Tag: Bookstrapping

Book Review: Smarak Swain’s ‘Digital Fortunes: A Value Investor’s Guide to the New Economy’

Swain notes how crypto's promise of a 'decentralised trustless system' was ironically used by swindlers to gain the trust of innocent people. Intermediaries in crypto markets have themselves become repositories of trust. Crypto evangelists promote their vision of a society where trust is placed in ‘cryptography’ rather than centralised institutions like governments and banks, reviews Meghan Bal. (Image source: Amazon)

Digital Fortunes is a must read for anyone who wants to learn about the digital economy, writes Meghna Bal in her review.

Bookstrapping: Illustrated books ahoy!

Reviewer Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta makes a special reference to the work of Nagata Kabi, the Japanese manga artist who authored several books including My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. The books deal with adult themes of eating disorders, mental illness, self-abuse which exposes the underbelly of biases in Japanese society. (Image source: Amazon)

Reviewer Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta reviews some of the illustrated books like Rajiv Banerjee’s Bangaliyana, Neil Geiman’s ’Ocean at the End of the Lane: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It’, Charlie Mackesy’s ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’, among others, and stresses upon why they are a must read.

Bookstrapping: Who wrote the Oxford English Dictionary?

There is a serendipity to this book itself; just as theres a serendipity to the OED. In her last days living in Oxford, before taking a teaching position at Stanford, Sarah Ogilvie, who had worked as an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, discovered six handwritten address books noting the names of more than 3,000 contributors to the project. This is what triggered her journey, states Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta.

In this week’s column, Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta writes, it’s only in the 19th century that the dictionary began to trace the meanings of words across time and describe how people were actually using them.

Bookstrapping: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

As per Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta's review, a phone-based life often fills 'our life's search for meaning' with trivial and degrading content. (Image source: Amazon)

As per the review by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta of ‘The Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt, apart from social media creating an obsession among girls to embrace perfection, heavy addicts of social media reported higher levels of depression as compared to non-users.

Bookstrapping: Of money, male loneliness and more

The book 'The Trolls of Wall Street' offers a window into the ‘power struggles’ within online communities - does the founder of a community remain in charge? Can an outsider become the prime mover in a community they didn’t begin? Can a community thrive on the ethos that ‘people who are easily offended will not be tolerated?’ (Image source: Amazon)

As per our reviewer Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, author and journalist Nathaniel Popper talks about ‘people, connections and wealth’ in the online world in The Trolls of Wall Street. Mark Mobius is also talking about ‘people, connections and wealth’ in the offline world in ‘The Book Of Wealth.’

Bookstrapping: Of glass cliffs, menstruation and missing trees

As per Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, in the Menstrual Coupe, the trauma of compulsory female servitude may often be passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter. And the women who want leadership roles ( despite all odds being stacked against them) take a fatal risk- they go all in! They prepare to perish, while taking the minutest off-chance that they may actually rise.(Image source: Amazon)

In this week’s bookstrapping column, Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta shares her thoughts on Shahina H Rafiq’s ‘The Menstrual Coupe’, Sophie Williams’ ‘The Glass Cliff’ and Elif Shafaq’s ‘The Island of Missing Trees’.

Bookstrapping: Inner Drive by Arsen Tomsky

As per the review by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, as an entrepreneur, one often blows up money on projects that don't take off and is compelled to return right back to survival mode. (Image source: Amazon)

As per the review by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, one of the insights she highlighted was that ‘friends and acquaintances sometimes worry that you will become more successful than they are, which would damage their self esteem. So they try consciously or subconsciously to stop you from a new venture by describing the many threats and risks you will face!’

Bookstrapping: How the world ran out of everything by Peter S Goodman

In one of the chapters, analysis is done on how Henry Ford’s business legacy put common sense first and shareholder interest second. He is quoted as follows, “business is a service, not a bonanza!”, arguing in favour of employment generation and the greater good of the people. The chapter is authoritative and evidently deeply researched and is a reminder of the days before ‘Just in Time’ became a mis-marketed holy grail for ‘lean’ business, states Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta. (Image source: Amazon)

As per the review by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, in the last chapter, the author talks about the importance of technology and how it is helping people feel more in control of the supply chain itself.

Bookstrapping: ‘More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop’ by Satoshi Yagisawa

As per Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, the book celebrates the curious, real Jimbocho neighbourhood of second-hand book shops in Japan and the people who run these bookstores. (Image source: Amazon)

As per the review by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, The Morisaki Bookshop is known for ‘modern Japanese literature.’ Though it was not a successful business by any means, it supported an entire community of people in a uniquely symbiotic manner.