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Where I Buy My Books And How
As you may or may not know, I like to read books frequently. I aim at a bare minimum to read one full book a month. From time to time I may add an additional eBook to go alongside. This keeps the mind ticking, it keeps me progressing to where I want to get to and finally is a high valued hobby of mine. I don’t just buy books from anywhere and I always look for the best deals. Time and time again I find that Amazon is the place to go to get my books (later in the article I will tell you how I buy from Amazon). 
Usually once a month I go to Amazon and purchase the book I will read for a future month. I purchased a few books a few months back, So I am basically set for the rest of the year. Starting next year I may just buy 12 books in advance and have the reading set out already. What I would then do is purchase books also throughout the year and read them as I please. Some of you may be thinking by now Amazon isn’t nothing special, give me something new. For those of you thinking this way, we will now look at how I buy my books from Amazon. And I will use a few real life examples I have come across.
I have spoken in recent articles about how important recommendation is in today’s world. Many books I read have been recommended from others or by the books I have read. When I want to purchase a book I go to Amazon and search for the book. After finding the book (maybe one time I haven’t found the book). I click on the book and observe the price. What I then do if I haven’t checked reviews prior is read through reviews (good and bad). I want to see what people think about it. Some bad reviews may not be valid for me and vice versa with good reviews. After I have fully decided to buy the book, I immediately click on “USED.” No typo, yes the used section. And scout the price difference. What you will find is, usually the prices are dramatically different (remember I will show you real life examples below). I then look for the book which has a “Like new” or “Very good” next to it and this is my book. What you will find is these two types of descriptive books are just as good as the new copy you would have bought for sometimes 5x the price. You will begin to save loads of money and ultimately this is money you will pay for all your future books. Find my live examples below.
I purchased “The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas J Stanley” earlier this year for £0.63. With postage it ended up less than £3.50. This was a hardcover book which was “Like new” and looked like it had never been touched when I opened the envelope. To purchase the book “New” would have cost me £15 upwards from Amazon. I could buy 5 copies basically for the price of this one new book. The four other books will be the next four months (think about it).
I bought “Today Matters – John C Maxwell” for £1.58. Including postage it came to less than £4.50. This again was hardcover format. What I saw on Amazon’s site when I checked for a new copy can’t be right. For a new copy of the book, it would cost over £30 to purchase it. These are just two examples and I have more like this. The point is, you could be saving loads of money.
Back To Greek Day #1
If you are following my bike riding series, you will know from that I stress the hard parts of stopping something for so long and then aiming to come back and start again. Greek was another thing I had put down for a few months and I guess it was a good idea for me not to go to Greece a few months back because in terms of the lingo, I was nowhere near I wanted to be.
Here’s a picture of me looking over my work of previous months, becoming re-acquainted with the language and remembering the different letters of the alphabet, different rules about specific letters (if you zoom in to this picture you can see a rule I wrote down about the letter “s” which is sigma in Greek).
To be honest I didn’t do as much as I thought I would but it was mainly based on review and re-establishing the work I had done previously. I only spent a little while looking over the notes (I normally aim to practice for 45 minutes with a countdown timer running – this increases intensity and forces me (well it should do) to work at my best due to the fact there is a clock counting down).
I really did get the understanding back when I looked over my previous notes and I guess it is a good platform to start from. The main purpose for learning the Greek language is to take my Bible study to the next level, therefore I am not using something like Rosetta Stone or something like that. I am currently using a video class based on learning Bible Greek. It comprises of short 4-5 minute videos which I aim to do daily.
More updates in the future. Please et me know if you have any tips which can help me learn more efficiently within the scope of what I have described.
Take care.
Getting Back On The Bike Day #1
Getting back on the bike day #1 was something I knew would be interesting to write once I had the content to go with it. As well as my desire to write, the experiences I knew I would have once getting back on the bike day #1 had occurred. Day #1 for me occurred yesterday and it was like I anticipated – hard work. The first day is always the hardest and then it gradually gets easier.
Here is me on day #1 riding hard feeling like quitting but powering through. I ride for 15 minutes per session and at my peak I ride two times a day. I normally aim to ride about 4/5 miles so in total about 8/10 miles a day. A few years ago when I was riding on my normal bike, I would ride around 10 miles three times a week (minimum – some weekends I rode thirty miles) and burnt massive weight in a few months (unintentional). Right now I’m riding again just for fitness and to remain healthy (lets see what happens). The thing is, it is only 15 minutes and this is what provides solace when I’m on the bike but I try to keep it intense. I aim to beat my score from yesterday, aiming to make further distance in less time and things like that. It is a good start for me although it was really hard today – but I expected this coming in because I couldn’t even remember the last time I rode my bike. I’m not getting too ahead of myself but my brother does insanity work out pretty much every day (Pro Athlete) and I may move into that in the future (big may).
Anyway – 15 minutes later and my thighs are burning in a way I haven’ felt in months.
Doing things like working out only usually ever takes like an hour max but so many days go by and we just feel like there is no time to do it. My bike sessions take up thirty minutes of my day. Thirty minutes of 24 hours. Such a small time but such a big impact long-term.
As it was my first day back as you can see so far, I expected a hard time – what I didn’t anticipate were things which actually happened during. Mistakes which happened from rusty-ness. #1 – I wore the wrong trainers (I normally wear my running shoes for comfortability) but I couldn’t find them when it was time to ride so I just put on standard trainers (Don’t do that), it makes everything harder. #2 – The timer which is actually in the picture above fell off while I was riding so I couldn’t see the distance I actually rode, or the time. Favourably I had my Blackberry in the pocket and could check my time this way. It was only when someone came in the room and picked it up for me I could start collecting data again but 1/2 data isn’t full data. As these things actually happened, I said to myself, these are things which can occur when you haven’t done something in a long time. The lesson to learn from today’s class “Be prepared for mishaps.”
This is me after the session writing down my notes for this blog post. I managed to get all my notes into the post succinctly without writing an essay so well done on my part.
Other Mistakes Or Observations?
YES. I will list them below and not type too much about them to save you some time.
- Worked out on an empty stomach (limited energy – makes it harder)
- Limited fluids prior
- Early on I felt to quit (persisted though)
- Didn’t want to do it when it came round to it due to the initial energy going away as I waited hours to start riding – when you leave hours, doubt grief & energy all have the time to attack
One Day At A Time
The one day at a time rule means taking one day at a time. Lets say for example, every day you want to write a blog post. Perhaps setting a time every day to sit down and start writing may be the easiest way. Perhaps you’re so busy you just wait for an expected time in the day and start writing. One day at a time is a great principle. It is really simple. Every day you write down what needs to be done today and you go through the list. Long tasks which take longer than a day are broken down into days and after a certain amount of days the task is complete.
I do this task with book reading. I aim to read one main book each month and maybe a side book (like an ebook) alongside. The current book I am reading is about 300 pages, mathematically it would be about 10 pages a day but I don’t necessarily meet this requirement. For example, I read about 15-20 pages yesterday, today I may read more. I usually finish within the month and then spend the last days reviewing and rereading chapters. I remember when I read Today Matters by John Maxwell, I read the book in about 15-20 days and basically reread the book. Last month I finished reading my main monthly book in 10 days or so and barely touched the book again. One day at a time for me doesn’t mean I have to do the same things over and over again, but it does mean I need to give my best. Sometimes I adhere, other times I don’t. My aim is to obviously be consistent.
You don’t have to treat everything like this but if you slowly start to implement this strategy for tasks, you will start to reap it’s benefits.
God of the future, for the present man
The best thing potentially about God is perhaps his omnipresent nature. This means he valuable to those who know him intimately. For someone needing foresight, he can prove very useful. For example, Genesis 31 begins with Jacob discussing how God had favoured him and given him much of the substance of Laban. He proceeds to tell the story of how God by a dream instructed him of his blessings. This was something he knew before he even spoke to Laban about deciding his wages. God is past, present and future for us. He is whatever we need him to be. God instructed Jacob to pick the right cattle and he also told Jacob to go back to his homeland at the right time also. The present man Jacob was blessed with future awareness and this excelled him in his circumstance. I can testify of many times the god of the future has testified to me of things oncoming and how this gave me the opportunity to position myself in great stead.
We see these occurrences timely in the scripture and time and time again. The believer should also be able to testify of these things because God is just portraying his nature when he does so.
Moving on to another piece of text, lets use Joseph who was in prison as a case study. A few chapters on in Genesis 41, we see how from being in prison one day, the next he was the governor of the Egyptians. God had showed the people a dream and he was the only man found able to unlock the code from God. Everywhere but Egypt was famished and this made Egypt the place to be. People would come, increasing the demand for bread, meaning the price went up. Joseph, through God’s leading, positioned himself and the nation under his government in the best possible position. The God of the future helped the present man and took him from poverty and imprisonment, to wealth, respect and riches.
Jacob and his son Joseph both had intimate relationships with God and it was made known through there actions and their harvest.
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