book

The Going-To-Bed Book
$5.99
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton is a bedtime favorite in our household. My daughters (4 yrs. & 2.5 yrs) enthusiastically recite the story along with me as I read! This simple story of animals getting ready for bed (putting on pajamas, brushing teeth, exercising & finally getting in bed) on a boat is sure to please!

The Book of General Ignorance
$19.95
(With foreword by Stephen Fry and Four words by Alan Davies)

This number-one bestseller, will set you right.

Be the focus of any social gatherings with impressive historical knowledge as the number of wives Henry VIII did have; trivial data as the number of nostrils we have; the length of time a chicken can live without its head and brainstorming questions as, What has a three-second memory?

Other interesting facts as how polar bears disguise themselves will have you wondering how much you really know. As Stephen Fry says in the Foreword, `Read it wisely, Little One, for the power of ignorance is great.'

Alan Davies' four words, `Will this do, Stephen?' makes us think about what we believe we know and what the facts really are.

We find out other facts like who introduced tobacco and potato to England and who invented the telephone - not Alexander Graham Bell as we are lead to believe - surprising isn't it?

Culinary and scientific facts such as:
Where the popular Indian dish, Chicken Tikka Masala comes from - this is really interesting.
French toast and France - I hadn't have known this.
What makes a hunk-hunk noise - a natural response and amusing.
How many senses a human being have - I thought of 6 but there are more.
How many states of matter there are - very interesting scientific knowledge.
What is three times as dangerous as war - a true known fact.
What killed most sailors in an 18th century sea battle - this fact is surprising.
What we have Thomas Crapper to thank for - what we use daily and surprising too.
Who America was named after - not Amerigo Vespucci as widely thought - and someone I'd not heard of before.
Where baseball was invented - I hadn't have thought of this country.
Who the first American President was - not who I'd first thought of.
What George Washington's false teeth was made of - very interesting.
What is most likely to survive a nuclear war - not cockroaches as widely thought - something more scientifically expressed.

More importantly, who blew the nose off the Sphinx - amusing and surprising.

These facts will astonish even the non-culinary experts and trivial pursuit enthusiasts.

With humour, facts and anecdotal explanations, you'll become an expert at such `important' trivia and general knowledge that you'd be asked back to more social events and more than those you can fill in your diary.

Where the authors add a touch of humour, you'll like the explanations given and where facts are necessary, you'll like the way they set out the details so you can remember them well and have them stored in your vital memory bank for those occasions when you need to show how much you really know as opposed to how much others think they know and that will get you on a good footing for next time.

It's near Christmas so where Santa Claus is from is of the utmost importance - not Lapland or the North Pole as we would have thought but somewhere as far from my thoughts as you can imagine.

This has to be in your Christmas stocking - the recipient of this book will be forever thanking you for opening their eyes to facts we would never have known otherwise.

They will astonish even the literary, science and general knowledge quiz buffs.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
$12.99
The reader, Jim Dale, does a great job using a different voice for each character. When I listen, I forget that it is just one person reading the book! It is easy to get absorbed in the story.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
$16.00
GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.

GTD is based on making it easy to store, track and retrieve all information related to the things that need to get done. Allen suggests that many of the mental blocks we encounter are caused by insufficient 'front-end' planning (i.e., for any project we need to clarify what is to be achieved and what specific actions are needed to achieve it). It is most practical, according to Allen, to do this thinking in advance, generating a series of actions which we can later undertake without any further planning. Allen contends that our mental "reminder system" is inefficient and seldom reminds us of what we need to do at the time and place that we can do it. Consequently, the "next actions" act as an external support which ensures that we are presented with the right reminders at the right time.

The core principles of GTD are...

COLLECT:

The notion of stress-free productivity starts with off-loading what needs to get done from one's head, capturing everything that is necessary to track, remember, or take action on, into what Allen calls a bucket: a physical inbox, an email inbox, a tape recorder, a notebook, a PDA, a desktop, etc. The idea is to get everything out of one's head and into a collection device, ready for processing. All buckets should be emptied (processed) at least once per week.

PROCESS:

When processing a bucket, a strict workflow is required. If it takes under two minutes to do something, it should be done immediately. The two-minute rule is a guideline, encompassing roughly the time it would take to formally defer the action.

ORGANIZE:

Allen describes a suggested set of lists which can be used to keep track of items awaiting attention, including a calendar which is important for keeping track of appointments and commitments; however, Allen specifically recommends that the calendar be reserved for the hard landscape: things which absolutely have to be done by a particular deadline, or meetings and appointments which are fixed in time and place. To-do items should be reserved for the next action lists.

REVIEW:

The lists of actions and reminders will be of little use if not reviewed at least daily, or whenever possible. Given the time, energy and resources available at a particular moment, one must decide the most important task to be done immediately, and do it. If one is inclined to procrastinate, one may end up always doing the easy tasks and avoiding the difficult ones. To solve this, one can decide to do the actions of the list one by one, following their order, just like processing an inbox.

DO:

Any organizational system is no good if excessive time is spent organizing tasks instead of actually doing them. Allen's contention is that if one can make it simple, easy, and fun to take the necessary actions, one will be less inclined to procrastinate or become overwhelmed with too many 'open loops'.

Phew! It's a lot, but it's a lot of useful information and a foolproof system once you get it all down.

My other favorite business read this year is Emotional Intelligence 2.0