Ready When You Are: Cecil B. DeMille"s Ten Commandments For Success by Robert Hammond
I liked "Ready When You Are: Cecil B.
DeMille's Ten Commandments For Success" by Robert Hammond, but I don't like the description on the back, which is also listed on the amazon sales page.
Because of that, I had difficulty deciding between 3 and 4 stars.
I went with 3.
I'll explain why on both accounts.
I found the book interesting as I've always enjoyed film, and respected Cecil B.
DeMille as a filmmaker, even though I didn't know much about him.
With this book, I got to learn more about the man behind the films, and that I liked.
I also liked the ten commandments: Be Humble, Be Amazed, Be Ready, Be Wise, Be Steadfast, Be Courageous, Be Spectacular, Be Visionary, Be Truthful, and Be Generous.
These lessons are very short.
The Prologue starts on page 9, two short stories about DeMille starting on pages 15 and 19, and finally the commandments begin on page 23.
They end on page 63, and a number of pages are blank or contain very little text.
This makes the lessons very short and quick to read.
The lessons also contain excerpts from the author's novel and adapted screenplay, so really the lessons are basically excerpts from the novel with one sentence "lessons" at the end of the excerpt.
With that said, I still enjoyed these excerpts and the lessons are valid.
After a two page Epilogue, the remainder of the book contains several articles: "The Bible as Blockbuster - The Influence of Cecil B.
DeMille's Biblical Epics" by Robert Hammond (pages 67-78); "Cecil DeMille also speaks" by Peter Milne (1922) (pages 79-88); "Motion Picture Directing" by Cecil B.
DeMille (1927) (pages 89-118); and "The Screen as a Religious Teacher" by Cecil B.
DeMille(1927) (pages 119-124).
It ends with a brief plug for the author's biopic on the director and about the author.
Now the part I didn't care for, the description that states, "In this powerful book comparable to such classics as "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," "Think and Grow Rich," and "Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun...
" I've read all of those, and Covey's 7 Habits sets a pretty high bar, as do the other two.
I read that description when the author offered to send me the book.
That description influenced me to give the book a read.
Unfortunately, this book comes nowhere close to those three classic books.
To suggest it does, to me, is quite misleading.
I understand promotion, but I felt this was too far of a stretch.
If anyone can take this book, side by side with those above, and put them in the same category, it's beyond me how they do it.
Again, I liked reading the book.
I think it could stand on its own with a description of: "Using excerpts from his novel, Hammond shares ten principles that made the director great.
" Or something like that.
I wish the author wouldn't have put my expectations so high with his promotion, because then maybe I wouldn't have felt this way about a nice little book.
DeMille's Ten Commandments For Success" by Robert Hammond, but I don't like the description on the back, which is also listed on the amazon sales page.
Because of that, I had difficulty deciding between 3 and 4 stars.
I went with 3.
I'll explain why on both accounts.
I found the book interesting as I've always enjoyed film, and respected Cecil B.
DeMille as a filmmaker, even though I didn't know much about him.
With this book, I got to learn more about the man behind the films, and that I liked.
I also liked the ten commandments: Be Humble, Be Amazed, Be Ready, Be Wise, Be Steadfast, Be Courageous, Be Spectacular, Be Visionary, Be Truthful, and Be Generous.
These lessons are very short.
The Prologue starts on page 9, two short stories about DeMille starting on pages 15 and 19, and finally the commandments begin on page 23.
They end on page 63, and a number of pages are blank or contain very little text.
This makes the lessons very short and quick to read.
The lessons also contain excerpts from the author's novel and adapted screenplay, so really the lessons are basically excerpts from the novel with one sentence "lessons" at the end of the excerpt.
With that said, I still enjoyed these excerpts and the lessons are valid.
After a two page Epilogue, the remainder of the book contains several articles: "The Bible as Blockbuster - The Influence of Cecil B.
DeMille's Biblical Epics" by Robert Hammond (pages 67-78); "Cecil DeMille also speaks" by Peter Milne (1922) (pages 79-88); "Motion Picture Directing" by Cecil B.
DeMille (1927) (pages 89-118); and "The Screen as a Religious Teacher" by Cecil B.
DeMille(1927) (pages 119-124).
It ends with a brief plug for the author's biopic on the director and about the author.
Now the part I didn't care for, the description that states, "In this powerful book comparable to such classics as "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," "Think and Grow Rich," and "Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun...
" I've read all of those, and Covey's 7 Habits sets a pretty high bar, as do the other two.
I read that description when the author offered to send me the book.
That description influenced me to give the book a read.
Unfortunately, this book comes nowhere close to those three classic books.
To suggest it does, to me, is quite misleading.
I understand promotion, but I felt this was too far of a stretch.
If anyone can take this book, side by side with those above, and put them in the same category, it's beyond me how they do it.
Again, I liked reading the book.
I think it could stand on its own with a description of: "Using excerpts from his novel, Hammond shares ten principles that made the director great.
" Or something like that.
I wish the author wouldn't have put my expectations so high with his promotion, because then maybe I wouldn't have felt this way about a nice little book.