Book Of Questions
by Gregory Stock.

I saw this book for sale for 10 Rs(less than 30 cents Australian) on a footpath junk store in Mumbai. One of my favorite places in those cash poor times to buy books dirt cheap. Rummaging through other old books, outdated catalogues , medical journals and Mills & Boon novels, I saw this pocket sized book with an odd title which was in surprisingly good condition . A sort of a misfit among other books there, on a whim I bought this and walked on to meet another friend who was to see me in a little while.

As I flipped through its pages filled with one line questions, I knew I had picked a gem. That day on the train back home and later that night I and my friend discussed and debated the questions in this book till early hours of the morning with sleep nowhere in sight. The same pattern was to be repeated over all these years that I have had the book. It sparked so many intellectually stimulating conversations that for a long time I used to always carry it around in my backpack to read in public places, and then use the questions in it to strike up conversations with strangers.

The book as the title claims is made up of questions. Questions that will bring you closer to yourself, your ideas, thoughts, feelings, morals and opinions. This is another excellent review of the book. You can also browse through a few questions here. Have a look here to see how many people consider this book an excellent conversation starter.

I sat with an acquaintance one evening with this book and some snacks and by late night and we were friends by the time we finished the book. The same guy would then go on to borrow this book and use it to know more and get close to his potential girlfriends. I myself would eventually use this book to know more about my life partner. I have had countless exciting conversations with family members, roommates, friends, friends to be, strangers, co travelers on trains, waiting halls and in short anybody who would talk to me, all because of the book.

If there is such a thing called "ENDURING VALUE" for a book, this book has plenty of it. Of all the over 300 books that I have at my place in India this is one of the few that I chose to bring with me when I came to Australia. My only regret is that the a couple of weeks after this book I had a chance to buy "The Book of Questions: Love and Sex," again by Gregory Stock, and I didn't buy it as I was a little short of cash, and I have regretted it ever since.

Gregory Stock, If you ever read this page, Thanks for writing the Book of questions.

What you'll never learn on the Internet
by Mark H McCormack

This is a sure fire page turner, coming from an astute business mind who actually knows what he is talking. Mark is a lawyer by profession who developed a sport stars and celebrity management business International Management Group from scratch. His company has managed the endorsements for the some of the biggest names in the international sports arena, big names such as Tiger Woods, Pete Sampras, Michael Schumacher, Derek Jeter, Charles Barkley and models Kate Moss and Elizabeth Hurley. Today IMG is the world's premier sports and lifestyle management and marketing firm, with more than 2,200 staff in 70 offices across 30 countries. I was mad about his first book What they don't teach you at Harvard business School? and picked this book up as the Author's name was familiar.

Coming from a man who actually built such a dynamic and emerging business, the book is filled with simple and totally down to earth business situations. The first few pages are spent justifying the title, as to why you cannot learn these soft skills on the Internet which is a bit of a drag but then the book gets interesting where he starts giving advice in his unique practical style.

Every thing that he suggests is based on an experience that he has had in his company. Time and again he does on about small social niceties that matter more than many bigger things. He has divided the book into chapters for typical situations in business , say if you were recruiting someone, or if you suffered a setback or a demotion at work, typical business etiquettes and office politics and communication. A lot of what he says has got more to do with managing relationships and people, but well when you think of it, isn't managing a business all about managing people ?

As for the book in general, it lives up to its somewhat odd skewed title this is indeed stuff that you could never learn on the internet(unless of course pirates put an copy of this book online;-)).

He died with a Felafel in his hand
by John Birmingham

"Shared accommodation" The type of housing that you rent and take up when you are not married and move in to a new city as a student or take a new job. Shared accommodation is what this book is all about, or to put it differently it is about the craziest , wackiest , nerds that you would come across if you moved around cities living in shared accommodation.

I myself have been living in shared accommodation and in boys hostels for over 7 years now, but never before did I ever think that it can get as interesting or bizarre as described in this book. The book is full of crazy incidents describing John's experiences with flatmates moving around various cities in Australia.

There are times when you just can't stop laughing your ass off on his stories, in fact the title itself is in memory of a flatmate of his who died with a felafel in his hand, and guess what John and his other friends do when they learn of their flatmate's death? If you thought they would try to contact the poor guy's family and let them know the sad news, Think again. They rummage through his stuff looking for anything useful, and finding a few hundred dollars in cash stashed away, they add these as the poor guy's posthumous contribution to the room kitty.

Then there is another guy who stays in the room but refuses to pay the complete share of his rent as he has put a TENT in the living room and claims to be living in the tent. Yes, you heard that correctly. A guy who erects a tent in the room of the house and pays for only the floor space occupied by the tent. The book is about times when you would hold competitions to see who can go the most days without having a shower, or on who is wearing the dirtiest jeans, or when there is fungus growing between your toes as a result of not having a scrub in months.

Tent-dwelling bank clerks, albino moontanners, psycho fucking drama queens, acid eaters, mushroom farmers, brothel crawlers, hard-core separatist lesbians and obscurely tiger-throated Japanese girls are just some of the people you will come across in the book. Many of the times I felt the stories were just too weird to be true.

Overall this is a good book for a single read, I would give it a pass the second time. The book is also the root of a movie by the same name, click here for a good review of the movie.