What Should I do with my life?
Po Bronson

The Book doesn't answer the question in its title, It can't , actually no book can. Life would be so much simpler, if answers to eternal questions like these were found in paper back novels.

The best any book can do in this regard is just to provide a few pointers or some encouragement, or maybe a prod here, a nudge there. This book does the same through examples, Examples in the form of short stories detailing incidents in people's lives when a significant change took place. Some incidents that made them think of the big questions in life?
Click here to read 10 stories in this book, very generous of Po to make 20 % of the book available free to the public on his website.

The people described in the stories are not the ones who have necessarily found their answer to the question, nor is everyone unique or what one would call or extraordinarily successful in whatever it is that they do. But everyone has in some point of time or the other saw the meaninglessness in living life and tried to find an answer to the Big question.

The book is not as much a "how to guide" but is more like a chronicle of how different people tackled this question, the difficulties they faced and the experience in general. Of course the book can't give you an answer to find your calling in life, but all it can do is to tell you that you are not alone in this quest to find out , " What should you do with your life? "

For me it just gave an idea of different experiences people have had, and he does this

He has a very interesting Blog where he writes about family, society, marriage, bringing up kids and other similar issues. Po also writes on Time.com and has an large loyal reader base who follow his blog and other writings. Marriage, divorce , and bringing up kids are topics of deep interest to him and he writes very authoritatively and interestingly on these things.

As for the book and its question. I am yet to find my answer, after all its one's own responsibility to find the answer.

PS: I like Po Bronson, for he bothered to reply to my email when I sent him a note of thanks and invited him over to Australia. Here is his reply:

Hi Hari,
You know, my UK publisher hasn't sent me to Australia to promote my books since the paperback of my first novel, in maybe 1996. I've had a few other invitations to come, but family needs have always intervened. My cousin, with whom I am very close, lives in Melbourne, and I'm working on coming sometime this coming year. His family and mine usually take a trip each year. So if that works out, my publisher has said they'll arrange a lot of publicity and events. (At least they say so). So, the end result of all this is ... maybe. Maybe I'm coming to Australia this year.
thanks,

Po

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.

Pleasure's all mine - Confessions of a Professional Submissive
by Joan Kelly

This was one in the series of sex related books I picked up this weekend. Started reading it right away as it was a fairly thin book say around 200 pages finished it by the second day. I love smaller books because that means I can get through them faster. And this one was lived up to my expectations in the sense that the book is fast not a slow dreary monologue but a fast moving account of how Marnie got into the business of Bondage and Submissiveness.

Different people different pleasures and this book raves on about the pleasures of Dominatrixes and Submissives or Dommes and Subs as they are known in the business. The book starts with Jean just breaking out of a Submissive relationship with her partner and attending a help group meeting for Submissives and Dommes. It then follows her life through when when joins Dominion a brothel for the S & M types. Eventually she leaves Dominion when prettier girls come to work there and she does not get enough business.

By then she is addicted to the lifestyle with easy money and has quit her day time job as a secretary, and she is one of those few in the sex industry who perhaps look at it as an easy way to make money. Having quit her "job" as an independent contractor at Dominion she starts working independently and strikes out big, flying between LA and New york and servicing clients on both coasts.

It gives us an account of what happens in a typical sub's transaction with her Master. Interesting stuff that I would rather not write here. I would recommend you to read this only if you are curious or interested in the B& M lifestyle. This book is just erotic enough to maintain interest at the same time short enough to not make it monotonous.

Around the world in 80 Dates
by Jeniffer Cox

Well this is another perfect example of "Don't judge a book by its cover". On the cover you have a catchy title and the image of the pretty author lugging a briefcase and setting off on her oddysey(that's what she calls it). On the Inside you have a dreadful monologue of how she meets or dates 80 or so men, cutting them off her list one by one in a desperate urgency to get the numbers out. If you see this book take my word and give it a pass, It is so bad that I couldn't get myself to finish this book. Firstly I don't quite agree how can you decide on one meeting of a few hours that this person is your "true love". She repeats "True love" so many times in the book that I had to end the book half way thinking reading anymore would change the real meaning of the word "TRUE LOVE" for me.

I agree this is a very personal and touchy topic but I really can't quite come to terms with the idea that you can find your "TRUE LOVE" by going around the world dating people. I mean all these dates except for one lasted less than a single day, how much can you find out about a person in a day? and what can you decide with what you know in a day? And for God's sake don't keep repeating the word True love over and over again.

Many a times in the book you get a feel that she is not out to find love, but just to go around and complete those 80 people so that she can write the book and get the money promised by some publisher. At one place things seem to be going good for her with a guy(number 20's I think) in the burning man festival. She spends a couple of days with him and gets to know him better than the others before him but in the end she decides to go ahead and look for what else might be in store for her in the remaining 60 guys. And truly in Hollywood style the understanding guy agrees to her going and dating what's left of the 80 guys to decide if he makes the cut. She justifies this saying the other people with whom the dates had been prebooked also had feelings and she should give it a shot. It is at this point that I found the book way too ridiculous.

There is another time when the author participates in Speed dating and finishes off 10 or so people in one go in less than an hour, and then has the guts to justify these as legitimate dates in her "Quest to find TRUE LOVE". I don't know if she even understands what is meant by"TRUE LOVE"? not that I am an expert at it , but at least I am sure that you cannot find one sitting together for few hours in a coffee shop. The only mildly entertaining part was the relationship resume where she wrote a history about all her previous relationships and why they failed. I wouldn't be surprised if the Author has broken up again and is still looking for her second "True love"

The year of yes : the true story of a girl, a few hundred dates, and fate.
by Headley, Maria Dahvana

Now this is one of those books where a cute dumb blonde is unable to find love and hence goes sleeping around / dating with every moving thing in the town. Right from Cab drivers to tram drivers to homeless vagabonds to actors, writers, old retired men, Lesbians, Gays, and whatever other kinds there are.

The book is entertaining in a strange way that you get to see some one else's life standing from the sidelines. Though her sexual and other exploits are fairly adventurous, I wouldn't be tempted to go so far to get whatever freakish pleasure she got by dating around so many guys to find "TRUE LOVE". It gives a nice picture of the Big city night life (the book is set in New York), if you are interested in that sort of thing.

At times it just appears to weird to be true, and now I don't remember whether it was non fiction/ based on her real experiences or if it was just pure fiction. Either way the book is worth a read, it is indeed entertaining but falls somewhat short of the standard set by books like "Does my bum look big in this" which are of similar nature.

Towards the end after dating every possible candidate on New York city, when Maria finds her so called "true love" it is a divorcee, a Pulitzer prize winning writer whom she meets after a long Gap. Given that she devotes so many pages to other men, I would have preferred to know more about this final guy and whether it did actually work out for her with the writer, her so called "True Love". This detail is actually missing as the books ends on a note and maybe she wants us to assume like the endings in typical Bollywood movies... "They married and they lived happily ever after"

Overall, the book is entertaining and has decent humor in its pages, reading it in Public trains and buses, I have been stared at more than a couple of times having burst out laughing loudly while engrossed in it. But finally I wouldn't buy it, I buy only those books at full price which can be read over and over again, or which are of enduring value. IMHO, this book does not meet that criteria, its not worth buying, though it can definitely be read once. (For the uninitiated IMHO means "in my humble opinion")

Tuesdays With Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

Mitch Albom

This is one of those few books that I have read more than 50 times now in the past 2 years, and every time I read and re read it it makes me think. It makes me enjoy the little things in life so much better, I feel when I am reading or thinking of it , I take time to look around and marvel at everyday sights around me. Life becomes slightly more enjoyable, I feel grateful that I have a healthy body and for all the little things that I don't notice normally.

I remember the last time I was reading this book at a bus stop early in the morning peak hours. For some reason there was a delay in buses and we were waiting at the stop for more than 25 minutes without a bus in sight. I was so engrossed in reading the book that I didn't notice the delay. And after a brief gap when I looked up the delay showed on the commuters faces, Everyone was alternatively looking at the road and back at their watches. It was not the perfect way to start a day 25 minutes late, and it showed on people's faces.

Me, Oh I was just glad it gave me more time to read this book the fiftieth time, and think about bigger things, not just sweat about mundane things like bus delays and work meetings. I was perhaps the only guy with a smile on his face in the bus that day, and all because I picked the right book that morning.

When I get lost in the mid numbing rat race of work-eat-sleep-work, this is the book to put things back into perspective, to keep track and bring back focus into the things that matter most. It becomes a lot easier to accept your own mere troubles when you read about a man whose body is freezing from the foot up but who still faces death with a smile on his face.


The books draws a very vivid image of the Morrie's personality as to how different and interesting he was. Here is a man who enjoys dancing, friends, conversations, teaching, relationships and who couldn't care enough about what are today established social norms and lived life by his heart. The Book is filled with his discussions with his student (the author Mitch Albom) when they talk about a wide range of topics like family, love forgiving, culture etc.

One particular example demonstrating Morrie's character struck me hard and I remember it distinctly and will reproduce it here as it gives an idea of what kind of a person he was.

Morrie goes to a local College's Basket ball game and is enjoying the game as it gets increasingly competitive. A group of students sitting in the stands supporting one team start shouting " We are number ONE! We are Number ONE!" and slowly with the game the shouting gets louder.
Morrie who is watching all this sitting near the kids is a bit ruffled by all this, Suddenly in between the chanting of "We are number ONE! " Morrie gets up and shouts "What's wrong in being number two ?"
Suddenly giving his question a little thought and having no answer to him everyone becomes silent, and Morrie sits down triumphantly, smiling .

The book is full of instances (like his funeral held before his death, the way in which he teaches classes, his interactions with patients in mental asylum, etc) and others like these which create a personality that you can't stop liking, and feel sorry for as you know here is a man who can see literally see and his life draining out of his body like sand passing through an hourglass. The Disease ALS, kills the patient bit by little bit starting from the feet going upwards, first cutting off motion / lower bods and then slowly progressing upwards as one by one the body is rendered useless from bottom up. The end comes when the disease reaches the lungs making each breath an ordeal till finally when the the person gives away. In spite of all this the way in which Morrie faces the situation should teach us all something about facing adversity.

In general its a very emotionally moving and well written book. I personally bought it 2 - 3 years ago and have recommended it time and again to friends. Best part of this for non readers is that this is a relatively short book i.e. less than 200 small size pages.

Also the very fact that I have read it more than 50 times tells something to you about it doesn't it ? read it I am sure you will come back and thank me ! Try this for a good preview and summary, but if you have read so far, do yourself a favor buy this book.

For Love and a Beetle - A tale of two journeys.
by Hodge, Ivan and McGovern, Petronella


Hundreds of people have done the overland journey from UK to India via the Europe> east Europe> Turkey > Iran > PAK > Ind > SE Asia > Singapore> Australia.

So what makes this journey special? Well many things,

1) Firstly this is the second time for the couple they did the same journey in the same Beetle in 1961, when it was newly bought in the UK and sold to his mother in Newzeland,
and again in 1996 when they shipped their old Beetle back to UK and repeated the journey from UK to India Overland.
2) They are both in their Sixties and so to speak on their Second Honeymoon.
3) They are doing a journey which is perhaps a legendary distance for a vehicle 35 years old.

The book is interspersed alternatively with their recordings of the 1961 trip and with their current travel experience. We get to see the how the same places have changed in the past 35 years , they have attempted to travel along the exact route that they traveled on 35 years ago.

My Favourite in this book is a page with 2 Photos which shows Ivan Hodge in Turkey with a watch tower and his beetle in the back ground one taken in 1961 and the other in 1996.
The caption below the first photo reads:

The Beetle My sweater , and a camel tower, Iran 1961
The second photo reads
Same Beetle, Same sweater , and a the same camel tower, Iran 1996.

The only difference in the photos is that Ivan and the tower show some effects of Old age , the tower being a bit weathered and Ivan with his old age paunch.

If nothing else this book should surely be read to see the spirit of adventure in a 60 year old couple having the guts to travel around the world.

Doing It Down Under

by Richters, Julia; Rissel, Chris

The book begins with an introduction of the author Julia Ritchers who has worked for 20 years in the field of Sex research and the education. Perhaps her biggest shot to fame was the Condom project :-) which included a World first - a Study to measure men's erect penises to check appropriate condom sizes.

The Book in general is a result of a extensive telephonic interviews involving more than 111,290 phone calls to 19,307 Australians between 16 and 60, who agreed to reveal intimate details of their sex lives.

Read a detailed review of the book here or some additional details here.


The book is food for those who are curious about figures and statistics, when I mentioned to a friend on the phone that I am now reading this book, immediately came questions on statistics which I actually couldn't bother to remember. All this in spite of the fact that the information he had asked was just a few chapters behind, and I had just read it all.

If you ask me today I cannot remember a single number in all those hordes of statistics mentioned, except for the fact that the current generations are loosing their virginity at an earlier age and they know more about sex and condoms than what their parents did at their age. And if you think of it , I shouldn't have had to read a book to know this, its anyway obvious when you look outside.

Overall I reckon the book is worth a single glance or may be as a reference guide if Sexual practices of Australians is your thesis topic in graduation. Apart from that book has a kind of a research report flavour which it is actually. I must appreciate the very asexual and stoic manner in which such a raunchy topic is discussed in the book.

Hannah's Gift
Lessons from a life fully lived

Maria Housden

People who know me would not believe if I say I ended up crying while I read this book. But believe it or not, this is the truth. I haven't read such a emotionally captivating and moving book in a long while and I doubt if anything I have ever read or will ever read, will ever come close to this. This is a true story written by a mother of four, of how she faced the tragedy of seeing her daughter die and feeling helpless to do anything about it.

How can you not love the little three year old girl with the red leather shoes, Who thinks when she goes to heaven , she will become a butterfly.

What do you say to a child, who tells you she is not going to have birthdays after 4 ? What do you say as mother, when a child knows she is going to die and asks you , "Mommy, do children die?"

What would you feel for a mother, who has had her 3rd miscarriage in the morning and later in the day her three year old daughter is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of kidney cancer? How would a mother feel when she sees her daughter's body go limp and pale with every passing day ? When the inevitability of death wins over all the love and prayers in this world?

Death, something we all know awaits us sooner or later but we don't want to think or talk about it, as if by not talking we are pushing it further away. If ever there was a book which could cut through the layers we build up over the years and touch us where it feels this is it.

The books presents a vivid story of a little playful girl and her mother and how they face cancer. How the daughter courageously accepts the reality and makes the most out of the time left and the mother and family weep and suffer through.

Though the mother later comes to terms with her daughter's death and moves on in life with a deep scar in her heart and an even stronger belief in god. For an atheist like me, this just gives another reason to question God's logic, if at all there is any in this? God, I have another Axe to grind.

Why men can only do one thing at a time and women never stop talking.

Allan + Barbara Pease

Well to be put frankly, the book is nothing more than a collection of cliches and some men versus women forward emails that are doing the rounds
for example
1) the mail with differences about how men and women use the shower
2) or the jpeg about the sizes of various parts of Women's brain(biggest being love / commitment) versus Man's brain(biggest being S#*)
3) or difference between the telephone call durations between the sexes.

In fact you can flip open any page at random and you are sure to find some quote cartoon or the whole page that you have already read in an Email forward. I don't understand the point in putting that into a book. I guess there are enough dumb people out there to buy these. If you see the author's home page
you can see around six books on similar flimsy lines. I hope at least the content is different / better in those.
The book has a typical humor/comic feel to it and viewed in that context only it is readable. I mean what else can you expect from a collection of funny quotations and quotes. I would not buy this book and would not recommend anyone to buy it either. Luckily the book is only pocket sized and has around 100 pages with loads of graphics so takes only maybe two hours to read.

Maybe I was wrong in expecting Allan and Barbara Please to read as well as a John Gray book(of the Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus fame). I wonder whether this book deserves a mention here , since the title of the page is memoirs of books well written, and the well written adjective cannot be applied to this book even by a stretch. Just putting it here so that others don't get fooled into buying this :-)

The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage


Now isn't this a title that prods your imagination, when I first saw the book in the recently returned section in the library it caught my attention just as it is doing to you. I am not normally a reader of writings by distraught women writing against MCP (For the not enlightened that was (Male chauvinist pigs), but I just picked this book on a whim because it offered short stories of 5 - 8 pages and I find it convenient to read small stories at a time. Just so that you can skip those that don't look pretty good and keep moving ahead hoping to find something better.

Fortunately I didn't have to do that for this book, none of the 26 stories were so off putting to for me to skip them. The stories are what the title promises, no disappointments there, only the truth about Sex, Solitude, Work, ,,,,etc.

For all the Male brothers out there, pick this book because this would give you the other perspective of what it feels to be on the other end of the nightly consummations. What happens when a few years after marriage the kids and family take precedence over sex and romance. The book and its writers are based in in America so many of the examples (for example living in ) are not really relevant in the Indian context, but nevertheless the after marriage monotony is the same all over the world so it still makes an interesting read. Generally speaking Read it if you can get it from a library or borrow from a friend, I wouldn't spend my money to keep a "Bitch" in my house.

Title: Callgirl: Confessions of a Double Life
Author: Angell, Jeannette


I picked this book because the cover design and the title looked interesting, and the book lived up to what it promised in the cover : Confessions of a Double Life

Reading it you have a strange feeling that the she is talking to you in person and challenging your notions about the sleaze and the sex industry. This book will change the way you think about call girls, ( i.e. if you think about them all the time, this is a must read)

An interesting look at the life of a woman leading a double life - as a college professor by day, and professional call girl at night. Provides some very good insights into why people do, what they do.

The most touching part for me in the book is where, she is with an old male friend to whom she confesses about her working as a call girl and looks forward to his support, and in the midst of the conversations out of the blue he lays down some cash on the table and asks her to give a B***J**. Now If you though she is already a Call girl, so whats the harm in giving another BJ. You ought to read this book, Big time!!!!

The description of what goes on in her mind then is really moving. Do you find Psychiatrists analyzing offering to analyze people in their free time ?? or Scientists coming and doing research when they go home??
Get off !!! my friend !! If you think call girls are nymphomaniac lesbians, you have been watching too many porn movies! Its just a Bloody JOB,,,, and they can't wait until it gets over. If she screams your name in ecstasy , it doesn't mean she's enjoying it. It just means that she is being good at her job and that you are more likely to call her next time.

In all if the purpose of a book is to give the reader a different perspective, this book more than serves the purpose.

Rating : 7 out of 10