Books
- Same As Ever: A Guide To What Never Changes by Morgan Housel
- Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach To Success by Adam Grant
- Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant
- Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg
- Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
- Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
- Wanting – The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis
- How Religion Evolved by Robin Dunbar
- How to Know a Person- The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
- Catastrophe Ethics – How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices by Travis Rieder
- The Righteous Mind- Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey
- Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa
- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
- Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward
- Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz
- The Edge by David Baldacci
- The Secret by Lee Child
- The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz
- To Die For by David Baldacci
- Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
- The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
- Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly
- The Creative Act – A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
- Life is Hard – How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya
- Midlife by Kieran Setiya
- Climate, Catastrophe and Faith by Philip Jenkins
- Everything and Nothing by Tony Cartwright
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
- The Year of Locust by Terry Hayes
- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
- The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
- The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz
- Long Shadows by David Baldacci
- Four Thousand Weeks : Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burman
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Don’t Even Think About It by George Marshall
- All We an Save : Truth, Coverage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
- Where the Money Is by Adam Seessel
- A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
- The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths
- The Maid by Nita Prose
- Dark Horse by Gregg Hurwitz
- The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
- Connect by John Browne
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
- What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami
- Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg
- Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
- Hooked by Nir Eyal
- Saving Capitalism by Robert B Reich
- The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman
- Birdman by Mo Hayder
- Stranger by Dean Koontz
- Memory Man by David Baldacci
- Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
- The Last Mile by Michael Connelly
- The Short Drop by Mathew Fitzsimmons
- Instruments of Night by Thomas H Cook
- Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
- Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
- The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
- Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
- Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben
- A Midsummer’s Equation by Keigo Higashino
- The Absent One by Jussi Adler Olsen
- The Guise Of Another by Allen Eskens
- Make Me by Lee Child
- Essentialism by Greg Mckeown
- Move Up by Clotaire Rapaille and Andres Roemer
- How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland
- Looking Away by Harsh Mander
- I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
- The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
- Einstein’s Dream by Alan Lightman
- The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman
- The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins
- One False Move by Harlan Coben
- The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Descent by Tim Johnston
- The Gir in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz
- Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
- Villain by Shuichi Yoshida
- Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
- The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada
- Capital by Thomas Piketty
- The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
- The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
- Think Like a Freak by Levitt and Dubner
- Decoded by Mai Jia
- Night Film by Marisha Pessl
- The Colorado Kid by Stephan Kind
- Deception by Jonathan Kellerman
- Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
- The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
- Personal by Lee Child
- Yatrik by Arnab Ray
- Malice by Keigo Higashino
- Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
- Eat by Globe by Simon Majumdar
- Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnman
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Elder Shafir
- David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
- Focus by Daniel Goleman
- The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stieglitz
- Why Does the World Exist by Jim Holt
- The salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino
- The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
- Phantom by Jo Nesbo
- Woman with Birthmark by Hakan Nesser
- Immoral by Brian Freeman
- The White Lioness by Henning Mankell
- The Footprints of God by Greg Iles
- A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
- Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
- Inferno by Dan Brown
- The Killings of Badger’s Drift by Caroline Graham
- Blowback by Brad Thor
- My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
- A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin
- The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
- Deception Point by Dan Brown
- Policy by Jo Nesbo
- The Crucifix Killer by Chris Carter
- The Luminaries by Eleanor Cotton
- The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall
- The Stuff of Thoughts by Steven Pinker
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin
- Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson
- The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
- Shibumi by Trevanian
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Things Fall Apart by China Achebe
- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
- Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? Agatha Christie
- The Green Mile by Stephen King
- The Poet by Michael Connelly
- Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
- The Day of Jackal by Fredrick Forsyth
- The Stalker by Bill Pronzini
- Gone Gir by Gillian Flynn
- Siddhartha by Herman Hesse I read this 15 years ago, could not get much of this book at that time. Re-read it.
What I read in 2024
My reading goals used to be overly ambitious, leaving me frustrated at year’s end. I’d inevitably read less than I planned. But this year, I focusse more on engaged and slow reading than meeting my quantiative reading goals. I engaged more deeply with my books, becoming more selective, particularly with non-fiction. The books I chose lingered long after the final page, largely because they addressed questions that have become increasingly pressing as I navigate the, shall we say, defining stage of mid-life. These questions have shaken me up, prompting a re-evaluation of my priorities and preferences.
This new approach meant I was quick to abandon books that didn’t resonate. I think that 10-15 books were left unfinished after reading just a small portion of them. Some, mostly non-fiction, weren’t inherently bad in terms of content, but they felt better suited to a blog post or essay rather than a full-length book. A quick glance at the chapter titles and blurbs revealed the core message, and if the writing didn’t elevate that message, I saw no reason to continue when a bookshelf full of carefully chosen books awaited their turn.
The abandoned books weren’t necessarily poor reads; they simply failed to capture my attention. Some examples include:
Interestingly, all these books are from authors whose previous work I’ve enjoyed, which is why they made it onto my list. They also fall, broadly speaking, into the self-help category, although Oliver Burkeman might object to this label. His book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking dissected popular self-help advice and challenged readers to think beyond conventional notions of success and achievement.
So, what kind of books did engage me this year? The books that forced me to pause, close the cover, and truly contemplate their message. These books provided new contexts for existing questions and raised new ones altogether. Travis Rieder’s Catastrophe Ethics: How To Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices felt like an internal dialogue, prompting me to revisit my lifestyle choices and my individual response to climate change. It was the slowest read of the year, as I frequently stopped to examine familiar questions articulated in new and challenging ways, unraveling and reweaving the threads of my understanding.
Another book that demanded careful perusal of each chapter was Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Haidt masterfully lays the groundwork, providing ample context before addressing the central question presented in the title. His approach is both edifying and illuminating. I was motivated to read it this year by the New York Times review of this book (I had a couple of other books with similar themes on my list), and I am glad that I did. Both Catastrophe Ethics and The Righteous Mind are now my go-to recommendations. The former provides guidance on individual action in the face of the climate crisis, while the latter tackles the billion-dollar question of why political and religious divides persist. In fact, every non-fiction book I finished this year is well worth your time.
While my fiction reading is typically dominated by crime fiction, this year I delved into more literary fiction and explored new authors. Two standouts were Sophie Ward’s Love and Other Thought Experiments and Durian Sukegawa’s Sweet Bean Paste. Though vastly different, both offered a delightful reading experience. The former is a philosophical exploration of “thought experiments” that transcends genre, while the latter is a poignant tale about the meaning of life and how to live it fully. The philosophy backgrounds of both authors shine through in their writing.
Non-fiction
Fiction
Sweet Bean Paste -Meaning of Life
“Is a life worth living even if it doesn’t seem to offer any value to anyone? This beautiful book by Durian Sukegawa (real name Tetsuya Akikawa) offers an answer in this heartwarming story of an old lady who decides to work for a dorayaki (a Japanese dessert) seller. The answer is, ‘There is meaning in every life.’
P.S. The bookmark in the picture is made by my little daughter who is in love with bookmarks and books.”
Sweet Bean Paste is one such a sweet read. Absolutely loved this book for its simplicity, story and characters. And, it was a memorable read for some other reason as well- the beautiful bookmark created by Ameya for this book.
What I read in 2023
The absurdity of the hope that we will do things differently in the new year than what we did in the year gone by is mindboggling. Yet, hope and optimism force us to persist in our practice of making resolutions. Last year, I had planned to read copiously on the nexus of nature, climate change, and religion but barely managed to read a couple of books. This was part of my old practice of picking a theme and going deep on that subject. While the reading lists that I had for this year remained unconquered I devoured a lot of material on these topics. My shelf of half-read books is getting bigger and bigger. There are many great books worth reading and I have been made helpless by time poverty. Being selective is the only option.
Non-fiction
Fiction
2022 2021 2020 2019 2018(2) 2018(1) 2017(2) 2017(1) 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2008 2007 2006
#Metacognition refers to people’s knowledge of their own thought processes. We often have little conscious awareness of how we think. Self-monitoring your own thought processes is one way to improve how you think." #CriticalThinking
“In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius.” - Thomas Friedman
Finished reading: Desert Star by Michael Connelly 📚
Finished reading: The War Of Art: Break Through The Blocks And Win Your Inner Creative Battles by The War Of Art: Break Through The Blocks And Win Your Inner Creative Battles 📚
Finished reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚
My Reading List – 2022
I already wrote about what happened with my reading routine and habit this year. But still managed to read some books. Here are the books that I finished this year. There are at least 3-4 books that I am done halfway and will include them in the next years list.
The first two in the list are recommended to anyone who is interested in reading books that fundamentally change your perspectives about many things. The first one changes the way you look at success, time, and life and the second one changes the way you look at money.
Previous Years
2021 2020 2019 2018(2) 2018(1) 2017(2) 2017(1) 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2008 2007 2006
Malice - Another gem from Higashino
Keigo Higashino is referred as ‘the Japanese Stieg Larsson’ on the cover of this book. I think this is a very bizarre comparison if I consider the plot and writing style of these two authors. The comparison can only be justified if we consider a) both write crime fiction, and b) both have been bestsellers in their respective countries. Anyway, I am happy if this comparison brings more people to read to this master storyteller’s work.
Malice, written in 1996, is the third book by Higashino to be translated in to English from Japanese. The other two books “The Devotion of Suspect X” and “Salvation of a Saint” are among the best murder mysteries that I read in last five years. In both these books, readers were aware of who committed the crime but the mystery was how the murders were committed. In Malice, we know who committed the murder but the mystery was why the murder was committed.
Kunihiko Hidaka, a bestselling author, was found dead by his wife Rie and friend Nonoguchi just before he was to move to a new country. Detective Kaga, ex-colleague of Nonoguchi, gets the responsibility of the case and soon he discovers major flaws in Nonoguchi’s alibi. Nonoguchi, a writer himself and aspiring to be a bestseller author like Hidaka, confesses his crime but there were many missing pieces in his confession about the motive of the crime.
Higashino narrates the story through Nonoguchi’s and Kaga’s written accounts of the event during the investigation. The two main characters of Malice are writers and there is a lot of discussion of meeting timeline and writing styles, yet Higashino’s prose is bereft of any literary-ostentatiousness. Higashino is easy on his readers.
Malice is another gem from Higashino. I am eagerly waiting for his other works to be translated in English.
What I read in 2016
Non-fiction
Fiction
What I read in 2015
Non-fiction
Fiction
What I read in 2014
Non-fiction
Fiction
The Goldfinch - A very short review of a rather long book
I just finished "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tart. A really bulky book (784 pages) and on top of it this is a very slow book. I read some glowing reviews of this book and since I was planning to read something other than a murder mystery or thriller I chose to read this book. This was anyway the first book from this author so I had no clue about what kind of experience I am going to have.
This is a story of a son who lost his mother in a bomb blast in a museum and gained multi-million dollar painting "The Goldfinch". The whole book is about a dead mother, a lost painting and growing up years of a grieving son. However, the supremely detailed narration is drab and dreary. I kept on going through this book, searching for things that made this novel the most talked about bestseller fiction of this year. The Independent and many others summarized this as a gripping page turner that describes modern day life. Surely my reading taste is different than many of these reviewers. Although, there are still some readers who will agree with me.
Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hours Bookstore - A nostalgic read
Some places might not be very exotic, scenic or on people’s list of must see-must visit but often they offer something that many places do not: nostalgia and comfort arising out of familiarity. The neighbourhood park where one spent many of the childhood evenings playing with friends is one such place. If we take this analogy to stories, Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hours Bookstore is one such story. This is a story of 24 hour bookstore which employs a recession-hit, out-of-the-job website designer Clay Jannon.
A simple story which takes you through some of the familiar world of books and technology. There is an undercurrent debate on traditional books/bookstore vs the modern technology; and a fistful of elements taken from mystery and suspense thrillers thrown in there. The story forces one to move from one page to another, but for me reading the book was akin to visiting the neighbourhood park of my young days. There were a lot of things to make me feel nostalgic or relate to the story. Clay was a web-designer, loves technology (is a MacBook/iPhone/Kindle guy) and loves book…
Mr. Penumbra’s quaint bookstore is not a normal bookstore, it has mainly arcane and cryptic books for a devoted clientele. Mr. Penumbra’s bookstore has a higher purpose and Clay Jannon, the bookstore clerk, is not supposed to know that. But the curiosity gets better of him. With the help of his friend ( a lady who works at Google ) and Google’s tech-tools, Jannon tries to figure out the true story behind this unusual bookstore full of books containing gibberish.
Robin Sloan provides interesting glimpses of a modern metropolitan life, and pervasiveness and potential of technology. However, the story takes a formulaic path in the end and is only salvaged by the characterisation and the narrative.
What I read in 2013
Non-fiction
Fiction
What I read in 2012
Non-fiction
Fiction
The Mind of the Market
For someone who works on ‘understanding markets’ and is familiar with previous works of Michael Shermer, picking “The Mind of the Market” from the bookshelf was an impulsive decision. And, the blurb made it clear that I have an interesting read for my weekend.
Shermer, drawing extensively from behavioral economics, neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary biology, offers his explanation of our seemingly irrational and often unpredictable economic behavior. Shermer, en route to his explanations, builds an excellent repository of cutting edge research in several disciplines and provides his readers a plethora of interesting examples and theories which have been part of great debate among academics; this itself makes his book immensely valuable and enriching. He starts with drawing parallels between Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Adam Smith’s invisible hand makes a cogent argument about interconnectedness of these two seminal works and how they affect behavior. His rebuttal of ‘Homo Economicus’ might not be very convincing to some but it does provide some good insights nonetheless.
“Morality of the market” and “morality and market” are the two themes you will come across in many chapters. While Shermer confesses the limitation of research findings when applied to real life settings, yet he does resort often to the same for his arguments. Shermer cherry-picks cases and examples to establish the creativity and efficacy of markets and its self correcting mechanism; and this has invited a fair amount of criticism to this book. This was almost expected if you consider that Shermer is also known as skeptic and wrote a scathing criticism for Ayn Rand’s philosophy in his essay “The unlikeliest cult in history” , in this book Shermer the skeptics takes the back seat and Shermer the libertarian emerges very strongly.
What I read in 2011
Fiction 1. Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Kazuo Highly recommended if you are looking for a good thought provoking science fiction. A mushy story about the lives of clones who were raised to be ‘donors’ for human beings. Was shortlisted for Booker in 2005.
2. 1984 by George Orwell I read a couple of dystopian novels recently. This was surely one genre defining novel. Does not need any recommendation.
3. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Probably the most widely read novel by an African author. Loved this book, reading this book was a pleasure. Simple story, simple writing, great impact.
4. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevesky One of the greatest Russian novels. You will love the struggle of ‘the original’ protogonist with the materialistic society. The tragic love story of Prince and Nastasya adds a number of new dimensions to relationship and love.
5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The second dystopian novel that I read this year.
6. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain A very highly rated crime novel. Some people put this novel in top 100 novels of last century. Did not impress me that much, story seems too familiar.. probably I read too many adaptation or saw different versions of the story in some movies.
7. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King Somehow finished it. I am not a big fan of horror stories, Stephan King’s writing and story telling skills made me tolerate this one.
8. Along came a Spider by James Patterson Wanted to read some light fiction and picked the Alex Cross series for time pass. Nothing much to write about here. A time pass.
9. Max: Maximum Ride by James Patterson Juvenile fiction. Well just picked it out of curiosity and lack of other options.
11. 2666 by Roberta Bolano A slow and very lengthy novel. Over 1000 pages. It was an ordeal in patience and test of my passion for reading as the story did not move much in first few hundred pages.
Non-Fiction 12.I hope they Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max Curiosity. Yes, that’s why I picked the book.
13. May I hebb Your Attention Pliss by Arnab Ray By One of my favorite bloggers who turned author. A great satire on our life in eighties and nineties.