Running a Hotel on the Roof of the World: Five Years in Tibet

Customer Reviews:

Great travel read, a classic........2000-12-20

I bought this book on my last day in Hong Kong after finishing a stay in China. Alec Le Sueur writes about experiences that were identical to mine. I sat in the lobby of the hotel waiting for the bus to the airport laughing until I almost fell out of my chair, much to the consternation of the hotel staff. If you have been to China or are thinking about going READ THIS BOOK! Mr. Le Sueur provides excellent insight into an amazing part of the world.

Amusing & Informative Book.......2000-09-19

I enjoyed this book thoroughly for the author's sense of humour. What a sigh of relief reading a book about Tibet discussing issues which aren't related with the human rights issues. This is a travelling book, a book of observation which continues on the tradition of Bill Bryson & Jan Wong (of China Blues' fame). Still, we learnt a lot about the country by reading between the lines. I have read countless of books about Tibet & China & most of them were about how the authors survived their ordeal. Cliche`. Here, we also read about the author's ordeal but of a different kind. We were brought behind the scene of an international hotel & I'm adamant that most hotel operators haven't removed 200+ dead rats from their hotels before, rode in their hotel vehicle which were devoid of suspensions & driven in break neck speed by their driver who hardly spoke any English, etc. There's so much to be written but it's better to let the prospective readers discover for themselves what a wee gem this book is. I finished this book in 2 days as I couldn't afford to put it down. Damn hilarious, compatible with the Fawlty Tower as claimed, & truly a memesrising experience. Keep up the good work!

A must for Bill Bryson and Basil Fawlty fans.......2000-07-10

If you were to cross National Geographic, Bill Bryson and Fawlty Towers, then I'm sure that this book is what would pop out at the other end.

Covering the author's 7 years working in the most unlikely Holiday Inn in the world - in Lhasa Tibet - this is a real treat. From the rains of dead flies at a banquet to the bizarre Miss Tibet contest in the hotel swimming pool, back to the dead guest who nobody seems to be able to get rid of, and encountering various smells, accidents and infestations on the way, Le Sueur emerges as a Basil Fawlty for the 1990's, tackling each catastrophe with crossed fingers and invention in equal measures. It's genuinely hilarious, and more so because it isn't the product of a comedy writer's brain, but an account of real, if at times surreal, events.

Le Sueur is a very likeable protagonist who not only brings us the humour found in trying to run a top class hotel in a communist coutry cut off from the rest of the world, but also explores the effects of China's rule on Tibet and its people. What prevents the politics of the book becoming staid and stuffy is Le Sueur's naive angle - he sees the Tibetan situation in the same way that any other ordinary person might, with a mixture of fascination and outrage. It's clear he has a great deal of love and respect for Tibetans, and writes in a highly acerbic tone about their relationship with the Chinese. But at the same time, he is not afraid to show his downright frustration with both the Tibetan and Chinese staff in the hotel who it seems, will never understand the basic principles of customer service, or even hygiene.

It's a nice balance, and the book works on both the levels Le Sueur is obviously trying to explore. The humour is so abundant it's ticklish, the anecdotes are so interesting, you won't want to put the book down; in short, "Running A Hotel" is a very entertaining read.

A really good holiday read.......2000-04-16

I took this book on holiday and read it from cover to cover in one go! You cry with laughter at this guy's English sense of humour but the really clever thing is that you also learn sub-consciencly about the situation in Tibet. You end up falling in love with Tibet and the Tibetans and want to go there yourself. (Although if you're afraid of flying read this book before you book your tickets!). There's a lovely romance story that picks up half way through the book. It leaves you curious as to what happens next, so I hope he writes some more.

Great stories about the Tibetian way to do things.......1999-07-16

Le Sueur told about his stay in Tibet - with great sense of humour & ability to put things in perspective - what must have been nevertheless quite a strain on a person's moral. Even so that it seemed appealing, though one knows better as one gets further into the story. A relaxing way to get to know the country; and this way only the strong-minded ones still want to go; & not the weenies who can't miss out on luxury items!

Book Description

The international diffusion of policy ideas and practices is a subject of growing interest, raising such questions as: Why are there increasingly such waves of policy innovation? What prompts one country to emulate another's changes? Is it the influence of powerful international actors like the World Bank? Is it the motivations and interests of domestic actors? And how freely do imitators adapt foreign models to the needs and characteristics of their own countries, rather than simply replicating them?

Essays by leading academic experts and by policy practitioners with academic background address these important questions in Learning from Foreign Models in Latin American Policy Reform. Two chapters examine the influence of the international financial institutions. Then experts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico discuss how foreign models influenced their own decision making in crucial areas of social policy such as pensions, unemployment insurance, and health care.

These case studies yield an unprecedented insider perspective on policy diffusion, in particular showing that the financial institutions have less clout than sometimes appears. They also show the crucial role played by policy specialists inside the public bureaucracy.

Contributors: David Bravo, Sarah M. Brooks, Elena Carrera, José Paulo Zeetano Chahad, Carlos Cruz, Gustavo Demarco, Louise Haagh, Joan M. Nelson, Vinícius C. Pinheiro, and Juan Pablo Uribe.

Product Description

Includes: A Hazy Shade of Winter, America, At The Zoo, Bookends, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cecilia, Homeward Bound, Keep the Customer Satisfies, Mrs. Robinson, Song for the Asking, 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy), Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. and more.

Customer Reviews:

The Simon and Garfunkel Collection.......2006-01-20

The music, words and chords to songs written by Paul Simon and made famous by Simon and Garfunkel. The book contains the songs:

A Hazy Shade of Winter
America
At The Zoo
Bookends
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Cecilia
El Condor Pasa (If I Could)
Homeward Bound
I Am A Rock
Keep The Customer Satisfied
Mrs. Robinson
Old Friends
Scarborough Fair (Canticle)
Song For The Asking
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
The Boxer
The Sound Of Silence
Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.

Sheet Music not biography.......2001-02-14

Just thought everyone one should know this is the sheet music of Simon and Garfunkel. That's great if you were not looking for a biography of their time together. I just wanted other people to know so they don't make the same mistake.

Paul Simon - The Very Best: A Collection of His Greatest Hits (Paul Simon/Simon & Garfunkel)

Average customer rating:

Paul Simon - The Very Best: A Collection of His Greatest Hits (Paul Simon/Simon & Garfunkel)
Paul Simon
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Product Description

Includes: America, The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes, Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, Graceland, A Hazy Shade of Winter, Homeward Bound, Kodachrome, Late In the Evening, Loves Me Like A Rock, Mother & Child Reunion, The Sound of Silence and many more.

Average customer rating:

Simon and Garfunkel Collection

Manufacturer: Beekman Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

While corporations, governmental groups, and public relations firms debated the best way to memorialize the event of 9/11, sites of commemoration could be seen across the country and especially on the Internet. Greg Ulmer suggests that this reality points us to a new sense of monumentality, one that is collaborative in nature rather than iconic.

From a do-it-yourself Mount Rushmore to an automated tribute to the devastating annual toll of traffic deaths in the United States, Electronic Monuments describes commemoration as a fundamental experience, joining individual and collective identity, and adapting both to the emerging apparatus of “electracy,” or digital literacy. Concerns about the destruction of civic life caused by the society of the spectacle are refocused on the question of how a collectivity remembers who or what it is.

Ulmer proposes that the Internet makes it possible for monumentality to become a primary site of self-knowledge, one that supports a new politics, ethics, and dimension of education. The Internet thus holds the promise of bringing citizens back into the political equation as witnesses and monitors.

Gregory L. Ulmer is professor of English and media studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Average customer rating:

A thoughtful & delicate act
Aryeh Finklestein
Manufacturer: Hometown Websmith
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:

Ye are not lost
Aryeh Finklestein
Manufacturer: Hometown Websmith
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:

A Desperate Writer's Attempt to Kiss Up to Networks

Bill Carter is the best reporter there is about the business of television

Politics and luck

Really good look at behind the scenes happenings :-)

4 stars to the author, 0 stars for the actual networks/executives

Desperate Networks: Starring Katie Couric Les Moonves Simon Cowell Dan Rather Jeff Zucker Teri Hatcher Conan O'Brian Donald Trump and a Host of Other Movers and Shakers Who...
Bill Carter
Manufacturer: RH Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Nonfiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
General | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
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This Business of Television

The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale

ASIN: 0739325140
Release Date: 2006-05-02

Book Description

In the executive offices of the four major networks, sweeping changes are taking place and billions of dollars are at stake. Now Bill Carter, bestselling author of The Late Shift, goes behind the scenes to reveal the inner workings of the television industry, capturing the true portraits of the larger-than-life moguls and stars who make it such a cutthroat business.

In a time of sweeping media change, the four major networks struggle for the attention of American viewers increasingly distracted by cable, video games, and the Internet. Behind boardroom doors, tempers flare in the search for hit shows, which often get on the air purely by accident.
The fierce competition creates a pressure-cooker environment where anything can happen . . .

NBC’s fall from grace—Once the undisputed king of prime time, NBC plunged from first place to last place in the ratings in the course of a single season. What will be the price of that collapse—and who will pay it?

CBS’s slow and steady race to the top—Unlike NBC, CBS, under the leadership of CEO, Leslie Moonves, engineered one of the most spectacular turnarounds in television history. But in this ruthless world, you’re only as good as last week’s ratings . . . .

ABC’s surprising resurrection—Lost and Desperate Housewives—have brought ABC the kind of success it could only dream of in the past. So why don’t the executives responsible for those hits work there any more?

The End of the News As We Know It—In a stunningly short period of time, all three of the major network news anchors—Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings—signed off, leaving executives scrambling for a way to keep network news relevant in an era of 24/7 information.

Crazy Like Fox—They’re outrageous, unconventional, and occasionally off-putting, but more and more people are watching Fox shows. Most of all they keep watching American Idol. How did Simon Cowell snooker himself into a huge payday? Stay tuned . . .

Customer Reviews:

A Desperate Writer's Attempt to Kiss Up to Networks.......2007-08-24

Bill Carter has spent years covering TV for the New York Times and in order to keep his inside sources, he needs to kiss up to them. This book is filled with inside stories gleaned from the first five years of the new millennium and some of the stories are interesting. But the writer has the bad habit of using over-the-top adjectives about the network bigwigs he is covering. The bigger the person in power, the bigger the superlatives used to the point of it being laughable.

In the end CBS chief Les Moonves, who is called "genius," comes across as inept and power-hungry. Once the writer's bias is stripped away the real story here is that those in charge of network TV have no clue how to program hit television shows. In virtually every case of a major success, the network leaders initially scoff at the program but then take credit when it becomes a hit. And none of these rich, elitist programmers seem to know what mainline American viewers want to watch.

Bottom line--the book has interesting stories for those who are addicted to how networks program prime time. But the author's writing style is stilted and lacks credibility. There are a number of factual errors and the reader should beware that what is presented as fact is actually the author's filtered view of an industry that he needs to kiss up to in order to keep his job.

Bill Carter is the best reporter there is about the business of television.......2007-01-18

I loved this book. Bill Carter is the best in the world when it comes to reporting the behind-the-scenes machinations of network television. He obviously had the extensive cooperation of Les Moonves, Jeff Zucker and other important players. As a result, you get rich, turn-by-turn accountings of such thrilling events as how 'Survivor' was born and how 'Desperate Housewives' made it to the screen. Carter captures the seminal moments when 'Survivor' and 'Housewives' creators Mark Burnett and Marc Cherry (respectively) finally break through, each overcoming very long odds. It's spine-tingling stuff.

'Desperate Housewives' is simply superb reporting from Bill Carter. Anyone with an interest in finding out how creative product goes from vision to reality will devour this book. It clocks in at a little under 400 pages...I'd be willing to read 800 pages of material like this from Mr. Carter.

Politics and luck.......2006-10-20

This was a really fascinating book. It started off slowly (the first pages were tedious) and the writing is disjointed. The author jumps from time period to time period and network to network almost convulsively. You'll be reading about NBC in 2004 and then next thing you know it's ABC in 2000 and then back to CBS in 2005.

That said, the story is compelling: networks passing on shows like Desperate Housewives, Simon Cowell doing American Idol in the hope of discovering talent for his record company. Careers depend on the ability to predict what the public will watch, and what they will and won't watch isn't as obvious as one might think, even to people in the business with years of experience.

If you have any interest in television, personal politics, or the fallibilities of corporate execs, this is an interesting read.

Really good look at behind the scenes happenings :-).......2006-07-23

If you are like me and love almost all things television, this is an interesting look at what it takes to get shows on the screen and how networks battle for a particular show. Once you can get behind the long title, you'll learn so much that you probably didn't know before.
Apparently, Desperate Housewives was passed by NBC, CBS etc until finally someone at ABC gave it a go and look at what happend. Nobody at NBC or CBS would give Mark Cherry a go because he didn't have a reputation anymore.
He talks about how the people who 'green light' Lost, Grey's Anatomy were on their way out the door and almost fired when they stumbled across these now hits. How Friends' producers never wanted the show to be set around a coffee shop. They wanted them to be around a diner. How Jeff Zucker founded a show's supersizing.
This is a great eye-opening look at the behind the scenes moves that go on all the time that we are mostly unaware of. I really loved it and though it's a bit heavy at times, it's mostly really enjoyable and fun.

4 stars to the author, 0 stars for the actual networks/executives.......2006-06-23

In a fairly entertaining behind-the-scenes account of the major US networks' programming decisions, the author provides a glimpse of the inner workings of TV executives (and intentionally or not, doesn't necessarily show them to be geniuses). The initial discussions surrounding Survivor's introduction is perhaps the better written part of the book. Past blunders (always in hindsight, though) by all the major networks as discussed by the author is an interesting read as well. The "characters" themselves seem particularly myopic and is very difficult to believe these people shape what the rest of the world gets to watch on television. The book itself is well-written in an easy-going narrative style. A good read.

Desperate Networks: Starring Katie Couric Les Moonves Simon Cowell Dan Rather Jeff Zucker Teri Hatcher Conan O'Brian Donald Trump and a Host of Other Movers and Shakers Who...

Average customer rating:

Desperate Networks: Starring Katie Couric Les Moonves Simon Cowell Dan Rather Jeff Zucker Teri Hatcher Conan O'Brian Donald Trump and a Host of Other Movers and Shakers Who...
Bill Carter
Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000UTDAQW

Product Description

In the executive offices of the four major networks, sweeping changes are taking place and billions of dollars are at stake. Now Bill Carter, bestselling author of The Late Shift, goes behind the scenes to reveal the inner workings of the television industry, capturing the true portraits of the larger-than-life moguls and stars who make it such a cutthroat business. In a time of sweeping media change, the four major networks struggle for the attention of American viewers increasingly distracted by cable, video games, and the Internet. Behind boardroom doors, tempers flare in the search for hit shows, which often get on the air purely by accident. The fierce competition creates a pressure-cooker environment where anything can happen . . . NBCs fall from graceOnce the undisputed king of prime time, NBC plunged from first place to last place in the ratings in the course of a single season. What will be the price of that collapseand who will pay it? CBSs slow and steady race to the topUnlike NBC, CBS, under the leadership of CEO, Leslie Moonves, engineered one of the most spectacular turnarounds in television history. But in this ruthless world, youre only as good as last weeks ratings . . . . ABCs surprising resurrectionLost and Desperate Housewiveshave brought ABC the kind of success it could only dream of in the past. So why dont the executives responsible for those hits work there any more? The End of the News As We Know ItIn a stunningly short period of time, all three of the major network news anchorsDan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jenningssigned off, leaving executives scrambling for a way to keep network news relevant in an era of 24/7 information. Crazy Like FoxTheyre outrageous, unconventional, and occasionally off-putting, but more and more people are watching Fox shows. Most of all they keep watching American Idol. How did Simon Cowell snooker himself into a huge payday? Stay tuned . . .

Amazon.com

Love him or loathe him, Mr. Microsoft is certainly an influential voice in the modern business world and The Road Ahead is definitely an important addition to any business library. Gates' description of the beginnings of the information age, while somewhat over-emphasizing his own contributions and downplaying those of his competitors, is nonetheless as clear and enlightening as any in print today. Likewise, his view of the digital future--from hardware to software and education to entertainment--should be read and studied by all who use technology in their business today or plan to use it on the road ahead.

Customer Reviews:

I owe a lot of things to this book.......2005-11-23

This book hit the stands in 90's when I was an undegrad doing my 4 year course in Computer Science and Engineering. I devoured this book with the kind of passion a teenager devours his first Playboy/Penthouse.

In hindsight whatever BillG has written in this book has happened.

This book Rocks.

Classic Gates-- Before the Internet was Invented...........2005-03-13

Seriously this is Bill Gates talking about the future but out of 300 pages about 9 are dedicated to talking about the internet -- and most of that is buried with other information. Lots of talk about applications and appliances that did not materialize....one book you need to read because-- then you know that all the gurus DO NOT KNOW everythng !! Wonderful for entrepreneurs who dont' doubt their own paths on their road ahead......

Worth reading.......2004-05-20

Definitely worth reading. I'd also, however, suggest that if you really are curious about the early years of computing, you use the internet to check up other opinions of Microsoft's origin. There's two sides to every story...

Mr. Gates is is undoubtedly a phenomenal businessman, though not perhaps quite the visionary he perceives himself to be. Would a visionary have to rewrite his book a year after completion? The internet took off - and The Road Ahead received a complete overhaul to reflect the recent developments. More like, The Road Behind. He's also not quite such an innovator - Microsoft purchased "MS-DOS", rather than created it, and incorporated many other people's ideas into Windows (without permission, of course).

This isn't just a Microsoft bashing session. I have the greatest respect for them. But, think twice before you believe every word in this book. There is a definite stretching of the truth in places. Having said that, buy it - it's an interesting comparison with other accounts of the dawn of personal computing. No doubt the truth is somewhere in between.

"Not supported".......2004-05-07

Mr Gates didn't mention anything about Java running on any platform/machine

He didn't mention anything about Linux being free

He didn't mention anything "new" about IBM their Lotus Notes products

Didn't mention anything "significant" about future changes in graphics and companies like Pixar and Disney

He didn't mention anything about Oracle and middleware

He didn't mention anything about the POWER of Ebay, Yahoo, Google and Amazon to get you things!!

What about AOL?, and what about the fact that he didn't even once mention Netscape, the superior company who revolutionized the Internet with their browser.

Don't get me wrong it is a very good book. However somewhat lopsided
I guess I must be on a different road than the one Mr Gates is traveling on.
btw: I happen to be one of the many Microsoft Certified Professionals that invested a significant amount of my own money and time supporting his products.
(10 grand and 12 years)

I think this book is as much about what is NOT in the book as opposed to what IS in the book!!
Buy it anyway! (Maybe used - it is some what dated) You will learn something just by being exposed to it.
The concept of The Web as being "self publishing" was an eye opener for me.
My favorite chapter and quote was from Chapter 8 Friction-Free Capitalism. "Our success in the PC world has come from working in partnership with such great companies as Intel, Compaq, HP, DEC, NEC, and dozens of others. Even IBM and Apple, with whom we have occasionally been in competition, have had an immense amount of our cooperation and support. We created a company that was dependent on partners. We bet that somebody other than us would do great chips, somebody other than us would build great PCs, somebody other than us would do great distribution and integration. We took a narrow slice and focused on that. In this new world, we want to work with companies from every industry to help them make the most of the opportunities the information revolution will bring." page 182

Well here are some other technology people and companies you might want to investigate as I am sure they too will have an impact on the direction of the road we will all be traveling: (unless of course, he buys them or squeezes them out)
Doug Humphrey - Founder, Digex ; Chairman and Founder, Cidera
Jonathan Klein - Co-founder and CEO, Getty Images
Tom Stockham - President of Access and Emerging Markets, Ticketmaster

Chip Perry - President and CEO - AutoTrader.com, former VP, Los Angeles Times
Jim McCann - Founder, Chairman and CEO - 1-800-FLOWERS
Brooks Fisher - Vice President (Strategic Initiatives), Intuit; former VP, Infoseek
Micheal Rubin - Founder, Chairman and CEO - Global Sports
Robert Covington - Chief Technology Officer and EVP, MerchantWired
Rob Burgess - Chairman and CEO - Macromedia; former SVP, Silicon Graphics
Steven Snyder - founder and chairman - Net Perceptions
Kenneth Cron - CEO, Flipside, Inc; former President of Publishing, CMP Media
Emerick Woods - President and CEO - Vicinity
Glenn Meakem - Founder, Chairman and CEO - FreeMarkets
Ted Meisel - President and CEO - GoTo.com
Nicholas vanDyk- President, Artisan New Media; EVP, Artisan Entertainment
Glenn Meyers- Founder and CEO - Rare Medium Group
Mark Goldstein - President and CEO - K-Mart's BlueLight
Charles Johnson - Founder and CEO - PurchasePro
David Perry- Founder, Chairman and CEO - Ventro
Alan Meckler- Founder, Chairman and CEO - INTMedia Group
Christopher Jenkins - former President, Ziplink; former VP, Arch Communications
Michael Levy -Founder and CEO - CBS Sportsline
John Schwarz - CEO - Reciprocal; former General Manager, IBM Solutions
Chris MacAskill - Founder -FatBrain.com, CEO - MightyWords
Harry Motro - Chairman, MotroVentures, former CEO - Infoseek
Zach Nelson - CEO and President, Mcafee ASaP
Joe Chung - Founder and Chairman, Art Technology Group
Jeet Singh - Founder and CEO, Art Technology Group

Royal Farros - Chairman, CEO and Founder, iPrint Inc.
Pehong Chen - Founder and CEO, BroadVision
Jeffrey Smith - Founder and CEO, Tumbleweed Communications
Scott Kurnit - CEO and Founder of About Inc.
Bob Young - Founder and Chairman, Red Hat Software
Scott Mednick - Founder, Think New Ideas; former Chairman, Worldwide Exceed
Tom Rogers- President and CEO, Primedia, former President, NBC Cable
Russell Horowitz - Founder and former Chairman, Go2Net Inc.

Naveen Jain - Founder and Chairman, InfoSpace
Michael Rosenfelt - Venture Partner, Impact Venture Partners; Founder, Powered, Inc.
Charles Conn - Co-founder and former Chairman, TicketmasterCitySearch.com
Mark Walsh - Chairman, VerticalNet; former SVP, America Online
David Goldberg - Founder and CEO, Launch Media
John Holt - Founder and CEO, The Cobalt Group
(From the book eFront! by Mattew W. Ragas)

Do not forget the power of TV and the example set by GE.......2004-04-06

I found the book informative. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the modern world. The book does not have a narrow focus on just technology but also looks at technology's impact on society from many different and interesting angles. Most of what the author thinks we may expect to see on the road ahead of us seems like a very reasonable guess and he is in a good position to make an educated guess, but I think he perhaps underestimates by a bit the continuing pervasive influence of that ancient relic, TV! It is much more powerfull than the PC. For example, on page 263 Mr. Gates writes, "If people do gravitate to their own interests and withdraw from the broader world -- if weight lifters communicate only with other weight lifters, and Latvians choose to read only Latvian newspapers -- there is a risk that common experience and values will fall away. Such xenophobia would have the effect of fragmenting societies." By this statement Bill Gates is suggesting that people who get their information about the world from Latvian newspapers may possibly become as narrow in their outlook as people whose only interest is weight lifting.
Weight lifters and Latvians? There are many ways to make a point and this is an interesting choice by an active mind (I dare to guess that all Americans know what a weight lifter is and I know most don't know what a Latvian is, but I am glad the author did not chose an Austrian; that would be too obvious and the book would not seem as fresh and new without a Latvian in there). The risk that common experience and values will fall away is very small indeed. The spreading power of TV (cable etc.) will prevent that. TV is everywhere in homes (almost all), bars, airports, some dentists have you watch TV while you get drilled, travelers watch TV with breakfast in most motels/hotels and some motels/hotels have two TVs in every room. That fanatical weight lifter and avid reader of Latvian newspapers both, like most people, probably cannot avoid watching TV, and have their world view, to a large degree, formed by CNN, CBS 60 Minutes, excellent commercials, Hollywood movies, and talk shows of all kind. Electrons radiating from the TV screen create a bond between the weight lifter and the Latvian reader. A French man told me that the impact of TV is so great that French TV is even causing regional accents to fade away in France.
The next book Mr. Gates should write should be on how to make a very large and mature company's stock deliver superior performance to the long-suffering-and-not-so-patient-anymore shareholders. He should use GE's story as a guide. GE's great size did not prevent superior performance. But the book should be very short so that Mr. Gates can quickly start implementing the contents of the new book.

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