Week 10 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 10: March 4 - March 10, 2019

Books Read : 1

1. Life's Greatest Lessons by Hal Urban: As boring as it may sound that here's another book on life's lessons but book is a real surprise in terms of presenting the basic, fundamental and obvious lessons in such an engrossing and engaging way. The book comes around as a very honest and sincere attempt and the author draws a lot from his personal experience. The examples, stories, anecdotes and the quotes, just fit so well in each of the 20 chapters. The books touches upon a whole range of topics and some of them are goals, success, time, spirituality, self-esteem , failure and motivation. The book is not the "same old wisdom" types but rather a manual for living life well with the basic tenets of successful living presented in a very relatable way for the reader. There's a lot of "food for thought" in the book for a sincere reader. 

N.B. : The next post on the books round up will be posted as a consolidated post after 2 weeks.

Week 9 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 9: Feb 25 - March 3, 2019

Books Read : 1

1. 365 Success Secrets by John Maxwell - A Daily Insight Reader on leadership, delivering on topics and areas that focus on the holistic development of the individual. With a page dedicated for every day of the year, the topics mentioned focus as much on self-leadership as on organisational leadership. Open the book on any page and start basking in the wisdom that has been distilled over a period of so many years by the author. The book is full of nuggets of wisdom that will leave the readers much inspired and motivated to live a more successful life. The book is a journey to self-growth and the "food for thought" mentioned at the end of every chapter acts as a reminder that there's still so much to improve till we become the best version of ourself. To gain the maximum from the book, just surrender your true self to the book and it will reward you with invaluable insights into becoming a better leader.   

Week 8 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 8: Feb 18 - Feb 24, 2019

Books Read: 1

1. Die Empty by Todd Henry - If you struggle to live your life to the fullest, then this book is a good manual to help you reverse that and live your best life. A book with a powerful message and practical tools, strategies, tips and techniques to live our best every day and not wait till the end for that and die with regret. The book boasts of many original ideas and methods to enable the readers to address their limiting barriers, move them out of their comfort zone and propel them into a zone of innovation, creativity, growth, progress and achievement. The message of the book is crystal clear which is to live our most fulfilling life while we are alive and not die with our best still within us. A wonderful, refreshing book with a profound message.   

Week 7 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 7: Feb 11 - Feb 17, 2019

Books Read: 1

1. An Unshakable Mind by Ryuho Okawa - A nice and very relatable read which touches upon the vagaries and uncertainities of life and provides simple and easily do-able ways to deal with them. The beauty of the book lies in the reader embarking on a journey of spiritual evolution while getting prepared to address life's various fundamental issues such as Will, Significance of Day, Learning, Experience and more. Whether you are suffering from anxiety or distress, you will find answers in the book. Though the latter half of the book moves heavily in discussing about soul life but still the book is worth the time and effort. 

Week 6 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 6:  Feb 4 - Feb 10, 2019

Books Read : 2

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - An incredible book, setup in a dystopian future where reading and books is considered illegal and firemen are entrusted with the task of not only burning the books found and the houses they are kept in but also arrest the owners of the books, as keeping books and reading them is considered illegal. The book is set in a period where society exists against the backdrop of a culture of hedonism, totalitarian, censorship, easy access to entertainment, and like. The futuristic setup of the book is really commendable, considering that the book was written in 1953. The book captures beautifully the transformation of a fireman, from being a book burner to a book keeper/ preserver. The hard hitting message of the book is to understand the value and importance of books and reading and not get too carried away by the consumerism or the hedonism attitude and do away with our ability to think and live well.  
2. The Leadership Pill by Kenneth Blanchard and Mark Muchnick - An interesting parable about different styles of Leadership which lays bare the tenets of an effective leader and brings home the point that true leadership is holistic in nature. The principles that come out through the parable clearly illustrate that true leadership is never about results or about self(of a leader) but is about partnership and teams; true leadership is not a short-term approach but a long-term strategy to build a self-sustaining team that can deliver results on its own. A nice, light read about the obvious and simple rules of leadership that very often we forget and in the process make leadership a complicated affair.  

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 2 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 2 : Jan 7 - Jan 13, 2019

Books Read - 3

1. Education and the Significance of Life by J. Krishnamurti - A very thought provoking book about the real objective of education, encompassing all the possible dimensions attached to it and all the key stakeholders related to it. A  bold book, very nicely written, which, through its carefully defined eight chapters leads us to an understanding of the type of transformation that education could bring about at a global scale, if every stakeholder understood its real purpose and then contributed their bit to it, without any prejudice or bias. The book is quite hard-hitting and talks about many man-made paradoxes that have severely damaged the core purpose of education and how education is churning out learners, imbibed with wrong set of values. Whereas the sole purpose of the education is to develop an integrated individual/ learner endowed with the prowess to challenge the status quo (by virtue of being free from any fear or bias) and how the current system of education is still instilling conformity, superficiality and building a lopsided personality in the learners. A book with great insight on real education and  providing a rational view to many of the obvious facets of good education and its significance in life. The book clearly highlights the need to have such an education system that would prepare a learner for life.
2. How Life Works by Andrew Matthews - A book can't get any easier and entertaining than this one to talk about the concept of subconscious and the relation between Thoughts and Feelings. With his own, unique style of writing, the author takes the reader subtly into the realms of subconscious, myths related to it, and how it impacts our overall success and happiness in in life. Citing various real-life scenarios and various scientific studies, research and experiments, the book comes across as a very credible piece to read, even about topics such as Heart and Love.  There's a whole lot that the book delivers and that too to an extent that the principles mentioned could be applied in our daily life smoothly and with much ease. The book has an explanation and relevant answer to the most basic or complex question that any reader may have about life.
3. The One Minute Apology by Kenneth Blanchard - A parable that delves deep in the subject of owning our actions, decisions and responsibilities which go a long way in avoiding conflicts and improving things at workplace (or any other area of life as well). The book clearly demonstrates that how the simple acts of acknowledging, accepting and correcting our mistakes could work wonders for everyone involved - the concerned individual, the concerned team, the organisation and other key stakeholders. So many times and for so many valid/ invalids reasons, we do not own what we commit and this leads to catastrophic repercussions. This book describes in a very simple way, an easy-to-do approach to build in the responsibility to apologise whenever needed and how doing so not only builds our character, enhances our credibility(inspite of committing the mistake/ error) but also prevents the situation from getting worse. 

Announcement - Launching Weekly Round Up of Books Read in 2019 for 52 Weeks

Dear Readers,

Here's an interesting announcement - Every year, each booklover sets a target to read a certain number of books. This year, my target stands at 200+ books, across different genres and authors.

To ensure my accountability and committment to the target, i would be posting a weekly roundup of the books read during each week in 2019. That means, for each of the 52  weeks, i will post the numbers, titles and a short summary of the books read by me. Few of them could be a re-read also, just to ensure that you don't miss out on any of the must-read books.

Hope the readers find the books worth reading !

Enjoy the weekly round up posts :)


Best
Narinder - A book eater  :)