Books Review

Long after Da Vinci Code reading Masonic mumbo jumbo from Dan Brown would be a totally a wastage of time. The sheer size of the book also kept me away from the book. Compared to other books this is a huge volume (133 Chapters). It took around five nights to read it speaks about its gripping story line. The beauty of Dan Brown's novels is that one is exposed to such elaborate half-fact / half-fiction that one is amazed at how he manages to maintain consistency and interest is maintained. Such is the power of Brown's narration that one is made starts to make a movie in the mind. Thanks to the movies now one can only imagine Tom Hanks for Robert Langdon ! 1. Historical Perspective The Lost Symbol's major strength is that history is discussed at a flashing speed. One moves from century to century and then back and forth in the matter of sentences. So seamless is continuity that the frequent back and forth between historical references (which Brown at times ...

Benoit Mandelbrot sits down at the TED Talk and talks about fractals for  twenty minute. The legend talks about Fractals so beautifully and simply that one is astonished by all the fractal designs. The Julia Sets in four dimensions are simply amazing.  Fractals are extremely complicated objects that are defined by extremely simple formulas.  The examples of clouds and valleys being created by inputting a number (the roughness number).

Daniel Pink surprised me with the statement that "Money does not motivate rather is counter productive to creativity". The first question that comes to mind is that what motivates then? The answers to this question has been explored / researched by Daniel Pink over the years. What he comes up is in the video and wonderful books . The idea of rewards works for mechanical tasks, working in the carrot-stick reward-punish system. If you work well you will receive rewards otherwise you will be punished. As soon as the work required rudimentary cognitive skills the larger rewards actually bog down the creative mind and resulted in negative impact on performance. The corner stone of Pink's motivation philosophy are the following. 1. Mastery Mastery is the human instinct to get better at things. No matter if there is a reward associated or not with it. One needs to become better at the skill. For example all the open source developers have been writing tons of code just to ...

Perhaps one of the most thought provoking books ever. Every line is full of ideas that one has to stop reading and start thinking about the idea. For example it took me hours to figure out the meaning of the following. For pay heed to this: it was in the years of my lowest vitality that i ceased to be a pessimist: the instinct for self recovery forbade to me a philosophy of indigence and discouragement. This one is also particularly touches the heart. My reproach towards those who practice pity is that shame, reverence, a delicate feeling from distance easily eludes them, that pity instantly smells of mob and is so like bad manners as to be mistaken for them- that the hands of pity can under certain circumstances intrude downright destructively into a great destiny, into a solitariness where wounds are nursed, into a privilege for great guilt. The following touches a topic which has been topic of thought. It so very well shows how important it is to vent the feelings.  It als...

Reading Steve Chandler's book feels like Napolean Hill meets Robert Kiyosaki. The serenity by which each tip is introduced and elaborated in the most concise manner allows one to keep attention as well as to think about incorporating that particular tip in life. The amazing manner in which the book starts grabs one's attention. "You have no personality" ... Hearing this makes everyone uneasy and stand up and listen. This brand of attention seeking missiles are launched at the start of almost every tip. Get on your deathbed, Tell yourself a lie, Kill the Television, Make a relation-shift are some of the thought provoking as well as attention getting tips. The best part is where the author relates Arnold's story from the body builder to movie star. How his vision was created and how it was achieved . The book demands action for as per the psychologist and author Dr. Nathaniel Branden has written, "A goal without an action plan is a daydream." DREAM-P...

Tomasko's architecture for change is an attempt to send across a very serious message that the change we strive to implement might as well result in problems. Therefore its imperative to analyze the three steps of change in Resize-Reshape-Rethink. These three phases are explained in the book. The book draws parallels between architects and organization planners. How the architect looks at the the building and what parameters are considered to bring about a change. Similarly in designing an organization its necessary to keep the principle of "form follow function". That is to say that shape of the organization is determined by the kind of functionality it is supposed to perform. Just like architects in school are taught the basic guidelines and mechanics behind loads and how to design structures to withstand the tests of times. Organization planners need to be taught the ways and means to Resize-Reshape-Rethink the organization. The author is critical of mindless usage of ...

If God's Debris was an insight into man's inside then Religion War is a commentary on current social atmosphere. The character of Avatar continues to amaze the reader with pattern resolution and extraction. However there is a change here the old avatar is long dead and taken over by the delivery man  of "God's debris". The stakes are much higher and Muslims vs Christian-Judea Alliance are at the verge of war. This is not going to be just another war but a war where billions will perish. In this scenario the avatar comes forward and tries to resolve the conflict between the two parties. But before that the avatar has to go through a long process of developing confidence in the two parties that avatar can be trusted. The Religion War is about how Al-Qaeeda will grow unless the West re-thinks its policy towards Muslims and how the Al-Qaeeda is using bad methods to solve deep rooted issues. Reading through the book you don't start liking either party but at the ...

One of the most absorbing books read it in three days. Avatar’s dialogue resembles that of Socrates as per my dad. The powerful discourse leads from one topic to another without the reader feeling that really deep topics are being dealt. The author through the avatar comes up with probably the most simplistic but astonishing argument against the theory of evolution. Most importantly the book does not commit any blasphemy while introducing the core idea of God’s debris. The avatar comes across a man of unique talent able to process information and unravel patterns associated. The patterns give the avatar insights which lead to profound responsibility towards other humans. After reading the book reader is unable to dissociate from the ideas presented and continues to think about them. Experiences of avatar at one point seem paranormal but then when the process of reaching those experiences is revealed the reader starts to identify with the avatar. The avatar then becomes nothing els...

Jack Welch the amazing CEO, who turned around General Electric’s attempt to become a white elephant into a role model of efficiency for all industries. The ideas presented in the book are not old wine in new bottles rather thoughts of one of the successful leaders of last century.  All of the book is worth reading and worth implementing (if situation allows). Differentiation and Candor are two powerful ideas presented in the book. Candor Candor means quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech. This powerful trait is what it takes to untangle complex knots. Implementation of candor is easier said than done. Candor should be used in two different ways to praise one who is working well and to call a spade a spade. Once candor becomes the modus operandi of the organization the employees know exactly what is expected of them also exactly what is lacking in them at the moment. The continuous appraisal leads good results because all stakeholders are clear in th...

Hill's 1937 Book sold 30 million copies in 70 years . Reviewing a book that has been around for over seven decades is both easy and difficult. Think and Grow Rich (TGR), is also claimed to be the Genesis to most of motivation literature of last century. So whats so special about the book that deserves a review. Yes everybody knows almost everything the book brings to the plate. What makes it worthy of precious reading time specially in this age? Is the book still relevant, when we have Kiyosaki's wide variety of books dealing the same theme in a much more modern environment? The answer to both the questions is "read the book and you would know I was correct". Since that would be too late here are some of the reasons why Hill's book is a sure to impact. 1. The emphasis is not on tricks but rather on mindset 2. The book helps analyze life / career 3. The book helps in incorporating / building character traits which go a long way What are the three words that g...

A very interesting movie featuring dog and customer service representative. How both intend to make a contribution towards life by trying to satisfy/ follow the how-to manual of the superior. In what seems to be mostly contrived set of similar situations between Max (the dog) and Max (the man), one is made to think that the situation is not out of this world. Everyone has felt similar feelings during one or other time of the career/ student life.

,Pelican brief a well written piece by John Grisham. The book revolves around clueless murder of two judges and its short-term long-term implications. The key elements of the plot are well hidden until the climax. The book was made into a movie but the depth of the book cannot be portrayed in the movie. The book deals in detail about the travails of the character Darby Shaw investigation. The company's coming after her. The pelican brief (the brief itself) take backstage in what becomes a mouse and cat race in the movie. The Pelican Brief speaks out now global the distrust of multinational companies / large corporations about the laws of the land and their ability to muscle through anything of their liking. However the silver lining presented by the author is that one voice of truth is enough to ensure that the law of the land is upheld. The fact that the voice is heard at the highest echelons of power is a bit absurd / Utopian but on the whole the book lives up to the billing...

Frank Herbert's contributions to the genre of science fiction are under appreciated. Herbert's lack of popularity is attributed to the lackluster performance of Dune Movie and the three-part miniseries . The latest movie Avatar by James Cameroon has a similar story line to the Dune novel by Frank Herbert published in 1965. The following table illustrates the corresponding characters etc. Dune Avatar Planet Arrakis Moon Pandora Fremen People Na'vi People Paul Atreides / Muad'Dib Jake Sully Chani Neytri Lady Jessica Dr. Grace Spice Melange unobtainium Baron Harkonnen Colonel Miles Dr. Wellington Yueh Kynes Dr. Grace Sand worms Exotic Animals in the forest Shai-Hulud Toruk The story development is also similar like fighting against own people and unifying the whole fremen (na'vi) community. Jake's special spiritual status is almost similar to Paul Maud'Dib. The community's special bo...

Harry Potter series written for kids by J K Rowling is an extremely interesting story line. Rivaled by the Lord of the Rings in terms of exotic imagery and thrill. The following Harry Potter Series of seven high quality novels. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / Philosopher's Stone Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows All these novels are well written and the plot keeps thickening but the pinnacle of the novel comes in Half-Blood Prince. That is probably the best novel of the whole series. The reason being the fact that the whole story line takes twists at every instance in the novel but more importantly due to the dominant role played by Severus Snape in this novel. The best character after that of Harry Potter is Severus Snape. The character development by J K ...

Issac Asimov’s 1956 “The Dead Past”[1] is a good story by the fabulous story teller. In this story he deals with the issue of forgetting the past. In my opinion forgetting the past is probably the biggest gift of god to mankind. Let me quote the story “... who on Earth has a past that is absolutely clean?” The clean past also needs to be dead. Asimov also focuses on other issues but the forgetting the past is the primary one. The story was written in an age when physics was blossoming and it shows while reading it. The only thing that made one realize it was old story was the fact that Asimov failed to foresee the advent of internet. Not that one expected him to foresee it but that is something which is in the back of one’s mind while reading it still but it fails to diminish the thrill. The advent of information technology in the current form and the medium of information access has changed a lot. One other thing that is problematic while reading the novels by Issac Asimov is the m...

A nice book by Dan Brown. Digital Fortress, as the name implies is about a fortress in digital domain. A nice plot with an uneasy climax but the trade mark powerful narration of Dan Brown makes it a pleasure to read. Digital Fortress bring to fore how Dan Brown researches the story and its background. If I add anything else it would simply add spoiling the fun of reading the novel.

I read Dan Brown's Deception Point . Dan Brown's style carries over to this book and like always the plot is thick and the villain is kept secret right till the end. Deception Point relates to the NASA's funding cut. NASA is about to release some profound research which will not only be able to let it keep its funding but also have wide scale repercussions for all of humanity.