Category Archives: Books

Inside Little Britain

Just finished reading Inside Little Britain few days ago (thanks again Randwick Library). It’s a biography of David Walliams and Matt Lucas on their hit TV comedy Little Britain. I admire their talent as comedians (and actors?), so it was a good read finding a little bit more about these guys.

Number 9 finished.

Margaret Lomas Books

I have finished reading 2 of Margaret Lomas’ books:

  1. How to Create an Income for Life
  2. A Pocket Guide to Investing in Positive Cash Flow Property

I quite enjoying reading both books, they teach me a great deal about buying property for investment. Most of us are already familiar with the concept of negative gearing and positive gearing for investment. In her books, Margaret is introducing another nature of investment called Positive Cash Flow Property, in essence it’s having negatively geared property that puts money into your pocket rather than taking it (in traditional negative geared situation). The way this can be achieved is by on paper deductions via depreciations. That’s it, that’s the most important message that is being driven by her.

The pocket guide is indispensable, as it has numerous checklists that can be used in different stages on acquiring property. I actually borrowed that one from LA, I most definitely buy it next time Borders runs its 40% off promotion.

These two mean that I have finished my 6th and 7th books this year.

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

There aren’t that many books that I want to re-read, this is definitely on the my list to read again books (others that I want to read again would be Point Man and Mere Christianity).

I found the chapter on “We died to sin” to be quite enlightening and personally helped me with my struggle with guilt.

I also being reminded that small (he calls it refined) sins are sins nonetheless, that I still need to repent of these sins (and the big ones as well!). After reading this book, I’m being reminded on how sinful I am, in fact I am become convinced that there’s not one of my waking hour that I am not sinning. And yet I was reminded of the grace upon it I should pursue holiness.

Not an easy read, at times I feel the author keep on talking about the same thing again and again, but there are parts of the book that really changed, challenged and corrected my way of thinking and living.

And this is the 5th book finished the year and the 1st book that I would strongly recommend for Christians to read.

Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph

EW has kindly lend me this book. The book is quite light and easy to read, it’s written by an Aussie. It’s not only informative but it also contains quite a few of real life stories (although I found some of them are not easy to relate for someone with Asian background).

Few points that I take from the book:

  • Boys need different role models in different stages of life, for example: in teenage years, boys might seek other role models other than the parents, hence as parents we should be able to find suitable models for the boys otherwise they might seek at the wrong places.
  • As boys develop their motor (or verbal?) skills slower than the girls, sometime it’s wise to delay start of school by a year. Personally, i am not convinced, will wait and see whether this is actually the case.

I was quite shock with the book’s treatment of boy’s sexuality (although I probably should’ve expected something like this from a secular point of view). Things like pre-marital sex, pornography etc2 are encouraged “provided” that they are done correctly (or safely). I am pretty sure that I am not going to recommend this book for friends based on that section alone. Again given the wealth of Christian literature nowadays, I am pretty sure better books with more God centered message can be found.

And that’s the 4th book finished this year, yay!