Six Months Off

NON FICTION BOOK REVIEW  

396 words

Title:Six Months Off;  
by: Hope Dlugozima, James Scott, and David Sharp; 
Henry Holt and Company; ISBN: 0-8050-3745-4; 
paperback, 267 pages,  
US$12.95, Can$17.95

Reviewer: A.T.Connellan, "Readers will be grateful to the authors. Hope Dlugozima,
James Scott, and David Sharp have taken away the ignorance and left us only to 
wonder why not. "

Sabbaticals -- not a new idea, but one receiving increasing use in these days of 
career unrest.

``The Chinese have a saying: ` The person who returns from a journey is never 
quite the same person who began it,` ``  This is why so many, perhaps including 
yourself, are seeking a respite to assess their past and prepare for a positively 
altered future.

Six Months Off is touted as ``a complete guide to planning and taking the break 
you've dreamed of, without losing your job...`` For a change the promise 
matches the reality. The authors have gone beyond the obvious in compiling 
the essential how-to volume for those requiring re-direction in their lives. 

Dlugozima, Scott, and Sharp have removed the mystery and misinterpretation 
surrounding the use of the sabbatical as a business and personal tool. Their 
clear headed analysis and recommendations enable the reader to plan all 
aspects of a hoped-for period of renewal.

The authors bring extensive qualifications to the task; they are all professional 
journalists, and each has taken sabbaticals. This knowledge colors their 
over-the-shoulder examination of the experiences of others whose stories 
appear in the book. It provides the comprehensive base from which they 
draw their recommendations.

In providing guidance the authors offer readers an infinite variety of methods 
for renewal; from backpack and bicycle trips, intensive study, and dramatic 
culture change, to extended foreign travel. It all contributes to the benefits 
of the sabbatical, only the vehicle for renewal changes.

While the book was written primarily for the U.S. market, non American 
readers will have little difficulty interpreting the information to their own 
locale and searching out comparable sources of assistance in their 
home marketplace.

Of particular help are the chapters that counsel a commonsense approach 
to planning not only for the necessary finances but setting the groundwork 
and rules for negotiating with coworkers, family members and superiors, 
to bring them all onside, for what is still considered by many as a radical step.

Sabbaticals can be of benefit to everyone, at any age. What holds back 
the majority of those of us most in need of change, is fear of the unknown. 
The same irrational fear that stops so many humans from great accomplishments.

Readers will be grateful to the authors. Hope Dlugozima, James Scott, 
and David Sharp have taken away the ignorance and left us only to 
wonder why not.