This is not a single book review but a set of them, all about Genes and Evolution and all written by Richard Dawkins. For me, personally, it opened up a whole new world that I was blissfully unaware of. I was never a good science student with Biology and Chemistry being one of my least favourite subjects back at school. So, imagine my thrill when I found myself addicted to these books and probably rediscovered some lost part of me. I started with “The Selfish Gene” and later went through “The Blind Watchmaker“, “God Delusion“, “The Greatest Show on Earth“, …
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Personal Finance Books
Back in 2004, when I took up reading about ‘Personal Finance’ to save myself from the clutches of an LIC agent :-), I had to scourge the internet (rediff money and later economic times) to understand even the basics like PF vs PPF, why Term Insurance is the way to go or how evil ULIPs were . Thankfully, things have improved and there are some very good books that people can instead turn their attention to. Let’s Talk Money & Let’s Talk Mutual Funds – Monika Halan A book like this would save so much trouble for people looking for …
Continue readingAtomic Habits
Self help books are usually not my cup of tea. I have tried a few and absolutely not liked them (sorry fans of ‘The Alchemist’). But there are some on the right side of rationality while also being helpful with some day to day stuff and ‘Atomic Habits’ is one such book. It feels well researched and actually gives practical suggestions that could work. Moreover the tone of the book is more of opening up the knowledge instead of taking the “I know everything, now listen to me” attitude. I also like that it touches upon difficult topics like “genetics” …
Continue readingPonniyin Selvan – Books
During one of my annual school holidays (probably 8th or 9th) my father got me the full set of 5 books of Ponniyin Selvan. I have heard him talk about it earlier but I never thought I would read them. I started with the first book, first chapter and Kalki’s writing took hold of me till I finished the full set within the holidays. I ended up skipping cricket some days to finish an interesting part of the book. Even my parents were amused that I was sitting with the books all day long. There is a kind of simplicity …
Continue readingSapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
I love reading books and have been aided by numerous others in the internet on what could be a good book . It is only fair that I on my part provide some info on the books that I have read and aid (if any) who comes looking for them Sapiens is easily one of the top 10 books that I would recommend. It might even be one of the top 5. When I think about it, there is no one single reason why I would recommend it but on the whole it is one entertaining package. I think spoilers …
Continue readingAudiobooks – the magic spell for Bangalore traffic
Believe it or not, I am one of those fortunate ones that still drives back and forth to office without hitting a single traffic light intersection. There are several junctions but none with red light countdowns. Inspite of this, as any Bangalorean would freely attest, pre-corona days, driving within city is something that very few would curse even on our worst enemies – you see humanity is still alive. I think it is a possible theory that some grandfather of BBPM director left behind a clue for a treasure in one of the roads. They seem to be always digging …
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