I originally discovered Steve Pavlina‘s blog when searching for public speaking, several years ago using Google. His blog led me to Toastmasters which I then discovered met in a hotel literally 100 yards from where I live in the UK!.
Since then I have followed his experiments with great interest using his blog as a model for everyone I meet who is interested in blogging (I have now introduced over 20 folks). A lot of what he says resonates with me particularly his attitudes to food (I became a vegetarian about 10 years ago) thinking and life in general (My favourite experiment was his experiments with polyphasic sleep, I’m convinced it drove his wife, Erin, nuts). Some things I disagree with like his attitude to mushrooms which he doesn’t view as a fruit and somehow considers them undesirable, this to me is weird for someone who is a convinced raw foodist.
I jumped at the chance of getting a free, prepublication, copy of his new book, Personal Development for
Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth (Hay House;
October 15, 2008), in exchange for writing this review. I was dismayed when the book arrived in pdf form rather than as a hard copy. So in true Pavlina fashion, how could I turn this setback into a positive outcome. The answer; do an electronic review, here it is:-
This is the full text of the book, 101,365 words according to wc (excluding external quotations), as processed by Wordle. I then ran the full text through a text analyser to discover the most frequent phases etc which is where the post title of truth love and power comes from, it is used in the book 111 times! The top two individual words are to, you.
The wordle sums up the book beautifully and is for me an excellent review. The book itself looks a good read (although without its physicality its impossible to review since a lot about buying a book is the form as much as the content) and I’m sure it will be succesful, although for my part its more interesting following Steve on his journey through life.
Note to publisher: None of the text files used by wordle etc have been stored
Powered by ScribeFire.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c5a7dbca-9142-412c-b7ac-4642fd9cf129)
What a great unique way to do a book review. the wordle is brilliant …..
Pingback: Just received Steves book...via PDF
Pingback: Just received Steves book...via PDF
Awesome review! I can't wait to read the book, but this is so… fitting.
Did you ever go to a Toastmasters meeting at Cambridge Speakers Club?
Good news – today I received gratis a hard copy of the book – thanks Hay's!
Michelle – I went to several meetings at the Gonville Hotel and in fact it is where I met Ellee who I set up her http://elleeseymour.com blog for
Pingback: Personal Development for Smart People Book Reviews
Pingback: Personal Development for Smart People Book Reviews | How to Make Money Blogging
Pingback: Geoff Jones » The Google monopoly!
Pingback: Personal Development for Smart People Book Reviews | Asteeeg! Beyond traditional careers and conventional lifestyle
and is for me an excellent review. The book itself looks a good read (although without its physicality its impossible to review since a lot about buying a book is the form as much as the content) and I’m sure it will be succesful
It would be interesting to see what would happen if you could let go of your ego enough to do the “strange” exercises in the book! Just drop thinking about what other people would think, and try something different!
Just want to say something about his dislike for mushroom. Hmmm, we really cannot please everybody LOL. Anyhow, I don’t think he will not like the idea of fabulous food hampers that are toxic-free… By the way, regarding the ebook, yes, its good too but for me, nothing can beat the essence of having it hard copied.
Just want to say something about his dislike for mushroom. Hmmm, we really cannot please everybody LOL. Anyhow, I don't think he will not like the idea of fabulous food hampers that are toxic-free… By the way, regarding the ebook, yes, its good too but for me, nothing can beat the essence of having it hard copied.