@rgumental @dvisor

 There is a big problem with many writers in Finance / Economics.. Most of them are stuck with one philosophy & keep on repeating that in every book that they dole out..  Few months back i picked up " The Big Short " by Michael Lewis.. I have to say that till now I havnt been able to complete it because in one way or other most of the ideas / stories that he describe are present in one way or other in his earlier book - " Liar's Poker " ..  Individually these books aren't bad.. However, collectively these two are repetitive..    Another prominent writer who falls into this category in George Soros who keeps on harping about his concept of reflexivity in every book that he writes.. Same case with Tim Hartford ... Buying Logic of Life turned out to be a waste after reading Undercover Economist    Infact, I'd bet these writers are diluting their brand value by doling out similar ones .. Even though I liked Taleb's both books  - Fooled By Ran...

I read an amusing argument in a World Cup news section of some paper - "Since 1962, European teams & Latin American teams have won the world cup alternately. Going by that logic, it'll be Brazil or Argentina this time" .. About 2 - 3 years, I might have been swayed by these kind of arguments, however, after reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled by Randomness , I tend to be amused by these kind of predictions..    There are different kind of predictions. One type of predictors just give out their bets / premonitions..Second one, you just do a set of data analysis, find some pattern and make your bet based on that..If you win, you tend to develop a self-belief in your logic, which might not have any rational basis.. You never tend to realize that you have made a correct bet just out of randomness, rather than any strength in the underlying logic.. A lot of stock market bets are again like that..You tend to observe a set of past events , make some generalizations ...

I guess this is the first book that I read at a single stretch after a long time..Infact first book that I read completely after joining IIM :) .. Picked up Chetan Bhagat's 2 States from a book exhibition... I had lots and lots of assignments , work, studies pending.. But none of those concerns stopped me once I started reading :) The story is quite fast paced initially.. IIM life..That struck a chord initially itself.. Cribbing about mess food..the cryptic economics classes...the gossips that start to go on when a girl & guy starts going around..late night assignments.. Before you adjust yourself to the fast paced story style, the couple has kissed , had sex & has started a live-in relationship ... From here on, the story takes a melodramatic Hindi movie style.. They graduate, guy gets a job in Chennai along with her.. Guy tries various tricks to impress the girl's family, IIT Coaching for girl's muggu brother, conflict of South Indian & North Indian cul...

The picture shows my latest collection from Landmark.. Thanks to my team mates for gifting me Landmark coupon as a b'day gift :) . Any opinion / comments about any of these books are welcome.. The books are 1) India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha -- Heard lot of good reviews..And I being a history buff couldn't neglect it :) . Supposed to be an authoritative book on Independent India .. 2) The McKinsey Mind by Ethan Rasiel and Paul Friga .. -- Any comments from any MBA grads / students ?? 3) The Mind of a Strategist by Kenichi Ohmae -- Suggested umpteen times by our strat-management professor Rishikesha Krishnan.. When u admire the classes of a teacher so much, its quite natural that u'll end up buying these .. Finally I bought it after the term got over :) 4) Life of Pi by Yann Martel -- I know its quite popular, but haven't had the opportunity to read it yet.. 5) The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli ...

This book really kept me engrossed for quite some time..I wanted to read it again before writing a review..But, didnt get enough time or patience to do that... 'Snow' ( Turkish - 'Kar' ,which explains the title of this post) by Orhan Pamuk is a classic.. It deals with different faces of conflict between Islam ( both political and Radical ) and Westernism.. Philosophic at times, yet smooth .. a bit dry in the middle, yet interesting enough to keep us hooked.... Its also a romantic tragedy..It has its own lighter moments, though very few and far in between.. The story is set in the town of 'Kars' in North-Eastern Turkey.. Now, why Turkey becomes the center of such a islamic-western conflict ? Lets go back into a bit of History.. A brief History Turkey was the land of 'Caliphate' or in other worlds, Turkish ( Ottoman ) Sultans were considered to be the religious head of Muslims all over the world..India's 'Khilafat' movement traces its r...

I'm not a regular reader.From the childhood, I've preferred magazines and news papers over books. My old quizzing friends know, i sulk at the mention of literature round in quizzes, though my guesswork has helped me sometimes.I think I can count the books which I've read using my fingers.. Perhaps I'll be the only one who has stopped reading Da Vinci code midway, not because i didnt like it...but I didnt find it captivating enough...( I've the book and I hope to read it completely one day) Perhaps the only previous book which really captivated me was Chetan Bhagat's 'Five point someone'. That was really engrossing.. So, today i though I'll give the second one from the author a try. Bought 'One night at the call centre' and yeah, finished it in about6 hours..partly because I didnt want to come back to this book after some more days as the interest would be lost.. Now about the book.I cannot say that it is bad..But if you are expecting the same...