The Hindu Business Line : Books can stretch your mind irreversibly

Reading a great book can change your life. How? "You go to sleep at night feeling that your time on Earth is more valuable, your experience here more worthwhile. You wake up seeing yourself, other people, and the world differently. This is real magic," write Jack Canfield, Gay Hendricks, and Carol Kline in the intro to You've Got to Read This Book! from Collins (www.harpercollins.com).

The book brings together stories of 55 people about `the book that changed their life.' For instance, to Jim Guy, the chief marketing officer of Cambridge Investment Research, it is The Teachings of the Buddha that marked a transformation. "The First Noble Truth, `There is suffering in the world,' resonated inside me as if I had been struck like a bell," writes Guy. "The deep simplicity of this statement felt like a solid place to rest, to begin." And there is more: "Each Noble Truth seemed to propel me into a deeper place inside. Like a massive staircase leading down to a still pool, the steps were wide and required a pause before going to the next one... This book led me to discover the art of happiness and brought me peace." A book too difficult to put down.

Meet the Maestro

Chapter forty-seven. "King Louis of France arrived in Milan the next day, the twenty-fourth of July. We watched from our rooftop." Wait, where are we? In The Medici Seal, by Theresa Breslin, from Doubleday. The book takes us back by five centuries to meet Matteo, a boy fleeing from the murderous brigand Sandino. Companions of Leonardo da Vinci rescue the boy. "Maestro, as an engineer, you are under a commission from Il Valentino, Cesare Borgia, to improve his castles to withstand attack," says Matteo, in one of his conversations with da Vinci. "I know you are also a painter, but that is not the only reason you dissect and anatomise for you seek medical knowledge. Now you declare an interest in plants and rocks. What is your field of study?" The answer is brief: "All."

Good way to wind back to the sixteenth century!

Truth extraction

Dominic Streatfeild exposes `the secret history of mind control' in Brainwash, from Hodder & Stoughton. "With access to formerly classified documentation and interviews from MI5, MI6, the CIA, the US Army, and British Intelligence Corps, Brainwash traces the evolution of the world's most secret psychological procedure from its origins in the Cold War to the height of today's war on terror," says the dust-jacket. Epilogue, titled, `Truth. In the shortest possible time' speaks of the main quality required of an interrogator: `An implacable hatred of the enemy.'

A book not for the faint-hearted.

Tailpiece

"Quick! Give me the cash! Or... "

"Or my watch or cell-phone?"

"No, your ATM card and the PIN! Quick! Or... "

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali