The Traveler's Gift

My first BookSneeze book is The Final Summit by Andy Andrews, which is a follow up to The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success.  So I decided I better read that one first.  And for the most part I enjoyed it.  It's a pretty quick read with some good lessons in it.  It's the story of David Ponder a man who loses everything he deems of value and in turn loses his will to live.  In an It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol sort of way, while unconscious he visits seven historical figures that each teach him the lessons he needs to learn to live a better, more fulfilling, and ultimately successful life.  As I was reading I kept thinking of the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom - it had a very similar feel to me.  With moments that are very inspirational and motivating and others that I just found kind of corny.  And even though I did not read any reviews or really anything about this book other than that it is the first David Ponder book, I found it somewhat predictable.  Once he met the first person - President Truman - and learns that he was going to visit six other people at key points in history that will each have a lesson for him; as soon as he arrives at the next place I knew exactly where he was and usually who he was there to meet.  Though I never knew the lesson he would learn from each person...  So my knowing where he was didn't make the story less effective - I just found it funny that I kept guessing right.  There were things that I didn't like about the story, but all in all I found the seven lessons themselves to be great.  And in some ways just what I needed to hear.  I don't think I'm going to be running around telling everyone that they have to read this book - but I did enjoy it, and am looking forward to reading The Final Summit.  Probably the main thing, other than the lessons, that stuck with me was how he traveled through time meeting people which basically just made me think about Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and really made me want to watch that movie!  So I did and it was hilarious.  Hadn't seen it in years, so it was really fun to watch it again - it is definitely a classic.  Also made me want to read The Diary of Anne Frank,  can you believe I've never read that?  Me either.  Somehow I never had to read it in school and since I knew it was going to be sad, I just never read it on my own.  But now I've decided that I'm going to do it, already requested it from the library and everything.  (Hmm, this book really made me think about a lot of other books and movies...  Can't wait to see what The Final Summit will make me want to watch and read.  Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey perhaps?  Only if I'm super lucky.)