[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by Miyata

How do you all manage to 'dispose' off the books after you've read them? I have tried selling some of them away on Amazon with mixed success.

Somehow, I have never been able to come to terms with reselling books. But that is a mindset I know I must change sometime. I buy them in plenty and when I am done, give them away to deserving readers, mostly young book virgins, whom I hope to convert into book lovers: a Sisyphean task! It helps that the first thing I do after getting a fresh copy is to wrap it up using glossy magazine sheets; so that it remains like new later.

In 2015, when I shifted to a new house, I asked a writer friend to pick up any title he fancied in my collection. He drove away with four sackful of old and new books stacked in his Alto. I still have substantial numbers arranged neatly in the living room showcase as well as in the storage space above wardrobes.

Over two decades of splurging on books has done me a lot of good. And I try to extend the goodness whenever I can. But the advent of e books and my friendship with the Kindle app on iPad is set to put a full stop on this endeavor.

Specific to the forum, we can perhaps carry all our read books to Team-Bhp meets and exchange them with interested readers.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by GTO

Get back to the book, Thad! Doing something mentally stimulating + staring at a phone screen is very bad for sleep.

Indeed! Although books can also be mentally stimulating.

Glad to say that I have been returning to my former habit of decades: the bedtime story. On paper!

[Ithaca]

The Fifth Risk - Michael Lewis

Have been a fan of Michael Lewis since I read "Liar's Poker".

The Fifth Risk is a book about the transitioning between the Obama & Trump White House.
The book reads like a horror story.
It describes three departments - Commerce mainly dealing with NOAA, Energy and Agriculture.
The chapters about the Department Of Energy is the scariest as it shows the incoming team to be thoroughly incompetent with zero understanding of what they were about to inherit.

He even delves into the educational backgrounds + intelligence of the outgoing staff and the lack of inquisitive minds or scientific inquiry of the incoming team.

Would certainly recommend this book.

The Fifth Risk - Michael Lewis

[Eddy]

Have bought the autobiography of my all time favorite cricketer - Shane Warne.

https://www.amazon.in/No-Spin-Autobi.../dp/1785037714

I want to read this at one go, so waiting to start when I would have enough time at hand

[GTO]

Putting up a review of one sad book & an excellent one.

The fall of the house of Forbes = Avoid. Lacks cohesiveness & the story keeps jumping here & there mindlessly. Pathetically written. A rare book that I didn't even bother to complete! Am sure the Forbes story is worth telling, but he's done a poor job of it.


Bad Blood = Must read. A true story that reads like a filmy drama! One of the biggest frauds to come out of the west coast. Brilliantly written, will have you captivated.


Here's the fraudster - even her voice is apparently faked:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfaJZAdfNE

[kozhissery]

Originally Posted by Vitalstatistiks

If there is one, just one, book that I can recommend- I'd suggest Sapiens- A brief history of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

Harari is an Israeli historian, and this book was first published in Hebrew in 2011. Translated into English in 2014, this is a remarkable book on how humans came to be as they are. Jaw-droppingly thought provocative book, which makes you linger over each page and keep thinking about it for days. Also puts a lot of what we are seeing in the world today (politics, religion etc) into perspective and helps one align his/her thoughts on why things are happening the way they are.

It is a beautiful piece of literature, please please please do read it !

Thanks a lot for the recommendation. Really loved it. Rated 5*.
Now waiting for the next in series.

[ZedMae]

Originally Posted by trek

Most of us dream about living a life on our terms but never get down to actually making it happen! This techie guy went ahead and just did that. Interesting read for anyone who ever dreamt of farming and living in close sync with nature --

Thank you for the recommendation. I simply loved the book (moong over microchips). Hats off to the author to have persevered through all these years in his farm despite all the setbacks, hardships (which he downplays mostly).

I have ordered two more copies for circulating among family members/ friends .

[ninjatalli]

Folks,
Heard a very interesting anecdote from a senior partner (who is from UP) about our Indian army regiments. Apparently back in 1984, when Operation Blue Star was conducted, a large segment of Sikhs from the Sikh regiment stationed in Bihar took offense and head towards Delhi/Punjab, with vehicles and gear. The army immediately called in the Gurkha regiment to stop this and the same was apparently done at Lucknow.

Recommendations requested for a good book that covers above scenario and the Blue Star operation (pre-/post situation too)

[the_skyliner]

Recently read "The Denial of Death" from Ernest Becker. Would rate it 10/10.

If you like psychology then this book will amaze you with it's honest analysis of human nature. The author has basically taken a lot of references, quoted other great authors a lot of times yet kept it focused on the topic.

An eye opener in terms of understanding basic and extreme human behaviour.

Available on Kindle at much lower price than printed copy. But I also saw it for sale at a second-hand book store for quite a low price.

[GTO]

Read a damn good book on the rise & fall of Blackberry. Covers the entire story, including how they changed the game for a couple of years, only to be disrupted by the iPhone (and Android later). I'm amazed at how they completely lost the plot, eventually selling one botched up product after another. In many ways, it shows how the two CEOs were in over their head in the late-2000s.

Makes me wonder what could have happened if Blackberry & Nokia had embraced Android with open arms. Or if they had pushed BBM on all platforms, perhaps WhatsApp wouldn't be what it is today.

An enjoyable + informative read. Giving it 4 / 5 stars:

[libranof1987]

A couple of rather small reads:

1) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: a wonderful, conversational story-line between the author and his muse, a dying aged man.

2) A book of Simple Living by Ruskin Bond: a collection of several short stories by the author. Almost all based out out Mussoorie, a lovely read.

[shashanka]

Interest in the Paranormal and an omnivorous reading habit often leads one in strange directions.

While going through excerpts from PSI ENCYCLOPEDIA, I came upon Cleve Baxter’s experiments with
plants and living organisms (including human blood cells) and their response to seemingly telepathic
stimuli recorded on delicate instruments.

This rang a bell in my mind about something I had read about one of our own pioneering scientists, Dr. Jagdish Chandra Bose,
and his work with plant response to stimuli.

I read the articles at a sitting, both on Dr. Jagdish Chandra Bose and Cleve Baxter’s mind-bending work - my mind I mean! - on the subject.
For anyone who is interested I am giving the links from the net.

Jagdish Chandra Bose - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose
- https://www.britannica.com/biography...h-Chandra-Bose


Cleve Baxter - https://www.amazon.com/Primary-Perce.../dp/0966435435
- https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/a...cleve-backster
-https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-backster-effect.html


As always, the words paranormal & parapsychology are enough to start conversations & controversies (I see TSK1979 rubbing
his hands in anticipation prior to letting go one of his bromides) in equal measure.
And this subject is no exception. As I always say - to each his own!

[Vitalstatistiks]

Originally Posted by GTO

Bad Blood = Must read. A true story that reads like a filmy drama! One of the biggest frauds to come out of the west coast. Brilliantly written, will have you captivated.

Loved the book, thanks for the recommendation. A real eye opener how the biggest of names get sucked into FOMO (fear of missing out), a real case of testing human psychology.

[TKMCE]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Folks,
Heard a very interesting anecdote from a senior partner (who is from UP) about our Indian army regiments. Apparently back in 1984, when Operation Blue Star was conducted, a large segment of Sikhs from the Sikh regiment stationed in Bihar took offense and head towards Delhi/Punjab, with vehicles and gear. The army immediately called in the Gurkha regiment to stop this and the same was apparently done at Lucknow.

Recommendations requested for a good book that covers above scenario and the Blue Star operation (pre-/post situation too)

'Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle" a 1985 book written by former long time BBC bureau chief at New Delhi, Mark Tully along with his BBC colleague Satish Jacob covers the events leading upto Operation Blue Star. I read the book soon after it was published and hence have no idea whether the specific incident you are talking about is covered or not. But I do remember that the events leading upto Operation Blue Star is covered in detail. Being a 1985 book, post event situation after Operation Blue Star is unlikely to be covered.

The book is still available in Amazon at reasonable price.

[ninjatalli]

Iacocca : An Autobiography: 3.5 / 5

A good biography needs three factors to be relevant for the readers (for the majority of readers);
- a good narration storyline, even at the risk of the narrative fallacy
- a simplistic way of explaining global movements and complex situations
- allowing the reader to feel the shoes of the narrator or the protagonist

The fourth factor is giving the realistic and complete view; even at the risk of putting the protagonist in the negative; this is something that few (auto)biographies attempt to do. Neither does Lee Iacocca; even though he constantly says he does across the length and breadth of the book.

The book details the rise (and no fall!) of Ford and Chrysler from the 60s to the late 90s, keeping in mind the dynamics of the global automobile and other movements, the different manufacturers and how they dictate the construct of the American auto industry.

Iacocca does a good job in keeping the reader hooked; however towards the end he starts leaving the historical narration track and gets into the defining the future-how-he-would-like-the-industry-to-be track. I skipped the last two chapters completely, this sounded like kind of the spiel that Trump is lashing out (ironically very similar, just replace Japan with China).

Originally Posted by GTO

Read a damn good book on the rise & fall of Blackberry.

I had read a biography of the Blackberry story ages ago; I'd think this was the book, but not sure. Back then I felt the story only partially told; while it did touch on the rise of Apple and Android, they had emitted out the fault of Blackberry missing out on the market cues completely. Maybe a different book then.