This year was not productive in terms of the number of books I wanted to read. This is mainly because other things taking priority over short stints throughout the year, which left me unable to focus on reading much. While this might be the generic reason, one thing I learned is that choosing the right kind of book is really important, essentially leading to two outcomes - either you devour it because you find it so interesting, or, the book doesn’t generate interest and you try to finish it sluggishly at the expense of other books (or don’t at all). In my case, it was the latter for two books this year and I realized that life is just too short to be stuck with a book trying to finish it, while there are millions of other books waiting to be read, which could indeed be worth the time. So, without further ado, here’s my list for this year.

  1. Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl
    • This is a book that I think everyone should read at least once in their lifetime. While the atrocities in the Auschwitz concentration camps are described, which makes it a melancholy read in some pages, but, this book is more about hope and optimism and how we can overcome extreme suffering by having the right mindset.
  2. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence - Anna Lembke, MD
    • This was a recommendation I got from a specific Huberman Lab podcast on which the author was a guest speaker. Being a somewhat regular listener of the podcast, there are several occasions in which Dopamine is mentioned and how as a neurotransmitter, it plays a crucial role in our daily functioning. As a teaser, have you ever had that feeling where you just had a piece of cake and surely, one slice wasn’t enough and you want more? That’s precisely the high dopamine levels in your body talking.
  3. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
    • Unfinished. Listening to others’ experiences, I think this book has a reputation of being hard to finish. And, for me, it has lived up to its reputation (I could only read 3/4ths of it). No disrespect to the author but, it seems like the book becomes repititive after a point and in my opinion, is quite dense right from the beginning. Moreover, I have moved on from my interest in behavioral economics, which was at its peak in 2020, and that’s also one of the reasons it was hard to finish this boook.
  4. 1984 - George Orwell
    • Unfinished. I honestly don’t remember why I could not finish this book. Maybe because I started reading at the time where things happening in the real world seemed awfully similar to what is described in the book, so a sense of déjà vu swept in? I distinctly remember the Russia-Ukraine war starting at the time. In any case, if not this year, I will finish it some day and write about it here.
  5. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World - Cal Newport
    • Cal is also the author of the famous Deep Work and has always had an unflinching stance on social media. This book talks about how the attention-seeking elements of these social media companies (mainly through their alarming colors, notification dings, and slot machine-like pull-down-for-more scroll features) are depriving us of the much-needed focus to do important work, which is otherwise spent by staying on their apps/websites. What I especially like in Cal’s writing is he always provides a list of actionable steps to achieve whatever the subject of converstaion is. For instance, a “Digital Declutter” is proposed, where, the challenge is to stay away social media for a calendar month. During this period, one has to explore/re-discover other activities that is meaningful and satisfying. After this refresh, optionally re-introduce select social media activities and make a plan as to how and to what extent will this be useful.
  6. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami
    • A must-read for the runners and also to those who have only run short distances but someday would like to get into long-distance running. I loved this book so much that I decided to dedicate an entire post to it.

With that, I realized that I am six books short of my target for this year. With the lessons learnt, I think at least twelve books (a book a month) is an achievable target for next year!