The Hindu Business Line : Let your skills do the work, not your heads

TAKE your game to the next level, invites John Eliot in, Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance, from Penguin (www.penguinbooksindia.com). The book reminds that thinking is a habit and so you can change it to then become a top performer. "Exceptional thinking is within everyone's reach," assures Eliot, in a chapter that teaches you `how to think like a squirrel'. That's `the trusting mindset', explains the author. "Our ability is maximised when we let our skills do the work, not our heads. As professional golfers like to say, you have to trust your swing." Pressure is different from anxiety, and nervousness is different from worry, reminds Eliot. Don't let `butterflies in the stomach' lead to self-intimidation. "Pressure often signals an opportunity to excel." Therefore, make a conscious association "between the `nerves' and the potential to perform." A chapter taps the wisdom of Yogi Berra, such as `ninety per cent of this game is half mental', and notes, "You are in the driver's seat — not the performance." And `ignore the experts' to become a better performer, not just once, but routinely. "You have nothing to lose but your mediocrity," urges Eliot.

Exceptional read.

Water photos

MASARU Emoto's, The Secret Life of Water, from Pocket Books (www.simonsays.co.uk) explores the crystals formed in frozen water. "About 70 per cent of our bodies are water. This is the case for adults of all races, and it is why people should not be divided by political strategies and ideologies. Just like water, people must always be allowed to flow freely," writes Emoto. "If a dam is built in a river to stop its flow, the river will die," he adds. To confirm, there's a crystal photograph that shows water lacking any momentum, in comparison to `beautiful crystals' a kilometre away from the dam! "To take the photographs, we collect water and place drops in fifty petri dishes. We then freeze them at minus 25 degrees centigrade and let them cool for two and a half hours, during which time they form tiny round clumps of ice. We then peer at the ice at five degrees below zero at a magnification of 200 times," explains the author.

Interesting secrets!

Astrology in finance

HOW does astrology influence history? Benson Bobrick has the answer in, The Fated Sky, from Simon & Schuster (www.simonsays.com). The book cites the October 1937 issue of the Astrological Magazine, in which B.V. Raman had forecast "the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, followed by Hitler's relentless aggression and ultimate defeat." There is this snatch from a letter that Jung had written to Raman in 1947: "In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle." Don't miss the discussion of: al-Biruni's book `India' written in the 11th century; astrologers' inputs on NASA's missions; astroeconomists on the staff of London banks; and the use of points in the sky to examine track individual commodities! Exciting.

Gazelle wisdom

NO AMOUNT of effort will block the tide, and no amount of effort can bring an event to fruition before its time. Thus counsels Daniel Quinn in, Tales of Adam, from Steerforth Press (www.steerforth.com). The book is about Adam, a hunter-gatherer, who passes his wisdom to his son, Abel. "The gazelles don't have to run to the ends of the earth to escape a lion," is one such nugget of wisdom. "A single burst of speed will carry them beyond pursuit whether the lion makes its kill or not." How? "If the lion makes its kill, further pursuit is unnecessary, and if it misses its kill, further pursuit is pointless, because the lion has no hope of outmatching the gazelle's speed once they're alerted." Thus, "a single bound is as good as a thousand once the gazelles have evaded the lion's first blow." Enchanting tales.

Poignant stories

PO BRONSON puts together `honest and amazing stories of real families' in, Why Do I Love These People? from Random House (www.atrandom.com). One of the stories is of Uma Thangaraj that begins with the question whether family bond is "an intellectual construct that once served a useful purpose but is no longer really necessary". Though forced marriages are considered a violation of international laws that define basic human rights, arranged marriages are common in half the world, writes Bronson. "Indian families work on the notion that parents know best and will make wiser decisions than hormonally juiced seventeen-year-olds. But parents are supposed to do what is best for their children, not what is best for their bank account," he adds. Poignant episodes.

Roll on the floor laughing!

MORE than 3,000 quips, quotes and remarks fill the pages of, The Comedy Thesaurus, by Judy Brown, from Quirk Books (www.quirkbooks.com). "I got an A in philosophy because I proved that my professor didn't exist," reads Judy Tenuta's wisecrack in a section on college. "The best contraceptive is the word `no' repeated frequently," says Margaret Smith in an appropriate section, where you'd find also Spike Milligan's advice, "Contraceptives should be used on every conceivable occasion." Before you roll off the chair laughing, read this one on insurance, by Tommy Cooper: "The insurance man told me that the accident policy covered falling off the roof, but not hitting the ground." Hilarious.

Books courtesy: Landmark (www.landmarkonthenet.com)

Tailpiece

"Do you think BSE will react to bird flu?"

"Isn't Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy deadly enough?"

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

D. Murali