books read

january has been a good month to start with in this new year. i have been able to complete four books in all. the first was outliers (gladwell), the second was one night @ a call centre (chetan bhagat), the third was five point someone ( chetan bhagat) and the fourth was buy-ology by martin lindstorm.

all these books taught me a new perspective towards life. outliers is about how you view success and what it takes to succeed. it is about being in the right place and seizing the opportunity through sheer hardwork and perseverance and hours and hours of practice. a lot of emphasis is placed on the sheer sequnce of events and the most important of all that no one is a self made man and that every one owes something to someone to make it big.

one night @ a call centre is a pacy fiction which actually depicts life through a call centre executive perspective. it explains the life of call centre executives, the travails of their lives, the highs and lows and how the youth of india are going through this revolution and experiencing the first highs of new found freedom and financial independence. it is written in a realistic way and exactly as we keep reading in the newspapers. though a bit overboard at times, the author's creative licence is pardonable as on the whole it makes a good read.

five point someone is a must read for all college entrants and to get to know as to what not to do in an college school leave alone an iit. the book is very good and explains at length as to what all the students do and get into a mess. this book will serve as a good guide to even parents who send their children to college as they can get to know what is the psyche of the students and it is again a realistic portrayal of the activities which students do in colleges. chetan bhagat writes in an engrossing unputdownable manner and his books - 270 odd pages (always) are ones which you can complete from start to finish on a long trip. a good one. five point someone is really good read and we should learn from the same.

buy-ology by martin lindstorm is a book which talks about brain scanning and the techniques of SST ( Steady State Tomography) and EEG (Electroencepelpgraphy) and how our brain and subconscious takes control of us and what we actually say is far from the truth. what we actually buy is determined in 2 seconds says lindstorm and that these are marked by a lot of subconcious decisions which our brain continually makes. in the initial part of the book the concept is often repeated and it looks like the author is over emphaisising the idea and becomes a bit of a drag. however after chapter 4 or so, lindstorm takes us into a wealth of information with excellent insights and anectodal examples to confirmh is theory of neuro marketing. he talks of the birth of this new science and wonders why science and marketing never came together before. he has explored all aspects of inducement which marketeers use to make us buy - right from sex, to religion, to celebirities ( mirror neurons), to senses, colours, use of somatic markers ( events of deep significance in our life which leaves an indelible imprint on our subconscious) etc. a wonderful read and a wealth of information so as to know the next time you buy a product or service, you do so out of a consicous choice and not be ruled or governed by your subconscious.