A load of crap from an idle brain

As someone who is on an overdrive reading books this year (more than 28 already in the first 9 months of the year), i do get asked as to what kind of books do i read and why do i read the books that i read. These are the few loose set of rules that i follow while selecting a book to read.

It has to be non-fiction. Fiction is a big no-no to me. I cant bring myself to waste time reading fiction. If at all i want to read fiction, i would rather watch a movie that is made on that book. Saves me considerable time considering the fact that iam a slow reader.

Biographies are an instant pick up for me. Doesnt matter the background of the author or the person the book is based on. I have read biographies of Warren Buffett, Lance Amstrong, Louis Gerstner, Andre Agassi, Steve Jobs, Hillary Clinton, Michael Dell, Jack Welch, Kishore Biyani, Richard Branson etc.

Books on finance, investing, stock markets, management, science etc are also my favourites.

Book recommendations in magazines or by successful people like CEOs or other management people who have read books and recommend the same.

Random search on google or amazon after i have read a particular author and liked their writing.

Listening to audio books is my favorite method of reading. Earlier, audio books had someone reading out in a droning voice which could put you to sleep as soon as the books started. Today professional readers pour emotions into their reading with perfect voice modulation which makes listening to a book very much interesting. Sometimes its the author who himself / herself reads out the book. Sometimes its a professional reader and these have made listening to audio books much interesting.

Earlier i used to complain that i had no time to read books till someone nailed it as excuses. I spend at least 2 hours daily commuting to and from work. Mostly the time is spent looking around or listening to some inane radio DJ railing about some crap in between the same songs that you have been hearing for years now. Not to mention the ads that keep popping in between the songs.

I started with one audio book first. It was a bit difficult concentrating on listening to the book. 2-3 books later, you learn to control your mind and concentrate on listening to the book. Honestly today, i hate wasting time listening to songs or radio. I put on an audio book even when i go jogging or ironing clothes at home.

List of books that i have read are here

Above picture courtesy: ArabDetroit

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The last post has been about 2 weeks earlier.  Meanwhile work has been heavy and persistent.  Not to mention grown up people with their child like minds causing more problems than necessary and increasing the temperatures in the team. Sigh…. Am a serious believer that when people join an organisation, they should be put through people handling skills before they are let into the actual fire.  Most can cope.  Its the minority few with no people skills, no idea of how to talk to people and take up every issue as an assault to their king-size ego, who cause all the mayhem and frustration in the workplace.

Anyways, once out of the workplace, i try to shut myself off and turn to my other interests.  Reading and music.  Finished reading the Andre Agassi biopic.  Its simply an awesome read.  A flawed genius with no genuine interest in the game, Agassi with his talent and hardwork became the true legend of the game.  Forced into a game he hated, by his father and sent early on in life to the Nick Bollettieri academy which Agassi describes more as a prison than a place for kids to enjoy the sport, he rebels.  Against the system, against his father, against Nick, against the sport, against media and against himself.

On his path to self-destruction he meets people like Gill (his trainer), Brad Gilbert (his coach) who pull him out of the morass he keeps digging himself into.  Not to mention his friends like Perry, JP and his own brother who form a protective cocoon around him to try shield him against the pressures.

The book is a magnificent read.  Agassi doesn’t yield, nor does he stop from pulling his punches.  I cant believe that a sportsman can write in such beautiful way so as to completely arrest you to the description of events in his life.

Love tennis, hate tennis, one thing is for sure that the book is not a put down.  Some of the games that he describes is sure to transport you to the minds of the person that is Agassi.  His sudden self doubts on his ability, his inability to finish off games, his on court rivalry with Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and numerous other players, the book is a riveting read.

I have read quite a few biographies till now.  Lance Armstrong, Louis Gerstner, Jack Welch, Warren Buffett etc…but this one sure is one among the best i have read.

I have always been a Sampras, Becker, Stefan Edberg fan, but never had any kind thoughts towards Agassi because of his constant threat to my favourite Sampras.  Reading this book has completely changed my opinion of the man.  Ya, he might be a flawed genius…but yes, he is a genius still.

The only other enthusiasm that i share with Agassi is Steffi Graf.  The only female tennis player i have ever idolised. Two champions and their offsprings are sure to be prodigies themselves, but then both Agassi and Graf decide that their kids will never be forced to take up the sport that both despised so much.

Now, that is what i call…perfect parents.  Not trying to see your dreams being realised through your kids, but to appreciate your kids own talent and let them bloom in whichever career they want to.

Open: An Autobiography
Author – Andre Agassi
Pages – 400
Publisher – Knopf

My rating: * * * * *

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Easily one of the best biographies i have read, Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson is an easy read.  Not too complicated by the jargons of business, Branson writes in his own easy way about how he built a multi billion pound business after having started off life as a dyslexic child.

Yup, its tough to believe that a man who lives such a colourful life, flies over the pacific and atlantic oceans in a balloon, jumps off planes, does all kinds of wierd stunts to keep his business in news was dyslexic as a kid.  He had trouble reading, was one of the worst student in class.  But started off his life running a music store, which moved on to record label (Virgin music), music business to one of the most loved airlines in the world (Virgin Atlantic) to running a telecom company (Virgin telecom) to tens of other business.

The book starts off with his exploits on trying to cross the Atlantic in a balloon where he cheats death to his childhood life and then to his music business where his label published such world class music groups like the Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson etc.

The dirty tricks that British Airways use to discredit, defame and try to kill the small and fledging Virgin Atlantic is also described in vivid detail.  The end of which Branson sues the whole top brass of British Airways and gets not only monetary compensation, but also an unreserved apology from the British Ariways brass.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson says one of his prime business criteria is “fun.” Fun made Branson a billionaire, and few business memoirs are one-billionth as fun as Branson’s, nor as niftily written. Not only does it relate his side of near-death corporate experiences, it tells how the chairman literally cheated death by gun, shipwreck, and balloon crash.

Branson’s empire–now encompassing interests in an airline, pop music, soda pop, e-commerce, and financial services–began when the dyslexic 16-year-old dropped out of school in 1968 to found the British magazine Student. His headmaster said, “I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire.” Briefly imprisoned for dodging customs selling records, Branson got his first million by releasing Tubular Bells, a maverick recording all the stuffy executives rejected. (1998′s Tubular Bells III puts the series’ sales over 20 million.)

Despite wild tales of Branson’s wife-swapping and Keith Richards fleeing naked from Branson’s studio at gunpoint with another man’s woman, the most shocking parts of the memoir concern British Airways’ James Bond-like “dirty tricks” campaign against Virgin Atlantic, resulting in the biggest award for damages in English history.

Though it’s filled with famous names, witty quotes, and pulse-pounding accounts of lunatic balloon adventures, it is as a business thriller that the book really scores. His instinctive bet-the-ranch tactics could cost him all, or earn another billion. Either way, Branson will likely remain the most entertaining entrepreneur in Europe

-source: Amazon

Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
Author – Richard Branson
Pages – 416
Publisher – Crown Business

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December is here, but it doesnt look like the usual relaxed month.  Work is still at its peak.  Am busy as ever.

Linchpin is the first ever Seth Godin book that i have read.  Though am not really a fan of self-improvement books and generally stay away from it.  I had seen quite a few of his talk videos on TED and loved it.

Godin speaks about shunning doing things the regular way and trying to be an Linchpin at the place of work.  Someone who should become indispensable to the place you work in.

According to Godin, a Linchpin is somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced—her role is just far too unique and valuable. And then he goes on to say, well, seriously folks, you need to be one of these people, you really do. To not be one is economic and career suicide.

Linchpin is a most unusual, well-organized, concise book about what it takes to become indispensable in the workplace – whether you work for someone else (at any level) or are self-employed. It’s about how business has rapidly changed and how treating employees like factory workers (or doing your job like one) doesn’t work any longer. We must make choices and take action to “chart our own paths” and add value that others do not. We cannot wait for a boss or a job description to tell us what to do, rather we must just take the initiative ourselves. Only then can we become indispensable “linchpins,” rather than replaceable “cogs.” There are so many fantastic quotes in the book too.

“You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to become indispensable is to be different. That’s because if you’re the same, so are plenty of other people.”

source: Amazon

I did find the book a tad repetitive.  Neverthless its a good read.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Author – Seth Godin
Pages – 256
Publisher – Portfolio Hardcover

The author has perfected a formula that he has used to beat the market consistently and earn more returns than what the index has provided. He calls it the Magic Formula Investing.  The formula is explained in the book in relatively easy language.  According to Greenblatt what you need to be concerned is just 2 things about a company:

• A company’s earnings yield

• Return on capital

The rationale is straightforward: buy shares in good businesses, measured by returns on capital, only when they’re available at bargain prices, defined as a high earnings yield.

The magic formula looks for companies that have the best combination of earnings yield and return on capital, with each input weighed equally. An outstanding company with an expensive stock ranked, say, first for return on capital but 1,999th on earnings yield, would have the same combined ranking of 2,000 as a low return on capital company within expensively priced shares, ranking 1,999th in return on capital but first on earnings yield.

Using this approach to create a regularly updated portfolio of about 30 stocks with the highest combined rankings, Mr Greenblatt tested his formula between 1988 and 2004. The results were remarkable: with only one down year, the magic portfolio would have returned 30.8 per cent a year, against a 12.4 percent annual return for the S&P 500. Rather than using the latest 12 months’ earnings to calculate earnings yield and return on capital, Mr Greenblatt and his analysts try to improve on the rote application of this formula by using earnings estimates in a “normal” year, one in which nothing unusual is happening within the  company, its industry or the overall economy.

source: Amazon

The Little Book That Beats The Market
Author – Joel Greenblatt
Pages – 176
Publisher – Wiley