A CERTAIN MS. JHOANNA V. submitted the following book review for posting in the e-zine ForAdultsAlso.com earlier this year. †As committed to those who contributed articles to the e-zine (which is temporarily offline) I am posting their materials in this blog if they will give me permission to do so.
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Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson
Book Review and Summary
by: †Jhoanna V.
I read the book last December 2007.† It was timely because I was ìin betweenî jobs since November.† I was one of those corporate robots who were suddenly declared obsolete.†† New Robots — with more features, more processing speed, more tolerance to abuse, and cheaper† – have arrived.† ìRedundantî is the official, although not exactly gentler, label for me and people who share my fate.
I welcomed the idea goodnaturedly when my boyfriend gave me the book as a gift.† He is lucky I was already in a good mood, having accepted my fate.† I wasn’t really that unfortunate considering that I was given a handsome take-home envelope.† It did its intended job to cool down my raging emotions resulting from a badly bruised ego.† If I was in a foul mood when he gave me the book I would have interpreted the gesture as ìrubbing salt on wound.î
So much with the explanation on how I got to read this book.† I was told that I am supposed to ìreviewî a book, make a ìsummaryî of it, or both.† I think I can handle both.
My ìbook reviewî of Who Moved My Cheese
First, a disclaimer.† I don’t claim to be an expert on books.† I have not done any book reviews in a professional capacity before.† But I love books and I believe I have a good sense of what a good book, or for that matter a bad book, is.
So how do I find Who Moved My Cheese?
On the positive side, the book is fundamentally sound as far as the principles it espouses are concerned.† It is simply written, using simple words and easily understood situations.† It is basically a fable (if I remember my literature correctly), using animals to convey human conditions, situations, and emotions.† As such, it should easily appeal to a broad audience, including young people (like me).† The book’s extensive use of metaphors and similes (I hope I remember my figures of speech correctly), gives it much needed color and personality.† The book is short enough that one can comfortably finish it in a single sitting, although I finished it in four.
On the flip side, in spite of the book being relatively short, I think it is a rather long-winded way to narrate a story that is very fundamentally simple.† I suspect there was a deliberate motive by the author to prolong the story so it will be long enough to pass as a book.
My ìBook Summaryî of Who Moved My Cheese
To prove my point that the book’s central theme is very very simple, here’s the book summed up in a seven bullet points (I am sure you can easily figure out the methapors even without actually reading the book):
- Change Happens ñ They keep moving the cheese
- Anticipate Change ñ Get ready for the cheese to move
- Monitor Change ñ Smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old
- Adapt to Change Quickly ñ The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you can enjoy new cheese
- Change ñ Move with the cheese
- Enjoy Change! – Savor the adventure and enjoy the taste of new cheese!
- Be Ready to Change Quickly and Enjoy It Again and Again ñ They keep moving the cheese
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all motherhood nonsense. there is nothing in “who moved my cheese” that we don’t already know.
I love this book. I like books that are short and to the point. Another book I recommend a lot is “Fish”.