Year in Books: 2020

Let’s Get Started

The Rosie Project | Graeme Simsion
My first read this year (2020). I started just after taking the last of my annuals and I remember laughing hard. It’s a romcom about a genetic professor suffering from Asperger’s trying to find a wife. The Wife Project still gives me giggles. Oh and I remember picking this up after seeing it on Bill Gate’s to-read list.
Daemon | Daniel Suarez
A dystopian fiction where a computer program takes “control”. This was on my list for a long time. I read it in our public library and enjoyed the nerd talk. By the way, it also has a sequel Freedom (TM).
The Perks of Being a Wallflower | Stephen Chobsky
I liked it. A coming-of-age story of a scarred teenager who found himself (and made friends). I remember making the mistake of watching the movie first and that robbed me of the opportunity to visualise Sam :P.
I was experimenting with audiobooks then and it did not appeal to me appreciable.
A Thousand Splendid Suns | Khaled Hosseini
This one’s a gem. I loved it. It made me firmly believe in the power of the female. A story of grit, courage and determination about Afghani women who find themselves in the middle of a war-stricken nation. I have fond memories between its pages.
The Rosie Effect | Graemae Simsion
A sequel to The Rosie Project (see above) (There is actually one more). A development of the story told in the first book. Though I think it’s not as hilarious.
Head First C | D. and D. Griffiths (O’ Reilly Press)
My first ever proper grounding in the C language I now love so much (though I haven’t written much yet). I have taken notes of the book. Each page, each paragraph.
Crafting Interpreters | Robert Nystrom
A fascinating book which aims to (and succeeds) in destroying the lore of black magic that surrounds the “enigmatic” field of Programming Language Designing. The Java interpreter implementation hides low-level details and aims to introduce the concepts while the C compiler implementation is hard-core language designing with manual grabage-collection, optimization and all the good stuff. And oh, the illustrations are hand-drawn. I have only read the Java interpreter though.
- Bob’s blog: I like this guy for his attitude towards teaching stuff to others. I guess we should all be like him.
- The Dragon Book: I am not crazy and this is on my reading list (I have even leaved through the book).
The Alchemist - by Paulo Coelho
A fable and imaginative story about Santiago who goes on an adventure and finds himself where he started. Heavily metaphorical and ok. Honestly, I didn’t understand the fuss around this book because I had partly thought of the ideas in the book on my own.
Tao Te Ching - by Lao Tzu
My introduction to Taoism. This book was among the most recommended among Tim Ferriss’ guests so I picked it up. Highly rewarding and really worth multiple reads.
My favourite excerpt? Oh, there are too many! But to quote an example,
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.
- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Just for Fun, The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary | Linus Torvalds and David Diamond
Story of the nerd who changed the course of mankind’s development told by himself? Check. It’s like standing in a Hall of Fame (for me). No wonder Linus comes closest to the idol I yearn to have. (2021 edit: I don’t idolise him as much). Impressed by his throughly-thought after ideas about Open Source, it’s mechanism, implications, pros and cons. I quote him saying,
I was kind of aware of friends getting laid more, but that was okay.
Most of them were losers too.
The Brothers Karamazov | Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I have read till Part 2, chapter 5 - The Grand Inquisitor.
Who moved my Cheese? | Dr. Spencer Johnson
Ok, let me confess. I still don’t get the point of this book. We have to change and adapt lest we want to become obsolete and perish. Is this all? Or am I missing something? Please help me here.
Ready Player One | Ernst Cline
A great book which got me fanatically digging up ancient relics from the 80s. Set in a dystopian world where people jack into the OASIS, a virtual reality to hide in an illusion. Wade Watts must find the Easter Egg to inherit the OASIS from its creator, Halliday or else it passes into the hands of IOI, a corporate. Told in a gripping style, it was a “research book” for me and highly rewarding.
PS: Needless to say, can’t wait for this.
The Catcher in the Rye | J. D. Salinger
Teenage angst overload? Pimples? Defiance? Insanity? Cynical? Vulnerable? All check. A classic which painted for the definitive modern adolescent. Lots of memorable characters, Holden Caulfield being the most. I hardly (and thankfully!) connect with Holden. Infact, it set me thinking if I am missing out. 😶
Head First JavaScript | Morrison (O’ Reilly Press)
My first encounter with the most ubiquitous language on the Web. Such a pity that its such a poorly designed language. I remember picking it up after being motivated to build my own website and so you see. Of course, I won’t ever recommend this book to anyone because it’s so obsolete. Perhaps you will be better off checking out MDN Web docs for an introduction to the latest JS.
But if you do have time, this book might be a nice read to understand why others built abstractions and tools and frameworks they did. But in the super-fast highway of web dev, its really a dream.
Rosalind Franklin, The Dark Lady of DNA | Brenda Maddox
A sympathetic read about my first genuine crush. But shh! Besides, you will probably laugh if you happen to be reading the blog of a person who has crushes on dead people 😅
And I was smitten. Also, I am not ashamed to say but this picture alone motivated me to complete this whole book.(I blatantly leave books midway if I lose interest).
She had her complexity and flaws though.

The Secret Life Of Adrian Mole | Sue Townsend
I don’t even know why I picked this book up in the first place. I think I completed it in two sittings. Recently, have developed a tendency to hunt for short books cause I am losing my ability to stay committed in this dystopian pandemic situation(!)
The Power | Naomi Alderman
Another one of those books where I cheated. It’s ~300 pages. And quite stupid. In fact, it compels me to call it obnoxious as a sci-fi story. The premise is fantastic (and the author takes great care to yield it successfully) but it is just not possible for the society it weaves to be stable. (But then that’s the point of stories. They are mere stories.)
Somewhere along the way female-kind develops the ability to discharge electricity from their bodies at will (like eels) due to some wacky nervous-agent used in WW2. And then Hades breaks loose. Upend religion, rape and murder men at will, and as they call it “right all wrongs”. Wacky.
Mastering VIM | Jovica Ilic
Short and sweet introduction to a fantastic editor. Honestly, I haven’t looked back to VS Code since. The text is not terse enough which makes it sound more like a tutorial and thus is great from a learning perspective. And I got so much from it!
Oh and before I forget, you can sign up here for weekly VIM nuggets. This is such an ideal way for me to learn VIM progessively. (And should be for you too!)
The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga
A social satire which will make you laugh hard and grimly introspect your actions at the same time. Set in India, the principal seat of satire and hypocrisy in the world, follow a “servant” from Laxmangarh who became a man, enterpreneur and much more. A debut novel bagging the Man Booker Prize in 2008, I surely have to watch out for this author. A must-read eye-opener for every Indian. Gruelsome and vile in parts but starkly true in the whole.
Sample this: “Being called a murderer: fine, I have no objection to that. It’s a fact: I am a sinner, a fallen human. But to be called a murderer by the police! What a fucking joke.”
The Selfish Gene | Richard Dawkins
A classic story of gene and why we came into the picture of life. Dawkin’s well-formed ideas litter these pages with ample grim examples from the bizarre kingdom of life. This book can change your entire perspective towards life. My best non-fiction read of 2020.
Can’t recommend this enough, notwithstanding whether you are into biology or not.
The Humans | Matt Haig
A short read motivated by Remy Sharp’s bookshelf. Some neat ideas. Mixed feelings. But I liked it.
Took me two days so not a lot invested.