Books you're currently reading???

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Thanks for the tip...I'll have to check it out!

One of his books, 'Critical Chain', deals with MBAs and takes the line you do. It's essentially about Project Management and solving the bottlenecks that you get which cause delays to completion of projects, but there is a parallel 'plot' that deals with the issues and potential solutions to the way MBAs are constructed and taught. If you end up liking 'The Goal' then the next obvious ones are 'It's Not Luck' (deals with sales and marketing) and then 'Critical Chain'.

I took a TOC course when I was working on a project for the fish and fruit markets, and the process identified some real problems plus helped create and evaluate possible solutions. I use their basic problem analysis tool (generally referred to as the Evaporating Cloud or Conflict Resolution Diagram) quite regularly as a means to condense and resolve issues, but the full programme approach is really for large tasks and projects.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Books for my first graduate class...I start in 2 weeks:

--Management Mistakes and Successes
--The Time Trap
--Effective Teamwork
--a management textbook published by Houghton Mifflin

Dude, are you that pissed at tw?

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by Griff

Dude, are you that pissed at tw?

Fontbonne (the school I'm attending) has a 24-month MBA program that I considered...and every time I thought about it, I kept thinking of tw.

MBAs are overrated, IMO. The Management program I'm in is good, and only takes 18 months. That'll work for me.

[SteveDallas]

Just remember, there's no "I" in "team," but there's an "M" and an "E"!

A couple months back I randomly picked up a Terry Pratchett "Discworld" novel at the local library. (I think it was "Night Watch".) I've enjoyed them a lot--they mostly have newer ones. "Going Postal" is my favorite so far.

However I attempted to read the first one of the series, "The Color of Magic," and I found it an unbearable snooze and abandoned it halfway through.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Just remember, there's no "I" in "team," but there's an "M" and an "E"!

Makes me think of Shaun of the Dead

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

However I attempted to read the first one of the series, "The Color of Magic," and I found it an unbearable snooze and abandoned it halfway through.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I read the Colour of Magic when it first came out in paperback- I would have been about 14. I read my copy to bits and had to buy another one. That & The Light Fantastic were the funniest, most original books I had ever read (I had only seen Hitchhikers on TV at that age, I hadn't read the books). Then again I remember thinking we should be studying David Eddings in our English classes......

Sad to hear it hasn't aged well.

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

Makes me think of Shaun of the Dead


Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I read the Colour of Magic when it first came out in paperback- I would have been about 14. I read my copy to bits and had to buy another one. That & The Light Fantastic were the funniest, most original books I had ever read (I had only seen Hitchhikers on TV at that age, I hadn't read the books). Then again I remember thinking we should be studying David Eddings in our English classes......

Sad to hear it hasn't aged well.

Pratchett is good, I like the ones with Cohen the Barbarian as they have a certain personal attraction....

His children's books Truckers, Diggers and Wings are also excellent and adult-digestible. However, after reading about 10 Discworld books I wanted something different and was introduced to Robert Rankin. I can recommend his 'Armageddon' series (get used to a time travelling brussel sprout named Barry who resides in Elvis Presley's brain - who of course is still well and living in the 21st century), but my favourite will always remain 'The Brentford Triangle' out of the Brentford Trilogy (now running to ten novels I believe) - serious laugh-out-loud material. I can only describe Rankin as surrealist humour - you have to be prepared to bend your mind to his, and provided you make this sacrifice you will definitely enjoy....

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

I read the Colour of Magic when it first came out in paperback- I would have been about 14. I read my copy to bits and had to buy another one . . . Sad to hear it hasn't aged well.

Well, maybe I should give it another try. I may have been more favorably inclined if I had read it first before the other novels. Though I suppose it is a compliment (however backhanded) in that it suggests great improvement in his writing over the years.

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

. . .I remember thinking we should be studying David Eddings in our English classes......

Oh, yeah an essay explaining the plot parallels between the Belgariad and the Elenium. There's the ticket!

[seakdivers]

I just got done reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton.

Absolutely faaaaantastic!! I loved it.
If you are considering reading this book, I would suggest reading the appendices first. It really helps you to get an idea of where this book is coming from.
I really hope they make a movie out of it!

[BigV]

Originally Posted by seakdivers

...
If you are considering reading this book, I would suggest reading the appendices first. It really helps you to get an idea of where this book is coming from....

This is a good strategy for many books. I only learned this after the fact, sadly, for the LoTR trilogy. Interestingly, many of SonofV's books he checks out from the school library have these helpful appendicies in them. Many of them are kind of science-y, Bats, Reptiles, Sharks, Snakes, etc, and the appendix at the end is informative to me and I use it as a stealth teaching tool sometimes when we talk about the book.

[wolf]

The Way of A Pilgrim

It's part of a five-book series of 'spiritual classics' that I got from the One Spirit Book Club several years ago that I never got around to reading. It's supposed to be a first person account by a Russian peasant who seeks to learn the secrets of constant prayer.

The others in the series were a book of Sufi Poetry, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Tao Te Ching, and The Essential Kaballah. The Way of the Pilgrim is the only book of Christian Mysticism in the set.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by wolf

The Way of A Pilgrim

from FRANNY AND ZOOEY?

I read that right after Salinger's RAISE HIGH THE ROOFBEAMS, and, CATCHER IN THE RYE .

ZOOEY AND FRANNY, or something or other, very good book.

Lotsa luck, girlfriend. I sincerely hope you can e'slpain it to me. Meaning any of the Salinger books. I 'know', but I'm afraid that I don't really "know"..---ya know?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Brianna

from FRANNY AND ZOOEY?

I read that right after Salinger's RAISE HIGH THE ROOFBEAMS, and, CATCHER IN THE RYE .

ZOOEY AND FRANNY, or something or other, very good book.

Lotsa luck, girlfriend. I sincerely hope you can e'slpain it to me. Meaning any of the Salinger books. I 'know', but I'm afraid that I don't really "know"..---ya know?

Nope. It's a translation of some Russian Mystic Shit.

I have never actually read any Salinger. I somehow avoided that class in high school where you have to read The Catcher in the Rye.

Yes, I can see that you are surprised.

Would it reassure you any if I told you I have at least three copies of The Turner Diaries, as well as two other books from the same author?

[Trilby]

Currently reading 'LETTERS HOME', Sylvia Plath. Have article due soon.

Holy, holy.

[lumberjim]

I went old school on my last audiobook purchase:

The Illiad
The Odyssey
Ben Hur

[Griff]

Verbal Behavior- B.F. Skinner