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- The Monk who Sold His Ferrari I was young and stupid, and I bought this book because of its very high Amazon rating. It's badly written, same old self-help
by rg111 5y ago
- The Monk who Sold His Ferrari
I was young and stupid, and I bought this book because of its very high Amazon rating.
It's badly written, same old self-help cringe, and generic good advice packaged as something novel. I also found the depiction of the Yogi community of the Himalayas of very poor taste and far from reality. He and the people who does his PR are master marketers. That's why his books sell so much. Total waste of money.
- How to Win Friends and Influence People
I got this from HN. Sure, I knew about it, but if it was on a highly upvoted comment on HN, it must be good, or at least that's what I thought.
The writing is good, but the book is sexist and classist. "How to be a good wife"? Seriously? And suggesting that they cook different dishes and some such sexist nonsense! Whoa!
I learned some cool facts about Abe Lincoln which I enjoyed. I will read a summary or watch a video some day.
Btw, I have had some really great recommendation from book threads on HN.
- War and Peace
I was really enjoying it. Will definitely finish it someday.
________
I only read a book when it appears on my radar from multiple sources. HN threads, Reddit threads (not r/books pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-origina posts), people that I respect who talk about books (e.g. Paul Graham), books that appear on the bibliography of another book I am reading, etc.
Despite these checks and balances, I am surprised that I spent money for The Monk who Sold his Ferrari and How to Win Friends and Influence People.
- muzani 5y agoI'm actually quite willing to forgive sexism from old books. Remember, the book was written in 1936. It was a little after women got voting rights in the US, and it wasn't until WW2 when women were taking over the factories that equality seemed legit. Child marriage in my country wasn't only legal, it was encouraged at that time, because women were illiterate and "needed a good man". We've gone damn far in 3-4 generations. Books of the time were sexist. I was reading Aristotle's Poetics and it struck out as sexist - he said that women and slaves made for bad protagonists because of their lower class, unless it's a story about people in a lower class. Old books have a lot of good forgotten things, but they're usually much harder reads because you have to mentally filter out these things.
- lyaa 5y agoEvery time someone tells me they liked "How to Win Friends and Influence People" without mentioning some reservations about the sexist and classist content, I think less well of them. I have yet to regret doing so.
- lawlorino 5y ago> It's badly written, same old self-help cringe, and generic good advice packaged as something novel Sounds like my experience with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I'd had such high expectations for the book after seeing it praised in so many places online but it's just terrible.
- rg111 5y agoThanks for the heads up. I am not going to buy it then.
- playing_colours 5y agoImagine Dale Carnegie was born and grew 100 years later and wrote his book in our time. Do you think it would be the same? Maybe, he would address that cooking advice to both husbands and wives, would not he? Imagine yourself being born 100 years ago. Would not you think differently about those sexist parts of the book? You might actually find them useful if you were a regular American back then.