BATB score: 0/10 Mark Manson to refund my time and money with his disappointing and embarrassing sequel. Ohh he knows. He definitely knows that this is 1/10 compared to his international bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Was he just trying to ride his own best seller momentum, was the publishers pressuring him for an unnecessary sequel, or was it just because Everything is Fucked is such a cool title and needs to be published asap before someone else takes his i

BATB score: 7.2/10 “Tsunami false alarm in Hawaii” was what’s on the news; “led to a traffic spike on Pornhub for a total of 20 minutes” was what followed, never reported, but discussed in this book with trend line graphs #sexy. The daily news only got to cover the highlights, the top lines, and the 1 minute updates. By tomorrow, that news would have been yesterday’s outdated tale as old as time. But if we had had more time to truly analyze what happened with economic facts,

BATB score: 4/10 From hoarders to minimalists, Marie Kondo makes life extremely simple on what to keep and what to toss. Here's how: Hold X up. Ask yourself, "does X spark joy?". If yes, fold X vertically and keep X neatly. If no, say thank you to X and throw X away. Replace X with clothes👘, books, photos, boyfriend/girlfriend, or even your career; and life is now X item less cluttered. The book itself can be thoroughly summarized into a 2-page pdf with Arial size 14 font in

BATB score: 5/10 More of an encyclopedia than a readable book. Lists of ways to open a speech, respond to an offensive colleague, close a meeting, reply to liars, accept compliments, to say 'I don't know' powerfully, and 300+ more breakdowns of day-to-day encounters. Best as: a gift to untactful vocal leaders 🤬 Best for: new humans 🧛‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧜‍♀️ to learn how to be more human OR advanced humans 👸👩‍🎓👩‍🚀 to explore new varieties of eloquent communicative phrases to enlig

BATB score: 6/10 Another disappointment with sequels. #boohoo This Part 2 of How Brand Grows spent 6 out of 11 chapters recapping the discussions in Part 1 edition. The other 3 out of 11 chapters were common sense marketing principle of emotional and physical availability which summarised to "be everywhere many times whenever possible - the reach and frequency of all planning tools". Only 2 out of 11 chapters were impressive and pristine (let me be a doll and tell you that it

BATB score: 8.2/10 Adam Kay's diary of a doctor in the making - week of and week after Christmas entries exclusives. Best for: read "This is Going to Hurt" by Adam Kay first. Best to: share this book to your Asian parents who still believes aspiring to be a doctor, marrying a doctor, raising your kids to be doctors, are the true definition of success (spoiler alert: meh, it's not) Best as: a reminder to everyone who visits the doctor to be kind (if your day/work sucks, doctor

BATB score: 7/10 When a robotics engineer at NASA quits to scientifically answer the world's craziest what ifs (absurd hypothetical questions) with drawings of stickman comics. Personal Favourite: "If you call a random phone number and say "God bless you," what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed?" [calculation hint: 200 sneezes per person per year.] Best for: reading on the go-go-go (on the potty, in the elevator, waiting in the lobby, in between naps, e

BATB score: 2.69/10 Like serious.. WTF. Urgh. Don't judge a book by its cover. #GoneWrong. This book's cover sure looks attractive but its content sure is demotivating. The first part of the book discusses the different types of seducers. Naming convention was not intuitive and definitions were not MECE. It was BAD. Skip it completely. The second part of the book talks about the 24 SNAKE techniques to seduce your target. Tedious and fishy baloney! Let me list some out for you

BATB score: 10/10 Literature Classics. Anne Frank was only 13-years-old. Writing all of these diary entries regarding her worldly perspectives, her analysis of people, and her writing composition is well beyond her years. She's exceptionally smart! Maybe antisemitism originated because Jews are smarter, wiser, and more well-to-do than the rest. Just imagine if the Holocaust, Adolf Hilter and the Nazi ideology didn't happen, the world may be filled with a lot more Jewish brill

BATB score: 1.25/10 Japanese authors are so wordy. Anecdotes are so minute. Sentence structure are so dull. This book consist of 85% water down the drain, 10% potential something but really nothing, 5% real gist. The concept of 'ikigai' or the reason to get up in the morning is definitely there but the process how to get to your 'ikigai'... honestly, we would never know. Best for: the cover and the summarised content on the back P.S. How big should my sample size be (Marie Ko

BATB score: 1.4/10 there was no magic Dear Rory Sutherland 'Alchemy', The only thing that saved this book is every time you refer to your best friends' work: Richard Thaler 'Misbehaving' and Dan Ariely 'The Upside of Irrationality'. To be kind, there's definitely something good in there but its poorly represented and viciously repeated in scattered thoughts that it's even difficult for me to grasp any thoughtful farts. Best for: readers who have read his best friends' work. R

BATB score: 3.33/10 It may be more relatable if you are in your 2/3 life crisis. Interview accounts of people who look fine on the outside who may not necessarily be doing fine on the inside. The book has high hopes that readers of other people's struggles and worse problems, somehow will make you feel better about your situation. A career-driven C-level person who got this far to get fired. An independent person who was happy being alone but realize that he/she would die alo

BATB score: 0.15/10 1st place winner for *2019 Bad Book List* Extremely wordy. Disappointing content. Intellectual sleeping lullaby. A lot of "me, myself, I" anecdotes. Unfortunate amplification of small nonessential topics. To be fair, I read to page 50/200. I can not go any page further. The book deserve to be burnt. Best for: an instagrammable book cover photo Best to: read the Freakonomics series instead if you haven't

BATB score: 7.6/10 This is not a book. This is a research paper in disguise. This research paper has a point: the no-plastic-tote-bag lifestyle is not the answer. (1) Climate change is a natural phenomenon. It happens every millennium (1000 years) - that's why the dinosaurs went bye-bye. But this time, global warming is made-man and is happening within centuries (100 years). (2) Global warming started with the Industrial Revolution 1800s by big powers: consumerism, economics,

BATB score: 7.3/10 *reader discretion advised* It’s an autobiography and one’s personal stories are subjective to one reader’s liking. From hustling on the streets, eating worms for dinner, to sleeping in someone else’s cars, today, Trevor Noah (comedian, writer, television host) net worth is 30M USD. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting story of a mixed skin outcast during apartheid in South Africa where he’s too white to be in the black crowd and too black to be in the white c

BATB score: 5.15/10 Whether high context (I am fine, thank you) or low content speakers; whether confrontational or informal when it comes to negative feedback; whether egalitarian (friend-friend) or hierarchical (godlike boss) leaders; to whether logic based or relationship based trust. There are cultural and communication clashes because we are all born and raised differently. 🔑 key here: be wary but be yourself. Explain that we approach things differently (I am this and y

BATB score: 4/10 Sheryl Sandberg says this book is "Magnificent". This book is not even close to being magnificent in its slightest definition. #rollmyeyes A very difficult read #6Hours with chapters divided in no clear logic and with each chapter covering 10+ topics in no supportive or build-up order. Such a pity as there was some good shit there - unfortunately very scattered in thought. Throughout these 250+ pages, only 5 mini-anecdotes were interesting enough for me to sh

BATB score: 5/10 a collection of Greta Thunberg's climate crisis speeches. This is proof that frequency matters. She has only 1 message: "wake up" to the climate CRISIS (not climate change - no reality nor urgency there). Know the core science, <8.5 years left until Earth uses all of its 420 gigatonnes of CO2 quota. Fail and Earth will exceed >1.5+ Celsius with Y2030 incurring irreversible chain reactions beyond all homo sapiens' control. Leaders do something now (so we can g

BATB score: 9.9/10 Happy to read, happier while reading and happiest to have read. Best for: Ali Wong's fanclubs who LOL or ROFL to her Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife stand-ups. You MUST watch those Netflix stand-ups first! Best to: listen to her read her book to you [Ali Wong narrated the audiobook herself]. And just turn the pages along for sentimental reasons. Random note: I love how her husband gets to write the last 10 pages of her book. Her husband is gold!

BATB score: 10/10 my heart cries. That's the funny thing about life. A concept of delayed gratification where one suffers for X+ years for X times more pay, more benefits, or nirvana: associates to partners, minions to C-levels, students to doctors. Not knowing that we could just die a few steps before the finish line. And how now to live when you don't know whether you have <1, =1, >1 year left. This unknown is the most depressing. my heart cries to know that one day his dau