Cochran Books

This time management handbook does not only cover personal time management techniques, but it covers techniques for working with others, and techniques for library administrators. The last two chapters briefly describe balancing career with ones personal life and how to implement a time management plan.

The focus is not so much on saving time as it is to decide ahead of time what goals are most important to accomplish. Having goals and objectives in place librarians can then create a daily plan of action that allows them to work on high priority items first. This will help librarians avoid time wasters such as procrastination, taking on too much, and not being able to say no. Other good tips mentioned were setting aside uninterrupted quiet time everyday, deciding which time of day you are most productive, how to plan effective meetings, and how to delegate effectively.

The Time Management Handbook does what other time management books don't, apply time management to a library setting. However, this book does not explain how to implement a time management plan in great detail. Concepts of planning, goal setting, and implementing time management techniques are not mentioned in depth. Instead the book provides a helpful framework for effective time management.

This book has nothing to do with OJ, it was merely the publicity around OJ that made a bestseller possible for Cochran.

Regardless of how you feel about him, it is impossible to come away from this look into the treatment of minorities in LA without a new perspective.

Whenever a person of color is stopped at a red light in a surburban town just because he is in the wrong place at the right time, Cochran's themes resonate.

Watching the news in the last few days, the indiscriminate beatings at the hands of professionals who are trained in the art of restraint makes Cochran's book a must read for anyone whose interest in our country runs beyond blaring country music promoting revenge against foreign enemies.

Some of the enemies are right here.

Of course, even under Robert's, in particular Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised 10th, for such groups, informality is encourged (See RONR 10th p. 470), and
I don't think Roberta's and Roberts disagree as much as Alice claims in her book. I think this book is likely to contain some good advice for small groups, who generally come together not just to make decisions but also to do "problem solving". She does emphasize bringing proposals to a meeting and not complaints about the past, which is important.

A couple of complaints:
1) I opened the book to a random page and found this:
"A majority vote (50% plus one) .... "
This definition is incorrect, as anyone who understand parliamentary law knows. Majority simply means "more then half".

2) Recommends that groups require at least 75% in favor of a proposal before adopting it. (Yikes! A small
minority can cripple that group)

I was given a copy of this book when I agreed to act as a parliamentary consultant for a fraternity umbrella organization. They were a newly formed group working on their own bylaws and a member had suggested this book. After reading it, I quickly came to the conclusion that it is nothing more than a bad knock-off of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised. The parts of it which deviate from Robert's Rules are drawbacks rather than selling points, such as the inappropriate definition of a majority and the requirement of a 3/4 vote to do anything (other reviewers have pointed both of these horrid features out). If Roberta's Rules is "more democratic" as has been claimed, it wouldn't allow a small, possibly recalcitrant minority to overrule almost 75% of an organization's members. On a seven person board, two determined people could effectively filibuster and cause business to grind to a halt; is that a good idea?

Roberta's seems to be written on the premise that practically everyone will agree with a proposal if it's talked about and verbally massaged enough. Anyone who lives in the real world of board meetings and policy discussions and decision making knows that this isn't the case. No amount of touchy-feely back-and-forth will ever make some decisions palatable to everyone. People disagree; that's why in most cases a majority should rule, with the right of the minority to disagree is protected. Robert's Rules does this; Roberta's Rules doesn't.

Besides, Robert's Rules of Order recognizes that informality is often useful to small bodies and provides for meetings to be conducted informally. The difference is, with Robert's, the formality is there when needed. With Roberta's, you're on your own when things get complicated.

Roberta's Rules of Order is both poorly executed and poorly conceived. Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 10th Edition is a much better parliamentary manual. It has benefitted from over 125 years of careful revision and evalution; Roberta's has obviously not. Many misconceptions about Robert's Rules of Order have to do with older editions; ignore the criticisms and go with the gold standard: Robert's Rules, not Roberta's Rules.

The sailing images and clear, organized writing made it easy to read the book straight through; since it is full of useful information to apply in a wide variety of circumstances,it will be a favorite reference book.

This is one of the best translations of the writings attributed to the brilliant Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu. Although less well known outside of China than "Lao Tzu," the reputed author of the _Tao Te Ching_, Chuang Tzu, who lived in the 4th century B.C., is both one of history's greatest anti-rationalist philosophers and one of the best prose stylist of world literature. Among the most famous (and moving) passages in his eponymous work is the story of how Chuang Tzu (whose full name is Chuang Chou) dreamed he was a butterfly, and, upon awakening, "does not know whether he is Chou who dreams he is a butterfly or a butterfly who dreams he is Chou."

Graham gives a complete translation of the "Inner Chapters," which are regarded by many scholars as the authentic works of Chuang Tzu, and also gives selections from later Taoist works, attributed to Chuang Tzu (but probably from other philosophers). Graham's interpretive Introduction (with sections on such tasty topics as "Rejection of Logic" and "Death and Mutilation") is itself one of the classic interpretations of Chuang Tzu's philosophy.

Readers familiar with the _Chuang Tzu_ from other translations will notice that Graham has rearranged some sections of the text. This is not mere whim on Graham's part, but part of his thoughtful view that parts of the text have been moved from their original locations due to textual corruption as the book was recopied by generations of scribes.

As you can see, this book is currently out of print (which is a testament to both the poor taste of much of the book-buying public, and to the near-sightedness of publishers). I sincerely hope that some publisher will pick up the rights to this outstanding translation.

Other excellent translations of the _Chuang Tzu_ include those by Burton Watson, _Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings_, and Victor Mair, _Wandering on the Way_. Two fine collections of interpretive essays on Chuang Tzu's thought are Paul Kjellberg and Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds., _Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi_, and Victor Mair, ed., _Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu_.

In other words, are you a mature and sensible person with an enquiring mind, who for some reason or other has become interested in China's most brilliant philosophical rascal - one who would have let out a howl of laughter if shown the present book? Or are you a student being run through society's ideological mill, and one needing to grub up on the history of Chinese philosophy and Chuang Tzu's relation to the Mohists and Logicians and other such extraneous stuff, a mill for whom Chuang Tzu is just another 'philosopher' (a word that hardly describes him since he's something much bigger)?

If you are one of the latter, perhaps Graham, who is one of the world's foremost Sinologists and a brilliant translator, is the man for you. So far as Graham is concerned, and many agree, most of the received text of Chuang Tzu wasn't written by Chuang Tzu at all. He feels that only the first seven chapters, the 'Inner Chapters,' are Chuang Tzu's own work, the other chapters being a collection of pieces written by others, and in his edition has rearranged the text to bring it into line with his thesis.

Consequently his book falls into six parts: 1. Introduction; 2. The Inner Chapters and related passages; 3. A 'School of Chuang-tzu' selection; 4. The essays of the Primitivists; 5. The Yangist miscellany; 6. The Syncretist writings.

The 40-page Introduction is both detailed and informative. Each of the remaining six parts has its own introductory note, and is annotated with other long notes. The book is rounded out with a List of Chinese Characters (sinographs) and an Index. All in all, then, this is a thorough and scholarly production in which Graham presents a very persuasive and convincing case for his complex rearrangement of Chuang Tzu's text, and one backed up by lots of impeccably logical argument.

So why did I say it would have made Chuang Tzu howl with laughter? Well, because Graham's rationalist approach violates the whole spirit of Chuang Tzu, a man who had seen through the folly of the overemphasis on reason. Graham founds himself squarely in reason, while failing to note that reason can never really arrive at the truth. Chuang Tzu, in contrast, and although he was certainly capable of a reasonable use of reason, was more a bubbling and sparkling fountain of joyous insights, brilliant insights into the nature of man and woman and reality, and he doesn't need any commentators. All you need to read him is a mind of your own.

Confronted by the kind of mindset represented by Graham, we should never forget what Lu Chi (+ 754-805) reminds us of in his brilliant 'Essay on Literature,' the 'Wen fu,' when he tells us that: 'Theses are convincing - but deceptive...' I can just see Chuang Tzu smiling and nodding his head in approval.

So if you are a student, and if you need a heavily annotated scholarly (though rearranged) translation because you have to grub up for an exam on Chinese Philosophy, Graham's edition can certainly be recommended. Others, however, who may be approaching Chuang Tzu for the first time, would be wiser to look for something less cluttered, something that allows them more immediate access to this scintillating writer without the distractions of a mass of extraneous matter. Two uncluttered and excellent translations that can be strongly recommended are those of Lin Yutang and Burton Watson.

And for the simplest and easiest approach of all to Chuang Tzu there is Thomas Merton's quite brilliant reworking and abridgement, 'The Way of Chuang Tzu.' Merton, who was not a scholar of Chinese, may not have given us Chuang Tzu's actual words in his selection of these ironic, witty, and sophisticated stories. But as a man of insight he's succeeded wonderfully in capturing the spirit of the old rascal.

Purists may scowl, but I think I spot Chuang Tzu looking down from his dragon as it flaps him across the heavens, and beaming and nodding in approval of Merton too.

LiL' Tex