Book Review: The Billionaires Club: The Unstoppable Rise of the Football’s Super-rich Owners

Book Review 2023.04: The Billionaires Club: The unstoppable rise of the football’s super-rich owners, 2017, 316 pages, Paperback, ₹399 This book is the worthy winner of the 2018 Sports Book Award, Football Book of the Year. A must read for every lover of this captivating game who wishes football a glorious future for it to be enjoyed by not just the current and also the future generations. With no single hero or villain, it is a fascinating commentary of how

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Book Review: Deeply Responsible Business, A Global History of Value-driven Leadership

Book Review 2023.05: Deeply Responsible Business, A Global History of Values-driven Leadership, 359 pages, Hardbound, 2023 Received this book a fortnight ago, a gift from a dear friend of mine, who I met just a few months back but was able to bond quickly due to our shared values. Browsing through the book on the way back home on the metro rail, it totally captured my attention, making me drop another interesting book I was reading to complete this book

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Book Review: The Social Instinct, What Nature Can Teach Us About Working Together

Book Review 2023.05: The Social Instinct, What Nature Can Teach Us About Working Together-Nichola Raihani, 254 pages, Paperback, 2021 In the month of April I purchased five books of which The Social Instinct was one. I happened to complete it today, on our 77th Independence Day. My basic belief that cooperation is part of nature’s intrinsic design prompted me to pick this book up and it certainly did not disappoint me. It went a long way in reinforcing my belief

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Book Review: Life is Simple, How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Unlocked the Universe

Book Review 2023.07: Life is Simple, How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Unlocked the Universe-Johnjoe McFadden, 341 pages, Paperback, 2021 Simplicity as a core value of CimplyFive, the company that I co-founded ten years ago, probably influenced me to pick up this book titled “Life is Simple”, a book that looks at the history of scientific discoveries through the lens of Occam’s Razor, that uses simplicity as a lens to view and validate a concept best described in one

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Book Review: The Inner Game of Tennis, The Ultimate Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

Book Review 2023.08: The Inner Game of Tennis, The ultimate guide to the mental side of peak performance by W Timothy Gallwey, 134 pages, Paperback, 2013 Picked up the book my son was reading and flipped through it thinking it would help me play better table tennis. The slimness of this book was another attraction as I thought I would complete it fast, within a week. To my pleasant surprise, I found this book to be much more than about

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Book Review: Thierry Henry, Lonely at the Top

Book Review 2024.01: Thierry Henry, Lonely at the Top, A Biography, Philippe Auclair, 336 pages, Paperback, 2012 The new year eve weekend was all it took for me to complete this mesmerizing unauthorized biography of my favorite football hero, Thierry Henry, the legendary Arsenal striker, who like me is a declared “Lifelong Arsenal fan”, besides being the catalyst who ignited my love for Arsenal, Premier League and football, in that order. Written by the French journalist Philippe Auclair, who matches

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Book Review: An Economist Goes to the Game

Book Review 2023.09: An Economist Goes to the Game by Paul Oyer, 176 pages, Hardbound, 2022 A blend of Economics and Sports was a combination too good for me to resist as I finished this page turner within a week, a testament to the engaging content and the fluid writing style of the author. The book captures many key economic concepts and has applied them to sports and bring to light multiple instances from the industry, predominantly from the USA

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Book Review: The Learning Trap, how Byju’s Took Indian Edtech for a Ride

Book Review 2024.02: The Learning Trap, How Byju’s Took Indian Edtech for a Ride, 236 pages, Paperback, 2023 This is one of the rare books on a business entity in India that is critical to the point of almost being an investigative report that not only accuses, but also elaborates and provides the basis on which the author has come to the conclusion. In terms of content and writing style it comes the closest to the 1998 publication, The Polyester

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Book Review: I Think Therefore I Play

Book Review 2024.03: I Think Therefore I Play -Andrea Pirlo, 150 pages, Paperback, 2013 This is the autobiography of Andrea Pirlo the Italian football legend who, for the more trophy valuing  fans, is the winner of both the World Cup and the Champions League, the most coveted trophies for an European footballer and for the football connoisseur, the wizard of freekick goals and the best of deep lying midfield playmaker, a Mozart on the football field. This book is a

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Book Review: Boundary Lab-Inside the Global Experiment Called Sport

Book Review 2024.04: Boundary Lab -Inside the Global Experiment Called Sport, 376 pages, Hardbound, 2024 This is a much-needed book for anyone interested in understanding sports as a fan beyond its mere entertainment value. Using the lens of court cases to focus on specific issues to provide the context for the discussion, this book explores the issue involved threadbare providing a holistic, global and conceptual view, that is grounded in Indian sporting history. Covering wide ranging issues from who is

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Book Review: Never Split the Difference -Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Book Review 2024.05: Never Split the Difference -Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, 258 pages, Paperback, 2016 Written by Chris Voss, the FBI hostage negotiator this book is a combination of gripping anecdotes of his negotiations with kidnappers coupled with insightful lessons learnt and practiced in these tense negotiations. Reading this book made me realize that good negotiation skills can be learnt, practiced and perfected. Further negotiations need not be conflicts with the other side being our enemy.

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Book Review: The Power of Habit-Why We Do What We Do and How to Change

Book Review 2024.06: The Power of Habit -Why we do what we do and how to change, 286 pages, Paperback, 2012 I read the self-help book ‘Mini Habits- Smaller Habits, Bigger Results’ written by Stephen Guise, 155 pages, 2020 publication followed in quick succession by this book written by Charles Duhigg. Not being a fan of self-help books, this was my first attempt at understanding the difference between a self-help book and a more nuances one that goes much deeper

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