Category: Spectrum -My Book reviews

Book Review 2025.08: Don’t Believe Everything You Think (2022), Paperback 167 pages, May 15, 2025 Attracted by the intriguing title, I picked up this book at Bangaluru Airport last week and completed it in five sittings. Written in a simple language, the author presents his crisp core message that is repeated multiple times with an incremental level of detail added with each repetition. These repetitions are targeted at getting the reader to imbibe the simple message which could take considerable …

Book Review 2025.07: To Sell Is Human (2012), Paperback 233 pages, May 5, 2025 Despite three decades of corporate work experience, I had to start my own business to appreciate the challenge of Sales, and more important the challenge of recruiting successful sales personnel. Notwithstanding sales being the most critical ingredient for the business success, it is probably the least taught, the least researched and the least discussed subject, except among close group of struggling professionals or entrepreneurs, who like …

Book Review 2025.06: A Natural History of Love (1995), Paperback 337 pages, May 1, 2025 I have been fascinated by the concept of love, especially romantic love, since teenage, which is the foundation for my sustained and deep interest in film music of all my known languages, especially ghazals and Urdu poetry for which I make an extra effort to learn the meaning of new words that I come across even today. Prompted by this interest, I purchased this book …

Book Review 2025.05: The Billion Dollar Sure Thing, (1973 Novel),  Paperback 255 pages, April 1t, 2025 The US initiated Global Tariff War dominating the world news prompted me to pick up this book. This was the thriller that I had read three decades ago in my college days which had ignited my interest in financial thrillers. My collection of over 25 books of this genre is a testimony to my continuing interest. Paul Erdman, the author had a chequered career …

Book Review 2025.04: A Brief History of Intelligence, Why the Evolution of the Brain Hold the Key to the Future of AI, 369 pages, 2023 -March 1, 2025 I consider myself extremely lucky for having found this book as an introduction to the complex subject of evolution of intelligence in life on our planet. The attractive title combined with my current interest in understanding the potential of AI and its limitations was probably a key factor that made me pick …

Book Review 2025.03: Kamal Haasan A Cinematic Journey, 252 pages, 2024 -February 27, 2025 As an ardent Kamal fan, my nephew gave me this book having completed it during his round trip from Bangalore to Delhi. Having watched my first Kamal movie-Apoorva Raagangal in 1975 and following his work for over five decades, it took me longer than expected, three full days to be precise to complete this book. On reflection, it is the depth of the author’s analysis that …

Book Review 2025.02: Information, Entropy, and Progress, A New Evolutionary Paradigm, 291 pages, 1994 -January 28, 2025 A key resolution for the year 2025 is to read the unread books in my collection. This is the first of those books completed that was with me for more than ten years. After reading it over the last twenty-five days, I realized why I had not progressed despite picking it up more than a dozen times. This book is abstract, introducing more …

Book Review 2025.01: Karma, A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny, Paperback, 236 pages, 2021 -January 18, 2025 This is my first book review for the year 2025, a year in which I have resolved to consciously internalize at least one or two ideas from each of the book that I read. Starting the year reading simultaneously four books, I am quite surprised to complete this book first, despite picking it up the last. A possible reason for it could …

Book Review 2024.19: Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport, Paperback, 263 pages, 2016 -December 31, 2024 It is a sheer coincidence that I picked up Deep Work immediately after reading the book Grit, for there is a link between the two that supplemented and reinforced my learning: the concept of Deliberate Practice in both developing grit and the ability to do deep work. At the outset the author makes it clear that Deep Work …

Book Review 2024.18: Grit, Why Passion and resilience are the secrets to success, Angela Duckworth, Paperback, 2016 -December 21, 2024 This is a very essential book at the current phase of my life, where in the last two years I have started more projects and given up midway without completing it than in the last four decades of my life combined. The appeal of this book is in its ability to educate the reader in an engaging mode on Grit, …

Book Review 2024.17: What I Learnt About Investing From Darwin, Pulak Prasad, 298 pages, Hardbound, 2023 -December 9, 2024 A sublime blend of Animal Planet, National Geography, and the CNBC, this book fuses the distinct expertise required in each one of these fields to make it an extremely insightful, readable, and engaging read on investment. The author’s personal investing experience adds a distinct color to the narration making it a practical lesson for anyone interested in equity markets. The investment …

Book Review 2024.16: Good Strategy Bad Strategy Richard Rumelt, 298 pages, Paperback, 2011 -December 2, 2024 Strategy as a concept always interested me, for I believe that if we have to accomplish anything ambitious beyond our existing abilities and available resources, we need to do something unique or different that leverages what we have to help us achieve our goals, which is my definition of the word strategy. I picked up this book after seeing very good reviews and to …