I have just finished reading “Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar”.

I ordered the book on May and it was delivered last Thursday. I put it onto my pile of unread and part read books and there it was destined to stay for a few weeks until I got round to it. Then something happened on Monday, which was a public holiday on the UK. I got sick. Not serious, just a bad cold. Unable to do the jobs I wanted to do in the garden, I looked around for something to do and I naturally gravitated to my pile of books. I had just started “how we test software at Microsoft”, but couldn’t get enthused about picking that up again. I almost started having another attempt at reading a book on how to speak Hindi, but that seemed too hard, and my book on Ballroom dancing techniques just requires too much concentration (I am learning to teach dancing). Buccaneer looked to be just about the right size, so I started it. I finished it in two chunks of time which is unusual for me as I often start a book and finish it weeks later (I am reading Weinberg on Writing: the Fieldstone method – which is a great book, but it is taking me time to get through it in small nibbles).

Getting back to Buccaneer. It is written by James Bach and is not a testing book, it is a book about how he learns things. He learns things differently to how I was taught to learn, he learns through his own method and it works for him. I was fascinated, partly because it works for him but also because some of the things he does and says struck a chord with me. For example, there is a great story in the book about how clams helped him to write more of the book (read the book, it will make sense!) because of his use of procrastination. I procrastinate too, I start writing/doing something and then stop, do something else and come back to the first task and do it better and/or finish it. But, I always feel guilty about the procrastination - “Finish what you started” was a mantra drilled into me from an early age. James does it almost by design and maybe in the future I won't feel so guilty.

The book has lots of stories in it from James' life and he uses the stories to good effect to make his points. He also uses mnemonics, SACKED SCOWS will remain with me now as something to work through. He uses heuristics which make sense, although I can see that they will require practice to make them work for me.

The very personal nature of some of the stories made the book come alive for me and it is easy to see how the messages can be used in a practical way.

Having read some of Jerry Weinberg's books, I can see his influence a great deal in James' book and that is not a bad thing nor is it surprising when you know that Jerry is James' mentor.

Not all of the tips and techniques in the book will work for me, I believe, but I am going to give at least some of them a try. I need to think about the book for a little while and then I will re-read it.

In summary, I loved the book and would heartily recommend it to anyone who is passionate about learning.

Well done, James, and thanks for a) taking my mind of feeling ill and b) giving me something I can use – I can't think of higher praise for a book than saying I will use what is in it.