My love-affair with books started when I was very young. Following a bout of illness and advised by the doctor against excessive activity, I had turned to books. Even after recovery, having fallen headlong into the world of words, I haven’t looked back since.

Many genres have found their way onto my bookshelf – but there are some books that came into my life at an apt moment and went on to become my all-time favourites which I would recommend to everyone:-

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

I must have been about 14 or 15 when my father got this book for me.  At a time when I was finding myself, this book served to strengthen my values and principles. I confess I would be hard-pressed to recite all the 7 habits offhand if someone asked me one morning however the book has hidden gems of some great advice.

2. Who moved my cheese – Spencer Johnson

I don’t remember when I read this book first – I have read it so many times. An easy-to-read book, it talks about the one constant in life – change. Somewhere, this book helped me to always enjoy change! So much so that my final thesis in my MBA was on change management as I enjoy working with organisations to implement right strategies to enable smooth transition when changing something.

3. One minute manager – Ken Blanchard

I had read this when I was first starting up as a manager – packed with good tips on effective management, it has stood me in good stead with several great techniques.

4. Good to Great – Jim Collins

This book provides food for thought and makes one think about different concepts and ideas that makes a business successful. If you are a business owner or a consultant working with businesses, I feel this should be on your reading list.

5. The 21 indispensable qualities of a leader – John C. Maxwell

21 qualities and stories of some of the tallest leaders in history packaged in a book that you can easily comprehend, use and implement.  I often refer to this book – on days when I need motivation, on days when I need guidance and on days when I simply want to be entertained. I refer to it to draw inspiration for speeches and I refer to it to get ideas for tackling a new problem. This book makes me believe nothing is impossible.

6. Blink – Macolm Gladwell

The recommendation for this book came from one of my MBA professors. She recommended several others as well but this one stood out. The flow of this book is delightful – splattered with various anecdotes. While not a cohesive theory in itself, I felt it does make you re-look at the decision making processes and perhaps hone your instinctive responses.

7. Make It Happen Before Lunch – Stephan Schiffman

This book has made it to my list as it is full of priceless nuggets including joy of rejection, not taking yes for an answer and that people live 2 weeks at a time. Each tip provides a fresh notion into the world of business.

8. Strenghtfinder 2.0 – Tom Rath

Again a recommendation from my MBA days – this is one that makes you look at yourself and find out who you really are. The key idea of this book is to help you identify your strengths so that you can invest in them in order to be successful. It comes with access to the online assessment which you can take to find your talents.

9. The Secret – Rhonda Byrne

This was a recommendation from my sister when I was at a crossroad in life and had to make decisions on moving jobs and moving countries!  The book talks about the power of thoughts, of asking, of believing, of visualising and of receiving.

10. Best thing about you is you – Anupam Kher

I happened to pick up this book, on behest of my mother, on one of my travels to India in the last year or so. Of the many motivational books I have read, this one has stood out as it is frank and puts you – the reader – in the centre of it all. It reiterates that the solutions are in your hands and within you.

As Rick Holland once said “The world belongs to those who read!” Happy reading 🙂