Books! Books! Books!

I don't like making new year's resolutions. I don't understand what is special about that particular day that people believe will suddenly help them keep the resolutions they make. Sorry to break your bubble people but if you want to make resolutions and change your life, start now instead of waiting for a particular day.

Anyway, enough philosophy. Around the time when I wanted to write daily, I wanted to start reading again. I haven't read books in a long time. In a very long time. For whatever reason, it appears to people as if I read a lot. Well, I do infact read a lot but most of them are articles online, some of them tens of thousands of words long but none of them actual books. When I was a kid and till my tenth standard, I used to read books about machines and how they work, basic science and year books briefing what all happened over the course of the year. After I got into IITM, the only book that I held in my hands for longer than a couple of hours is 'Everybody loves a good drought' by P. Sainath. If you haven't read it, you should do so right now! And that was almost a couple of years back. So, I finally resolved a couple of months back to start reading again, reading books I mean. And so far, I have to say that it's been going okay.

Over the last two months, I have bought Flash Boys, Emperor of all maladies, What if?, Everybody loves a good drought and Guns, Germs and Steel. I have read the first 4 and I am reading the last one. I have also bought myself, as christmas gifts, 4 more books. The hour between dog and wolf, The last lecture, Why men don't listen and women can't read maps and Business adventures. I recently read that Mark Zuckerburg started a reading club on facebook, promoting people to read more this year. Just fyi, Mark is not who i'm taking orders from. Bill is. You'll notice that the books are, all but one, non-fiction. I believe that there are a lot of real things in this world that I'd like to learn about so I have penned fiction for later on in my life. Also, if you are looking for interesting books to read, like I am mot of the time, a good place to start would be Gates' reviews. Bill Gates, yes the microsoft co-founder, is well read and the list of books that he has gone through is an interesting place to dig for good non-fiction. I have been adding books to my flipkart wishlist and I shall try crossing things off a couple of books a month but I don't see that list vanishing anytime soon!

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