My Fav Books of 2019
Open Borders by Bryan Caplan: This was fantastic. A graphic-non-fiction on a potentially complex topic. But the author’s magic is presenting it and arguing the case in an easily digestible manner. I have never heard any arguments for the concept of Open Borders. Like many, I have not questioned nations and borders. I also didn’t think much about immigration and its benefits. I came to accept the status quo until I encountered this book. It argues persuasively on the benefits of open borders, its impact on economy and culture.
The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin - Manu Pillai: Wonder collection of essays on the history of India. It is a tonic in our current age of right-wing revisionist history. It is divided into 3 parts Before British Rule, During British Rule and Afterwards. It shows the lesser-known characters in Indian history. Like the legendary historians, like Ram Guha and William Dalrymple, Manu is excellent in his research and writes it in a beautiful and interesting manner.
The Life of Frederick Douglass - David Walker: I am a newbie when it comes to the history of America or on the topic of slavery or the American Civil War. But what I love about the American pop-culture like movies or graphic novels is that they make all these topics in a fascinating and extremely accessible manner to a layperson like me. I have been hearing about the name “Frederick Douglass” in my social media feed for quite a while. So a graphic novel on him really intrigued me, as it is relatively easy to read and finish it. This book is such a great and quick primer into the era of slavery, American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln through the lens of Frederick Douglass. For a complete newbie like me, this was a fantastic crash course of history on the perils of slavery and the formation of USA. Highly recommend it, if you are curious about the politics and history of USA
Art Matter by Neil Gaiman: This charming little but heartfelt propaganda for making good art is wonderful. The art work accompanied by the brilliant words of Neil Gaiman is truly inspirational. It’s a very quick read. Highly recommend it.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: Unlike pseudo-intellectuals who look down on the self-help genre, if you are looking to improve some aspects of your life, like quitting some habits or building new habits, I highly recommend this. It is short, has very less fluff and it is quite actionable. You can actually finish the book in one reading session. All chapters have an excellent bullet-pointed summary which captures the highlights. James also provides a lot of templates and actionable tips. It differs from Charles Duhigg’s book on habits in two ways. It really provides tools and mechanisms to get started and implement what you learn. It is quite short and very less on theory.
Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella: I wanted to like this book because Satya Nadella is not the typical CEO. Usually, India born CEOs are either from IIT or IIM or Stanford. He studied at Manipal University. When many of the US migrated Indians are into baseball or basketball, Satya is into cricket and seems like he can play it well too. Satya’s father is a Marxist but served in Indian Civil Service. His mother is a Sanskrit scholar. Satya’s challenge with his special needs kid and his graceful way of handling it. His love for books like Carol Dweck’s Mindset or Marshall Goldberg’s Non-violent communication. His emphasis on empathy and culture, I can go on. But hold on. I was expecting this book to be a story about him, his transformation, his learnings on how he influenced such a big organisation like Microsoft and revitalising it. But it was a mega-bore. Other than the first two chapters where he talks about his personal life, cricket and his son, which was mildly interesting, the rest of the book was really boring for me. It read like an internal blog with frequent mentions about Skype or Windows or any Microsoft’s product. If you really want to know about Satya’s life, you can simply skip this. This book reminds me of Bill Gates’ Business @ Speed of Thought. (Bill is definitely my hero, I love his book recommendations but not this one )
Skin in the game - Nassim Taleb : I have been hearing about Taleb a lot for a long time, and I picked this one after a colleague was showering praise on this book. SITG by Taleb is refreshingly frustrating. Yes, many things he says might lack nuance, but he seems to know his shit. He is not foolishly dressing down Thaler or Pinker or Sam Harris. But I don’t see the depth of this topic. I would give four stars because of the novelty of ideas and for being commonsensical contrarian. On the first listen, what he says is new, nod-worthy and also gives that aha-moment. But to take his views seriously, I need to “read” the book and dig deep, instead of “listening” to this. My audiobook listening to SITG satisfied my goal. I want to understand in broad stroke why Taleb is being hyped up. In a way, he has “racked his gun” and got my attention with SITG. I will have to dig into the Taleb rabbit hole in the next weeks by listening to podcasts and other critiques of him to understand him better. I will revisit my ratings in some months
Five Love Languages - Gary Chapman: The cheesy title and corny cover made me hesitant to pick it up and read. But somehow through a push from a newsletter and insistence of my wife, I started listening to the audiobook. I am really thankful for people who recommended this. Yes, I can mock the cheesy title and corny topic. But I would have remained stupid if I had not read it. This book really worked for me because it gave me a lens to look into my marriage. It enriched our vocabulary to articulate the problems. Gary frames the communication problem in any marriage in a nice, simple and articulate manner. Every person has a way of expressing love and it is their “love language”. Every person has a “love tank” which gets filled when someone uses their “love language”. Listening to this book was really an epiphany because the love language of my wife is not the same as mine. I could easily figure out the instances of irritation and how it could have been addressed. I highly recommend this book. Doesn’t matter whether you are married or single or about to be married, this book is really good. It can equip with a simple framework, right vocabulary and a good lens to understand yourself, your spouse, your kids and your family.
Thanks a thousand by AJ Jacobs - A short and wonderful read on gratitude. The author tries to thank the people behind his morning cup of coffee. This sets him in a wonderful journey, where he meets the people behind growing beans, packing coffee, designing coffee cups and so on. I thought this will be cliched but it is really good. The author inspired me to have a gratitude journaling practice. It definitely calms down my anxiety and irritation which can be harmful and of no use in many circumstances.
The Mom test by Rob Fitzpatrick - I re-read this book for the second time. Simply because, this is one of the best books in giving you tips on how to talk to and understand the customers. Yes, reams of books has been published with theory and tons of blogs are available. But this is short, crisp and very well written books. It is extremely tactical and at the same time liberating with its commonsensical approach. Anybody who works in area to understand the customers’ need or “customer development” this is a must-read book.
(These days I don’t read much fiction because I get my dose of it from excellent movies and TV shows. I only read a good graphic novel and two audiobooks in fiction last year)