Library in a Salon - Pan Mariyappa, A Reading Samaritan !

A good samaritan for encouraging reading and learning can appear in any avatar. Here's sharing about a soul who is championing the cause of promoting reading among his folks. The champion's name is Pon Mariyappa, a barber running a salon in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu. The key idea behind setting up mini-library is to encourage people (of his district) to read more. The sincerity of this initiative can be gauged from the fact that there's no TV installed in the shop (which is generally a trend in barber shops), the customers are not allowed to use their mobile phones. 

The icing on the cake being - "30% discount to the customer who reads a book".

Hats off to such crusaders who are contributing to the cause of spreading knowledge in their own big/ small way and inspiring us all to do the same in whatever ways we can !

Mentioning below few links covering/ capturing  the story of the Samaritan 

https://www.mynation.com/news/tamil-nadu-barber-installs-mini-library-salon-encourage-reading-pnf1i9

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

Week 5 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 5: Jan 28 - Feb 3, 2019

Books Read : 2

1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris - It's a very heart-rending tale of a young Jew who lands up in the Nazi's concentration camp at Auschwitz and goes on to spend about 3 years of his life there, working as a tattooist and seeing death from very close quarters. It traces the journey of a man from being a tattooist and marking fellow prisoners, to becoming a survivor and a saviour. It is a story of courage and bravery amidst the most barbaric and  inhumane conditions that humans may face and also about true love, a kind of love (between 2 inmates) that happens in the most unimaginable of the places (where death was always imminent and survival was always the priority for the inmates) but blossoms in the aftermath of the worst holocaust ever witnessed in human history. The book is a true testament to human's hope, will, and courage to survive come whatever may. It's also about living the paradox - displaying acts of kindness and help towards fellow humans even when our own life's at stake and living next moment is never a guarantee. The one big message from the book is that "there's always a glimmer of hope even in the most unpredictable and the darkest of situations and all we need to do is to self-affirm and live by the moment, positively and intently". 
2. Arriving At Your Own Door by Jon Kabat-Zinn - A wonderful and quite an unorthodox book on mindfulness which provides ample of fodder for the readers to reflect. The book contains 108 short lessons laced with great amount of wisdom succintly expressed through relevant concepts, some of which are quite offbeat. Stressing that mindfulness is about awareness and awakening, the book works as a companion to the reader, guiding him/ her to a journey of self-discovery, self healing and fulfillment. The topics/ headings of all the 108 lessons are very relatable and provides the understanding in a very crisp manner. There's a depth in the simplicity of each of the 108 lessons presented in the book.

Week 4 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 4: Jan 21 - Jan 27, 2019

Books Read : 3

1. Like The Flowing River by Paulo Coelho - The book is all about collection of personal thoughts and reflections by the author but definitely leaves the reader with lot of food for thought and lot to brood over. Drawing from his personal experiences that spread across different stages of his life, the author, very nicely draws and delivers useful learnings from each of those experiences. The beauty of the book lies in the simplicity with which the relevant message gets delivered to the readers, even on topics like God, Love, Life, Death, Relationships and more. The book is much a journey of learning and transformation as for the author while undergoing those rich experiences in life and getting all those revelations.
2. You Don't Need A Godfather  by Elango R.- If you always thought that all of us need patronage to make it big in the corporate world, then this is the book which will change that mindset/ thought process. As authentic as a book could get, the book makes use of humour, sarcasm, analogy and real caselets to drive home the point that success is always within our scope of control and the stark realities of workplace are all a creation of our doings/ non-doings. Laced with lots of tips, techniques and strategies, the book gives the mantra for success at workplace as simply adhering to these - be self-reliant, stick to fundamentals and grab every opportunity that comes our way. A light read with a serious message.
3. Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon - In an era of Remixes (which also is an act of creativity), surely Creativity deserves a fresh and new outlook. This wonderful, delightful book is all about dispelling all the typical notion that we hold about creativity. Its a cute, little handbook about a call for action for all those who suffer from "creativity block". The 10 chapters in the book provide the most practical advice that we could ever get about removing the barriers, invoking our creative side and getting started on what we always wanted to do. A no-nonsense guide to achieve our best "creative self".       

Must know words for every Book lover

Could it get any more pleasing for a book reader than the sight of words dedicated to the community! The internet is abuzz with such words and the list is growing. In this post, I have picked up such 10 words which according to me are a must know for a book lover or a reader. 

The selected 10 words are mentioned as below:

• Bibliobibuli –  people who read too much

• Biblioklept –  a person who steals books

• Bibliophagist –  a person who loves to read book

• Bibliosmia –  the smell or aroma of a good book

• Bibliolatry –  an excessive love of books

• Book-Bosomed  - one who carries a book at all times

• Librocubicultarist – A person who reads in bed

• Omnilegent – reading, or having read everything

• Shelfrighteous – a feeling of superiority about one’s bookshelf

• Tsundoku – buying books and not reading them

For readers looking for more such words may visit the following interesting links 

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