Learning to Kill Lincoln AND Read Financial Reports

It's been awhile since my  last update on the books I'm reading. So long that I have started and finished several books since then. So, I figured now is as good a time as any to give my thoughts on the books I'm reading and have read.

How to Read A Financial Report - By John Tracy
This one is about as boring and dry as it sounds. Not exactly the most entertaining read. But I learned quite a bit from the book. He explains things like accounts receivable, accounts payable, assets, liabilities, revenue, depreciation, and on and on. Things you would find on a -- you guessed it -- Financial Report. He goes into pretty deep detail on how to read correlations between the three different parts of the report that aren't spelled out in the report itself. The first half of the book was very interesting, but then he started getting into accounting best practices and things that I didn't care too much about. I still stuck with it to the end though and actually picked up some random nuggets that might come in handy someday.

Killing Lincoln - By Bill O'Reilly
The first book on history I have read outside of school-assigned reading probably ever! I actually enjoyed it though. It was a nice change of pace and I actually learned quite a bit about President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, the Civil War, and several other important figures around that time. My only complaint is that it got a little gruesome near the end. Mr. O'Reilly goes into a little too much gory detail, for my taste, of Lincoln's death and some of the other attempted murders surrounding his assassination (attempted murders that I never knew happened). I doubt that I will read it again anytime soon since war history isn't super high on my priority list. But overall it was a good book and I came away with a better understanding of a lot of things.

Outliers - By Malcolm Gladwell
This book was very interesting. It is definitely a thought-provoking book and a different look at how really successful people, outliers, reach their level of success. Mr. Gladwell really did his homework on some of the big names, successful cultures, and professional athletes/musicians and the reasons they succeeded; people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Bill Joy (founder of Sun Microsystems). Unlike the common "self-made man" viewpoint many American's embrace, Mr. Gladwell shows the many factors that went into the reasons that these men prospered. For instance, most of the big names in the computer industry were all born around the same time period (1955-1956). Being born at this time put them at the precise age when computers just started to take off to take advantage of them and get a head start on everyone. There are many more factors, but I won't get into them. It was definitely a philosophical book and made me think. I am sure I missed lot's of good stuff so it definitely has made it onto my "Books to Read Again" list.

Currently Reading
Be Skillful - I'm still working my way through this book in my devotions. It's going pretty slow because it references many passages of scripture and I have been looking them all up as I go. Using it as kind of a study aid. I have really been enjoying it though.
Quitter by John Acuff- I'm about half way through this book. It's an excellent read so far. The author is a funny guy and he has some excellent ideas on how to be a hard worker and work your dream job on the side while still keeping your day job to support you.
And of course my behemoth JavaScript book that I am working through. We will see when that gets finished, most likely it will be a few months!