The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Book List’ Category

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Black History Month – Booker T Washington, Principal, Tuskegee Institute and Author of Up From Slavery and Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe.

Adventures in Learning

How does a phenomenon get started? You’ve all heard the phrase six degrees of separation, which is the idea that any two people in the world can be connected through six steps or less, through a chain of intermediaries.

Adventures in Learning: Six Degrees of Separation 

Booked for Mentoring

The Count of Monte Cristoby Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) is one of the best books that I have read, and if you love a good story filled with drama, then this is the book for you. I was very captivated and wanted to find out how the story ended. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, but you do not always get what you want. With any good book, there are many life lessons embedded in the story, as well as big ideas.

Image via Wikipedia

Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Born into slavery, Booker T Washington was one of the leading African American figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1881, on the recommendation of his mentor Samuel Armstrong, a former Union Army general, Washington was placed in charge of the Tuskegee Negro Normal Institute. He received $2,000 from the government for salaries, but there was no campus, buildings, students or staff. When Washington died in 1915, Tuskegee Institute had 1,500 students enrolled, 250 faculty members and the largest endowment for any African American Institution, not bad for someone who was born a slave.

Black History Month – Booker T. Washington, Principal, Tuskegee Institute and Author of Up From Slavery 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe. A big message from Gunn is radical self-reliance – mentors are great, and having partners are great, however, there are times when you have to move forward even if it means going it alone. Here are Part One and Part Two of Nathon Gunn’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Related articles

• Mentor Yourself With Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe Part II (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Mentor Yourself With Nathon Gunn, CEO, Social Game Universe (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: Six Degrees of Separation (theinvisiblementor.com)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) is one of the best books that I have read, and if you love a good story filled with drama, then this is the book for you. I was very captivated and wanted to find out how the story ended. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, but you do not always get what you want. With any good book, there are many life lessons embedded in the story, as well as big ideas.

At over 500 pages, the Penguin, Signet Classic version of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is an abridged version, so the original must have been very long. While reading the book, I didn’t feel as if I missed anything. The book was first published in a serialized format from 1844-1845.

The Count Of Monte Cristo Theatrical Trailer HD

If you cannot view the YouTube movie trailer of The Count of Monte Cristo, please click here.

In the story, 19 year old Edmond Dantès, a sailor, has just returned from a voyage. Dantès has a very happy personality and is very grateful for life. After being away for a few months, he goes to visit his father and then on to see his beloved Mercedes. While on the voyage, Captain Leclère dies from brain fever, but before this happens, he givse Dantès two envelops to deliver. Though Dantes is quite young he captains the Pharaon to their final destination – Marseilles. Before he docks the ship, Dantès takes the time to deliver one of the letters.

Dantès and Mercédès are deeply in love and plan to get married. Monsieur Fernand Mondego is also in love with Mercédès and is jealous of Dantès. Monsieur Danglars, the purser of the Pharaon, is envious of Dantès because the owner of the Pharaon, M. Morrel makes him the new ship captain. During the bethrothal feast, Dantès is arrested for being a Bonapartist faction, but is not told anything about the charges.

During Dantès’ examination by M. de Villefort, the Deputy Procureur Du Roi, believes what he is hearing, but when he reads the second letter that Dantès is supposed to deliver, he is quite frightened and burns the letter, telling the young man not to ever tell anyone about the letter suggesting that the contents would harm him. The letter that Dantès is supposed to deliver is addressed to M. de Villefort’s father, who is a Bonapartist. If anyone sees the letter it would be damaging to  M. de Villefort’s career. Dantès is very naive and believes that he will be freed, but that wasn’t to be the case. He is imprisoned at the Château d’If for 14 years.

While in the prison dungeon, Dantès is quite distraught and thinks of ways to kill himself. He also thinks of ways to escape his prison, and tries to dig his way out. One day he hears a sound and realizes that there is another prisoner as well in the dungeon of the prison. He calls out to the prisoner, and after a short time they are able to meet each other face-to-face via a tunnel they dig.

The next part of the story is critical to the plot because it’s the point in Dantès’ life when he becomes awakened. His fellow inmate is a learned priest, Abbé Faria, who is also condemned to lifelong imprisonment. Abbé Faria also has an escape plan. Both can relate to each other because they are wrongfully accused. Abbé Faria asks Dantès to relate everything that happened to him prior to imprisonment and they would figure out what really happened. The important thing that Faria wants to know is who stood to gain the most from Dantès imprisonment – surprise, surprise, Fernand and Danglars.

The priest was regretful that he helped Dantès to figure out the people who did him wrong, because he loses his innocence and now wants revenge. Abbé Faria becomes a mentor to Dantès, and he is a worthy one. At the time, Dantès had been in prison four or five years. The priest commits to teaching Dantès all he knows during the next two years and they draw up a plan to do so. He teaches Dantès history, mathematics, physics and the three or four languages he knew. Dantès’ mind was like a sponge, “Dantès had a prodigious memory and a great facility for assimilation. The mathematical turn of his mind gave him aptitude for all kinds of calculation, while the sense of poetry that is in every sailor gave life to dryness of figures and severity of lines.

Abbé Faria and Dantès develop a true friendship, one of give and take, and they develop a great trust between each other. The priest however suffers from cataleptic fits and has one. He had the opportunity to tell Dantes what to do and the young man gives him the medicine and brings him back from the brink.

Abbé Faria discloses the whereabouts of a treasure that he will seek when he escapes from prison and offers Dantès half when they escape. These two men demonstrate patience while they execute their escape plan. Though Dantès wants revenge against those who did him wrong, there is much goodness within him, and even when freedom is close by, he decides to stay with the priest. The priest tells him when he dies, Dantès should execute the escape plan and all the treasure is his. When Abbé Faria has the third attack, it’s fatal.

When the gaolers do their daily check on the prisoners in the dungeon they realize that Abbé Faria is dead. The priest is placed in a death sack for burial. Dantès gets the idea to swap the priests body and lie in the death sack, so he makes the switch. He makes sure that he has an implement to dig himself out of the grave. Dantès does not realize that inmates have a watery grave because they are thrown into the sea. They weight him down so the body will sink when thrown into the sea, and fortunately for him he has a knife and uses it to free himself, and his ability as a strong swimmer saves him.

Dantès is picked up by pirates and has a prepared story about who he is. Even though he is free, he doesn’t seek the treasure immediately, instead he spends months working as a sailor for the pirates until the time is right, timing is always everything. The treasure is exactly where Abbé Faria figured out where it would be and it is vast. Dantès becomes the Count of Monte Cristo, and because so many years has elapsed since he was imprisoned, his features have changed, so his old “friends” are not able to recognize him. However, he is able to recognize all of them.

Abbé Faria trained and mentored Dantès well, so he knows what it is like to be patient, and one of the things that I admire about him is that he also uses some of the treasure to do good. The story really takes off from here as he investigates and learns how his father died and what became of his love, Mercédès. Fernand has married Mercédès and is now known as Count de Morcerf.

The story is actually quite gripping, and Dantès masterfully executes his plan of revenge against those who harmed him. Mercédès discovers that Dantès is the Count of Monte Cristo and appeals to him to spare her son’s life, when the two are supposed to fight a duel. He listens to her, which says that he has not lost all his compassion and goodness. The key players who had a hand in his imprisonment suffer terribly.

Maybe I expect too much, but I didn’t find the end of the story gratify, it feels unfinished to me.

Lessons from The Count of Monte Cristo

• Having mentors in life is so important.
• Money should not be hoarded but used to help others to do good.
• Revenge is never a good thing.
• Feed your mind and master the fundamental knowledge in your field.
• Be compassionate.
• Forgive, forgive, and forgive.

People who read The Invisible Mentor regularly know that I am trying to read the classics, and have been struggling because they move so slowly. The Count of Monte Cristo is gripping and has so much to offer, especially when you read actively. The book is not among the must read classic literature, but I highly recommend The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. If you want to to purchase The Count of Monte Cristo movie (Click the link. I recommend that you read the book, but I recognize that not everyone enjoys reading as much as I do).

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Further Reading

• Interview With Invisible Mentor Sean MacDonald, Lawyer for the Wrongfully Convicted
• Interview With Invisible Mentor Sean MacDonald, Lawyer for Wrongfully Convicted Part Two
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas – BBC Radio Drama
• Review: The Count of Monte Cristo
• Alexandre Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged)
• The count of Monte Cristo Download from Gutenberg.org

Book link is affiliate link.

Video Credit: Uploaded by ShauntProductions on Apr 3, 2010

How many books do you read each month? And when you read, what do you read? I have always enjoyed reading, even when I was a child. Today, I work hard at expanding my menu choices when it comes to reading. Over 10 years ago, while listening to Earl Nightingale’s Lead the Field, he recommended that we should read a book a week. I took that to heart, and was very intentional about reading four books a month.

Two years later, I decided to push myself and read more, which I have kept on doing, until last year I read 200 books. I am not saying this to brag, but reading forces me to think, and I find that I get to know myself a lot better in the process. As an active reader, reading often transports me into another world, and if I’m reading fiction, I am taken into the lives of the characters, and often have to check the qualities in myself that I detest in the characters. Setting a reading goal a achieving it, has taught me that when I commit fully to achieving a goal, I do so.

The Invisible Mentor blog is an educational one, so with that in mind, I’m inviting my readers on an adventure in learning, which is taking place all of 2012. You do not have to read 200 books – I read a lot for my consulting business – but I would like you to read one book a week, so at the end of 2012, you would have read 52 books. It’s a couple of weeks into the new year, so you have to play a little bit of catch-up.

Here are a few books that are on my reading pile for this year. Some of the books I have seen the films, but have never read the books. I will be more intentional about reading classic literature. I have struggled with focusing on classic literature, and the reason could be that the plots often move at the speed of molasses, so I put them aside and read books that I find more exciting. The best approach for me is to carve out at least three hours, or until I get to the point where I know that I have to finish the book. That’s the only way I will get through more of the classics this year.

As you will notice from the books on the list, some of them were all the rage in 2011, but I don’t necessarily follow the crowds, I skip to the beat of my own drum. All the books on the list I have them already. Choose some of the books from my list. As soon as I read and review the books, I will return to this post and add the links to the review.

I have this idea, which has been percolating in my mind for a while now, and that is to have a faceoff between books, when I do the reviews for Booked for Mentoring. What I have in mind, is to have two reviews of very different books, then find a way to connect them with the key takeaways. Let’s see how that works out.

Booked for Mentoring 2012 Reading List

1. Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1), Frank Herbert
2. The Letters of Pliny the Younger
3. Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini
4. The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy
5. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
6. Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
7. The Sleepwalkers, Paul Grossman
8. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
9. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Blake
10. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials), Robert Cialdini
11. From This Moment On, Shania Twain
12. Why I am So Wise (Great Ideas), Friedrich Nietzche
13. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World, Penny Colman
14. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, Julie Powell
15. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert
16. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
17. How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker
18. The Fountainhead, (Ayn Rand Box Set: Atlas Shrugged/ The Fountainhead) Ayn Rand
19. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackery
20. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
21. Moby-Dick (Vintage Classics), Herman Melville
22. Nicholas Nickleby (Arcturus Paperback Classics), Charles Dickens
23. Dracula (Dover Thrift Editions), Bram Stoker
24. Silas Marner (Dover Thrift Editions), George Eliot
25. David Copperfield (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
26. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink
27. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
29. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine Benyus
30. Anne Of Green Gables : Three In One Set : Complete And Unabridged: Anne Of Green Gables : Anne Of Avonlea : Anne Of The Island, L. M. Montgomery
31. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
32. Emma (Dover Thrift Editions), Jane Austen
33. Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Dover Thrift Editions), Thomas Hardy
34. Profiles in Courage (P.S.), John F. Kennedy
35. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
36. The Portrait of a Lady – Volume 1, Henry James
37. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
38. The Old Curiosity Shop (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
39. The Last of the Mohicans (Signet Classics), James Fenmore Cooper
40. Little Women (Sterling Classics), Louisa May Scott
41. Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
42. The Magus, John Fowles
43. Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry, Stephen Denny
44. Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us, Erik Calonius
45. Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, Paul Allen
46. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
47. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
48. Roughing It, Mark Twain
49. Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda
50. Of Human Bondage (Modern Library Classics), W. Somerset Maugham
51. Captain Cook’s Journal, First Voyage
52. Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzche
53. The Invisible Man, H. G. Wells
54. Paradise Lost, (Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Signet Classics)) John Milton
55. Paradise Regained, John Milton
56. Ulysses, James Joyce
57. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
58. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
59. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay
60. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Other Books for Mentoring

Founders and VCs Reveal 21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

10 Great Beach Reads That Will Make You Sharper When You Return To The Office 

As you will notice from the list of books that I intend to read in 2012, only a few of them are business books. I do not read many business books because most of them do not make you think. The most successful people do not read business books either, instead, they read the kind of books that are on my list. Let’s read together in 2012!

Further Reading

Life Lessons from the Great Books

The Business Case for Reading Novels

Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books

10 Benefits Of Reading!

Read a Book a Week

Watch This. No. Read It!

10 Ways Reading the Great Books Can Improve Your Life 

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: DIY Mentoring Program, Mini Reviews of Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason, Faithful Place by Tana French and The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin, 2011 Interviews and Book for Mentoring.

Mondays at the Salon

It may seem weird to you that there is such a thing as a do-it-yourself mentoring program. We have been conditioned to think of mentoring in a certain way, in a traditional way, where someone, usually at a senior level, advises and guides another person at a more junior level. Before you create a mentoring program for yourself, first you have to understand what mentoring is, as well as determine what your true needs are, so that you seek appropriate mentors and tap into relevant networks.

Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program 

Booked on Tuesdays

I have mentioned previously that I am reading the classics and also the books on Gene Waddell’s list, “Using Rare Books to Inspire Learning.”  But sometimes I need a break from those books and want something a little different on the menu. Knowing that I love mysteries, thrillers and drama, a friend loaned me five books.

Stepping into the Great Unknown – Mini Reviews of Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason, Faithful Place by Tana French and The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin 

Wisdom Wednesdays

Jane Addams was a pacifist and strongly believed that war was not an appropriate solution to disputes – her family followed the Quaker faith which valued hard work and change through peaceful efforts. She worked tirelessly to promote peace by mobilizing people to form groups to advocate for peace. Addams’ efforts resulted in receiving a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, the first woman in the US to be awarded that prize. She was also a social reformer and in 1889, co-founded Hull House, the first settlement agency to serve immigrant families, which is still operating today. Addams helped to launch the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and served on its executive committee.

Wise People: Jane Addams, Pioneer in Social Reform, Founder of Hull House and First American Woman to be Awarded a Nobel Peace Prize 

Perspective Thursdays and Workshop Fridays

This week I featured many of the interviews I personally conducted, and books I have enjoyed in 2011. In case you missed some of the interviews and books I reviewed, you can easily access them now.

2011 Interviews for Mentoring

2011 Books for Mentoring 

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Some of the book links are affiliate links.

Reading gives me great pleasure, so I spend a lot of time indulging myself. I also find that I am mentored by the books that I read, even novels, and books often shape my thinking. I try to read many different genres in a quest to be more creative in my thinking. I recently discovered that the books that I read were not as diverse as I thought, if you look at where the authors originate from.

Below is a list of some of the books that I have enjoyed this year, how many on the list have you read? This is a sampling because I have read over 150 books since the start of 2011. If I have reviewed the book, I have included the link to the review. From now on, when you read, assume that the book that you are reading is an invisible mentor and try to glean as much as possible from it.

Cover of The Hunger Games

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series

1. Foundation
2. Foundation and Empire
3. Second Foundation
4. Foundation’s Edge
5. Foundation and Earth
6. Forward the Foundation

Review of Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

A Look at Foundation’s Edge, Foundation and Earth and Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov

After reading most of the books from the Foundation series, I started to enjoy science fiction and fantasy more.

Alex Archer’s Rogue Angel Series

Alex Archer is a pen name for a number of authors who write the books which come out every other month. The books will unlikely win any literary award but I happen to like the protagonist Anja Creed. Trouble finds Anja wherever she goes, and I like the books best when she uses her brain to get her out of tight situations. She has inherited Joan of Arc’s sword, which she uses in fights. Anja is a globetrotting archaeologist.

1. Phantom Prospect
2. Restless Soul
3. False Horizon
4. The Other Crowd
5. The Oracle’s Message
6. Tears of the Gods

Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games Trilogy

1. The Hunger Games Boxed Set
2. Catching Fire
3. Mockingjay

The Hunger Games is This Year’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Other Books

1. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
2. Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki
3. The Way of the Samurai, Inazo Nitobe
4. How to Read Like a Professor, Thomas Foster
5. The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
6. The Collectibles, James Kaufman
7. Hold Tight, Harlan Coben
8. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
9. Four Seasons The Story of a Business Philosophy, Isadore Sharp
10. How to Write & Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit, Bob Bly
11. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, Translated by Edward Fitzgerald
12. Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
13. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
14. Analects of Confucius
15. Keeper of the Light, Diane Chamberlain
16. A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen
17. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
18. Evil Plans, Hugh MacLeod
19. Poke the Box, Seth Godin
20. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D H Lawrence
21. The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
22. Empire State of Mind, Zack O’Malley Greenburg
23. The Big Leap, Gay Hendriks
24. The Gambler, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
25. Geronimo’s Story of His Life, S. M. Barrett
26. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
27. A Short History of the World, J. Milnor Dorey
28. Greek Gods and Heroes, Robert Graves
29. Stories from Greek Drama, Winifred Mulley
30. The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler
31. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
32. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
33. Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Some of the book links are affiliate links.