I included this book in my book: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. www.100bestbiz.com. ( )

Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life is a collection of stories from people who are at various stages of evaluating what their purpose in life is. This is not a how-to book or a guidebook about choosing a career. Rather, it's a bunch of stories that the reader can use (or not) to examine his or her life. Bronson has a few guiding principals - examine who sits at your inner table (who you seem to justify your actions to), and look deeply for what you most value rather than what seems to be the most exciting.

Bronson is an informal writer, which suits this topic well. I've read this once before, and for some reason I remembered it as full of "inspirational" stories. The second time through, though, I realize that at least 70% of the stories are really unresolved. Bronson really highlights that it's a process that not everyone goes through smoothly, or even finishes. It's easy to get derailed and to get sucked into what's easy. Overall, I think I appreciated this book more the second time. ( )

I bought this one when I was at a point in my life in which I was asking the question posed in the title, read it, found it unremarkable and cheesy, then ended up selling it to a used book store. I think the appeal of this book hinges on what you're looking to get out of it. It's essentially a book of inspirational stories that will bring a smile to your face, but aren't too intellectually stimulating. If you're looking for a better collection of stories based around people talking about their jobs, try Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs by Bowe et al or Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel. Both Terkel and Bowe do a fantastic job of letting the interviewees stories shine for themselves instead of trying a little too hard to reach for a sappy sweet moral like Bronson does. However, you might like this title if you're looking for some feel good inspiration al la the Chicken Soup series. Nothing wrong with those books or What Should I do With My Life for that matter, but they're just not to my taste ( )

Despite the title ‘What Should I Do with my Life?’ is not a workbook or guide on how to decide on the right career for you in the grain of ‘What Colour is my Parachute’ and such. Therefore, if you are looking for a checklist to show you what direction to take, this is not that type of book.

What it is, however, is perhaps something more useful. Bronson has conducted a range of interviews with people who have realised that they want more out of life, and need to make the decision on how to change. Some of the subjects have made that change successfully. Some have not. Some are not even at the point where they know what they want to do. Through the different examples he gives, and discussion of his own life, Bronson gets the reader to ask the big questions of their own lives – what do I want? Do I really want that, or is it just what society/my family/my friends have lead me to believe? How do I find what I want to do with my life? How do I make it happen?

These are big questions that so many people don’t ask themselves, for a myriad of reasons. And as the essays in this book show, it sometimes takes a cataclysmic event for us to question our comfortable lives. And while this is not a workbook, it is helpful for those searching for their own paths, as common themes and strategies emerge.

It would be easy to criticise this book – as the author himself recognises, most of the examples are from the same socio-economic group, with advantages that some people could only dream of. The author himself states “I don’t think of the people in this book as the best stories out there. Rather, they’re the ones that came into my life.�? And there is as much inspiration to be found in these stories as biographies of the disadvantaged who overcame great odds to do great things. The people in this book are not exceptional – often they are quite ordinary. And that is the inspirational thing – you don’t have to be special, or exceptional to achieve momentous change. You just have to decide to do it. ( )

Page read up to: 263

Tells about how you can change your life to do better. It gives stories of real people on how they changed their lives during work or R&R. The small stories are very informative and detailed, it sounds like you are watching the story in real life.

This book has many small stories, so there is no distinct main character(s).

I stopped reading this book for now, reason: It started to get monotone "boring".

I recommend this to people only who want to have advice on how to change your life.

What i didnt like about the book is that after a while, it starts to get boring, for the reason is that it monotones the story. (Story line is "flat"). ( )