Goodreads Reading Challenge–2016–4/12

It is almost a custom that every year I sign up for a reading challenge in Goodreads. The result is also consistent just like my gym membership. I sign up for a year and hit the gym in full enthusiasm for two months. And then I never think about the gym or its membership for another ten months. Similarly, I challenge myself every year that I will read these many books this year. I buy those many books as well. But I never go past three or four. This year I have set myself a realistic (I hope so) expectation of 12 books, ie, one per month. I am at the same point now where I gave up in the last two years. Four books. I am making this public to see if that would help me in staying in and finishing through my challenge this year.

Following are the four books I have read so far this year.

The Greatest Salesman in the world – Og Mandino

I have heard about this book from a number of people. It was also widely recommended by many famous personalities. This was always on my bucket list. Finally, I managed to get a copy of this. To be honest, I was disappointed. This book may have been a great book when it got published first time. But I felt it was just a hype. It was an autosuggestion list disguised as a book. The actual message does not even start until 50% of the book is over. I felt like it was a cheap version of The Alchemist. I didn’t like The Alchemist much either. May be it was because of the hype. Or may be, I do not like the style. At least, The Alchemist was better in story telling. That said, this book is a breezy read. Not a time waster.

Delivering Happiness – A path to Profits, Passion and Purpose – Tony Hseih

I loved this book. This is the story of Zappos and how its culture towards Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction evolved over time. There are some very good ideas to improve the company culture. Written by a CEO, I was afraid that I will be bombarded with jargons but I was wrong. Tony’s style was simple and conversational and very engaging. I would recommend this book to anyone.

The 10X Rule – Grant Cardone

I have mixed feelings about this book. First of all, I love Grant Cardone’s enthusiasm and energy. I stumbled upon his videos in youtube and I liked his style. On the face and no non-sense advices. I bought this book because I liked his videos. There were some great points and some okay points in this book. I felt that the book was never ending. Partly because the author, true to the name of this book, tells a message 10x times in different wordings. But, this is a good read. Some of the topics like 10X actions are sensible.

The Secret of the Mantle – Harini Chakrapani

I have already talked about this book in my earlier post here.

Now, here is the list of books that I want to read this year. Some of them are from previous year’s list

• The Seven Secrets of Shiva – Devdutt Patnaik
• Elon Musk: Inventing the Future – Ashlee Vance
• Scion of Ikshvaku – Amish Tripathi
• Ramayana – C.Rajagopalachari
• The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive – Brendon Burchard
• Getting Things Done – David Allen
• Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore, Regis McKenna
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – Marshall Goldsmith

If you do not see any update on the books that I read periodically then feel free to nudge me, alright!