14 books that I attempted to read in 2014

The logic is quite simple. If NYT can publish a list of books, why can't we. And if that logic is not enough convincing, I do have another excuse. This list is not a review-ish review, but more about the reading experience. And yes, I didn't finish some of the books. So this post may also work as a cautionary notice, in case you plan to read any of these books in 2015.

1. Influence, by Robert Cialdini

This is one gem of a book, if you are ok to read long texts. If you are interested to know how to get people's attention when you have faced an accident on a road, or if you want to know why one fatal accident (air or road) is generally followed by multiple such accidents, you might like to read this book. For those who are seriously interested into psychology of marketing, this can be the bible.

Category: Psychology, Marketing





2. The Art of Social Media, by Guy Kawasaki

I had written a longer pre-release review in my blog earlier - here. Excerpts from that: "This book is about execution plans of Social Media. Its not about the Social Media funda or philosophies or strategies to be adopted by different kinds of industries. It doesn't either talk on the Facebook vs. Google+ debate. If you were looking for any of those stuff, don't buy this book.
Then who should buy this book? a. If you are an SM enthusiast, buy this. b. If you are planning to use Social Media for your own business, buy this. c. If you want to sound smart in your agency, while the big guys give fundas on SM, buy this. d. If you are having your own agency and planning to do it better, buy this.

Category: Social Media



3. The Snowden Files, by Luke Hardin

Do you get a high from reading thrillers? Are you a 007 fan? Are you also a techie? Then read this. Claimed to be the real life story of the most wanted man by USA, this book has the account of Edward Snowden and the journalists who had revealed NSA secrets. There are some chilling details about NSA & more about GCHQ. There are certain omission as well. Overall, if you keep a pinch of salt ready, this is a nice read for the techie-thriller lover in you.  
As a bonus, this book would also give you some scoops to be told in the techie parties.

Category: Fiction, Thriller, Politics




4. In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters
Well, I had heard about this book from many quarters. It appears in many top 10 lists across the web. But I was quite disappointed with the narrative. It seemed common sense, converted into a long text by two Management consultants. With all due respects to the authors, I could not finish this book.

Category: Unknown

5. Contagious, by Jonah Berger
First thing first - I liked this book and could complete it as well. If you are interested about Social Media or want to sell anything, read this. The author is a Marketing professor in Wharton and has done enough research starting from NYT mailing list to the social influence behind what we wear. It goes into stuff like why certain videos go viral while others don't. Quite an interesting read. 

Category: Marketing








6. The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver

Ah, THE book. In case you have not heard about the author, check here first. Nate Silver had famously predicted the result of 49 out of 50 states in 2008 US Presidential election by using simple statistics and poll results. And in 2012, he predicted 50 out of 50. While Nate Silver is more famous for his political predictions, the book talks more about sports predictions. And I was so much influenced by the book, that I tried to apply the theories on the 2014 World Cup football results, and also accidentally predicted the winner of all the matches from Quarter Final onwards. Here is one blog that I had posted earlier on Linkedin to share some funda based on newly acquired inputs from Nate Silver.


Category: Statistics, Prediction



7. Think like a freak, by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Why did I bought this book in first place? Because I had bought Freakonomics earlier. Coming from the same stable, this too is a nice read, though at times it becomes a bit monotonous. There are certain theories (like why you should kick the penalty right at the center instead of left or right of the post) which might appear like a cool new thing. However on a second thought, the book appeared to be stretching the ideas of the previous books and complying to publisher's demands. Possibly Levitt & Dubner could better wait for some time to get more valuable contents before coming out with this book.

Category: Pop culture


8. Mastery, by Robert Greene

One more book, which I had bought based on the previous books by the author. While Power (abridged version) was different and so was War, this seemed to be a bit of drag. If you are interested in tidbits from history, you may like this book. For example, it talks in length about Darwin's early life and tries to connect it to his theory. While the historical contexts are interesting in the beginning, it started to become monotonous after couple of chapters. One more book which I could not finish, after starting with lots of hope and enthusiasm. 

Category: Pop Culture, History





9. 21 yaks and a Speedo, by Lewis Pugh

This book is a special one, as I met this guy and got a signed copy this year. The book is more than a book. It's about a man, who swam in North Pole in the extreme cold to make a point that north pole is melting due to global warming. Check this Ted talk to know more about him. And here you can watch the North pole expedition. The book has 21 stories from his own life. And they are fascinating. If you are feeling down, pick this book up, read one of the stories and become a changed man.

Category: Biography, Inspiration, Self Help


10. Playing to win, by AG Lafely

This one is an example of setting wrong expectation amongst the readers about the book by some reviewers and top 10 listers.
This book is about strategies adopted in P&G. If you are interested about FMCG and working on strategies, this can be a good companion. But this is NOT a must read for any and every CEO, as claimed by many reviewers. Another book which was not completed. Possibly I am not ready yet for the book.

Category: Unknown



11. Gramin Bank, Muhammad Yunus (Bengali)
This guy has changed the way Micro lending is done. In this book (originally written in French), Muhammad Yunus has told how all of these started while he was a professor. It gives wonderful insight on the rural economy and how money lenders were using the hapless farmers for making more money. While Muhammad Yunus has his share of criticism from many quarters, and you may be well advised to take the book with a pinch or bucket of salt when he talks about his own achievements, you can still read this book as a lesson on sociology.

Category: Sociology



12. The Motorcycle Diaries, by Che Guevara

This book needs little intro. The wanderer in you would love this book. That Che was a medical student and that he travelled across Latin America with his friend might be already known to you. However this book is less of a fiction and more of a diary. BTW, you don't need to be a communist or wear a Che t-shirt to enjoy this book. It's about a journey - “I now know, by an almost fatalistic conformity with the facts, that my destiny is to travel.”

Category: Biography, Travel, History

13. Truth, Love and a Little Malice, by Khuswant Singh

This got the quota of gossips & spices in my 2014 readings. Khuswant Singh was in his form in this book. Possibly he was the only author who could call himself a 'chamcha'. He has shared many untold stories in this book about Indian politics and journalism. The chapter about Maneka Gandhi and her exit from Indira Gandhi's house had led to legal issues, thus delaying publication of the book. However now that the book is out, you can know a version about Sanjay Gandhi and his families. I guess this is the first book that I read so far, which talks about some positive sides of Sanjay. Interesting weekend / on-the-flight reading.


Category: Biography, Politics



14. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach

I read this book again in 2014. I keep reading it often. There are two diametrically opposite views available on this book/fable. While some people (like me) claim this book to be the most beautiful and inspiring book ever and relish the idea of finding contentment in oneself through perfection, some others hate this book for exactly the same reason. While some people love the philosophies, some others think it as delusional. Try it out if you have not read it yet. You may also like it. “Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect. -And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.” 

Category: Inspirational




PS: After sharing this blog, got couple of links where a good list of books are available. This can work out as the base for the 2015 reading. Keeping the list in the post itself for future reference:

• Financial Times - Business Books of the Decade: http://www.ft.com/ig/business-book-award
• NY Times Editor's choice in early 2014: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/books/review/editors-choice.html?_r=1

#ArtofSocial - Book Review

The news that +Guy Kawasaki has written a book itself is a phenomenon in social media circle. And if that book happens to be on Social Media itself, it must be a craze. So it is. This is a quick review about +Guy Kawasaki & +Peg Fitzpatrick 's latest book - "The Art of Social Media" #ArtofSocial

If you have been into Social Media for a while, you must be knowing a little bit of many things, if not every thing of Social Media platforms. But this book gets into the real details behind a typical Social Media campaign, if that is headed by the likes of +Guy or +Peg.
[I intend not to introduce Guy in this post as I assume you have access to Google (or some other search engine) in your country, in case you are hearing his name for the first time]

Guy has been speaking about various aspects of Social Media for a while in various Hangouts & Seminars. This book consolidates those between the covers. If you are a regular listener of him, you may find some of the topics quite familiar. 

What is there in the book:

The book starts with how to build the perfect profile page in SM. Yes it starts at the basics. Then it gets into how to curate contents. Also he gives his view on what to comment (and what not to), while responding. He has pages on Hangout & Twitter specifically. He talks about how to socialize an event. The real life examples would be quite handy for someone trying to promote an event for his agency or org.

The Guy style:

Though the book is co-authored, Guy claims to have taken the task of writing the book himself while taking inputs from the co-author. Hence you can expect typical Guy-ish memorable lines, like this: "If you are not pissing someone off on social media, you are not using it aggressively enough." As you might be knowing if you follow him, Guy is a big proponent of repeating same posts multiple times during the day. He talks about this in his book with some stats. Though this sounds like a good idea, I personally don't do it. If you are doing it for an organization, which has followers in different timezones, this tip might help you. Also I liked his idea about engagements as a 3 round amateur boxing match. Round 1: Commenter comments, Round 2: You Respond, Round 3: Commenter responds to your response. End of fight. This tip might help you when you get engaged on something controversial, say politics. Avoid using curse words at any cost, even if you are yet to get into the 3 round boxing match mode. There is a growing trend these days of buying followers in Twitter, Facebook etc. +Guy  explains it beautifully on how the mandate of building social media flows from CEO to CMO to Marketing agency and how does it translate at every stage. At the end, the marketing agency end up buying few followers. But as he says - "You may never be caught buying your way into social media, but to do so is pissing your karma, and karma is a bitch."

Who should buy this book, and why?
This book is about execution plans of Social Media. Its not about the Social Media funda or philosophies or strategies to be adopted by different kinds of industries. It doesn't either talk on the Facebook vs. Google+ debate :-). If you were looking for any of those stuff, don't buy this book.

Then who should buy this book?

• If you are an SM enthusiast, buy this.
• If you are planning to use Social Media for your own business, buy this.
• If you want to sound smart in your agency, while the big guys give fundas on SM, buy this.
• If you are having your own agency and planning to do it better, buy this.

BTW, if you were looking for a large hardcover book, which is beneficial for improving your biceps, you might get disappointed. Its only about 92 pages. I guess that can work as a deciding factor as well! 


Happy reading and happy socializing.

Disclaimer: I had got the book for free to do a review. 

An Inconvenient Truth

The Movie was shown in my office campus few months back. But I somehow managed to miss the show. Then I grabbed the book from the library. It was really an eye-opener.

Its a wonderfully written (or should I say - composed) book and presents the horrific state we are in. Salute to another green soldier - Al Gore.

Don't blow it - habitable planets are hard to find anyway.