Digital Tablets are wonderful devices for consuming content with. And together with YouTube and Vimeo, Ebooks have become one of the favourite uses of my iPad. I still recall the day I saw the iPad for the first time and like the iPhone before it, I knew it was going to change things forever.
Both for those who enjoy consuming content and, even more markedly, those who create it.
If you have a brand new tablet gifted to you for Christmas, then be thankful. You now have a device that gives you access to a whole world of ebooks to consume in an incredibly convenient way.
I’ve become a huge Ebook fan in recent times and while I still enjoy the sense of occasion of sitting down with one of my favourite thick, heavy coffee table books full of beautiful photography, the sheer convenience of Ebook purchase, delivery and transportation makes me a huge fan.
There are various platforms to purchase ebooks on, the biggest of course being Amazon. Even if you have a conventional tablet and not the Kindle reader, you need not worry. Simply install the free Kinder Reader app for your device and away you go.
So if you’re looking at your shiny new iPad or other tablet and you’re wondering what to install after Facebook, here’s my list of some great books that you’ll enjoy reading, together with my take on why they’re worth buying and downloading.
Tim Ferris – Four Hour Work Week
The title of Tim’s book is like a great many out there right now. It’s important that you look past the ‘click bait’, it’s a great book.
The cutesy American style of title designed to offer dreams and riches and minimal effort actually turned me off initially. In fact, Four Hour Work Week is a great productivity book, even if you have no desire to be an ‘entrepreneur’ in business.
Tim illustrates what many of us now know today. That the old working practice of getting a job, paying into a pension and hoping to live long enough to retire, is no longer working in today’s world.
Four Hour Work Week gives an alternative view of a different lifestyle. While the title may promise a life of leisure, inside the book, Tim goes into detail about the many facets of his concept, including the most important one of all.
That if you desire a Four Hour Work Week, it doesn’t come overnight.
Like all of the successful online business people I admire today, there were many years of hard work that came before the digital freedom was achieved.
Ignore the cute title, it’s a great book full of useful ideas, even if you’re happy in your job and have little desire to backpack around the world. And if you do have that desire, then it’s a must read.
Buy and download Four Hour Work Week on Amazon
Sleep by Nick Littlehales
I saw the author of Sleep being interviewed on TV and was intrigued by his approach to working with athletes and sleep rhythms. The book’s strap-line “The myth of 8 hours and The Power of Naps” attracted me.
He was, believe it or not, sleep adviser to Team Sky cycling and Manchester United.
Nick details in the book how we are all different, some of us are morning people, others are evening people.
I am a person who rises early. I can very, very rarely lie in bed once I am awake. My most productive part of the day is morning time and this means that I often feel the need for a nap in the afternoons. My youngest son, in contrast, is like a lizard first thing in the morning.
You need to rest him on a warm rock in the sunlight to get him moving.
That doesn’t make either of us unusual people at all.
I used to think that there was something odd about the fact that my concentration dropped off mid afternoon. Nick’s book explains that it’s part of my natural rhythm and that we should analyse our own patterns and decide how best to work to our strengths. Undertaking a critical task in the afternoons is something I try and avoid. When I was a track instructor, it was the time of day that I was particularly conscious of the need to stay fresh in the car.
There’s lots of other useful information in the book too. If you’re a regular business traveller across time zones or if you’ve ever endured one of those debilitating periods where you simply cannot get a good night’s sleep, waking the next morning feeling exhausted, then this book will help.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit Sethi
This is the exact opposite of the get rich quick, fake it ‘till you make it of today’s modern world. Ramit doesn’t provide a secret sauce recipe for overnight riches.
Instead, this book is full of practical, simple approaches in a six week process that will put you on course for a more financially secure life.
A great deal of this ebook is dedicated to really simple, common sense techniques on managing finances that are easy to forget.
And while it’s actually written for a young audience who may be only just starting out in having to budget for things, there’s a lot of useful facts and ideas for anyone, no matter where you are in your financial life.
For some people, it may well be uncomfortable reading. Ramit suggests that one of the biggest issues is our own laziness and he is right.
If you want to take proper control over your finances, short and long term, then take the pain, read the book, acknowledge your shortcomings and do something about it.
Buy and download I Will Teach You To Be Rich here
The Choice – Edith Eger
Another author I had not known about until seeing her interview on TV. She moved me to tears in front of the screen. Not because of the pain, loss and hardship she endured as a young Jewish girl incarcerated in the Nazi death camps and her subsequent survival.
The tears where because of her amazing joy for life.
She simply said “Mornings are my favourite time of day. Because when I wake the day is new and I can make it a really great day, it’s entirely up to me.”
This book is something everyone should read. Edith describes her horrific experiences, her brushes with death where, as the book’s title indicates, a simple choice between turning left or right could have ended her life minutes later.
Don’t think that this will be a depressing book to read. It isn’t.
It’s one of the most uplifting books I have read in many years. If you have doubts about humanity today, and there are many reasons why you might, then Edith Eger will restore your faith.
Buy and download The Choice here
8 Week Blood Sugar Diet by Michael Mosely.
You may well have seen Michael Mosley as a television presenter on the subject of human health. His documentaries are always fascinating. In the process of making one of the programmes, he realised that he had become type 2 diabetic.
And yet by a process of significantly overhauling his diet and lifestyle, he was able to reverse the symptoms without medication and at the same time improve his own health massively.
I was fascinated by his approach, as even though I am not diabetic or overweight, I know that my eating habits are not always what they should be.
This book is a collection of the recipes that Michael uses and offers alternatives to ingredients high on sugar, such as potatoes.
If you’re promising yourself a diet, then this book will guide you towards a nice, balanced diet without many of the sacrifices and pain that is practiced by many so-called diet plans.
In fact, the recipes are so good that I enjoy cooking them anyway, the health benefits are simply an additional reason to enjoy them.
Buy and download the 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet here
25 Years in Provence by Peter Mayle
I think that everyone who has travelled to France and enjoyed the way of life of the south of the country will have heard of “A Year in Provence.”
While I had heard of the book many times, it’s only recently that I actually got around to reading it. And yes, it’s a great read, particularly if you aspire to be a writer, as Peter’s style of warmth, wit and gentle humour carries you though the book.
You can learn a lot about writing by reading his style of effortless conversation.
My 25 Years In Provence is a reflection by Peter on the years he has spent living in France and how, even though a coffee now costs three Euros, much of life goes on as it has for centuries.
If you’re sitting indoors in winter time with the rain hammering the windows, then Peter’s books will transport you to the warmth of the Mediterranean climate. He’s a writer I wish I had discovered many years ago and indeed I regret that I only read him after his passing last year.
Buy and download My Twenty Five Years in Provence
I’ve supplied links to all of the books in the content. Should you choose to buy them, there’s a small percentage in it for me too.
I love the sheer convenience and portability of ebooks, especially when travelling. Gone are the days of lugging six heavy, glossy magazines on board the jet from the duty free newsagent.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I still love my library of heavy duty bound books, the ones that you take the time to turn the pages of and keep your coffee or red wine a safe distance from.
It’s quite simply that I also love the ease with which I can hear about a book somewhere, find it, purchase it and mere seconds later be reading it in my Kindle App or Apple iBooks.
You probably have some ebook favourites of your own. Add yours to the comments section below and tell us why you love them.
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