Going by the book

Many of my friends and relatives find my habit of reading books on activities that I pursue a bit strange. For many of them, these should just come naturally (or may be by hearsay).

It was one of the Men's Health magazine that trapped me into this habit, which I believe is a good thing. This magazine had an article on jump rope(skipping rope in this part of the country), which I used later when I was getting on to some regular exercise to contain my cholesterol. After mastering all the tricks in this article, I ordered the book that was recommended, "Ropics" by Ken Solis. While I knew many things that was described in the book already, it was still worth the money because of the indepth description of the techniques involved.

Here goes my list of self-help books

Ropics: The Next Jump Forward in Fitness (Paperback)

Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke (Paperback)

I corrected my swimming technique by doing the drills in the book and I could understand why I was doing the drill and how it helped my swimming. I learnt back stroke by reading the book, which is my smoothest swimming action. Excellent one on swimming technique and the principles behind it.

Galloway's Book on Running 2 Ed

Extended my running beyond 10K by following the run-walk technique. Another excellent one for running technique and more importantly, the principles behind the techniques.


What to Expect When You're Expecting

This book was a great help during my wife's pregnancy for both of us.

What to Expect the First Year

This is a great reference book when you have some doubts about the baby or baby's behavior.


Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care: 8th Edition

This a classic - again some of the basic principles behind child rearing are worth the money.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This had a lot of eye openers for me - there are two sides of the story always, working on things that is in one's control etc.