This is not about book listening but the greatest fun I have heard nowadays. I purchased a dozen to present them to friends and relatives. Makes me smile every time I take it in my hands.

Have you ever thought about the magic of magnetic phenomenon ?

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I have to rectify the report of the novel of WM. Paul Young – The Shack. As this post  is about how I prepared and listened to this book  I neither comment its theme nor contrast it with Richard Dawkins – The Greatest Show on Earth

• 250 pages total (including foreword, after words and acknowledgements)
• 4h 40min audio play time (on normal speed) or cc. 3h 30min on high speed (I usually play on 133% speed)

In this case I wanted to compare again reading against listening so I have read the first 90 pages at night then I carried on with listening the rest. I could not find any difference in the experience apart from that reading needed my half night and I was sleepy on the next day.

Reading makes the time slow down and you relax. Listening  in wasted time makes the time speed up and you feel juiced.

As The Shack is a relatively short novel it took only a few days to listen to it between 17.Nov. and 21.Nov.  during my driving time to the office and back and sitting on the training cycle. I hate cycling inroom in winter time so I must listen to some thrilling story.

Getting close to the finale of  Rita Monaldi – Imprimatur (sorry for beeing late with its review and report) I have just captured two new books what I will listen to.

Malcolm Glodwell – Outliers: The Story of Success was 292 pages and took 12min.13sec to grap all the pages to jpg.

Robert B. Cialdini – Influence: Science and Practice (5th edition)  was 330 pages and took 10min.21sec to shoot them (2 pages at one shot of course).

My machine is working on the conversions now so I will have the mp3 files soon.

I have used the new Studio 14 Ultimate version to edit my video.  I was glad to have the possibility to upgrade from my several year old version 9 to the latest version 14 for a friendly amount.

Pinnacle Studio 14 was really easy and intuitive to use however I have also suffered some unexpected freezes also. The software knows much more than I could take out of  it.

What is new in Studio 14 Ultimate:

• Use stop-motion capture for animations and fast-motion effects
• Fluid image stabilization technology from Avid used in major motion pictures
• Motion titling, new title designs
• DVD menus, effects and Montage themes
• Share straight to Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD, YouTube (with wide-screen export), the web, MP3 sound files
• Export movies for Flash, QuickTime, improved AVCHD, PS3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox
• Hollywood-style animations and transitions with over 80 Montage Themes

I could export to .flv (flash) on a low quality only so I had to use an other video conversion software ( Free FLV Converter ) which worked well.

You can buy (or upgrade to) the best promotional packages here:

Make movies the Easy and Affordable way with Pinnacle Studio Ultimate version 14 and Save up to $30!.

R. Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth.

• 496 pages total (including illustration photo pages, appendix, bibliography, acknowledgements, table of contents, etc.)
• 418 text pages
• 679 min (11 hrs 19 mins) audio play time (on normal speed) or cc. 9 hours on high speed (I usually play on 133% speed)

Data based on the Hungarian edition: R. Dawkins: A nagy mutatvány

See my book review here.

You can order the book from Amazon here The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Richard Dawkins wrote “The Greatest Show On Earth” to add his weight to the argument of natural selection vs. Creationism. In this step by step guide, he provides fact after fact that can be used in the argument against the people that believe in Creationism as the reason why we are here.

The book itself is incredibly interesting, entertaining and easy to follow. Most books of this type are complex but anyone could read this and fully understand the topic of evolutionary biology from start to finish. Dawkins discusses what we know and how we know it and, whether or not you have a grasp of biology, you can put the book down knowing exactly what he was trying to tell you. One of the only problems I had with the book is that it comes across as a little preachy. However, you can understand why when you see how many natural selection sceptics there are around. It is true that facts will not sway faith, but they will sway those in two minds.
Dawkins’ “The Greatest Show On Earth” is beautifully written and contains many funny chapters. One of my favourites is that dealing with the argument that evolution cannot be true because we never see the evolution. Although that argument does not make sense to me because evolution takes millions of years, it is apparently one of the biggest arguments against evolution. However, Dawkins absolutely rips it to shreds BEFORE pointing out that it does happen around us all the time and gives several convincing examples.

Another minor fault that I find with this book is that it uses some strange and controversial examples to grab peoples’ attention, which I find detracts from the overall message. However, despite the image of the Classics professor defending the existence of the Romans, the facts given arguing against common misinformation are incredibly simple to grasp and fully back the powerful idea of natural selection that has now been with us for over a century and a half.
In conclusion, “The Greatest Show On Earth” does have its faults. The language used is too angry to be persuasive and often comes across as a little patronizing at times. There are also metaphors used that need a little information before it is possible to get them from time to time. Regardless of all that though, it is a very good book for those wanting to understand science but never having the chance to do so in plain English before. Dawkins is an amazing writer who can convey exactly what we need to know to argue against Creationism whilst leaving little doubt about the validity of natural selection.

Thomas Friedman’s “The World Is Flat” is a fantastic book that reflects upon his commitment to inform his readers about the world at large. Travelling around the world to grab key points, Friedman seemed to open doors to those that were the best informed about the world we live in and the result of all this work is a coherent book on how the real world works.

“The World Is Flat” was first published in April 2006 and has become a major hit ever since, and it is easy to see why when you read the book. However, it is important to note that it has been updated several times since its original form became outdated pretty quickly. After all, the world does not stop so the book needed to encompass recent events as well. That is only one reason why the book is completely unique. Having said that, the title of the book does not appeal to me and seems a little strange now that I have read the book. After all, it is a metaphor for getting closer, going global and being more effective, but the world being flat is reminiscent of the days when the whole human race had it wrong.

The world is not flat but is becoming more complex, more exciting, more challenging for everyone and yet also more fun! Aside from my disagreement with the title, this is an essential book that absolutely everyone has to read. This especially those that want to understand and survive the modern world we live in.

Friedman explains exactly how the world has become flat in “The World Is Flat”, identifying ten forces that had a major impact. Two of the most important are the demolition of the Berlin Wall and reunion of East and West on 11/9/89 and the release of the first Netscape Internet browser on 8/9/95.

The above evens are just two of those identified but you can see how important both are to life today. Moreover, Friedman also looks at every important step in business from supply chaining at Wal-Mart to LINUX software development to located call centres in India so that they can receive calls from the US to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. We underestimate the importance of these today but Friedman brings us right back to acknowledge just how much they have changed our lives. In just one book, Friedman is able to take every reader on an amazing trip around the world. Not only can you read all about why life as we know it has changed.

Friedman does offer answers to commonly asked questions in “The World Is Flat” but he emphasizes the fact that the world is a crucial turning point right now. The world is changing and the pace of life is accelerating thanks to the thousands of miles of fiber-glass data lines under the sea. They place the entire world in one small box these days and that is out reality. It is a certainty that we will hear more from Friedman in the coming years because new and unique occurrences come into being every single day.