The Path: Accelerating Your Journey To Financial Freedom by Peter Mallouk and Tony Robbins

Updated May 29th, 2023

Want to become financially free? There’s a path for that!

I’ve long been a fan of personal finance books, especially investing, so here we have back-to-back money books on the blog. Overall, I enjoyed The Path.

The Path in a Nutshell

Photo Credit : FunnyJunk

Haha, when I just wrote that heading, I thought of that scene in Austin Powers when he says “this is me in a nutshell. How did I get into this nutshell?”. Ah, my childhood was fun. But I digress.

In summary, The Path is set up into 5 sections.

  • The Journey Ahead
  • Charting Your Path
  • The Trailhead
  • The Climb
  • The Summit

–> Buy the book here <–

In The Journey Ahead, I enjoyed how the book started. It’s 2020, and we needed some positivity, in that, overall, the world is better than ever before. Sound familiar?

My least favorite part of the book was Charting Your Path. This part concerns the pros and cons of financial advisors, and estate planning. Valuable, but…BORING!

The Trailhead was the best part of the book in my opinion. This is where the authors (Tony Robbins and Peter Mallouk) make a case for investing in stocks for the long term. This topic is really my favorite part of most investing books. It’s the “meat” of investing, if you will.

The Climb is where the authors talk about what kind of portfolio you should have, and how you can move or adjust it over time and according to your goals, personal situation, and risk appetite.

The Summit is the second best part of the book, in my opinion. This is where Tony Robbins talks about happiness, and how to live, what to consider, and how to give back once you’ve made it on your financial journey. I’m not there yet, but it’s great to have things to think about once you are there, on your own path to financial freedom.

How Many Stars?

4 🙂

It was a good book, and it’s brand new, so I really couldn’t wait to get into it. It had a lot of good and valuable points, but it was not the best investment book I’ve ever read, nor was it the worst. I didn’t like it as much as Money: Master the Game. Maybe I had too high expectations.

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: The Path: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial Freedom
Author: Peter Mallouk and Tony Robbins
Publish Date:  October 13, 2020
ISBN: 1642937010 | ISBN-13: 978-1642937015

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Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis

Updated June 12th, 2023

A blunt title, and to the point, innit?

How to Get Rich is the memoirs of the founder of Maxim Magazine. I enjoyed the read, and definitely gleaned some lessons from the book. As you can see from the title, he shares his journey to wealth with the assumption that the reader wants to get stinkin’ filthy rich. Like, tens to hundreds of millions of dollars rich.

Brutal Honesty

I appreciated Felix Dennis’ brutal honesty throughout the book. He tells us that money won’t necessarily make us happy, and How to Get Rich reads part business guide, part philosophy book, with some poems sprinkled in (one of Dennis’ passion is poetry.) He shares with us lessons and mistakes he’s made, as well as victories. One of my favorite chapters is titled “Ownership! Ownership! Ownership!“- the best (maybe only) way to get rich is to be an owner where smart and clever people work for you. He offers suggestions on how to motivate and reward managers and subordinates which is very valuable to entrepreneurs who are hiring.

On Negotiating

One nugget of value I got from the book is that Dennis tells the reader to find and exploit the balance of weakness when negotiating. One example is farmers vs. supermarket chains- farmers have to fix their broken tractor yesterday, while supermarkets have cash flow and lots of suppliers, so the scales are in the supermarkets’ favor. If for some reason there was a famine, then the scales would shift into the farmers favor. Make sense?

Another metaphor that Dennis uses that resonated with me was the story of the “elephant and the flea“. Think of an elephant as a big public corporation, or an institutional investor. The elephant’s “master” would be the shareholders then.

Think of the flea as a small company with a disruptive or competitive idea. The elephant needs to appear as if he knows it all, so he has to approach the flea (not because he likes the flea) but because if he misses out on the flea’s idea, there could be negative consequences like a drop in share price and the elephant’s “master” would be angry.

In normal times, the elephant obviously has the power. The weakness is with the flea. If the flea took the elephant heads on, the elephant would crush the flea. But.

When the elephant approaches the flea, the flea has the power for negotiation at that precise moment.

This is an important if not commonsense point about the art of negotiation, but Dennis’ story about the elephant and the flea was eloquent and an easy lesson to remember.

My Favorite Quotation from the Book

“The world is full of money. Some of it has your name on it. All you have to do is collect it.”

Felix Dennis, page 260

–> Click here to get the book <–

In Summary

I enjoyed this book, but I had a harder time relating than I originally anticipated. I guess everyone has a different definition of “rich”. I don’t really have a desire to own a company worth hundreds of millions of dollars with hundreds of employees. And Dennis acknowledges this- not everyone wants to be on the Forbes Billionaires List.

Nevertheless, most of the lessons and principles can be applied to any business situation. Maybe not all of them, but you will surely learn something from his business and life journey, whether your goal is be to the next Amazon or if you just have a corner store or a small website.

The reason I am giving it 3 stars, is because for whatever reason, I struggled to finish the book. It took a long time to get through and it’s less than 300 pages.

How Many Stars?

3 😐

As I said above, it took me a while to finish. It’s a good valuable book, but at the end of the day, in terms of all the books I’ve read on business, I thought it was average. There are tons of other business books out there to read, ya know?

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets
Author: Felix Dennis
Publish Date:  June 12, 2008
ISBN: 1591842050  ISBN-13: 978-1591842057

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Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Life in the Fasting Lane by Jason Fung, Eve Mayer, and Megan Ramos

Updated May 29th, 2023

A good primer on fasting, but not as good as “The Complete Guide to Fasting” book.

Since reading The Complete Guide To Fasting, I decided to go on a fasting reading kick. Does that even make sense? “Fasting reading…” Anyway, I am a fan of Dr. Fung, so I traversed down to my local library and checked out his newest book from the library. And it was just okay.

A Good Introduction to Fasting

I think this would be a good book for anyone who wants to learn more about fasting in general. The chapters are essentially short anecdotes from the three authors of their experiences with fasting. They offer tips and tricks to deal with sweets in the workplace; they go over some of the science of fasting, and how to prepare and plan for your fast. The authors are Jason Fung, Megan Ramos, and Eve Mayer.

Check it out here<--">–>Check it out here<–

My Biggest Takeaway from Life in the Fasting Lane

Is that we are not alone. Many people fast. Some for religious reasons, and some for health reasons. In a society of chronic metabolic diseases, it’s great to see a passionate community of like-minded individuals who want to take control of their health without counting calories (which doesn’t even really work). I appreciate what these three individuals have done for the fasting and the health-conscious and longevity community at large.

How Many Stars?

3.5 😐

I just did not love this book, like I loved The Complete Guide to Fasting. Maybe it was because The Complete Guide to Fasting goes into much more depth and detail, and I’m a nerd for this kind of stuff. But it just seemed like it lacked substance for me. It is good for people who know nothing about fasting, or who are beginners or who are on the fence and just want some general information on fasting. The chapters were just individual stories about their experiences in fasting, not in depth explanations which I would have preferred. I respect their work and appreciate them all, but I just didn’t click with this book as much as I did with some of the other books written by Dr. Fung.

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: Life in the Fasting Lane: How to Make Intermittent Fasting a Lifestyle―and Reap the Benefits of Weight Loss and Better Health
Authors: Jason Fung, MD, Eve Mayer, and Megan Ramos
Publish Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 0062969447 | ISBN-13: 978-0062969446

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Comments?

Have you ever fasted? What was your fasting journey like? Let me know your thoughts on fasting in the comments. Thanks!

8 Minute Meditation by Victor Davich

Everyone has 8 minutes a day to work on themselves.

Updated November 27, 2021

Yeah yeah yeah. I know I’ve talked about life changing books before. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t share with you that this book has had such a profound effect on my stress levels, peace of mind, and habits.

The Best Introduction to Meditation Book You’ve Never Heard Of

There are a million reasons why I love 8 Minute Mediation. In fact, I read this book before I read 10% Happier. First of all, Victor Davich is a great author and writes in a conversational tone that really relates to his readers. Second of all, most people think you need to go to a monastery or spend hours a day sitting still meditating, but through reading this, I’ve learned that that is completely not true. Third of all, the 8 minutes is key- the main message is not necessarily that you need to do 8 minutes of meditation like you needed to do 8 minute abs back in the ’90s ;)- the point of the 8 minute meditation is to build the habit of meditating daily. The habit of breathing and becoming present.

Davich breaks the book out into 8 chapters of different “themes” of meditation. Put another way, you will meditate 8 minutes a day for 8 weeks. Each week, you will be working on a different them or type of meditation. One week is concentrating solely on your breath, and another week is lovingkindness meditation, for example. After 8 weeks, congratulations! You now have the meditation habit.

After this 8 weeks, you have built your meditation skills, and you can choose what to do after that. A lot of times, I do lovingkindness meditations. There is a resource section in the back of the book which you can use to explore meditation further once you are done the 8 week program.

My Biggest Takeaway from 8 Minute Meditation

Is the habit formation. Before reading this book, I never meditated consistently. I always gave up, frustrated that I didn’t have some magical power that other meditators possessed. I was completely wrong about that as I learned through this book and through my own meditation experience.

–> Click here to buy the book<–

How 8 Minute Meditation Has Personally Affected Me

I’ve always been interested in meditation. I wanted to be more “zen”. Years ago, I even did a temple stay in Korea. As of this writing, I’ve meditated for about 100 days straight. There was one night when my wife asked me if I meditated that day, and I had forgotten! So right before bed, I took some breaths. That is the closest I’ve gone to not meditating daily. As Davich puts it, everyone has 8 minutes a day for themselves, and I certainly have no intention of stopping my 8 minute daily habit.

How Many Stars

5 🙂

If you have even the faintest interest in meditation, I’d recommend this book wholeheartedly.

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: 8 Minute Meditation
Author: Victor Davich
Publish Date: December 2, 2014
ISBN: 0399173420 | ISBN-13: 978-0399173424

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Comments?

Do you meditate? Have you heard of this book? Did you give up on meditating? Let me know in the comments!

The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting by Jason Fung, MD

Updated May 29th, 2023

This book could easily be titled: The Complete Guide to Taking Back Control of Your Health.

One of the running themes of Ryan’s Reading Reviews is health and wellness book reviews. I’ve personally struggled with some health problems over the years (decades?), and I when I would go out in public, I would see all these people with “pouches”. So I started saying “America is fat, the proof is in the pouch”. Sorry for anyone with a pouch who is offended. Clearly something in our society regarding health and diet is wrong, so that’s why I took my health into my own hands and have been reading about health and wellness ever since. And I’m never looking back. Enter The Complete Guide to Fasting.

This is a Life-Changing Book

Dr. Jason Fung has an interesting story. Dr. Fung is a kidney doctor who had a large number of diabetic patients referred to him who developed kidney problems. He knew there had to be a solution to diabetes (type 2) other than just prescribing medicines like insulin. And thus began fasting as a therapy for diabetes, a myriad of other metabolic diseases, and overall health. This is a must-read for anyone who is sick of dieting and wants to take their health into their own hands. In summary, Dr. Fung shows that the conventional wisdom of “eat less, move more” is fundamentally wrong.

Imagine this for a moment: The thing that every doctor and every expert in society recommends is the exact opposite of what really works. This is backed up in the book through charts and cited sources. Remember that show The Biggest Loser? Well, only one winner has successfully kept the weight off long-term.

So instead of “calories in, calories out (CICO)” and “eat less, move more”, Dr. Fung says weight loss is more of a hormonal issue. This makes sense to me- I have no doubt that 100 calories of soda and as 100 calories of spinach are totally different metabolically.

The Benefits of Fasting

There are a myriad of benefits to fasting. Here are a just a few:

  • Weight loss
  • Improve insulin sensitivity (opposite of insulin resistance)
  • Improve body’s stress response
  • Improve/reverse type 2 diabetes
  • Increase autophagy (recycle/repair cells)
  • Increase stem cell production

–>Check out the Book Here<–

The Complete Guide to Fasting is Not Really a Diet Nook

It’s more of a lifestyle book. Dr. Fung and his panel of experts weigh in (no pun intended) on advice and strategies on how to fast properly and in a healthy way. But just from an evolutionary perspective, it makes logical sense. Our ancestors lived a feast-and-famine existence. In the springtime, food for our ancestors was abundant but in the winter food was more scarce. Same thing today- we don’t need to eat 6 meals a day, every day. We aren’t going to die if we skip dinner one night. You don’t need to starve yourself by eating 1,000 calories every day. For instance, you can enjoy life and eat guilt-free on Thanksgiving, and then do intermittent fasting after the holiday to get back in check. Which leads me to the next point.

There are Many Different Types of Fasts

The book has all different types of fasting plans and you can experiment/choose the plan that is right for you. There are intermittent fasts (skipping meals, only eating dinner once or twice a week, for instance). There are extended fasts (72+ hours of fasting), and there are fasts which you can customize and adjust to your own lifestyle and health goals.

What you Can Eat While Fasting?

Dr. Fung advises against completely depriving yourself of water when fasting. Instead, he advises you can eat/drink things like coffee, tea, water, and even bone broth, especially on longer (extended) fasts. There is a whole section in the book on what to eat/not eat during fasts.

Who Should Not Fast?

The average healthy person can do fasting on their own. However, since 1 in 8 Americans are metabolically healthy, there are a lot of people who should not be fasting without medical supervision. If you have any medical complications or are on medicines for anything, especially diabetes, you should not fast unless you are directly in contact with your doctor or medical team. In other words, most people should use caution when fasting. Medications can really cause problems or even death while fasting.

–> Click here to buy the book <–

I am not a Doctor

I am not a doctor, I am just a guy who lost over 30 pounds using diet and exercise during the pandemic, when a lot of people gained weight. I’ve been reading books on health and dieting for over a decade and these are just my opinions and results that I am sharing with you. Your situation and journey may be different, as everyone has the own unique situation, so this is really just a book review. With that being said, I wholeheartedly recommend this book for anyone who is ready to take control of their health and get off or reduce their medicine.

How Many Stars?

5 🙂

My tagline used to be “Book Reviews in 500 words or less”, but clearly I went over that for The Complete Guide to Fasting, and I could write another 1,000 words on the book. I think it’s a great book, considering the obesity epidemic we have been in for decades. It’s a great book for individuals to check out, as well as for our public health interest. If you are curious about the benefits of fasting and the failure of dieting, check it out. It may just change your life like it did mine.

Other Names in Fasting

Dr. Jason Fung – The Fasting Method

Jimmy Moore – Co Author of The Complete Guide to Fasting

Mark Sisson– The Primal Legend

Peter Attia – Another legend for Keto and Longevity

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting
Authors: Jason Fung, MD and Jimmy Moore
Publish Date: October 18, 2016
ISBN: 1628600012 | ISBN-13: 978-1628600018

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Comments?

Did you read The Complete Guide to Fasting? What did you think of it? Would you like me to write a personal post about how I lost 30 pounds in part by using this book, or should I stick strictly to book reviews? Let me know in the comments.

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis

George Washington has a black eye on the cover. See it?

Updated November 27, 2021

I picked this up Michael Lewis’ Boomerang at a book sale for 50 cents, so to use a finance reference, I guess this was a good return on investment. Eh? Eh? Or was it?

Against the Grain

This book was hard to finish. It was so boring. I love finance- I was an economics major- so this book was right up my alley. I think Michael Lewis is a great author. I loved Liar’s Poker and The Big Short but I honestly did not like this book. I say “against the grain” here because the feedback on Boomerang is overwhelmingly positive. In my personal opinion though, it was not any good.

What’s it about?

After the Great Recession and credit crisis in 2008, Michael Lewis goes around to world to places that were affected the most from lax lending policies, bad due diligence, carelessness, or just plain bad luck. And he writes stories about each place. Here is where he travels to:

  • Iceland
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Germany
  • United States (California)

That pretty much sums up the whole book.

A Thought Experiment

As I said, I think Michael Lewis is a great author. But I had this thought while reading: If I read these pages and didn’t know who the author was (think “blind taste test”), what would I think? In other words, I believe this book is popular just because it has Michael Lewis’ name on it. But on blind merit, it’s boring and unremarkable.

One Takeaway from Boomerang

Policymakers and politicians are human beings and sometimes they have no idea what they are doing. Also, California is f**cked. 😉

How Many Stars?

2 🙁

There are plenty of other Michael Lewis books to check out before this one.

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World
Author: Michael Lewis
Publish Date: October 3, 2011
ISBN: 0393081818 | ISBN-13: 978-0393081817

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Comments?

I gave Michael Lewis’ Boomerang a pretty harsh review. I know you disagree with me! Give me your opinion in the comments! Thanks for reading!

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy


A great book for both children and adults alike. It’s no accident that it became an instant bestseller.

Updated November 27, 2021

I read this short book in about 20 minutes. Maybe even less.

Quick Book Summary

A boy goes on a walk and encounters a mole, a fox, and a horse and learns life lessons along the way. These life lessons are great reminders for us. Here are two examples.

Two Takeaways

Both quotes from macksey

“The biggest waste of time is comparing yourself to others.”

“Most of the old moles I know wish they had listened less to their fears and more to their dreams.” – This one REALLY resonated with me.

“If at first you don’t succeed, have some cake” – I said two takeaways, but this was a third, and it’s funny and cute isn’t it? Aw! 😉

In a Nutshell

This cute book can be read by children and adults alike- there are themes and lessons all human beings can learn. It kind of reminded me of The Alchemist and I am probably the only person in the world who just compared The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse to The Alchemist. But what I mean by this is that in both, two boys go on a journey and discover simple yet profound life lessons and find themselves as well.

–>Buy the book here<–

How Many Stars?

5 🙂

This little book packs a powerful punch!

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Author: Charlie Mackesy 
Publish Date:  October 22, 2019
ISBN: 0062976583  ISBN-13: 978-0062976581

Book | eBook | Audio

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Discussion

Did you read The Boy, The Mole, the Fox, and the Horse? Did you like it? What were some quotes or lessons that resonated with you? Let me know in the comments.

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story by Dan Harris

I 100% recommend 10% Happier 100% of the time.

Updated November 27,2021

I’ve been getting into mediation to reduce stress. Dan Harris’ book on meditation was great for this. Ok, you might think “Wow great review, Ryan. (sarcasm)” This book was really good. Thanks!”

But seriously, there are a bajillion books on mediation. This one is a novel book on mediation (a novel book? that’s a new one ;)) because it goes through Dan Harris’ personal story, with great insights to boot. Harris’ career is on an upward trajectory, but in the high-pressure of working in the media, he suffers a panic attack on live TV, which you can see in the video below:

Harris eventually stumbles upon meditation and seeks out world leaders in the field, and shares with readers what he learns and picks up along the way.

My Biggest Takeaway from 10% Happier

I agree with Dan Harris that mediation has a place in people’s lives. Partly because of this book, I’ve been meditating every day for 8 minutes for 32 days in a row and counting!

–>You heard Dan. Get 10% Happier today!<–

I Never Thought about Mediation That Way

Dan Harris shares that at first he was skeptical about meditating, but gave it a shot and began to love it. When he started sharing his new hobby and lifestyle with people, he’d get skeptical or awkward comments. People began to think he was weird. Then one day he told someone his new habit was making him 10% happier. This stuck, and people’s reactions to mediation shifted from feeling awkward to being intrigued. He even got some of his friends to try meditating.

In his title, he talked about “losing my edge” but I never thought of mediation as “losing an edge.” He claims being “too zen” could cause you to appear like you don’t care about anything and you are not ambitious in your career. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but it was interesting-I’ve never thought of meditation that way.

How Many Stars?

4.5 🙂

I really enjoyed this book, it was part personal story part “how to” book on meditation. The personal story and sharing from Dan definitely made it stand out from normal meditation books, and I appreciated Dan’s vulnerability and honesty in the book. Check it out and start changing your life today!

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story
Author: Dan Harris
Publish Date:  April 16, 2019
ISBN: 0062917609  ISBN-13:978-0062917607

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviewsis a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling

Last updated on June 11th, 2023

The world is better than the media wants us to believe, and Hans Rosling makes a great case for it.

I had high hopes for this book from reading reviews and listening to feedback from others who had read it. I thought it was good, but not as good as most people said.

Basically, Hans Rosling uses statistics to show us how our thoughts about the world are completely wrong. He asks questions about the world like “How many people have access to electricity around the world?” and it turns out that even highly educated people get these types of questions completely wrong– even worse than chance!

How could this be? This is one question that fuels Rosling’s book. It’s fascinating. I loved how he uses charts and visual aids of UN Data to uncover that yes, the world indeed is better off than it’s ever been in history. We just have social media and the Internet and 24/7 news, so we are shown all of the sensational (usually negative) things. That everyone had a great day is not going to make headlines or generate clicks in the competitive world of media.

–>Click here to buy the book<–

Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World

Rosling gives us 10 reasons (personal biases) about why we are wrong about the world. These are also the 10 chapters in the book. They are:

  • The Gap Instinct
  • The Negativity Instinct
  • The Straight Line Instinct
  • The Fear Instinct
  • The Size Instinct
  • The Generalization Instinct
  • The Destiny Instinct
  • The Single Perspective Instinct
  • The Blame Instinct
  • The Urgency Instinct

Since the theme of this site (used to be) book reviews in 500 words or less, I won’t break down every chapter here- I don’t want to spoil it if you want to read it yourself– but these 10 biases essentially skew our view of the world.

What is the “Destiny Instinct”?

One, the destiny instinct, says that things never change because they’ve always been that way across different countries and cultures. In other words, these countries and cultures have innate characteristics that explain the way they are. For example, many Americans think of Sweden as a socialist country- and it may have been in the past, but now they are right behind America in terms of freedom.

Change happens slowly, but it’s constant, and one way to combat the destiny instinct is to ask your grandpa or grandma about what life was like when they were young and compare it to society now.

In Summary

This was a well written and well-researched book. All of the 10 instincts are explained clearly and concisely and it is an easy read. I just didn’t find it as life-changing or mind-blowing as a lot of other people do.

How Many Stars

3.5 😐

See “In Summary” above. But trust that even though society wants you to think the world is a toilet, overall it is, in fact, getting better!

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
Author: Hans Rosling
Publish Date:  April 7, 2020
ISBN: 1250123828  ISBN-13: 978-1250123824

Book | Audio | eBook

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviewsis a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Comments?

The majority of people loved Factfulness. Chances are you disagree with at least some of my review. Leave a comment if you wish about what you liked or didn’t like about the book.

The Longevity Diet: Slow Aging, Fight Disease, Optimize Weight by Valter Longo, PhD

Updated June 15th, 2023

The Longevity Diet: A Literal Life Changing Book.

Frankly, I’m surprised The Longevity Diet is not more popular and well-known than it currently is. Valter Longo is one of the world leaders in aging and disease prevention, and this book shows his extreme intelligence and intellect. I feel that every patient should read this and discuss with their doctors, and every doctor should read this as well. It may just change your life.

Patients? But Isn’t it a Book on Anti-aging?

It is. So let me back up and be a little clearer.

The Longevity Diet – In One Sentence

Eat close to a 100% plant and fish-based diet with low protein, low sugar, and low calories by eating twice a day plus a snack, in a time restricted window. Eh, it’s a little more complicated than that. Ok I lied, that was two sentences. Sue me.

But Wait…There’s More!

While this book is definitely about a diet than can make you live longer and healthier and maximize your life span, there is a lot more content than that. Longo and his associates have numerous clinical trials out there for all kinds of diseases including cancer and diabetes. This is excellent news!!!

–> Check out the book here <–

Curing Cancer by Fasting?

One of the most fascinating theories Longo has come up with is how to make chemotherapy more effective. Obviously, doctors and scientists know how to kill cells, but they don’t necessarily know how to kill cancer cells and spare healthy cells.

Through is research, Longo has discovered a way to do this. When we fast, our body sends a signal to go into protection mode. Healthy cells listen to the body’s signal and “hunker down”. Cancer cells only want to grow so they ignore the body’s signal to hunker down. Thus, the normal cells protect themselves from the chemotherapy, and the cancer cells get destroyed.

I am not a doctor or a scientist, so there is my disclaimer, however if you have cancer, you can pick up this book, or talk to your oncologist, or do your own research. Currently there are clinical trials going on regarding fasting and cancer prevention, it’s best not to do this alone- talk to your medical team and it is not advised to reject and standard of care or medicine. This research does look promising, however and I will leave some resources at the bottom of this post for you to explore further.

Fasting for Other Diseases like Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, Alzheimer’s, and Autoimmune Diseases?

Yep, there are protocols and promising results and studies for all these, and more. The power of diet (or lack thereof) is amazing!

–>Click to Buy the Book<–

Longevity Diet: In Summary

Sure, this is a book on how to eat to stay young and maintain health, but it’s so, so, so much more than that. It’s really a book that explores how caloric restriction and eating the right foods at the right time can really prevent, treat, or reverse dramatically, so many of our diseases.

What about the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD)?

One of Longo’s mentors basically locked himself in a biosphere starved himself for two years in the name of science. This is great, but Longo surmised there had to be a way where you can get the same benefits of fasting without the actual pain of starvation, and that is the basis behind his fasting mimicking diet, also called FMD. He has also partnered with other organizations, which I will link to in a resource section below so that you can check out more information.

More Relevant Resources

  • Valter Longo – The Man himself
  • Create Cures – All profits from the sale of his book to go the Valter Longo Foundation and Create Cures– a foundation to promote and sponsor research on how to use science and diet to treat and cure serious diseases in children and adults.
  • The Longevity Diet Book (affiliate link)
  • ProLon – The Fasting Mimicking Diet in product form. (Dr. Longo does not profit from the sales of ProLon).
  • More on Clinical Trials.

How Many Stars?

5 🙂

There is so much to this book that I don’t think my review does it justice. It’s five stars just for the sheer knowledge and how much of an impact this could have on so many people’s lives and society in general. A healthier society is a happier society. People living longer and healthier is a beautiful thing.

Book Details One More Time

Title: The Longevity Diet: Slow Aging, Fight Disease, Optimize Weight
Author: Valter Longo
Publish Date:  December 31, 2019
ISBN: 0525534091  ISBN-13: 978-0525534099

Book | Audio | eBook

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Any Comments?

Have you read The Longevity Diet? What did you think of it? Did I miss anything? Have any questions? Leave a comment below. Thanks!