Rise of the Financial Ruler - by Paul See

Reading stuff on the mobile phone is quite an addictive thing. But I think we are all going to experience increasing cases of eye problems in time to come. As it is, my eyes blur out and lose focus after staring at laptop screens and mobile phones all day long. Hourly breaks are recommended.

So it's probably good to break off and read books and magazines when I don't really have to be stuck to these electronic hypnoses.

The libraries are stocked full of options. And the National Library Board has been setting up shop at places where people tend to commute. Quite clever. Know thy customer.

The one recently opened at VivoCity has a really cool layout. Its reading area at one end faces Sentosa Island with full height windows. The view should be really cool in the evenings. Pun intended.

Anyway, I picked up this book from the VivoCity Library recently. The cover page was partly what attracted my attention (note the "Financial Ruler"). The other reason is that it is really thin. I figured it would be light enough and convenient enough for light reading while I'm commuting on the MRT.

"Rise of the Financial Ruler", by Paul See (Code: 332.024).

The style of writing is really fun. It's definitely not the usual personal finance book with serious overtones. Over 14 chapters of only 74 pages, it weaves a tale centered in ancient Egypt; 7 years of feasts and 7 years of famine. Sounds familiar? Biblicalicious.

It's quite fun if you were to try and relate the events in the story to recent events that impacted financial journeys in the past decade, including events specific to Singapore. At the same time, we could also relate to the personal finance ideas being alluded to.

In the final 37 pages, it explains the motivations and ideas behind the tales of each chapter. Pretty neat.

Worth a read.

So which is your persona? Benjamin or Reuben?