Mind in the matter

Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, is a maverick when it comes to choosing what he reads.

When he isn't busy dissecting marketing strategies, it's the human psyche and DNA that he likes to play around with "" and no, he doesn't have a psychologist's couch in his office. Instead, he has a study stacked with books that include Genome by Matt Ridley and A User's Guide to the Brain by John J Ratey.

"I like to understand my consumers not just overtly but also subliminally and these books help me do just that," he says.
 

Books and the man - XV
Favourite author	Joseph Heller
Best-ever read	Catch-22
Favourite childhood reads	Enid Blyton's Five Find-outers
Most influenced by	Fountain Head by Ayn Rand
Favourite shopping places	Dubai and London
Could never read	One Billion Shoppers by Paul French

While understanding what others might be thinking is a favourite pastime, being told what to think and how to think is a much-hated one. And so, management gyaan and do-it-yourself-the-way-we-tell-you-to are not the kind of books that adorn his bookshelf simply because "if these things could be learnt from a book then everyone would pick them up".

Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career Advertising by Phil Dusenberry is a current favourite with Bijoor while Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and Sophie's World are eternal favourites that are best read when he's curled up in his favourite bean bag.

And in case you're planning to borrow a book or two from his huge library that stacks his favourite books in the front and the much disliked ones at the back... well, forget it. He won't even lend the ones he doesn't like.

"My books are very personal and they are mine," he asserts with a smile, adding that he often goes back to his books to enjoy a much-loved para, chewing on and making sense of every word.