Sunday, March 21, 2010

Book review


Read some really good books recently.

1. Undercover Economist:


A very good book. It is more of an extension to Freakanomics (One of my favorite books). It talks more in detail about an economists views on day to day life, like traffic in the roads or medical care or insurance for example. It does have a chapter on How China is going to be the future of the world. It seems like these days, you cannot finish a single newspaper without stories about China's rise to power.

I liked his views on reducing traffic in the road. Singapore is exactly following his idea. The whole ERP grantry thing is exactly what is being suggested in the book. (ERP was desinged before the book was released. This goes to say Singapore is run by smart people)

Also I liked his views on medicare. Singapore implemented his idea long before the book was released. As I said, a very good book. If you have interest in economics, i would strongly suggest this.

2. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri:

One of my favorite authors. She is definitely an amazing writer. I have read interpreter of maladies and Namesake by her. So decided to read this and absolutely loved it. If you are a foreigner reading this blogpost, do read this book to understand Indians living abroad. It is a collection of short stories just like Interpreter of Maladies.

Hema and Kaushik was my favorite of all the short stories. I rarely read novels. (I prefer watching them in movies) But i actually can read this book again.

3. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho:

I know this is a famous book that has already crossed like 20 editions. It has been translated into 67 languages. Sold 65 million copies. But i read this only now. And really liked it. As people say, it is truly a modern classic. If i were to gift someone a book, i would definitely choose this. Anyone who reads this book will find it useful in their life. This is like "Who moved my Cheese".

4. Tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell:


Another good book i read recently. People say this is better than Outliers. But i kinda liked Outliers more than this one. But still it is worth reading. A very interesting idea. I wanna read Blink next.

5. The White Tiger:

It is a famous book, but few of my friends didnt like it. But i found the book interesting. It has a wierd sense of humour. The author writes about his life to Wen Jiaboa. So the entire book is in a letter format. He explains the wierd caste system and so many other things to the chinese premier. The story ends with the author murdering his boss. The whole book is the reasoning for why he did it. Pretty interesting book.

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