April 22, 2009
Personnel Today staffers have been tweeting a lot recently, not least in a bid to find out what management books people are reading. Plenty of fellow twitterers were willing to recommend their favourite books. But none of them recommended the latest business book sensation to hit Indian shops - Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf ....
Translated as 'My Struggle', Hitler's book combines politics and autobiography. And poor literary technique. It is generally regarded as a dud, not least by Winston Churchill, who described it as "turgid, verbose [and] shapeless." Although perhaps the final literary critique should come from that well-known dictator, and less well-known book reviewer, Mussolini, who referred to it as "a boring tome that I have never been able to read."
But why the sudden popularity? And why in India, of all places? New Delhi booksellers alone have sold more than 10,000 copies in the past six months.
Mumbai-based Embassy books is one of half a dozen Indian printers dealing with Mein Kampf, and reprints it every quarter. Owner Sohin Lakhani told the Daily Telegraph:
"Students are increasingly coming in asking for it and we're happy to sell it to them.
"They see it as a kind of success story where one man can have a vision, work out a plan on how to implement it and then successfully complete it".
Scary ... but Guru is all about having fun, so check out this clip from The Producers:
Guru's Tweets