BOOK REVIEW: The Google Story

Title : THE GOOGLE STORY

Author: David A. Vise

Price:  £ 7.99 

Publisher : Pan Macmillan

Points : 2 out of 5

"An insight into one of the biggest technological revolutions of our time."

Google, today is an extension of our brain. We use it everyday to find the nearest movie theatre, the best restaurant,the treatment for a disease, the download links,the images, the latest stock quotes, the e-mails,the news and what not.Today that i am publishing this review is also courtesy- google.Today many businesses around the world are dependent on its services. Just 2 weeks back when the google servers went down for about 3.5 hours , it caused a havoc amongst its users which include several big firms.

The book starts with the introduction about its founders & their families,their graduation school (i.e. Stanford) and what triggered them to make the fastest search tool on the planet- freely available to information hungry men and women across the globe.It moves on to discussing the difficulties they faced early in the life of their organisation and how they never compromised on the ownership front.The competition from other search engines and other software firms like Microsoft forms a large portion of the book and has been objectively narrated without any bias.The 'campus culture @ google' and how it makes google one of the best places to innovate & develop has been very well illustrated.

'How google earns money?' is another questions that many users around the world find difficult to answer.The answer is advertising- a single click on a sponsored ad on a search page makes google earn anywhere from 5 cents to 5-10 dollars! Users can also add these adds to their website or blogs through the Adsesnse program and get paid a share of what google makes.This has led to the emergence of what has been rightly described as "The Google Economy". 

Although the book reveals some of the insights about google, it avoids any controvertial subject like google acting as a huge reservior of data which can be misused(if stolen) for all evil deeds.It only touches upon these subjects and has no cues for conspiracy theorists.The author wanted to play it safe i guess.Moreover it adds very little over the facts about google in public domain.It is a general collection of facts about google and fails to generate any interest beyond plain reading.

BOOK REVIEW : The Kite Runner

Title: THE KITE RUNNER (Now a motion film)

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Bloomsbury Publications

Price : £ 7.99 

Points: 4 out of 5

" It pulls every string of emotion in your heart.Engrossing and inspiring."

" When guilt leads to good , its called redemption." A hundred such great thoughts and an inspiring story makes it one of the most enjoyable and fascinating journies, a journey not just though geographical borders but through a ocean of human emotions, through a quest of right or wrong,guilt, grief, anger and devotion.I will refrain from calling it a 'book'  for it will be undermining the creativity and the ability of its author to make the characters so lively that you never feel like reading a book, you are always living the life of its main charcter: laughing, playing,developing,growing, crying with him as the story progresses.

The story is based in Afghanistan,Pakistan & California on the life of its central character Amir and how he unknowingly (or because of the circumstances) commits a few mistakes which creates a 'hole' in him and how he goes all the way back to set the things right.To get redemption.The story highlights the transition that made Afghanistan , what it is today. It pulls every string of emotion in your heart and at the same time is full of rich humour and  instances that leave you spellbound.

This very ability of reaching to the bottum of human feelings and expressions makes him one of the most inspiring writers to write on issues of social significance.I end here with a few more inspiring lines from this novel.

"There is only one sin .And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.When you kill a man, you steal a life.You steal his wife's right to husband, rob his children of a father.When you tell a lie, you steal someone' right to the truth.When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."

PS: To know more about the author and his initiatives, visit http://www.khaledhosseini.com/

BOOK REVIEW : THE ALCHEMIST

THE ALCHEMIST
Author: Paulo Coelho
Harper Collin Publication
Price: Rs 180

Points : 4 out of 5

Alchemists were known to turn any metal into gold.The great story-telling approach of author "Paulo Coelho" and the excellent usage of characters makes this book what may be considered one of the best self-help and inspirational writings of all times.The story is set in Andalusian countryside,the African deserts and the great Egyptian Pyramids.The central theme of the story is that "One should always try to follow his/her dreams and move on the path governed by omens, signs from the all mighty." The importance of omens in one's life has been very well established through several instances.

Coelho choses a boy of around 16 years of age as the central character of this inspirational literary masterpiece who becomes a shepherd against the will of his family,who want him to become a priest, because he always wanted to travel.The boy's life changes forever when he decides to investigate the reason for his recurrent dream about a treasure.Some of the most important encounters with other characters also take place during this journey of exploring his dreams that change the course of the story.

What follows is a magical journey through the African continent in search of this treasure.The boy at every stage puts at stake what he has to follow his dream.On his way, he falls in love,learns alchemy,observes nature and finds many omens that testify his path.The author also explains true love as an encouragement rather than as an impeding block to fulfilling one's desires and dreams in a very beautiful way.The rest of the story takes you through a journey of a life time and leaves you amazed by what happens next in the boy's life.

Altogether it makes up for a interesting and 'message riden' read and should be read like a story as it is meant to be.It may be suitably called the beginning of a new genre of self-help books.