Sunday, April 5, 2015

Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

This is the longest book I have read for the last 10 years. Its 624 pages and I have taken about 2 months to finish it. On the Kindle, I must say that it is good in the fact that the size and font type of the words are just good for reading. And that the fact that the kindle is lighter than the actual book and you do not need to hold onto the pages, it has been a good read. The not so good part is that for the 624 pages in the actual book, there are >1000 pages in the kindle to "flip". Overall, it has been a good gadget for reading. I will definitely continue reading my books on the kindle, though I wish there are cheaper ways of getting some books.

In this book, Richard Branson started by describing his life from his childhood. His mother trained him from young to be independent and resourceful. As a young man in the UK, he was daring and experimential. He started his 1st business in school with a student magazine. His profitable business was Virgin Music with hippier stores for customers to browse and chat. Then come Virgin Records where his signing of Mike Oldfield recorded the "Tubular Bells". From there onwards, Virgin Records has signed a number of higher flying music artists. During this period, Virgin group expanded into a network of Virgin businesses, such as Virgin Holidays, Virgin Cars etc.

Richard Branson is now known for his transport business. He sold his music businesses and focused mainly on his airline and rail businesses. He described his ups and downs, including battle with British Airways, and the American government. He has also been the adventurous type. He sailed a boat and flew over the Atlantic in a hot air balloon. The last parts of the book surrounds mainly around 2005-7 where Richard was steering more on space travel, going green and helping Africa in battling health issues.

There are many "never say die" attitude situations in this book. Good for motivation and maybe inspiring some to take some unusual paths to reach greater heights in career and life.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Kindle

I had thought of buying a kindle for quite a while but always forego that as my tablet should be able to read books right? I have always brought 2 books with me to my trips overseas. I try to read as much as I could during my trips. Usually, I will pick those books which are easier reads and shorter read(less than 200 pages) so that i can finish them during the trip and is light in my luggage.

Recently, i see the benefits of a kindle. I also saw another version, the Nook. Though I have not done any comparisons, i think they are similar.

I saw there was a discount website selling the paperwhite version and was interested. My wife saw me surfing the website and asked if i want one as my present.

Of course I said YES! and here i have a Kindle Paperwhite  :)

I have a list of books that I want to read. I immediately surfed the kindle website and purchased 2 books. The 1st one is Richard Branson's 1st biography, Losing my Virginity. I must say that with the Kindle, I am definitely reading more.

Ok. Will write my 1st Kindle book review....hopefully soon.