skills and unique training regiments. When he broke world records and won championships, the cycling authorities outlawed both his bike and his tucked riding position. He invented the "Superman" riding style and triumphed again. But while battling authorities and other cyclists, Obree was also battling a much more serious threat: bipolar disorder. In The Flying Scotsman, Obree tells his remarkable story with brutal honesty and unexpected humor. Beginning with his troubled childhood in Ayrshire, where the bike was his only escape, Obree recounts his turbulent life and career, describing what drove him to not only break records, but to attempt suicide on three separate occasions. Long known for his courage on the track, here Obree demonstrates a different kind of courage as he movingly lays bare his struggle with manic depression.

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A Matter of Life and Death: Hunting in Contemporary Vermont Review

A Matter of Life and Death: Hunting in Contemporary Vermont
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This was an enjoyable anthropological look into modern deer hunting culture in Vermont. Having grown up inside this culture I found Marc Boglioli's insight as an 'outsider' well rounded and welcome, humanizing a traditional way of life that many people who don't hunt simply don't understand.

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American hunters occupy a remarkably complex place in this country s cultural and political landscape. On the one hand, they are cast as perpetrators of an anachronistic and unnecessary assault on innocent wildlife. On the other hand, they are lauded as exemplars of no-nonsense American rugged individualism. Yet despite the passion that surrounds the subject, we rarely hear the unfiltered voices of actual hunters in discussions of hunting.In A Matter of Life and Death, anthropologist Marc Boglioli puts a human face on a group widely regarded as morally suspect, one that currently stands in the crossfire of America s so-called culture wars. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Addison County, Vermont, which took him from hunting camps and sporting goods stores to local bars and kitchen tables, Boglioli focuses on how contemporary hunters, women as well as men, understand their relationship to their prey. He shows how hunters attitudes toward animals flow directly from the rural lifeways they have continued to maintain in the face of encroaching urban sensibilities. The result is a rare glimpse into a culture that experiences wild animals in a way that is at once violent, consumptive, and respectful, and that regards hunting as an enduring link to a vanishing past. It is a book that will challenge readers hunters, non-hunters, and anti-hunters alike to reconsider what constitutes a morally appropriate relationship with the non-human residents of this planet.

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SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the WIld, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea Review

SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the WIld, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea
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The "SAS Survival Handbook" is the most comprehensive survival handbook I have ever seen. Most books have some basic advice (the importance of the correct mental attitude, finding water and shelter, etc.), a handful of edible plants, and a couple of ways to start a fire. While this book covers all those areas, it also has sections on camp craft, determining directions, rescue signals, dealing with different climates and terrains, reading clouds for weather prediction, and many others. A good example of the thoroughness of the coverage would be the food section. It covers your energy needs and how they are met from various foods, testing unknown plants in desperate situations, plants to avoid, identification of plants, using animals for food, extensive and detailed trapping mechanisms, fishing, gutting and cleaning, and other advice. The number, types, and detail on the various traps are amazing. I've never seen so many different designs. It includes several that I have not seen anywhere else before. I would consider this the authoritative text on survival skills in the wild and give it the highest recommendation for anyone interested in survival techniques.

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The SAS Survival Handbook is the Special Air Service's complete course in being prepared for any type of emergency. John 'Lofty' Wiseman presents real strategies for surviving in any type of situation, from accidents and escape procedures, including chemical and nuclear to successfully adapting to various climates (polar, tropical, desert), to identifying edible plants and creating fire. The book is extremely practical and is illustrated throughout with easy-to-understand line art and diagrams.


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Personality Plus for Parents: Understanding What Makes Your Child Tick Review

Personality Plus for Parents: Understanding What Makes Your Child Tick
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This book is EXCELLENT. Every parent needs to read it.
I have 5 children and this book has helped me so much to see
what makes my children different, and has enabled me to accept
them just as they are. Just one example-my third son has always seemed to be lazy. He is just not motivated to work. I used to worry that I was raising a lazy adult but this book showed me that he is a phlegmatic, and phlegmatics tend to be that way! They find the shortest way to do things and are unmotivated to get their work done. I now understand my little guy and why he is like he is-I can accept him as living according to his temperament. I could give several other examples.
This book is practical in that it lists the strengths and weaknesses of each temperament and gives ideas for parents on how to raise their children according to how they are. I loved that it pairs up the different combinations of parents and children.
I could go on and on but suffice it to say that I read the book in just a couple of days and learned so much that it's changed the way I relate to my children. I even learned much about me and also about my husband.
It's a fascinating, practical, life-changing book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Now I'm off to read her book for adults, "Personality Plus". :)

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How can you improve your relationship with your children and more effectively parent them? Florence Littauer helps you identify, understand, and meet each child's unique needs.

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Physical Dimensions of Aging- SE Review

Physical Dimensions of Aging- SE
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Now in an updated second edition, Physical Dimensions Of Aging by the team of Waneen W. Spirduso, Karen L. Francis, and Priscilla G. MacRae is a textbook resource and reference especially for students and professionals in need of the latest research concerning the physical process of aging and the practical ramifications for anyone working with the elderly, particularly in the field of health care. Chapters discuss changes physical structure, capacity, and endurance; motor coordination and motor control; psychosocial relationships; what distinguishes "physically elite" older adults; and much more. Charts, graphs, and the results of the most recent studies fill this serious-minded text, which avoids an excess of overly technical medical jargon despite its focus upon professionals and field trainees. Highly recommended.


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The physical aging process progresses every day—and so does our understanding of it. Physical Dimensions of Aging, Second Edition, will keep students and professionals up to date on the outcomes of the latest research studies and their implications for the elderly in the real world. Physical aging affects us cognitively, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. The book discusses how people age physically and how this aging affects other dimensions of life.

The second edition of Physical Dimensions of Aging has been updated to integrate research findings on physical aging from more than 100 different journals in myriad fields, creating interdisciplinary coverage on the topic. It provides students and professionals with what they need to know about physical aging in order to conduct clinical research and to work with clients and patients. In doing so, it retains its landmark status as the definitive reference on aging.

Moreover, Physical Dimensions of Aging, Second Edition, focuses less on explaining the measurement techniques and research design and more on the outcome of the studies and their practical implications for everyday living. This approach will enable professionals and students to do the following:

-Understand the physical aging process and its effects on other dimensions of life.

-Apply the latest research in working with adults and the elderly.

-Become more effective in their professions.The structure of this new edition is more conducive to learning and features the following:

-Chapter objectives

-Key terms

-Sidebars of capsule research studies

-Testimonials, vignettes, and other tidbits that tie the research information to the real world

-Review questions to assist students in synthesizing and remembering the information

-Short lists of recommended reading for those who want to pursue the topic in more detail

-A glossary at the end of the bookThis second edition is organized into five parts. Part I provides an introduction to aging, to the field of gerontology, and to the research process for studying individual differences. Part II describes the physical changes in structure, capacity, and endurance. Part III overviews the factors related to motor coordination, motor control, and skill learning for older adults. Part IV addresses physical–psychosocial relationships, including health, exercise, and cognitive function as well as health-related expectations of quality of life for older adults. Part V highlights physical performance and achievement especially to showcase the results from consistent effort and hard work of physically elite older adults as inspiration for others.

At a time when many people are telling older adults what they can't do, professionals should be telling them what they can do. Physical Dimensions of Aging, Second Edition, will equip professionals to do so.


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Body Check Review

Body Check
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You may have heard this one described as a "hockey book" but it's really not. For me, hockey was background for the story and since I'm not a fan and know little about the game, I don't share some of the complaints other readers had about the minutia of the sport.
All handsome, driven team captain Ty Gallagher wants is to win another Stanley Cup. He has no intention of cooperating in the image makeover the owners want to impose in the form of pretty, sexy new publicist Janna MacNeil. His repeated refusals (Lord, was he stubborn!) to participate in the various charity and other feel-good events Janna organizes result in some fiery exchanges. And eventually the sexual sparks between them turn into a "casual" sexual relationship. But when crunchtime comes with the approach of the playoffs will Ty choose hockey over his relationship with Janna? Was it really just "casual sex" or was it something more?
I enjoyed this story, but I thought there were some things that could have been better. There needed to be a bit more sexual chemistry between Janna and Ty. As others have pointed out, much of their together time is told in remembrance and would have been better seen first person (i.e., more sex, please!). And the evolution of Ty's feelings for Janna was not well drawn, making his decisions and actions at the end seem slightly out of character and abrupt.
And I know I shouldn't compare, but this book is much more on the cute, warm, charming side than Rachel Gibson's two hockey stories Simply Irresistible and See Jane Score which I found a bit edgier and thus more realistic. But her boss Lou was too cute and kid brother Wills adorable. And I look forward to Janna's roommate Theresa's story Fair Play. The excerpt was fun and it looks like fellow hockey jock Michael will need all of his good humor and perseverance in the face of rejection to crack that nut!
An enjoyable read and a good first novel!

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No Safe Harbor: The Tragedy of the Dive Ship Wave Dancer Review

No Safe Harbor: The Tragedy of the Dive Ship Wave Dancer
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My husband, Ray Mars, was one of the victims of the Wave Dancer tragedy, so this book is of particular interest to me. However, I was still able to read it without letting my personal feelings into my opinions and thoughts about the book. I was absolutely amazed by the ability of Joe Burnworth to give the reader the feeling of actually being there, on board the Wave Dancer, with the divers themselves. For over 3 1/2 years, although I knew in my head what had happened, what capsizing meant, I have continued to have a kind of abstract feeling, something that made the entire event unreal, something that no matter how much I read, I just could not really "see" the event in my own mind. This has been troublesome, and I was previously unable to get many specific questions answered. The unknowing, the wondering, was very difficult, as the mind continues to imagine all kinds of things. But, from the very beginning of No Safe Harbor, I felt as though I was right there on the Wave Dancer with Ray, and all the others, most of whom I also knew. I had a visual thing to hold onto, and it gave me a much better understanding of the actual events leading up to the tragedy, what was really going on between the captain and crew, and what information the divers themselves had been given. So many of these questions have been troubling and very disturbing to me over these years. I finally have the answers, thanks to Joe Burnworth, and I can see in my thoughts just what was going on, what information was being given to the divers, who had access to no other information than what the captain told them, and I am finally able to settle my mind around what Ray and all the others really believed. With these facts, I am able to give this event a "face", a real picture in my mind, and I feel as though I was right there, and can see exactly what went on. I can picture the actual capsizing, and the subsequent events. Of course, this does not change what happened, but it does relieve the extreme unrest I have had for so long, when I was unable to get these answers from anyone else.
Every traveler, on a ship of any kind, diving or not, needs to read this book. This book gives every reader the feeling of actually being there, you will feel as though you can see every aspect of the boat itself, giving a clear picture of the events. It also gives a very personal accounting of the victims themselves, making them real people, as they were, not some vague thought of people you do not know. They will become important to you, and they will mean something to you. It is an important read for all, divers or not, and will really open your eyes, and put you right in the middle of the entire event.

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On October 8, 2001, the 120-foot luxury live-aboard dive yachts Wave Dancer and Aggressor III, both carrying members of the Richmond Dive Club, were secured to a concrete dock in southern Belize when Hurricane Iris struck. The last boat to slip into the harbor for safety, the Wave Dancer, stuck out halfway into the channel, unable to find more room at the crowded dock. The category four hurricane, with winds of 140 mph and a storm surge of fourteen feet, ripped the Wave Dancer from its cleats, tossing it like a toy across the lagoon. When the storm subsided an hour later, 20 of the boat's 28 occupants were dead. The investigation into the tragedy - the worst in the history of recreational diving - revealed that the boat's owner and captain had ignored storm warnings and needlessly endangered the lives of their passengers and crew.In a vivid indictment of maritime irresponsibility, author Joe Burnworth - a passenger on the Aggressor III - dramatically recounts the events leading up to the Wave Dancer's capsizing, the rescue and recovery attempts, and the devastating aftermath.

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Managing Your Mind: The Mental Fitness Guide Review

Managing Your Mind: The Mental Fitness Guide
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It's unusual for me to read chapters of a book out of order. Had I read this book from front to back, I would have angrily tossed it out when I hit chapters 3 and 4. The authors have not had the pleasure of grasping the virtue of selfishness. Instead, they occasionally apologize and appease. In these early chapters they recommend "unconditional positive regard" stating that it's "not selfish, nor egoistic" to have this attitude towards ourselves. This chapter is a philosophical junkyard. They ask why we admire a Mother Teresa and answer that it's because she sacrifices herself for others. They ask "Would you admire her if she sacrificed herself for something worthless?" and omit the possibility that she is not admirable because she lived a life of sacrifice by choice and encourages others to do likewise. The authors also invent the contradictory concept of the "unselfish I."
So heaven help me! Why would I recommend such a book? I recommend it because it is chock full of simple good tips - e.g., good study skills, identifying and pursuing healthy goals to bring you pleasure, keeping friendships fair - with a lovely undercurrent of egoism despite occasional nosedives. For example, "Cultural attitudes, including religious ones, seem to make rewarding oneself seem bad..." (Were it my book, I would omit the "seem to") - or "Do not make a virtue out of being a martyr." The mix of good and bad ideas in this book makes me wonder if one author was philosophically healthier than the other one. This book offers valuable thinking skills. I recommend skipping chapters 1-3. This is a good book to keep in your reference library. If you are having difficulty with a particular issue in your life, read the chapter on that. Some skills that are helpful include:
- "swat" the NATs (negative automatic thoughts)
- distant elephants (do not commit yourself to unimportant activities no matter how far ahead they are)
- focus on important but non-urgent activities, rather than urgent non-important activities
- avoid "pressurizing" words: "should, must, have to, ought" which drain motivation
- avoid avoidance - actively solve your problems rather than run from them
- reduce the "inside" load of stress by changing attitudes
- learn how to unpackage your fears
- motivate yourself by focusing on the personal benefits of your success

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