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Book Review - Anything you want by Derek Sivers

Genre - Self-Help
Topic - Lessons by an entrepreneur in his real journey of building 'CD Baby' business

As the blurb of the book says, "When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he wasn't planning on building a major business. He was a successful independent musician who just wanted to sell his CDs online. He started in 1998 by helping his friends sell their CDs too. In 2000 he hired his first employee. Eight years later he sold CD Baby for $22 million.

Sivers didn't need a business plan, and neither do you. You don't need to think big; in fact, it's better if you don't. Anything You Want will inspire you to start with what you have, care about your customers more than yourself, and run your business like you don't need the money.

Learning quote -
"Your business plan is moot. You don't know what people want until you start doing it"
"You can't please everyone, so proudly exclude people"
"Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself."

Our rating - 4/5 stars.
Good book with great learning. Short read which can be completed within one day.

Clearly a firm system is a pre-requisite just like being clairvoyant..

Your habits define your success..!!

Celestial Bodies (originally titled Sayyidat al-Qamr in Omani) is the first novel of Jokha Alharthi in Omani, translated into English by Marilyn Booth. It accomplished Men Booker Prize in 2019 that remarked the book as ‘A richly imagined, engaging and poetic insight into a society in transition and lives previously obscured’.
The book is a window of another culture, previously obscured or less intrigued, it tells the story of three sisters Mayya, Asma, and Khawla across three generations divulging the history, life, and cultural beliefs of Omani People.
The three sisters provide three perspectives of the culture of Oman contingent on their decisions while the country propels from Sultan rule, freeing slaves to a modern-day country that thrives with luxury, fashion, and malls.
The fact that women in the history of Oman gave birth by standing tall, holding ropes, and gulping down their screams sent tremors through my body. The whole story is divided into sixty flash chapters and it does drag at many places, with emotions and overthinking that can be easily avoided.
Mayya yearns for another man, ‘I promise God, I will not tell anyone about the sea inside of me when the silt rises to choke me’ when she got married to Abdallah. She names her daughter London ridiculing the family prestige. But Mayya has promised that the world of her daughter will be greater than hers.
All the chapters narrating the POV of Abdallah are in the first person with a specific font. Abdallah is the heart of the story and he is mostly ambivalent about his life and his emotions. This can insinuate patriarchy or something that the author wants to divulge elusively. Abdallah is mostly cribbing about his misery in childhood as his father always mistreats him, like hanging him upside down in the well during the night or denying him single pence. In his later life Abdallah laments over Mayya, he reckons Mayya does not love him. At one point in the story, Abdallah wants one of his sons to jump from the window and fly away from their lives and never come back. Mohammad was a special child, Mayya denies putting him into a special school.
Bookish Asma marries an ambitious artist while Khawla longs for her cousin who has immigrated to Canada. Their desires are elementary, the education system is dilapidated. In Oman, one can be promoted to the next grade when we can write down our own names and share jellies with a teacher.
The book ends by giving a spasm of horror and repugnance when Abdallah walks into the sea embracing Mohammad and walks back alone after Mohammad slips away like a fish.
I will recommend Celestial Bodies to all those readers who are inquisitive about different cultures around the world.

One of my favourite quote from Atomic Habits

Book Review No 1 - Atomic Habit by James Clear

Genre - Self-Help
Topic - Building good habits & breaking bad ones.

Atomic means tiny part. Habit means routine.
Hence we need to do tiny-part daily to form a routine that eventually will build up strong characteristics in a person's life.

The author had remarkably mentioned four laws that will help the readers to build good habits and break a bad ones.

Four laws for building good habits
1) Make it obvious
2) Make it attractive
3) Make it easy
4) Make it satisfying.

Four laws of breaking bad habits are the opposite of the above.
1) Make it invisible
2) Make it unattractive
3) Make it difficult
4) Make it unsatisfying.

Each law comes with various sub-points that will help the reader to learn for building or breaking. It is easy to understand and most practical to implement in real life. The book has simple steps to apply that can improve the reader's life remarkably.

We will recommend every person who is serious about building good habits to read this book for its practical steps and in-depth knowledge.
We can say this book a Bible in habit building topic.

Motivating quote "1% better every day will result into 37% better next year."
All you need is to work to be 1% better than the previous day.

Our rating - 5/5 stars.
Definitely a must-read book.

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