I love maintaining lists of books I have read and going through them at a later time, sometimes even years later to see what I was reading. I find it to be a nice way to document one’s journey in reading, since I usually end up reading books that are related to the place I am in or what I am going through, or what I am wanting to be, in a vicarious way to live them I guess.

Here’s one of my reviews on some of my past readings. I definitely could read some of these again, I think.

I read four books in the last month: CK Prahalad’s The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid; Lavanya Sankaran’s The Red Carpet; Arun Maira’s Remaking India; and Ruskin Bond’s Strange Men, Strange Places.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid is about the vast number of people who live below the poverty line. It was one of these increadible books that really opens ones eyes to the reality of the situation of the millions of people who survive on a dollar or less a day, and the potential of marketing products to them. I wonder how long it will take marketing professionals and companies to realize the goldmine that awaits them at the bottom of the pyramid. While these millions of people might be living in extreme poverty, they still have basic needs and requirements of food, shelter, clothing, communication and companies need to wake up to that fact. Did you know, for example, that these consumers are extremely brand conscious? Testamount to this are the wildly popular sachets of shampoo, detergents etc that consumers at the bottom of the pyramid purchase.

My other reading was not as thought provoking. The Red Carpet was a lighthearted and sweet collection of short stories. Remaking India was incedents and views of a corporate executive who has worked with several top international companies and his thoughts on how we all need to contribute to ‘remaking India’. Strange Men, Strange Places was an offbeat sort of book, a collection of stories from the Raj days, of the East India Company, of times gone by, and quite entertaining to read.