Spiral bound books

As I am reading books which are more like work-books (or books that require you to work - do things - with the content therein), I feel they need to be spiral bound instead of glue-bound paperbacks. Yes, they need to stay open without my effort to keep them open. So that while my eyes could be absorbing the content, I could be working on the recommended techniques.

There is an obvious trouble with spiral bound books. The spine cannot flaunt the name and so they can't stand on shelves with the spine facing the onlooker. But then books that prompt or are action-oriented anyway should be given greater importance than books simply meant to entertain or to improve your headiness. No?

Spelling trouble for corporates and marketers...

If more people started buying books as impulse purchases. Especially when the book's title is something like The Case for Working with Your Hands, Or, Why Office Work Is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good written by Matthew Crawford :)



In case, you are slightly lazy to check out what the book is about, am sharing a couple of excerpts from the book's preface. Read. That is also the spirit/reason with which I started Mississippi Earrings (Missi.in). The entire shop, one can say, has been created and crafted with our own minds and hands. Of course, a lot of people pitched in the process. Anyway, here's the stuff. You might want to read...

Part # 2 now... (don't mind that the image is protruding out of the frame. The point is to share and ask you to go through in spite of an eye-sore :) )

A few days back, couple of friends from EDI shared their thought of starting a chain of bike-servicing outlets. I think the idea is great but what they need to do (and anyone who has such an idea) is learn to service a bike themselves, in and out. Then the game will be simpler and much more rewarding and satisfying.

If I controlled you and what you do...

This is what I would ask you to read. First thing before you do anything.

Of course, before you read, you've to buy.

This is a tour de force.

And listen to what Nassim Taleb, the author of FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS & THE BLACK SWAN, has to say:

This is a landmark book in social thought, in the same league as The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith and The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.

Anything to beat that? I am on Pg. No. 125 and I've found it tough to put this one down.

The interesting thing is Flipkart is selling at a price which is Rs.150 lesser than at Crossword. And Flipkart's price is lesser than the Kindle edition price, again by about Rs.150. Do not miss. Buy Thinking Fast And Slow now! 

Dumbed?

The 'p' in 'dumped' just gets vertically flipped 180 degrees.

If you've felt sometimes that the more time you are spending working in a job, the dumber you are becoming, do not blame yourself. Better thing would be to read Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum Of Compulsory Schooling :)

Intelligent, full of common-sense, explosive and subversively delightful.

Management Education through Reading

I dream of an institute where management training and education is driven by reading. Yes, the primary mode of instruction is reading. Indirectly, self-understanding, and of course, aided by the presence of experts around.

Instead of classrooms there could be reading rooms. Instead of classrooms there could be ideas-of-the-book discussion rooms. There could be two libraries - one driven by theoretical texts and the other by pop-texts.

Now what should I do?

Staying fit

The line below the title of this blog says, "Siddharth Soni moved out of Mumbai in search of a fitter, flexible life. These snippets chronicle his journey."

However, I am not sure if I've shared a lot on staying fit. Honestly, in all these years I've tried all sorts of things to stay fit. While I've been regular in trying different things - running, cycling, weight-trainig, gymming - I haven't been regular in doing any one particular thing.

One thing that has bothered me all this while is the need of gadgets in every sphere of life, including working out / exercising / attempting to keep myself fit. So while in a typical attempt to fill my time with book-searching on Amazon using Kindle, I chanced upon this! YOU ARE YOUR OWN GYM by Mark Lauren.

While I used a gadget to find this book, you don't need any gadget whatsoever to do what's recommended in this book. In the last few days I've tried a lot of these exercises and I've had so much fun; partly coz I don't have to deal with gadgets.

And then add to this, Mr. Soumik Nandy shared a few links on bodyweight exercising to consolidate my interest. Seems now I am set to stay regular; at least I have a belief that I can stay regular.

Typically, we feel it's better to work out under supervision but my problem is that supervisors typically haven't mastered supervision. So our waiting for 'supervision' yields very little at best. The way things are illustrated in this training bible, I doubt one would need a lot of supervision anyway unless of course one is suffering/has suffered from some serious physical complications.

Try it. The book might change you for good.

Energy Economics & Petrol Prices

Oh! I just read this piece Petrol Prices Set To Hike Again. Just a few days back I shared an important bit in the post Alarm Bell on my blog polka thoughts.

I urge motorcycling enthusiasts who also like following motorcycling tit-bits online to read Jeff Rubin's thoughts on the economics of energy and how it is changing and how it is gonna change our world in a lot many ways. These price hikes are just the beginning but very important symptoms of an imminent future. Go, read.

You might do well to read Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller as well. Important stuff.