Barnes, Jhumpa and SI models
I have been spending alot of my free time reading. Rather than go to the library which in SF is difficult to get you and has no free street parking, I go to Barnes and Nobles. I know this a bookstore where one is supposed to BUY books, but I like many many others treat it as a library.
On rainy Sundays, I find myself rolling to Barnes to read a collection of random magazines - Us Weekly, Esquire, Mens Health, GQ. Honestly there is nothing better that getting caught up with pop culture, and reading about 10 new tips to get the girl, get a better shave, get more tone abs, fill in the blank. However, the problem i found is that while I find most of these tips very enlightening, by the time I get home, I can barely remember what I read and thus cannot implement any of them.
In any case, with a limited budget B&N also lets me read books for free that I cannot afford to buy. I know this is somewhat pathetic, but in an economic downturn I got to do what I got to do. I have no bought a song EVER and use Limewire to get any new song. Similarly, I have pretty much stopped going to the movies and instead download all the movies I want to see. Usually I can get the torrent file for ANY movie within 1-2 wks of its release - I also hooked it up so I can play the movie off my laptop onto the TV. Believe it or not most of these files are DVD quality.
To be fair, the only exception of when I wont download it is when it has alot of action sequences or sound effects such as Batman or the upcoming movie Watchman - there is no way to replicate that experience of a THX surround sound. However, I am fine downloading most movies. Besides saving costs, I have complete control - I can start and stop the movie at any time and also forward thru scenes which seem unnecessary; I was able to watch Gran Turino in 30 mins (maybe this is why I thought this was a shitty movies whereas my friends thought this was a fantastic movie).
Anyhow, I have read some really good books that I think you all should check out, if you have not done so already...
Only Goodness - This is Jhumpas latest book which is a collection of short stories. I really like reading her. Some people say her stories are not that unique and that if you were to replace all the Indian names with American names, then the story would be ordinary. I could not disagree more.
She has a way of writing about everyday topics in a very elegant simple way. She also has the ability to capture my generation and the older generation perfectly. For example, in one story she writes about a traditional widowed Dad coming to visit his daughter who married a white guy. She has the ability to perfectly capture how a Dad in such a scenario would act - very accepting and non-judgmental. The daughter wants to show her Dad around, which the Dad just wants to relax, by reading and working in the garden. This reminded me of my Dad perfectly, which is why I loved it.
Another story was about a brother and a sister growing up in a traditional Indian household. The sister is very smart and loves her brother dearly. When she goes to college, she introduces him to alcohol. The real meat of the story is when the brother becomes an alcoholic and how it affects the sister and the parents. Obviously not to the same extent, but I could relate to this story very much.
Go check it out. Because each short story is independent, it makes for a great read. Each story takes about 45- 1 hour to read.
Outliers - This is Malcolm Gladwells most recent book (he is the author of Tipping Point and Blink). Anyhow he tries to explain why outliers occur eg why was Bill Gates successful. Was it complete chance or was it unique circumstances combined with good timing and alot of practice gave him a significant advantage. I wont ruin all of his theories, which are all interesting, but the most obvious one is that to be best at a skill or profession, one needs to be completely dedicated to it. He estimates one needs to have 10,000 hours of experience to become the best at something. Bill Gates did @ 10,000 of coding while in high school and college which helps to explain why he was so successful...
4-hour Work-Week: For the unemployed, this is a great read as it shows you a different way to look at employment. He says there is no point to work hard now till you make your $40MM and then retire; rather to try to enjoy yourself now. That is if you want to take a trip to China when you retire, there is no reason why you have to wait till you are 50. If you do it now, it will make you happy now which is the main point.
The ideal "job" is to have a business that requires minimal time investment and brings you CASHFLOW each month. He gives you ways to accomplish this and tips to better manage yourself and your time.
One of the interesting things that I am going to try is to limit the information I digest. Like I said earlier I spend hours reading magazines that I dont get anything out of. Similarly, Ill spend hours on the net on TMZ, Facebook, etc just surfing. He writes that not only does this waste time, but it actually fills your head with too many random thoughts and makes it hard for YOU to focus. I am going to try this for the next two weeks. NO CNN, no TMZ, and no Facebook. I still got to look at ESPN for my Lakers, and Etrade to see how shitty my stocks are doing. One thing he suggests which I have to imagine is really hard is to control how often you check email. Rather than checking every minute, check it only 3 times a day. Obviously if you working in banking or any professional environment, this is very hard to implement. But the rationale is there - email interrupts you and your thought process. I can be working or doing some research for an upcoming interview, but if I see the email envelope from Outlook, I will drop everything to read it.
Given that this should create some free time, let me know if you have some good book recommendations.
Oh yeah, check out this random story. SWA apparently has put one of the SI girls on its planes and there have been massive protests. Would you complain??
On rainy Sundays, I find myself rolling to Barnes to read a collection of random magazines - Us Weekly, Esquire, Mens Health, GQ. Honestly there is nothing better that getting caught up with pop culture, and reading about 10 new tips to get the girl, get a better shave, get more tone abs, fill in the blank. However, the problem i found is that while I find most of these tips very enlightening, by the time I get home, I can barely remember what I read and thus cannot implement any of them.
In any case, with a limited budget B&N also lets me read books for free that I cannot afford to buy. I know this is somewhat pathetic, but in an economic downturn I got to do what I got to do. I have no bought a song EVER and use Limewire to get any new song. Similarly, I have pretty much stopped going to the movies and instead download all the movies I want to see. Usually I can get the torrent file for ANY movie within 1-2 wks of its release - I also hooked it up so I can play the movie off my laptop onto the TV. Believe it or not most of these files are DVD quality.
To be fair, the only exception of when I wont download it is when it has alot of action sequences or sound effects such as Batman or the upcoming movie Watchman - there is no way to replicate that experience of a THX surround sound. However, I am fine downloading most movies. Besides saving costs, I have complete control - I can start and stop the movie at any time and also forward thru scenes which seem unnecessary; I was able to watch Gran Turino in 30 mins (maybe this is why I thought this was a shitty movies whereas my friends thought this was a fantastic movie).
Anyhow, I have read some really good books that I think you all should check out, if you have not done so already...
Only Goodness - This is Jhumpas latest book which is a collection of short stories. I really like reading her. Some people say her stories are not that unique and that if you were to replace all the Indian names with American names, then the story would be ordinary. I could not disagree more.
She has a way of writing about everyday topics in a very elegant simple way. She also has the ability to capture my generation and the older generation perfectly. For example, in one story she writes about a traditional widowed Dad coming to visit his daughter who married a white guy. She has the ability to perfectly capture how a Dad in such a scenario would act - very accepting and non-judgmental. The daughter wants to show her Dad around, which the Dad just wants to relax, by reading and working in the garden. This reminded me of my Dad perfectly, which is why I loved it.
Another story was about a brother and a sister growing up in a traditional Indian household. The sister is very smart and loves her brother dearly. When she goes to college, she introduces him to alcohol. The real meat of the story is when the brother becomes an alcoholic and how it affects the sister and the parents. Obviously not to the same extent, but I could relate to this story very much.
Go check it out. Because each short story is independent, it makes for a great read. Each story takes about 45- 1 hour to read.
Outliers - This is Malcolm Gladwells most recent book (he is the author of Tipping Point and Blink). Anyhow he tries to explain why outliers occur eg why was Bill Gates successful. Was it complete chance or was it unique circumstances combined with good timing and alot of practice gave him a significant advantage. I wont ruin all of his theories, which are all interesting, but the most obvious one is that to be best at a skill or profession, one needs to be completely dedicated to it. He estimates one needs to have 10,000 hours of experience to become the best at something. Bill Gates did @ 10,000 of coding while in high school and college which helps to explain why he was so successful...
4-hour Work-Week: For the unemployed, this is a great read as it shows you a different way to look at employment. He says there is no point to work hard now till you make your $40MM and then retire; rather to try to enjoy yourself now. That is if you want to take a trip to China when you retire, there is no reason why you have to wait till you are 50. If you do it now, it will make you happy now which is the main point.
The ideal "job" is to have a business that requires minimal time investment and brings you CASHFLOW each month. He gives you ways to accomplish this and tips to better manage yourself and your time.
One of the interesting things that I am going to try is to limit the information I digest. Like I said earlier I spend hours reading magazines that I dont get anything out of. Similarly, Ill spend hours on the net on TMZ, Facebook, etc just surfing. He writes that not only does this waste time, but it actually fills your head with too many random thoughts and makes it hard for YOU to focus. I am going to try this for the next two weeks. NO CNN, no TMZ, and no Facebook. I still got to look at ESPN for my Lakers, and Etrade to see how shitty my stocks are doing. One thing he suggests which I have to imagine is really hard is to control how often you check email. Rather than checking every minute, check it only 3 times a day. Obviously if you working in banking or any professional environment, this is very hard to implement. But the rationale is there - email interrupts you and your thought process. I can be working or doing some research for an upcoming interview, but if I see the email envelope from Outlook, I will drop everything to read it.
Given that this should create some free time, let me know if you have some good book recommendations.
Oh yeah, check out this random story. SWA apparently has put one of the SI girls on its planes and there have been massive protests. Would you complain??
posted by G at
8:53 AM
3 Comments:
I finished reading The Four Hour Work Week (got it from the library) a couple months ago. Definitely worth reading. It got me super motivated for awhile; unfortunately, most of that has worn off by now.
Like you, I'm trying to limit the amount of random stuff I read a little more these days.
After reading The Black Swan, I also tried to limit my random informational intake. That lasted about 4 days, and now i'm back to reading too much and remembering too little.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't "only goodness" just a couple of her stories from "Unaccustomed Earth" and not new stories? If so, I guess my rec is to read the rest of Unaccustomed Earth.
you are right. The book is called Unaccustomed Earth, which has a bunch of short stories including Unaccustomed Earth, Only Goodness
good call.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home