Rating: 
Summary: Find Your Creative Passion
Review: At 154 pages, this book is a short and an easy read. You can tell that the author is also a lecturer because the book seems like it makes a few basic points that could have been projected on a screen using PowerPoint slides. This book is not an intellectual analysis of data, but more like an inspirational pep talk.You are practically presented with an outline in each chapter, complete with bolded headings and sub-headings. This book is also filled with poignant quotes from notable people spanning the ages of history. This approach is appropriate and effective for this subject matter. The thesis of the book is simply find what taps into your creative passion in life and you will find the work you love. The book actually does give you a methodolgy to follow to uncover what at first seems to be an amorphous task. The "Focusing Questions" the author presents throughout the second half of the book is an opportunity for the reader to reflect and think about how this can make sense for him or her. The title of the book may be a little misleading. "Finding the work you love" is not referring to actually getting the job. The title is referring to finding within yourself what it is that you would love to do for your life's work. The audience for this book could be anyone from the high school or college graduate to the senior citizen. Anyone who is not sure what contribution they want to make for the rest of their lives might benefit from a bit of focused insight and reflection. Even if you are sure about what your life's work is, the book could still be valuable as a reinforcement that you are on the right path for you.
Rating:
Summary: Find Your Creative Passion
Review: At 154 pages, this book is a short and an easy read. You can tell that the author is also a lecturer because the book seems like it makes a few basic points that could have been projected on a screen using PowerPoint slides. This book is not an intellectual analysis of data, but more like an inspirational pep talk. You are practically presented with an outline in each chapter, complete with bolded headings and sub-headings. This book is also filled with poignant quotes from notable people spanning the ages of history. This approach is appropriate and effective for this subject matter. The thesis of the book is simply find what taps into your creative passion in life and you will find the work you love. The book actually does give you a methodolgy to follow to uncover what at first seems to be an amorphous task. The "Focusing Questions" the author presents throughout the second half of the book is an opportunity for the reader to reflect and think about how this can make sense for him or her. The title of the book may be a little misleading. "Finding the work you love" is not referring to actually getting the job. The title is referring to finding within yourself what it is that you would love to do for your life's work. The audience for this book could be anyone from the high school or college graduate to the senior citizen. Anyone who is not sure what contribution they want to make for the rest of their lives might benefit from a bit of focused insight and reflection. Even if you are sure about what your life's work is, the book could still be valuable as a reinforcement that you are on the right path for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Great quote book, not-so-great career advice
Review: Boldt strings together quotes and cliches with the dexterity of a high school debate team captain. It's like he's sleeping with a copy of Bartlett's Quotations under his pillow. But as anyone who's listened to a high school debate knows, "proof by quotation" does not make for a compelling argument. It's actually pretty tiring to read. You keep waiting for the wisdom, the enlightening bits, the heart of the book. It never comes. If you want career advice, or are seeking your life's calling, you'd be better off reading Po Bronson, Barbara Sher, Richard Bolles, Marsha Sinetar, Nancy Anderson, or heck, even Dr. Phil! Or better yet, get a good career counselor, coach, or therapist to help you face to face, step by step. Save yourself the effort on this one...
Rating:
Summary: An underwhelming exercise rife with unrelenting clichés
Review: Boldt's examination of the world is through a narrow rose-colored scope of naiveté. Utterly trivial and trite advice meant for people who didn't already realize that work is more than just a function of life. Loving the work you do will obviously make your life infinitely more fulfilling but to disregard every other external factor in choosing a job is impractical at best. People are able to love and take interest in more than one area of study. And although work and love are not mutually exclusive, it's more than likely that they won't align perfectly-after all, that's why work is called work. One can say that I sure like-even love-to sleep, but no one's going to pay me for sleeping. Quotes are more effective when used sparingly, but Boldt actually manages to string a hundred or so of them together into a drone of Oprah-esque derivative commentaries. In the last lines of Boldt's book, he even makes a stab at marketing his other books so that you can understand this book "in more detail." Incredulous and shameful! A 2-hour book not worth the 2-hour read. Truly uninspiring!
Rating:
Summary: Short and Effective
Review: For anyone whose ever tried to read "What Color is Your Parachute?" multiple times and has tossed it aside an equal number because it really didn't help, I recommend "How to Find the Work You Love." Instead of focusing on what color tie to wear or whether to send that follow up thank you card to your prospective employer, Laurence G. Boldt instead starts with the big questions and systematically focuses them down into simple, yet effective criteria to pursue the work you love. The first 2 chapters examine the paradigms and obstacles that get in the way of doing the work you love. The third chapter offers a basic formula for finding the work you love: -Decide what you are looking for -Decide to keep looking until you find it -Decide when you have found it He then defines "it" with 4 simple criteria: Integrity, Service, Enjoyment, Excellence. The following chapters examine each in more detail, mixing in focusing questions here and there. The questions range from 'When you were a child, what did you most love to do?' to 'What is the purpose of your life?' to identifying ways you can earn a living doing what you love and identifying those in your life most/least supportive of your dreams. The epilogue briefly guides you on where to go, now that you've found work that you love. This is the best "job" book I've ever read. It never does get to what color tie to where, but I refer back to it again and again for that right-brain focus. If you are more of a left-brain type and prefer more concrete structure and less abstract questioning, I recommend "Zen and the Art of Making a Living" by the same author. It still has the abstract bits, but there are a lot more tools that help you develop specific career strategy and plannning.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST AVAILABLE BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT
Review: I have read dozens upon dozens of vocational guidance books over the last ten years (the latter ones out of curiosity, after having surveyed so much!) By this, I can say that "How to Find the Work You Love" is one of THE best vocational guidance books on the market today. You will not find one great magical answer with this book. However, such an ultimate Eureka experience is not the result of reading ANY career guide. But let's face it: there is a lot of nonsense out there. "How to Find the Work You Love" is a breath of grounded fresh air amidst the hocus-pocus career fantasias hitting the shelves over the last ten years. This book is inspirational to me; and also practical, well-organized and developed, and even somewhat CONCISE on top of it! IMHO, the best summary of sound exercises, commentaries, questions and advice are in this little book. One of the VERY few career guides I seriously recommend.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book!
Review: I love How to Find the Work You Love! This book contains within it everything you need to know about creating meaningful work. I have given it to so many people as gifts, I stopped counting! Everyone I have given it to enjoys it as much as I do, and has benefited by its wisdom and human-hearted approach to creating the work you love. Even if you are not looking at a career change read this book. It is life changing!
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I want to know if the people who wrote poor reviews are doing work that they really love. This book is good to gain a clear and positive perspective on work and what it really means, but in order to truly benefit from it, you have to read it with *cliche* an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: This book could change your life!
Review: Outstanding! This excellent book helps you clear away all the self-limiting thinking that's keeping you from finding your life's purpose. It will also help you discover your right livelihood through a series of insightful, though-provoking questions. You will love this book; it's fun to read, and VERY inspiring. It's far different from most any other self help book you have probably read before. Also, BE SURE you get the cassette version, too...listen to it in the car, while exercising, or anytime you need a great pep talk. This book gives you more than hope...it gives you a path and vision to achieve your purpose in life. Get it!!
Rating: 
Summary: Positives and Negatives
Review: Positives:
1. Easy to read and offers trivial but entertaining quotes from famous people.
2. A feel good book, inspires you to be more giving to the outside world (i.e. choose a career that fulfills by doing something meaningful to you and valuable to others in a self enriching way).
3. Gives you something to think about as far as your choices in life (i.e. touching upon reasons you chose your career and how your career may be affecting your health/self-esteem/stress/anger).
Negatives:
1. Depending on your personal outlook you may find this book useful if you have been looking for additional support in your dream to become a teacher and quit your job as a corporate lawyer. On the other hand you may think the brainwashing is totally unrealistic (you need to pay your bills) and the book a waste of time. It really depends on you.
2. The exercises in the book are minimally useful.
3. If you are doing some soul searching maybe it would be more useful to look at your other specific problems (if you have any) like anger, stress, health and choose a more appropriate self-help book. For example, Harriet Lerner has a great book on anger.
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