Inspired by Patrick Collison’s luscious bookshelf, this page is the list of books I have read in the current year (whichever year you are reading it). Most of these are plucked from other people’s recommendation lists, popular choices, stuff I find interesting or just a random topic I want to learn about on a Saturday evening. Suggestions? Drop me a line!
I read somewhere (probably in an Umberto Eco article) that one can understand a man by going through his bookshelf. In any case, this is my bookshelf and I leave you to judge me at my worth. Happy browsing!
Currently Reading
- The Burden of Democracy
- Everybody Loves a Good Drought
- Children of Dune (Dune #3)
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
- From AI to Zombies
- Understanding Power
2024
Dune | Frank Herbert
Probably my favourite science-fiction saga so far. I’ll write more about it when I finish the other books.Dune Messiah | Frank Herbert
Mossad | Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal
India Unbound | Gurcharan Das
Undoubtedly, this is a book which has fired a lot of imagination and thought in me. India Unbound is a socio-political and economic analysis of India from Independence to the 2000s, written in a semi-memoir-like style by a liberal. This is exactly what I was looking for in terms of depth of analysis which is well suited to a beginner layman. I can now say I have decent historical context to analyse future reports and events in India. I can philosophise a lot after reading this book but I’ll stop myself and wait till I have seen my India. A quarter of a century is a generation and a long time for India to come-of-age. In some distant future, I wish to see India as it exists today and record what this miraculous nation is upto since the 2000s. And yet, somewhere deep down I’m afraid that I romanticise much.
Maybe it is not as rosy as it seems. For as I keep pondering Gurcharan’s words, I realised how bound we are to our uncontrollable fates being somehow thrown into the world and asked to make sense of it (and honestly, not a lot of us have the mental awareness to seek out the “moral and spiritual platform” to view themselves and the world around them and are happy to learn, earn, and die). I mean the individual aspirations of one person may not be enough to steer a country to greatness (because these are macroscopic emergent properties) or it might not be achievable in their lifetime. Is it then still worth it? To follow a passion so dearly as to gamble everything else?
I was born a decade after the economic reforms into a India which spoke of television and Coca-Colas and grew up in relative connectedness to the world through the Internet, listening to Radiohead and U2. And yet, my India is not the complete picture. It is like looking at the picture through a narrow slit. I yearn to see the picture. Maybe some day I will.
There are 2 sequels to this book on the broader themes of Dharma (Morality) and Kama (Desire) while this one dealt with Artha (Wealth). I’ll probably skip those for now and come back to them later.
Unfinished
Anything read more than 5% but less than 100% is noted here. I have to keep a running tab of how reckless I am with my books. sigh.
Cyberpunk: Science Fiction Anthology | Edited: Victoria Blake
Sex At Dawn | Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha
The art of manipulation | R. B. Sparkman
101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think | Brianna Wiest
A Creative Approach To Music Fundamentals | William Duckworth
Beautiful Code | Edited: Andy Oram and Greg Wilson
Man’s Search For Meaning | Viktor Frankl
How not to be wrong | Jordan Ellenberg
Coding the matrix: Linear Algebra for Computer Science Applications | Philip Klein
Checklist Manifesto | Atul Gawande
The Art of Game Design | Jesse Schell
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintainence | Robert M. Pirsig
The man who knew infinity | Robert Kanigel
Poems on Love and Other Difficulties | Rainer Maria Rilke
The art of electronics | Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill
Crafting Interpreters | Robert Nystrom
The 4 Hour Body | Tim Ferriss
Permutation City | Greg Egan
The Brothers Karamazov | Fyodor Dostoevsky
In the Footsteps of the Prophet | Tariq Ramadan
Infinite Powers | Steven Strogatz
Broken Ladders | Anirudh Krishna