Life Before Life by Richard Eyre

8/10

Second post in one week, I am rolling. I read this little book back in 2005. I remember the year because I read it while living with the Powell's in Provo. I actually read the whole thing on the toilet a la my Dad. It's true.

It is a pretty quick read and full of solid quotes and thoughts about the pre-existence. If I remember correctly, the book wasn't so much about what life was like before we came to earth but more about what it means and how it helps us knowing that we did in fact live before we came to earth. It's a good uplifter type of book, kind of in the mold of Stephen Covey's stuff. It's worth the time to read and could actually be taken care of in just a few days. So there you have it.

I leave you with some quotes:

The book opens with an awesome William Wordsworth poem:
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home."

"Because we are spiritual beings we have spiritual memories, memories that are dim but not gone, veiled but not blocked. Thus spiritual truths resonate; they feel right. They ring true. They have about them a spiritual logic and light."

"God's commitment to our agency does not lessen His interest in us."

"Belief in life after life gives us hope. Belief in life before life gives us worth."

"Knowing about living before can change everything about living now."

"In the purity of little children, we see God."

"True faith comes when we trust that God's methods are beyond us but that His motives are for us."

"Believing and living are integrated parts of a two-way street. Believing something helps us to live it because we want to, and living something helps us to believe it because it works."

The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

4/10

Time to dust off the old blog cover for another post. I read this book probably seven years ago. I remember it well. I read it for extra credit for my Information Systems class. I read probably a little less than half and then wrote up a little paper about it and voila, hello barely getting a B. I then actually finished the book a few years later, I believe in 2009. Yes, because I remember playing an all-day softball tournament in Delta (where we took 2nd place and I got a long sleeve t-shirt that has since served as my pajama shirt during the winter months) and I brought this book to read during the breaks between games. I was reading it on the bleachers without the book cover and someone legitimately thought I was reading Twilight. Then another person, after being told the title, thought that the book was about a person who really believed that the world was literally flat.

Now with that long intro that has nothing to do with the actual book, I will give my very brief thoughts about the book. It was a sometimes interesting, sometimes boring book about how the playing field has been leveled, businesswise. A kid in his basement can innovate and compete in the marketplace because he has access to many of the same tools as the big guys. Or something like that. And companies need to realize this and make adjustments accordingly. And how places like India are taking advantage of the flatness of the world what with their call centers and such.

It was ok to read, not my cup of tea obviously because I'm not too smartsy in this area and couldn't always keep up with the computer lingo and concepts. But, I have read it and thus am posting about it in my books that I've read blog.

Some quotes:

"Change is hardest on those caught by surprise."

"All of us are smarter than one of us."

"In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears - and that is our problem."

"Remember, in China when you are one in a million - there are thirteen hundred other people just like you."

Quoting Will Rogers: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Quoting Winston Churchill: "To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day."