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Quiet by Susan Cain

When I bite into an Orange, I find the flavours to be incredibly stimulating. I love citrus flavours, and I may be very sensitive to them. According to ‘Quiet’ by ‘Susan Cain’ I could be hovering more towards the introverted side of the human spectrum. Susan Cain takes us on an educational journey full of facts and new research into the world of introversion, extroversion and bits in-between those realms. ‘Quiet’ takes you through how we view introversion from organisational, to personal relationships and to how we raise the next generation. Evidence such as organisational leadership where teams with more proactive members tend to flourish under introverted leadership. Also, the opposite is true for extroverted leadership. While research has still not concluded on the exact science why us humans fall into such spectrums, this book takes us through the evidence of tremendous success when introverts and extroverts embrace each other’s strengths and work towards a common goal. The American Civil Rights movement in the ’60s would have had a different start if not for Rosa Park’s quiet strength coupled with Martin Luther King, Jr great speeches. An organisation should equally cultivate and reward their versions of “Steve Jobs” and “Steve Wozniak” and encourage their partnership. If not, we could be missing out on the next “Apple”. Susan Cain's Quiet is recommended a book to bite into!

#quiet #susancain #book review

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Black Coffee Blues

Henry Rollins wakes you up bitterly wide eyed open with Black Coffee Blues. This was a strange read. I'm glad it has its quirky character as a book. We should have more books like this. Notes, stories and poems all seeping into your blood with something stronger than caffeine.  Everything amounting to a glimpse to a non-fiction world I couldn't imagine. It's painful so tread with precaution, but you come out with your skin still intact.

#henry rollins #blackcoffeeblues #read #review

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The Last Girl

I finished 'The Last Girl' by Nadia Murad this week. This book clutches you with the painful detail the experiences of Yazidi community in the hands of terrorism. Especially what the young women had to suffer through. The story narrates in great detail the time before ISIS rule to the grim facts of what it is to be a women-slave under them. How religion is distorted to justify crimes. Rape used as a tool of war to terrorise. Sexual abuse of women used as a recruitment incentive. This is not the first time in history this has happened and on many occasions, we never know the truth. The sentences in this book carry an important story which should be known the entire planet. I read the last words from the last sentence in the last page inside a crowed bus. Just as I was done I had to hold back the teardrop trying to burst out of my right eye. Reading this book every morning reminded me how fortunate my life is and what most of us complain about is lacks any weight. Even before I read this book I knew of the atrocities ISIS had done but to read what Nadia and the Yazidi people in Iraq had to endure kept me sighing in grief, repugnance and concern. Sorrow for the souls that have suffered. Concern for how such evil erupts. Disgust for the brutality people are capable of maintaining themselves to achieve.

#thelastgirl #nadiamurad #books #review

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Homo Deus

A lot of information adhered to me while immersed in this well-written book. But few of them took more room in my brain. How we treat animals now is a good indication of how enhanced humans will treat us in the future. Fiction has more power than we realise. The weird reason why we strive for a home with a big lawn. Dataism - the new religion. Power of algorithms and even today most things are run by them i.e. the stock market. The total connectedness and the all-ruling internet-of-ALL-things. There is something stranger than a brave new world in store for us. Yuval Noah Harari's 'Homo Deus' is a sound eye-opener to the possibilities in store and maybe how we Homo-sapiens can harness a better tomorrow.  

#homodeus #book

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What the Dog Saw

Again I come out enlightened by Malcolm Gladwell at the end of a reading journey. 'What the Dog Saw' contains a series of essays and articles about amazing personalities, social concerns, corporate predicaments and analysis of intellect. There are lessons to be learned from everyday issues, their solutions and people. If we dig through the most mundane, there is a wealth of marvels to be found. Reading this reminds you to take another careful look with a different lens at the world around us.

#Malcom Gladwell #what the dog saw #reads

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Crocodile Chamber

The publisher closed shop so I had to republish on Kindle. Thought that I should do my own cover art. Crapy as it is, I like it. Going for that minimalist look. Now available on Kindle :)

#selfpublish #crocodilechamber #shortstory #book

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Reading List

Imagine that you were asked to give the public your ‘reading list’. Not what you’re currently reading. Not what you plan to read. Not even what you read in the past. Well not really but close enough. This is the list of handful of books that inspired, redefined, or even saved you. The book you read that you want to share with the world. The book that contains words that can help humanity. The world is not always going agree with you. In fact it rarely does but you believe strongly in the content that you want to share it with a wider community. What were those books or book?

I’ve been thinking of the same question recently. I’m not sure if I have the perfect answer or anything truly amazing to share but I’m working on it.

#readinglist #books

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Who introduced you to coffee?

Coffee was the forbidden drink. We were permitted to drink as much tea as we could. People didn’t realise the inhabitants of caffeine in both. Maybe as Sri Lankans, we were allowed to consume whatever came along with tea. Anything and everything got fixed with tea. We listened to the brutal news of suicide bombers and assassinations to the background of teacup saucers clicking with each other. But I was always fascinated by the smell of coffee. As a child, I would fill my milky cup of tea with so much white cane sugar that there was barely enough room left in the mug for liquid. Somehow it all became about the sweetness rather than the taste of tea leaves. Who introduced me to coffee? Not sure really. My father drank only coffee. His room smelled of coffee. Him in his separate bedroom to where my mother slept. Snoring to be the culprit of that arrangement. But it all seemed reasonable to me. I didn’t know any better nor any other way how parents were supposed to live. My grandfather loved his coffee. My mother’s father. He had his separate living arrangement separated from my grandmother. I guess you could say my influences on family life came at a very young age. Not sure why I reached out to coffee to calm me down when chemically its meant to induce an opposite reaction. When you can’t depend on people, you reach for something else for stability. Maybe addiction is chasing an extreme form of reliability, but we fail to see that nothing, no feeling, no person is ever permeant. Its ok, I still have my coffee. I now drink it bitter.

#coffee #addict #family #write

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The late-night Jazz playlist fill the atmosphere and the night takes control. The clear liquid in the bottom of my glass emits the juniper aromas into the shadows and into my nostrils. I sip; the drink kisses my lips, it burns, it stings. But unlike many other kisses that have been granted to me this doesn’t hurt. Doesn’t make me ache like the ones I’ve received and then abstained from my reach. Doesn’t make me freeze every time remember the last sip. The drink just soothes into my throat. No questions, no justifications, nothing to defend, and I can be in control.

Parts of me are changing into new algorithms. Some parts are going back to familiar places. One thing for serious contemplation is that I’m allowing myself to let go more and more. Feeling of being out of control is growing stronger into my spine. What colours this year will conclude in I do not know. But I like the colours that I’m swirling in. Unlike the drink on my desk, they’re palette is not clear. Like the sensations in my inner throat, these colours are intoxicating and at the same time sobering.

The gin sits on my desk, it doesn’t like to be kept waiting.

#gin

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Blink!

When I have copies of Malcolm Gladwell's books floating around in my apartment, I must inhale the sparks of wisdom within them before moving on to anything else. 'Blink' brings us insights into how our mind works. How best to determine a situation and arrive at a solution using first instincts or when to delve into deep analysis. The stuck-in-the-mud situations we most often get into with analysis-paralysis. The idea of making better decisions with less information. Again Malcolm Gladwell brings brilliant bytes of informative stories to enlight us and why we must consider new ways of deciphering the world - "When to blink and when to think". 

"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature." - Sigmund Freud

#blink #malcom gladwell #thinking #mind #psychology

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Rules

I have rules that I’ve made for myself. Sometimes I decide, when and why I need them to break. Don’t unsettle the depth. I don’t easily forget.

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Words glow. Stories show. Where my heart needs to go. #lifx #bookshelf #booksandcoffee #coffee #books (at Sydney, Australia)

#coffee #bookshelf #books #lifx #booksandcoffee

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Dragonfly

Choke, I try to hold, tears come within by chest and out from my eyes, they want to burst.

Broke, from chains, that I thought were too late to break. I tell myself that its ok to dance. This freedom I need to soak.

#choke #dragonfly

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I’ve breathed you in, and now I’m waiting, for your questions, your discussions, your stare, hair, your beautiful flair. Your skin bare. My blood’s needing, the fuel that you bring.

#fuel

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I need to change, this worn-out shape, because my muscles ache and my fingers are ready to break. The music seems lost, the volume too soft, or have I been stressing, on one particular note too much? I’ll take my fingers off, from some of these old chords. Trust that my strings will not break at the end of the new song.

#chords #change #fingers #guitar #music

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Untamed

Bubbles surround my brain, she’s next to me, on an island and in the rain. The wind tries to take my words away, but it keeps the wine cold, and my blood untamed.

She wants to construct something brave, on a beach where the waves, pause for a longer stay. Give me dry sand and solid land. I feel change, heavier than all the coins, in my wallet case.

#change #untamed #bubbles