A few good books

I've been catching up on some reading lately. I have to thank the time I got on flights recently to get me back in the reading habit.

Mjarne Satrapi, a Persian author, came out with an interesting comic-book format for her book, Persepolis. Lekha had recommended the book to me more than once, so I decided to check it out. It was a short and fascinating read. It also brought back to mind another movie based in middle east about a child growing up in a war-torn country -- West Beirut. Both of these are charmers and I recommend them wholly.

I took a sneak peek at the Time's 100 most influential people edition at the airport. There were some who stuck out for me. The best was that Miyazaki features on the list!! The other surprise for me was the author Malcom Gladwell. I read his Tipping Point very recently and I have now begun to realize how widely it has been read. I kind of guessed it by the number of copies lying on the counter at the small bookstore at the Bangalore airport. The book is indeed a good read. I came away with good insights into network effect, and in general have come to revere the author's abilities.

I am in Seattle this week. I had stopped over in Palo Alto for a day -- a day spent entirely indoors in office meetings. Nevertheless, one thing stood out about the place that I found interesting. I had not seen such a high proportion of cars in an American town to be European -- mostly Audi's and Mercedes.