the five books you don't want to read in heaven

I've not read Mitch Albom's book "The Five People You Meet In Heaven". Maybe I should. The books I've read lately have been real stinkers! Here's some books I suggest you NOT read, and why:

1. "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. Although this book has some valid points (in a nutshell, rich people are rich because they buy assets not liabilities) it is marred with typographical errors. This is unacceptable. It's as if the book hasn't gone through spell check. Worst mis-spelled word: "sayig" instead of "saying". Brutal. Will Amazon give me my money back for this kind of defective merchandise?

2. "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. Who would've thought that a book set partially in South Haven, MI could be so bad? Many of you have read this book, and most agree- it's really hard to get through. It took me almost a year to wade through its lumbering storyline. Nothing really happens! The most annoying thing about this book was the author's trite pop-culture references, and perhaps the picture of the wispy-haired author on the back of the book.

3. "The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor" by Robert Hagstrom. After reading "Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist," I was interested in reading more about the man. This book promised that, along with some practical details about how to invest like Warren. The book was just plain boring, following a repetitive format whereby it would review each investment that Berkshire Hathaway has ever made and examine how the investment played against Buffett's fundamental tenets of investing. Zzzzzz. Crickets.

4. "Seabiscuit" by Laura Hillenbrand. Listened to this one on audio CD on the drive out to Arizona. How boring! I never saw the movie, but I'm sure it was much better than the book. The book was way too much about the details of horse racing with no real appreciable storyline. Lame. Nearly made be fall asleep at the wheel in West Texas.

5. "A Beautiful Mind" by Sylvia Nasar. I thought this was a GREAT movie, so I wanted to read the book (the book's always better, right?). What a disapointment. Very hard to get through, with none of the interest the movie had. Reading this book really made me appreciate the efforts of screenwriters. Seriously. How Akiva Goldsman took this book and made it into the incredible story in "A Beautiful Mind" was fascinating. A good example of this is the part in the movie where they visualize John Nash's equilibrium theory by showing how a group of guys in a bar will all be shut out if they simultaneously go for the blonde.

There you have it. Five books that stink.

-Bob