My Relationship with Books

As a child, “Read books!”, I was told, “if you want to succeed in life, earn money, be respected in the society”. I, on the other hand, liked playing outdoors. School hours for me were from 8:30 AM in the morning to 3:20 PM in the evening. Once I reached home, I had to complete the home work that extended the study time. So, by the time I finished my home work, the day was over and so was my playtime. I am kidding, it was not as dreadful as it sounds because I never completed homework and went on to play nevertheless (To hell with studies!). Finally, on weekends, we had more home work. As a result, I hated it when I was asked to sit down, read and study. The only books I read were “Aesops Fables” and “The Adventures of Tow Sawyer”. Just like that I finished school and then junior college. For a brief period, as I was nearing the end of my undergrad, I had an apocalyptic feeling about me not getting a job. That feeling faded too because I got one. So, in short, I never read books till mid 2016. Fast forward 2021, I have a mini-library at home, courtesy, my wife. She reads like crazy and reading is contagious I guess. :)

So if you are wondering what changed for me and why I started reading, the answer is because I started having questions about many things around me and I did not get any satisfactory explanations. So, I read, and then I had more questions, and then, asked more questions. When I did not get any good explanation, I read more and this continued and still continues. I often hear that bookish knowledge can only take you so far and one needs to experience situations to be successful. Neither do I disagree nor do I agree with that. Because such statements are so general and wide that they are not measurable and I have learned to make peace with ignoring such statements. I would however argue that books do help ask great questions because of the data presented in them. Another unfair argument is we should not read too many books. My answer to that is another question, “Who decides how much is enough?” It’s not like food that you start feeling satiated.

Reading books, has become a joyful experience for me. :) Most days, I start by reading a few pages and there is no pressure to complete a set amount of pages. I can also drop any book if it is not as interesting or if I do not fully get the author.

Finally, I believe there are no set guidelines on which books to read. In fact, if you are searching for guidelines on which books to read and where to get started, you are probably not doing it right. I started reading because I got curious and had no one to talk to about what mattered to me. If you remember from earlier, I hated books. Also, there is no shame in not being curious. Peace! Btw, I do still play outdoors, when I get the chance!

I am sharing few of the books below (keep adding and removing) that I am either reading or have already read. This is not a recommendation but just a list in no particular order of preference. If you have read any of them and want to discuss on the topics, let’s catch up and we can go on talking about them till one of us calls it a day. Cheers and have a happy reading journey!

Important

An important point I’d like to make here. I have searched for the best books to read, followed people whom I’ve resonated with, followed where my curiosity led me and finally discovered these books. So, if you really want to engage your curiosity, do not check the list, go and find the ones you really want to read. A good way to start is by wanting to know about something. For example, “You want to know why we see Northern lights. “ Go google, read about it and somehow, you will end up reading a book about The Planets by Brian Cox, Andrew Cohen. That’s how I ended up here; and believe, this is a better way than searching for best books to read. ;)

Geo Politics, History

  • Prisoners of Geography [Tim Marshall]
  • The Anarchy (reading) [William Dalrymple]
  • The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs (reread - lots of details that I tend to forget) [Steve Brusatte]
  • Early Indians [Tony Joseph]

Sciences (Anthro, Bio, Physics, Statistics, etc)

  • Cosmos (There is a disney+hotstar series as well which is engaging) [Carl Sagan]
  • Seven Brief lessons on Physics [Carlo Rovelli]
  • A Brief History of Time [Stephen Hawking]
  • The Planets (reading) [Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen]
  • Sapiens (reread) [Yuval Noah Harari]
  • The Selfish Gene (reread) [Richard Dawkins]
  • God Delusion (reread) [Richard Dawkins]
  • Behave (audiobook) [Robert M. Sapolsky]
  • The Manga Guide to Statistics (quick reference) [Shin Takahashi]

Critical Thinking, Learning

  • The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, 2 [Farnam Street: Shane Parish]
  • Atomic Habits (reference book) [James Clear]
  • A Mind for Numbers [Barbara Oakley]
  • Deep Work (reference book) [Cal Newport]
  • Superforecasting [Philip Tetlock]
  • Naked Statistics [Charles Wheelan]
  • Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) [Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson]

Business, Product

  • The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback [Dan Olsen, Walter Dixon]
  • Zero to One (reread) [Peter Thiel]
  • Sprint [Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz]
  • Prediction Machines [Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb]

Travel

  • 1,000 Places to See Before You Die