10 Good Books I read in 2010

Merry Christmas everyone. What an eventful year it has been. I guess the special thing about 2010 is that representatives of the 5 most powerful nations in the world have visited India. But I guess this year will also be remembered for all the Corruption Scandals. We also had a few Mega Sporting Events[ FIFA World Cup, CWG and Asian Games], and India has managed to deliver on all fronts.

As for me personally, I have got the first MBA interview call of my life, from IIFT. But that is left for another day.

Lets end this year with a Happy Post:

Am listing down the names of 10 books which I read in 2010, which really impressed me and made me sit up and think.



So here are the names of the books, the author, and the category. In no particular order:




1) India After Gandhi, By Ramachandra Guha- History/Non-Fiction. Deals with the history of India in the year range 1948-2007. Very well written. In one word- Unputdownable.

2) Simply Fly : A Deccan Story, By Captain Gopinath.- Autobiography. Deals with the life history of Captain Gopinath, founder of Deccan Airlines. A Must read for all budding entrepreneurs.

3) A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson- Science. Deals with, erm, everything. Basically a book which tries to explain the mystery of life and planet Earth. Deals with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Paleontology, etc. Has interesting anecdotes on scientists. Written in a layman’s language. Easily one of the best books I have ever read, it’s an award winner[Amongst Top 25 books of the decade]. If you miss this one, you have missed a lot.

4) Serious Men, By Manu Joseph – Fiction. I have not yet finished this novel, but considering that it’s the winner of the Hindu Literary awards 2010, its definitely a must read. It’s a light novel. No complications.

5) Connect the Dots, By Rashmi Bansal- Non-Fiction. Story of 20 entrepreneurs who launched their ventures without possessing an MBA degree. Highly inspiring book.

6) Goal, By E. Goldratt- Management. One of the all time best selling Management novels, Goal is simply a must read for all aspiring managers. Written in such a way that even a school student will understand the principles behind throughput, inventory and operational expenses.

7) Buyology by Martin Lindstrom, -Marketing. This is a superb book which combines the aspect of marketing with psychological behavior of customers.

8) Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell- Non-Fiction. Great book which deals with the question- ‘Why some people are famous and most are ordinary?’

9) Why Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson- Self Help. Tells us on accepting change and moving on in life. More than a million copies in print. Enough said!

10) The Google Story, by David A. Vise- Non-Fiction/Biography. Deals with the rise and rise of the one of the World’s Biggest companies- Google.

Apart from the ones I have mentioned, there are other good books too. Like Gladwells The Tipping Point, What the Dog Saw, Blink. Am currently reading The Discovery of India, by Jawarhal Nehru which is also an interesting read. Next I shall cover The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen, and will continue with the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, Jason Bourne series by Eric Van Lustbader, and The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Lots of reading to do.

Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year in advance.