How Starbucks Saved My Life

Name of the Book: How Starbucks Saved My Life
Worth-the-price-tag-iness Score: 7/10
Read right after: Howard Schultz' "Pour Your Heart into It"

OK, not my life, Michael Gates Gill's life... Here's this son of a rich man who (confessedly) has never associated with black folk save for his nanny back when he was 10 years old. He hangs around with such historic figures like Ernest Hemingway, Queen Elizabeth, T. S. Eliot, and Jackie Onassis (he can drop names better than the guest list at a pricey restaurant)… And then he finds himself (almost) homeless and out of a job with no savings to buy his daily bread. How did that happen, you ask… Well read the book, I say! It’s interesting (specially if you've read Howard Schultz' book on Starbucks before-hand), honest (although I question some of the meetings with celebrities) and short! You can finish it in a day! It’s not a work of art but it’s worth about a movie ticket and a half ($15.14)… Go ahead and entertain yourself…

Here's an example of a Good Man

Name of the Book: Pour Your Heart into It
Worth-the-price-tag-iness Score: 10/10
Follow-up with: Michael Gill's "How Starbucks Saved My Life"

My perception of CEO's is this--either he's on an ego trip that's (somehow) politically correct or he's that shy but studious guy in the corner who's life begins and ends with an excel spreadsheet. This is not the impression I get about this CEO of a major coffee business.... Yes, I'm talking about Howard Schultz and the omnipresent Starbucks! Here a young sales guy from NYC finds inspiration in coffee beans and earns a fortune. While reading I got a sense of Mr. Schultz's passion, his sincerity and his determination with taking Starbucks from a guy-next-door-owns-it store to a global mega-company (or like we Indians like to call it company-ka-baap hehe!)... Read it and that's an order!

For the religious and athiests alike

Name of the book: The Evolution of God
Worth-the-price-tag-iness Score: 8/10

Let's play Q and A.... Why do human beings care about God? Is he/it/she/(or else) are they a construct of the human imagination, created for the sole purpose of easing our over-taxed mind? What was the religion of early humans (the hunter-gatherers) like? Considering that we descended from them, why aren't our gods more like theirs? Why don't we (today) cure evil spirits by beating the body of the man that they possess?

I have the answer to the last one: because it's illegal, for one, and also because it is against our sensibilities and finally most religions of today (I'm hoping) would prohibit it. For answers to the rest of the above questions I suggest you read (between the lines of) Robert Wright's newest book "The Evolution of God", which is on the NYT's list of 100 best books of 2009. It's a long and arduous read but worth it if you want fodder to throw around at folks at a cocktail party. I personally stopped halfway through it due to sheer exhaustion... :)

Also from the same author: Non Zero Sum: The Logic of Human Destiny (apparently recommended reading by Bill Clinton)

Life in the year 79

Name of the Book: The Complete Pompeii
Worth-the-price-tag-iness Score: 9/10

If you have ever wondered what things were like a thousand or two thousand years back in time, you most definitely must read this book published by Thames and Hudson and written by Joanne Berry. It describes the life in the city of Pompeii, a Roman colony in Italy that got burried under ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Its spectacular architecture, mosaics and wall paintings surpass the expectatios of the average man. Yet it is surprisingly like societies today:-

• money mixed with politics--check
• rich folks that try to get richer by practicing illicit activities--check
• a court of law that suppresses the already destitute slaves--we had it till the 1960s--check
• your own local laundromat--check!

An egaging read for the curious, I recommend this book for the simple fact that each page's surface area has more pictures than paragraphs. Or maybe I shouldn't say "read" because it's more like watching a slideshow with subtitles...Enjoy this journey to the past!