Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last. – Dr Samuel Johnson
80% of business books are articles padded with fluff to fill up 250+ pages. The fluff part is usually the beginning where the author has to give examples showing that his premise worked in his sample of companies. Then there is the good part which is the article, followed by more fluff that talks about how life would be better now that this book is in our hands. Continue reading Books I Read in 2019
The number of sports one can properly perform decreases with age. I can no longer play football without getting some minor injury, if I stop training for a few weeks I get sore all over when I start running again. Perhaps most depressing is that I have lower back pain if I don’t regularly stretch or practice yoga; maintenance of the body becomes an uphill battle after 45. Continue reading The Perfect Hobby for Middle-Aged Males: Cycling
Heartbroken at 18, I had calculated that the little happiness love would bring was not worth the commensurate pain, and with an engineer’s resolve, I declared myself above human emotions. Continue reading Why Do Men Get Emotional With Age?
One of the perks of being a Turkish speaker is (roughly every four years) a new Orhan Pamuk book is published and we get to read it immediately revelling in his unique style with a feeling of nostalgia. Continue reading Reading Orhan Pamuk, Nights of Plague
I love to read all sorts of reviews, blog posts, book club notes; watch films and TV series on books that get me thinking. But most fulfilling are well written fan fiction novels. Circe is a very successful representative of this sub-genre. Continue reading Circe, Madeline Miller
For an obsessive compulsive reader like myself, every year begins – among others – with a goal to read certain amount of books of certain genres. However during the year, this goal gets derailed by my impulsive reading of a flashy new novel or a non-fiction topic that I find attractive as I find myself pressing the download button on my Kindle. Continue reading Books I Read in 2018
I cannot remember how I used to function before podcasts. I listen to them during my runs and walks, when driving, and (wife permitting) when I’m getting prepared in the morning.
Continue reading My Top 5 Podcasts of 2016
The program’s format goes like this: first you play a song from say Iron Maiden, let’s suppose you play Hallowed Be Thy Name, a song about a man on his way to the gallows. To proceed to the next song, the DJ has to find a connection to another artist. Let’s also assume that you have a schizophrenic taste of music and you are also fond of Michael Bolton’s How Am I Supposed to Live Without You. This is a song about a man who doesn’t know how he’s supposed to live without her. Continue reading Connecting Rebellion
In this case when I say Protest Music I mean something else. I’m adding some videos below which are all about the protests but would not be filed under this genre. Maybe it can be said that just like the people, music genres are also uniting to protest against the PM and his government during the Summer of 2013. Continue reading Protest Music from Gezi Park