Book recommendation

Book Recommendation: Manuscript Found in Accra

Mush Books, Happiness, Inspiration, Life, Motivation , , , , ,

IMG_2337I just finished reading this wonderful book by Paulo Coelho, and recommend to anyone looking for inspiration. Some excerpts:

“Losing a battle or losing everything we thought we possessed will bring us moments of sadness. But when those moments pass, we will discover the hidden strength that exists in each of us, a strength that will surprise us and increase our self-respect. We will look around and say to ourselves: ‘I survived.’ And we will be cheered by our words. Only those who fail to recognise that inner strength will say: ‘I lost’, and be sad.”

“Defeat ends when we launch into another battle. Failure has no end; it is a lifetime choice.”

“Stay close to those who sing, tell stories, and enjoy life, and whose eyes sparkle with happiness. Because happiness is contagious and will always manage to find a solution, whereas logic can find only an explanation for the mistake made.”

“Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it – just as we have learned to live with storms. For those who cannot learn to do so, life will be a nightmare.”

What’s your favorite Paulo Coelho’s book? Or any inspiration book. Please share through comments.

Dinchack Facebook page crossed 2500 fans! Check it out for daily tips on happiness, motivation and success.

The Paleo Diet for health and fitness

Mush Books, Fitness, Health , , ,

Inspired by Hamza (my son who is a bigger health and fitness freak than I am) and his results with the Paleo diet, I started reading about Paleo a few weeks ago. But it wasn’t until I read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf that I was inspired to try the diet for 30 days.

Robb’s book outlines the benefits of eating Paleo, the specifics of how to follow the protocol, the evolutionary basis for it, all while providing evidence found in scientific studies. At its core, Paleo intends to imitate an ancestral human diet, with a focus on foods that are available today including meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, while specifically excluding grains, legumes, dairy products, salts, refined sugars and processed oils.

Considering my current diet, I just had to stop eating bread, cut down on fruits and add some lean meat. It seems like a very sensible long-term plan. I’ve been on the diet for exactly one week, and will report by results at the end of 30 days.

 

 

The End of Illness – by David Agus

Mush Books, Health , , , , , ,

I’ve been reading this very interesting book that introduces a whole new way of looking at illness and health. It’s filled with practical suggestions, including:

  • How taking multivitamins and supplements could significantly increase your risk for cancer over time.
  • Why sitting down most of the day, despite a strenuous morning workout, can be as bad or worse than smoking.

Here are a couple of pieces from the book:

“Globally, more than 1 billion adults are overweight, with at least 300 million of them obese. Obesity in adults and children, male and female, has doubled over the past forty years, with the biggest increase seen since 1980. Obesity and being overweight pose a major risk for chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and certain forms of cancer. In fact, it’s estimated that every third person born in 2000 will have type 2 diabetes as an adult.”

“Why, in this age of plenty, do we have to rely on manufactured pills to get our vitamins and other nutrients? Why are we so out of touch with our own reality? One of the main reasons we are estranged from real meals today that are close to nature is because fast and processed foods abound. Another is we are led to believe that we will be healthier and feel better if we boost our intake of vitamins and nutrients through pills, powders, elixirs, juices, and the like. Antioxidant in particular has become a buzzword of the boomer generation, and antioxidant products, alongside other formulas such as resveratrol, which promise to reverse all the signs and symptoms of aging, are marketed today as though they represent the fountain of youth. Ironically, it is estimated that one-third of adults in high-income countries (which means that they have access to the best, most nutrient-dense foods that money can buy) consume antioxidant supplements. But what, if anything, does taking antioxidant supplements really do? The answer might surprise you.”

I have never been a fan of multivitamins or supplements, and the material presented in this book leaves no doubts. Here’s a link to buy the Kindle edition from Amazon.

Read about my first book, Dhinchak Life, here.

Book Recommendation: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Mush Books , , ,
Current books on my iPad

I just finished reading this wonderful biography of Steve Jobs, and recommend this to anyone interested in leadership, management, business, marketing, sales, creativity, design… or just general inspiration about making the best of life. Here’s one of my favorite pieces from the book about Steve’s popular ‘reality distortion field’:

A lot of people distort reality, of course. When Jobs did so, it was often a tactic for accomplishing something. Wozniak… marveled at how effective it could be. “His reality distortion is when he has an illogical vision of the future, such as telling me that I could design the Breakout game in just a few days. You realize that it can’t be true, but he somehow makes it true.”

When members of the Mac team got ensnared in his reality distortion field, they were almost hypnotized. “He reminded me of Rasputin,” said Debi Coleman. “He laser-beamed in on you and didn’t blink. It didn’t matter if he was serving purple Kool-Aid. You drank it.” But like Wozniak, she believed that the reality distortion field was empowering: It enabled Jobs to inspire his team to change the course of computer history with a fraction of the resources of Xerox or IBM. “It was a self-fulfilling distortion,” she claimed. “You did the impossible, because you didn’t realize it was impossible.”

Here’s the link to order the digital, hard copy or audio version from Amazon. Any other great books you’d like to recommend?

The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss

Mush Books, Fitness , , , ,

I’ve been reading this fascinating book for the last few days, by the same author who wrote the #1 bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek. It says you’ll learn, in less than 30 minutes each:

  • How to prevent fat gain while bingeing
  • How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice
  • How to gain 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time
  • How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested
  • How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks
  • How to reverse “permanent” injuries
  • How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months

Most of these appear to be tall claims, but I’m going to try a few things and see. I’ve already gone on the ‘slow-carb’, high protein diet to convert the few inches of fat into muscle. Will post the results in a few weeks.

[Join my Facebook page for links to the most popular posts – past and present]

Book Recommendation: Three Cups of Tea

Mush Books, Contribution, Motivation , , , ,

A very inspiring book by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. There are hundred of beautiful reviews of this book on the Internet. The following represent my views most closely:

“Three Cups of Tea is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of our time. Greg Mortenson’s dangerous and difficult quest to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is not only a thrilling read, it’s proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.” (Tom Brokaw)

“Three Cups of Tea is beautifully written. It is also a critically important book at this time in history. The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan are both failing their students on a massive scale. The work Mortenson is doing, providing the poorest students with a balanced education, is making them much more difficult for the extremist madrassas to recruit.” (Ahmed Rashid, best-selling author of Taliban: Militant Islam)

“Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers’ hearts.” (Publishers Weekly)

If you like reading this blog, subscribe for email updates. You may connect with Mush on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or YouTube.