The latest book I've finished is 'Start' by Jon Acuff. I've recently been on a Jon Acuff binge, following his own blog, his blog called 'Stuff Christians Like', reading the book with the same name, as well as writing about him too. I hope he doesn't read this. He'll get worried. Anyway below is a quick 4 question book review and some thoughts…

1. What's it about? 'Start' is Jon Acuff's latest book about getting ideas moving. With the tag line 'Punch fear in the face, escape average, do work that matters', Jon uses the pages to encourage us to move on with our dreams. I've heard it said before 'we all end up somewhere, it's just some of us end up somewhere on purpose.' This is what this book sharing about too. Jon outlines a process and 'stages' we can go through in our lives, and outlines what they look like how to pursue them, and assistance in each of then. The stages are 'Learning', 'Editing', 'Mastering', 'Harvesting', 'Guiding'. In the blurb he states that these stages used to be tied to your age, but not anymore. In honesty, even after reading the book I still don't quite get that.

2. What's the best bit? The wisdom Jon shares is great, but for me and Acuff's writing it's the funny quips and side comments he makes that kept me engaged with this book, great fun, lots of laughs and he seems to properly write out what his mind is thinking, going off on one sentence tangents bringing it all down to earth and keeping it real. This might sound a bit hard (and I don't want it to!) but his style outplays his content and wins 4-1, a comfortable victory.

3. Any tweetable lines? When speaking about working clever and hard he simply says “I've never met a farmer who was surprised by his crops.“. I live in the suburbs so I don't meet many farmers. But I get the point! Work hard and you'll see results.

4. Should I read it? In the space of being fair and honest, I'd say that if you want to read a good motivational book to get moving, getting things going and chasing your dreams then there are a LOT of books out there, and I wonder whether the world really needed this book? But, on the other hand, I'm very glad I've read it, as ultimately I do now feel motivated to get moving with some ideas I've had, and the patience to see me progress through the 'stages' he writes of at the right pace. So the book did work. And ultimately Jon Acuff is a good, funny writer too, very easy to read, so why not go for it anyway!

Have you read it? What do you reckon?

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