Rating: 4 stars
Coming up to the New Year, we were thinking of new ways to make life just a little bit better; nothing major, just some fine tuning to start 2010 off right. I think we found it. Whether it's working on your willpower, improving sales techniques or garnering a better understanding of credit cards, The Skinny On™ series of books has something for everyone.
The Skinny On™ books are like Cliff Notes for those with limited time or attention spans (or both). Each book is written in a direct, straight forward, yet humorous manner; cutting out all the hot air that most business/self-help books seem to pride themselves on—all while being narrated by a stick figure.
Author, Jim Randel, takes a specific subject and gets right to the heart of the matter, supplementing his thoughts, ideas and views with examples from other quality books and authors with similar or contrasting POVs. Additionally, Randall simplifies some of the “top” business books to their main core premise; which is a great service to readers who might be a bit daunted by the subject matter.
Jim Randel’s easy to read book series takes very little time for big gains, providing plenty of food-for-thought, as well as practical, useful, advice; with the added bonus of exposing the reader to additional titles to continue their quest on a particular topic.
If I had to pick my favorite between the first two books I read, Time Management and Success, I’ll take Success. That’s not to say that TM was lacking in any capacity, there was plenty of good advice and easy to implement ideas. Success was packed with interesting facts, anecdotes and useful suggestions, with great use of supporting titles; some of which I’ve read and others that I definitely plan to.
Jim Randel might be on to something here. By taking a specific subject and breaking it down into easy-to-understand terms, while providing the tools for the reader to learn much more on the subject if they choose to. Watch out Idiot's and Dummies, The Skinny On is coming.
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Skinny On: Success
Perfect Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: RAND Publishing; First edition (November 15, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-0981893594
Time Management
Perfect Paperback: 215 pages
Publisher: RAND Publishing (January 15, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0984139392