Nonfiction Book Reviews

The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World by Jacques Bosser and Guillaume de Laubier is a gorgeous, picture-packed display of beautiful libraries that had me drooling from page one.  I work at the local public library, and I love the way it looks - windows that stretch floor to ceiling, high archways, polished wood - but after I started reading this book, I realized how plain my library looks in comparison to these libraries.

Of course, my library isn’t built using the overblown Baroque style like many of the libraries featured in this book.  And by the end of the book, I was more appreciative of the simpler style of building anyway - many of these libraries are over-the-top dripping with cornices, embellishments, statues, swags, paintings, busts, intricate wood reliefs, and marble carvings.  Just looking at the pictures in the books left me overwhelmed - it was so busy, your eye never really had a chance to rest on any particular spot.

I can’t imagine how overwhelming these libraries must be in real life.

I definitely enjoyed flipping through the book, though.  There were quite a few pages where the page folded out, giving you an almost panoramic view of the library, and some of the pictures were breathtaking.  The photographer, Guillaume de Laubier, is to be congratulated for his excellent photography skills.  The author, on the other hand (Jacques Bosser) could have used some help along the way.  Some of the text was interesting, but for the most part, it was dry and boring.  I started skipping the text entirely and just looking at the pictures.

My other quibble with the book was the title implied that they had pulled libraries from every part of the world, but in fact, the only libraries featured were from Europe and America.  I have a hard time with the idea that the only beautiful libraries in the entire world reside in Europe and America.

What about Mexico? Or Canada? Or Brazil? (Click to make larger)

I think they need to rename it The Most Beautiful Libraries in Europe, leave out the American libraries, and call it good. There were only three libraries from America featured anyway. Then write another book and focus just on American libraries - after all, all of these gorgeous libraries had been left out:

Boston Copley Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts

Suzzallo Library, Seattle, Washington

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland

For the true bibliophiles out there, this book is worth checking out from the library, if only so you can drool over the pictures and wish that you could wander these halls and lose yourself in the stacks.  But even for the bibliophiles, I don’t know if this one is worth buying.  I can only give it 3.25 out of 5 stars - I wanted to love it, but it fell short of my expectations.

Hava

Financial Peace: Restoring Financial Hope to You and Your Family by Dave Ramsey is an average book for those who are just starting out on the road back to fiscal responsibility. If you have never read a book about how to manage your finances and want a very general overarching idea of where to start, this book is for you. If you’re a fan of Dave Ramsey and want to learn a bit more about his background and how he got started counseling people on their finances, this book is for you.

Unfortunately, I don’t fall under either of those categories, and so although the book was slightly entertaining to me (Dave can be quite funny at times), overall the book simply seemed repetitive. Every financial book seems to cover the same bases: Pay yourself first, put together a budget and stick to it, always spend less than you make, spend time looking for good bargains (never pay retail!) and put together an emergency fund in case of a rainy day. Dave is no different – he covers these same points just like every other book out there.

The book also suffers from being on the older side – it was originally written in 1992, and then reprinted in 1997, and it definitely shows. Last but not least, Dave Ramsey is Christian, so he spends a lot of his time quoting scriptures out of the Bible. I’m a Christian too, so this didn’t bother me too much (although I’ve never figured out how finances and Christianity related to each other), but I did think that was worthy of mention, because if that’s something that would bug you, you won’t want to pick this book up, or any book by Dave Ramsey since he does the same thing in his other books.

To be fair, there were parts that made me laugh. Case in point: Dave was trying to drive home the point that bad things will always happen to you, and so he gave the following “test” for the reader to perform:

“Put this book down now. Hold your right hand up in front of you with your elbow bent. Now reach your left hand across the back of your wrist to where your fingertips touch your main artery, and then check for a pulse. Is your heart beating? If you are alive and walking around, things will happen to you that you don’t think will. The only way you can avoid unexpected financial events is not to be alive – so they’re not ‘unexpected’ events, are they?”

He also said, “One of my friends said her grandmother taught her to have a G.O.K fund – God Only Knows.” That made me laugh out loud, which isn’t common for a nonfiction book on finances. I decided my emergency fund needed to be renamed to the GOK fund, because that sounds much cooler than a plain ole’ Emergency Fund.

But overall, a much better book to read Dave Ramsey’s other book, “Total Money Makeover.” That has more concrete information that is actually usable.

Overall, I give it 3.25 stars out of 5.

Havs