Lately I've been struggling to read 'Debt of Honor' by Tom Clancy; reading this book is like putting one's life on hold for a few weeks. The printed version of the book weighs in at just over 900 pages; I can tell that it's a long book on the Kindle because I read and read, but the percentage meter stays at 10% (it's now at 82% which means that the end is in sight! Hurray!).
As with all of Clancy's books, it is in dire need of an editor to chop out all the extraneous sentences. It's a shame that Clancy devotes so much love to the military hardware - something with which most of his readers will have had no personal experience whatsoever - whilst devoting less attention to more familiar subjects, like characterisation.
I reflected at one point that it is a good thing that I have taken an MBA degree, as this book touches (sometimes at depth) on several of the subjects taught. There's a great deal of macro-economics and finance (spoiler: the Japanese try to take down Wall Street), there's probably project management, organisational behaviour and human resource management and there's certainly negotiation. Of course, the entire book is about strategic planning! The only things missing are accountancy and marketing.
As with all of Clancy's books, it is in dire need of an editor to chop out all the extraneous sentences. It's a shame that Clancy devotes so much love to the military hardware - something with which most of his readers will have had no personal experience whatsoever - whilst devoting less attention to more familiar subjects, like characterisation.
I reflected at one point that it is a good thing that I have taken an MBA degree, as this book touches (sometimes at depth) on several of the subjects taught. There's a great deal of macro-economics and finance (spoiler: the Japanese try to take down Wall Street), there's probably project management, organisational behaviour and human resource management and there's certainly negotiation. Of course, the entire book is about strategic planning! The only things missing are accountancy and marketing.
Regarding negotiation, it was interesting to read what Clancy writes on the subject, now having completed a course in the subject. And by a neat coincidence, today the results of the negotiation exam arrived - ! This means that supposedly negotiation is my second best subject, nestling between accountancy and project management. I will be the first to admit that my high mark is due to knowing how to answer the questions, and is not due to my extensive knowledge of negotiation. Maybe with a little practice, I might actually become a negotiator - but it's not my personality. Had I received another mark, I would have been in the 'X' grade ("A with distinction").
No comments:
Post a Comment