My resolution for 2008 – Almost Worked Out !!

I took up a resolution in 2008 for the first time ever in my life.  Personally I never believed in the concept of resolution. Partly because I gave too much importance to the age-old adage that resolutions are never meant to be kept. But guess what, I did almost manage to keep up my resolution.

The idea was to read at least one book every month. Well you would think what’s the big deal in that. But trust me for a guy like me, 9 years out of school, 5 years into marriage, with a 42-mile one-way commute to office and with a 10-12 hr Goldman job, it is a big deal.  There used to be a time in the good old days when I could devour a book in couple of days.  Well all I can say is that those were the times.

Now it’s not that I don’t do any reading otherwise. Between the wall street journal, financial times, business week, and harvard business review, I do manage to get a good dose of the daily & weekly financial & business world – I guess working for an investment bank on wall street has its own influences. (even though my job is in tech).  But I was dearly lacking some perspective in other areas.  So what better way but to take it up as a new year resolution.

My roster by the end of the year turned out to be -

• How to win friends and Influence People – Dale Carneige
• How to be a star at work  – Robert Kelley
• Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely
• The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture – John Battelle
• The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us – Robyn Meredith
• Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School – Philip Broughton

Predictably Irrational is my pick of the lot. It was a wonderful read. We think of ourselves to be rational species, but the author prods into lot of those basic natures of human mind and ultimately labels the human race as predictably irrational.  How our mind goes haywire when we see the word FREE to how we feel horrified at the mention of stealing the purse of an old woman but at the same time don’t have the slightest remorse in taking pens or pencils home from our offices, are some of the thought provoking points that the author makes. Did you know that our morality takes a trip downhill when we have a sexual arousal? And that we don’t feel any remorse in contemplating rape or murder. This book talk about all of this and more. So if you get a chance do pick it up from your local bookstore.  You will enjoy it.

I read the entire of Search sitting at Barnes & Noble. I have to admit – I was feeling good about the fact that I get to read this book and I don’t even have to pay for it. It took 2 or 3 trips to B&N to finish that book. Finally, I was overcome with guilt and I ended up buying the book. Actually I feel better about that now.

Right now I am reading this book called Buy-ology. It goes behind the human brain and tries to unravel the science of buying. It seems like an extension of predictably irrational. I think I have taken a fancy to reading books on human brains. I got to thank my wife for that. She is the scientifically inclined one in the family.

Will keep you all posted on my future readings.