Category Archives: Books

Read a Chinese Book in 12 Minutes!

Our founder Ricky Soo might have organized many business and social events, but he actually started out with book sharing events when he founded BookPeckers in March 2013. The group was taken over by another leader one year later.

There have been requests from former members to organize book sharing events, now on the Pitch ‘n’ Win platform. We made a few attempts such as a talk on the book on body language, a talk on education and a book sharing on business and marketing.

This time we organized a book sharing session in the Chinese language called Book Sharing #2 – 12分钟听懂一本书！, it means to read and learn about a book in 12 minutes! The challenge is for the book presenter to “read” a book to the group in 12 minutes, and for the audience to “read” and understand a book in 12 minutes too.

Hosted by Evelyn Loh on 21st November 2014 in Storyteller’s Cafe, she started the session by introducing everyone and what the session is about. Then she passed the session to the book presenters to share for 12 minutes each.

Book sharing event in Storyteller's Cafe

Book sharing event in Storyteller’s Cafe

Altogether 6 books were presented covering life, psychology, self-improvement, business, investment and fiction as well. We also discussed some of the books at length after each book presentation.

你对自己的看法决定你的一切 by Evelyn Loh
三体 by David Pan
比天堂更美好的地方就在人间 by Chear Swee Kwin
巴菲特给青少年的忠告 by Wong Siew Leng
世界如此险恶你要内心强大 by Jimmy Lee
FREE by Ricky Soo

Keeping to the Pitch ‘n’ Win model, the whole group voted and chose one best book presenter from the 6 presenters. David Pan, an MBA student from China, received the highest number of votes.

It was a good trial to experiment whether the 12-minute book sharing makes sense or not. Obviously it was not enough for some books. But the time slot was meant to present a summary, an extract or a teaser of the book being shared, not meant to be a comprehensive introduction of the whole book.

Key Lessons

When in doubt if a new event works or not, just try it out!
12 minutes to share a book is fine. But the discussion can take much time.

Book Sharing #2 – 12分钟听懂一本书！ – Photo album

Business & Marketing Book Sharing

Gladys Wong from KL Book Exchange has been organizing book exchange sessions on the first Sunday of every month. The passionate founder started to experiment book sharing event by adopting Pitch ‘n’ Win event model.

Her inaugural event called Book Sharing & Exchange #1 – Business & Marketing was organized on 10th September 2014 and was hosted temporarily by our founder Ricky Soo who also started book sharing events 2 years ago.

The event was attended by about 14 participants who hungered for knowledge found in books and experiences of the presenters. 4 books related to business and marketing were presented in the event:

Marketing 3.0 presented by Eric Lim
Company Law in Malaysia presented by Ricky Soo
Duct Tape Marketing presented by Jeyaraman
Screw Business as Usual presented by Gladys Wong

First book sharing event by KL Book Exchange

First book sharing event by KL Book Exchange

Each presenter spent 20 minutes to introduce us about his or her book, along with the lessons learned from the book. Some questions were raised during the book sharing and there was vibrant discussion among the event participants.

Everyone was asked to choose the best book presenter, and Jeyaraman was chosen for his interesting sharing and experiences on marketing. He was invited to speak for extra time and he shared about his business and proposed one upcoming event he wished to do together with Pitch ‘n’ Win members.

The response was great, and we all brought home something learned in thee event. It was a good start by KL Book Exchange for a book sharing event in the Pitch ‘n’ Win platform.

Book Sharing & Exchange #1 – Business & Marketing – Photo album

Stones Into Schools – Educating Girls in Central Asia

After the first learning event on body language, and the second one on kinesiology, the third learning session was organized by Dynamic NLP Group on the book called Stones Into Schools on 25th July 2014.

The book was presented by Swagata Sinha Roy, who was picked by previous event participants as the next speaker. She prepared handouts, materials and photo albums to be shared with the event participants.

The book was authored by Greg Mortenson, who had also wrote the book Three Cups of Tea which discusses promoting peace by education. In his latter book, he details the work of Central Asian Institute (CAI) to build schools to educate girls in Northern Afghanistan and areas around it.

Roy first talked about the book Three Cups of Tea and some background information. Then she outlined the book Stones Into Schools and showed various photos and articles about CAI, and the political and economic challenges faced in the area.

Roy presented everything very enthusiastically. In fact, her husband was involved in contributing to the institute! We also discussed how the rest of us could help, and how the lessons learned can be applied in our country.

Roy presenting passionately about education

Roy presenting passionately about education

After her 1-hour sharing, everyone got an opportunity to share some useful knowledge in the group. Eric Lim was chosen as the next speaker for his interesting sharing on the book called Marketing 3.0 by Philip Kotler.

At the end of the session, Roy graciously gave away 3 tea packs to each participant, signifying the 3 cups of tea discussed – The first time you share tea, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family!

Learn with Dynamic NLP Group #3 – Stones Into Schools – Photo album