Author: Adi

I can’t help but feel that she has a certain freedom that I envy when she’s having an episode. I feel like everyone’s a little crazy and we all walk around with this armor of sanity, and she’s just able to cast it off completely. I’d almost like to join her and run around the city if only she could keep it from spinning out of control.

– A Human of New York

Thoughts on Kindle

Kindle Paperwhite

Strong-hinted the girlfriend into buying me a Kindle paperwhite for the birthday*. Here’s a few early thoughts:

  • Good:
    1. Can read without distractions from notifications, twitter, mail, news, the Internet!
    2. Fits in jacket inside pocket
    3. Lighter than paperback so doesn’t weigh jacket/bag down
    4. Can read at night without disturbing girlfriend or dog
    5. Can read anywhere in day without trouble
    6. Most books are released on Kindle at same time as hardcover (which I hate), so don’t have to wait an year for paperback editions
  • Bad:
    1. WiFi is flaky
    2. Can’t flip around the book – forward and back – quickly
    3. Miss the paperback touch & feel :(
    4. Can’t quickly see how much of book is remaining

Continue reading Thoughts on Kindle

Book Tag

A friend tagged me to share top 10 books that influenced me (early in life). Didn’t dwell long enough to come up with a definitive top-10, but here’s the quick recall top-8:

  1. Discovery of India – Introduction to the history of India, different from what the textbooks covered. Also helped me further question the usefulness of modern religion.
  2. Rama series – first, and probably last, sci fi series I ever read. My dreams (both sleeping and awake) for the next few years involved aliens, and me being one of them (or chosen by them).
  3. Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged – capitalist, individualist thoughts for a young mind. I left extremish Rand-capitalism behind at some time. Individualism stayed.
  4. Rich Dad, Poor Dad – money management. Read it quite late in life (post engineering, I think). Cursed myself for not reading it earlier. Gave a copy to my sister and cousins, begging them to read it. No one did :(
  5. India Today – Grew up reading this regularly. From as early as I can remember. Most of my political, economic and international geo-politics knowledge foundation was formed there. Might also explain why I was so sad about their falling standards in the late 90s, and beyond.
  6. Readers’ Digest – My only source of ‘international non-comicbook fiction’ early on. Again, remember reading it regularly from earliest days. Stopped some time around 8th or 9th standard.
  7. Mills & Boons – I once came upon one of them left behind by a british aunt (she’s just 10 years elder). All my early wet dreams were versions of events in it. Till the internet came along, and I had a far wider variety of acts to choose from ;)
  8. Jack Welch, Straight from the gut – One of the first business autobiographies I read, and the one I was most influenced by. It helped that I was still going through my Rand phase, so Neutron Jack seemed more a hero than a darkish grey character. Still, learnt a lot about business, decision making, and hard nose politics from this one.

Anyone reading this may pick up the tag and share it forward.