Top 10 Impact Books in my Lifetime

Recently there is a Top 10 Impact Books challenge trending in Facebook. I was tagged by my cousin, Vicky to post my top 10 favorite books that has made impact in my life. This was my entry for the challenge:

Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham: This book is by far the best book written on Value Investing and has influenced me in a great way to take up Value Investing as a hobby. The book is one of the most important books one should read early in your work life as it teaches you financial discipline and on how to reach your financial goals.

God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: I have a habit of writing in the last page of the book just after finishing a book. Whenever you finish a book, it leaves you with a hangover and whatever you write captures your emotions in a great way. As I retrieved my copy of this book from my dust ridden bookshelf this is what I had written at the last page dated 2012: “The book is an eye opener and liberated me from the chains of customs which had bounded me and blinded me till now. The book would be remembered in my journey towards developing individuality”.

Our Moon has Blood Clots: The Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits by Rahul Pandita: The book captures the violent ethnic cleansing of Kasmiri Pandit community by Islamist militants in the Kashmir valley. The author has written a deeply personal, powerful and unforgettable story his community has faced in the Kashmir valley. Importantly, the book taught me why is history and home very important and how painful it would be if you lose any of that.

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda: One Piece is not a single book but a Japanese manga running from 1996. I have been reading One Piece manga for the last 5 years. The author is popular for bringing in large number of twists and turns in the storyline and for the powerful characters and quotes which make the storyline interesting. The manga has inspired me to live a life with no regrets. Only people who had read the manga would understand my last sentence

Animal Farm by George Orwell: A satirical tale on Communism which clearly depicts where communism will lead our world into. It has to be noted that the book was written in 1945 when communism was largely popular. One of my memorable quotes from the book: “All Animals are equal, but some Animals are more equal than others”.

Nationalism by Rabindranath Tagore: The book contains a series of lectures given by Tagore in Japan and United States. The author mainly criticizes the concept of nation-state in both the East and West and offers his vision of a society independent of it. It has to be noted that the book was written in a time period when India was fighting for its independence from British imperialism.

A Corner of a Foreign Field by Ramachandra Guha: The book is a brilliant social history of Indian cricket. The author is one of the leading historians of our country. Capturing key moments of cricket history in India, the author has tried to answer some popular questions like: “Why a European game has such deep roots in India?” It was memorable for me to read about the history of my favorite sport.

Who Moved my Cheese? By Spencer Johnson: The book is a motivational tale written by the author in the style of a fable. Change is permanent: be it in your career, your relationship or your family life. The book is all about how to face tough situations in your life and change accordingly.

Seeing like a Feminist by Nivedita Menon: This is one book I would recommend to most of the people as a must read in your lifetime. It helps you to understand how the world appears to a feminist and learn what is meant by a feminist stance. The book contains a lot of notable feminist cases which has happened around the world and the consequences. Overall the book helps you in opening up from the wretched male chauvinistic life many people live.

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela: The book is all about the man Nelson Mandela and his life and more importantly the changes he has brought in the society as he envisioned. As a person who would love to bring in change to our society, this book has been included as a tribute to the legend who lived in this world.

Book Review: Who Moved My Cheese?

My Ratings: 7.0/10.0

About the Author

Dr. Spencer Johnson is one of the world’s most influential thinkers and widely read #1 bestselling authors. More than 48 million copies of Dr. Johnson’s books are in print worldwide in forty seven languages.

Dr. Spencer Johnson’s education includes a psychology degree from the University of Southern California, an M.D. from the Royal College of Surgeons and medical clerkships at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic.

Some of his memorable works in Self Help/Success genres include:

• Who Moved my Cheese?
• The One Minute Manager (co-authored with Kenneth Blanchard)
• Yes or No: The Guide to Better Decisions
• The Present: The Secret to Enjoying your Work and Life now

About the Book: It’s all about Change Management

 There are three things you cannot miss in your life: Death, Taxes and….. Change. Change is permanent: be it in your career, relationships or your family life, you will definitely face change. The book is all about how to face tough situations in your life and change accordingly.

The book is all about life of four central characters: two mice (Scurry and Sniff) and two human (Hem and Haw). They have a source of cheese in the maze and every day they follow the routine of going into the maze to enjoy their cheese. Cheese in this context can be anything we dream of. They were not noticing that their supply of cheese was coming down. One fine day, when they reached the location, they found it empty.

This is where the story splits into two. The two mice accepted the situation and moved further into the maze looking for other sources of cheese. The humans who built their whole life around cheese felt cheated and were blaming the situation as fraud. The story captures the moments in your life when you would have lost a job or a relationship and felt this is the end of life. Past looks more comfortable and what future holds is nothing but only fear. The rest of the story forms the masterpiece of Dr. Johnson’s work. After waiting for long, Haw decides to go search for cheese on his own and summarises his overall experience as “Handwritings on the Wall”. These messages form the greatest takeaway from the story.

The Handwritings on the Wall can be summarised as such:

Change Happens

They Keep Moving the Cheese

Anticipate Change

Get Ready for the Cheese to Move

Monitor Change

Smell the Cheese Often, so you know when it is getting old

Adapt to Change Quickly

The Quicker you let go of Old Cheese, The Sooner you can enjoy new Cheese

Change

Move with the Cheese

Enjoy Change

Savour the Adventure and Enjoy the Taste of New Cheese

Be Ready to Change Quickly and Enjoy Again

They keep moving the Cheese

Overall the book is a very short and precise story with very high learning outcome. People who do not have time to spend read the book can view the entire book as an animation at the below mentioned youtube link:

Book Review: Seeing Like A Feminist

My Ratings: 9.0 / 10

About the Author

Nivedita Menon is a noted feminist, author, activist and a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has a history of involvement in wide range of issues: secularism, labour rights, women’s rights, sexuality and opposition to nuclear programme. She is a frequent writer on current issues at kafila.org.

Her major book publications:

• Power & Contestations: India since 1989
• Seeing Like a Feminist
•  Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law
• Gender and Politics in India
• Sexualities

You can follow her posts in Kafila at: http://kafila.org/author/nivmen/

About the Book: It’s all about the theme

After going through a lot of book review blogs, I have found that most of the reviews doesn’t capture the memorable moments when you read a particular book. As a change from the usual routine of writing a monotonous book review, I thought I would just include some of the memorable quotes from the book which would capture the essence of the theme discussed and help people in making a decision on whether to read the book or not.

The book ‘Seeing like a Feminist’ is definitely worth reading and I would rate as one of the must read books in your lifetime. It helps the reader in understanding how the world appears to a feminist and learn what is meant by a feminist stance. I would include some of my favourite quotes from the book which would summarise and help you understand what to expect from this book.

“When one sees the world like a feminist, with the gaze of a feminist, it’s like activating the ‘Reveal Formatting’ function in Microsoft Word. It reveals the strenuous, complex formatting that goes on below the surface of what looked smooth and complete”

“If the body we inhabit is marked male, it has one kind of effect, if female, another kind of effect, if Black, or Dalit, or disabled another kind of effect. These effects are structural, material and psychological”

“The real remedy to breaking caste is inter-caste marriage. Nothing else can serve as solvent for caste”

“If they see breasts and long hair coming, they call it woman. If beard and whiskers, they call it man. But look the self that hovers in between is neither man nor woman”

“Racism is a good example of biological determinism, as is the caste system, because both ideologies are based on the assumption that certain groups of people are superior by birth, and they are born with characteristics, such as greater intelligence and special skills, that justify their power in society”

“Until the middle of twentieth century in the West, for instance, pink was the colour for boys and blue for girls. It is only in the mid twentieth century that the opposite colour coding began to appear normal”

Last but not the least; the book contains a lot of notable cases which has happened around the world and the consequences. These cases are highly informative and help us get a firm understanding on the roots of the problem. A special case study is covered on the sexual harassment case lodged against a powerful male professor of Delhi University and the aftermath. Overall the book is a must read for people who love to see a change in the society.