Bookwatch: Sanjay Shah, Manugraph

The son of the doyen of Indian printing industry, Sanat Shah, Sanjay Shah is understandably a man hard-pressed for time. After all, as vice-chairman and managing director of Manugraph, the web offset giant his father established in 1971, he is responsible for steering the global press manufacturing company to the next level.

Thus, it is perhaps a little surprising to learn that Shah is also a voracious reader. In between leading the company and making high-stake business decisions, Shah, who joined Manugraph in 1983, also finds time to keep himself abreast with the news of the world, mainly through news dailies and magazines, with an occasional thriller thrown into the mix.

PrintWeek India picks five items from Sanjay Shah’s personal library.    

1. The books of Lee Child, especially the Jack Reacher series of books, which follow the adventures of the eponymous hero, a former American military policeman, who wanders the United States. Shah likes Lee Child for the “outstanding narration” of his thrillers.

2. An avid traveller, Shah also loves to leaf through Conde Nast Traveller, to get ideas “where to go next.”

3. Among daily newspapers, Shah prefers The Indian Express because the paper carries “great articles.”

4. Another newspaper Shah likes to read is Speaking Tree, because it “gets one thinking.” Shah says the paper is like “a silent tool in your daily life.”

5. Shah also prefers to read occasional business books. Currently he is reading The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross. The book, published in 2016, explores the next waves of innovation in robotics, genetics, coding and big data and how they will affect our world.