Calling it a club is a bit of a misnomer, since it’s mandatory for the undergrad students at the Gokhale Institute, but it just sounds cooler.
One thing that we wanted to fit in (but couldn’t) for the undergraduate degree at Gokhale Institute was a Great Books program. In retrospect, that was a blessing in disguise, because it has given me the chance to launch this instead.
The One Book a Month program involves inviting one person a month to nominate a book that they think young folks absolutely must read. Said young folks read the book, and write a five hundred word report on the book. At the end of the month, all of us – person, young folks and I – sit down and talk about the book. Rinse and repeat. There’s a competition, with rules, carrots and sticks – more details here.
But stripped of all the razzmatazz, it really is just an effort to get people to read more – which is kind of the whole point, no?
Amit Paranjape has very kindly agreed to kickstart proceedings, and his book of choice for this month is Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. I’ll share the date on which we’ll have the talk with Amit – if you happen to be in town, and are interested in attending the talk, you’re most welcome! We’ll also be putting up the discussion itself on YouTube and on a podcast based on this series – links to those will also be made available.
If you have book suggestions, guest suggestions, or other suggestions about how this series could be made better, I’m all ears! Drop me a mail at ashish at the rate econforeverybody dot com.
EconForEverybody 