Books and Blogs

This page contains the list of books I read. For most of the Non-Fiction books, I write summary posts in Medium which I attached to corresponding book (if written). Check my GoodReads profile (prefer Desktop view) to get the entire list of books. Please do read the FAQ page before exploring further.

Note: This ExcelSheet has the entire list of the books that I had read so far incase you just need a list.

Note: I tried to include relevant hashtags for each book. The best way to search a book is to use Ctrl + F based on title, author or genre.

Common hashtags include (In few cases, I group and give a broader tag though in strict sense it's not correct)

nonfiction and fiction
selfhelp - psychology, personality development, growth etc;
thriller - mystery, crime etc;
autobiography - memoir, recollections etc;
philosophy, emotional, heartfelt
science, technology, computerscience, physics
biology - neuroscience, genetics, animals, plants, medicine etc;
economics - finance, stockmarket etc;

Note: To catalogue in this manner, I am inspired by several and Derek Sivers is one of them who maintains an exhaustive list.

2021

They Both Die At The End

Author: Adam Silvera

Read on: Oct 2021

Omg…It's beautifully written and I am happy that I read this book.

Usually, I won't take notes for fiction, but this has some strong messages that touched my heart. I closely relate myself to Mateo as I myself am a bit introvert, not exploring new places and just sitting at home. But recently, I had decided to “have an equal split in the pie” and realized it's all about balances (before starting this book), and reading this book reinforced my opinion.

There are lots of fictional (or yet-to-be-created-companies) like Death Cast (which tells when you are going to die) and Last friends app (where you can make friends for one last day, sounds like a version of Insta or Snap) and these things made it interesting.

Tags: fiction, heart-touching

Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes

Author: Cory O'Brien

Read on: Sept 2021

Hahaha..What a funny book it is to read the myths of several cultures across the world. But seriously, this guy might had got some real threats for this book

Jokes apart, this book gives an intro to several mythological stories ranging from Greek, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian etc; The initial Greek part was way more fun than the entire book. He mocksridicules several Gods across several mythological stories. I'm not sure about the truth part, but as the titleand intro says (in a rough sense - 'mythology/myth is something we create for our uses’

Note: This book is not for faint-hearted or for those who take their religion/culture too seriously. He mocks a lot of gods, cusses and criticizes. I had some tough time in reading some parts, but it's ok.

Tags: fiction, satirical

Almond

Author: Sohn Won-pyung

Read on: July 2021

Simply wow.

“So, your grandmother was killed in front of you. How did you feel about that?” “I felt nothing”

These lines simply summarize the novel.

The protagonist Yunjae, suffers from Alexithymia, a brain disorder where his amygdala is underdeveloped. This means he can't express emotions (not only that he even can't feel emotions). Simply, he lacks empathy (a chapter where he doesn't even respond to a butterfly dying in front of him, and the episodes where his family were brutally killed in front of him just baffles the reader). There's another guy named Gon (or Leese) who's childhood was spoiled and turns out to be a mini-goon. How these two meet and What happens as these two 'monsters’ interact is the rest of the book.

I just loved reading this as it subtly talks about a neurological disorder (Yunjae's), a psychological issue (Gon's childhood), and pressure from parents towards career (Dora's) and how these characters helped each other (without even knowing that they are actually helping out). Few episodes from Yunjae are just mindblowing (the butterfly episode, preclimax where he stood up for Gon against Street Wire)

The suffering of Yunjae can't be imagined. If his almonds are normal, I believe he would have committed suicide or gone to mental depression

Tags: fiction, heart-touching

Birthday Girl

Author: Haruki Murakami

Read on: July 2021

Open ending. Multiple interpretations. Murakami style novel (though I read only one small novel of his i.e The Strange Library)

Our protagonist, who's a waiter in a restaurant turns 20 and her plans to celebrate it grandly fails as she gets an unexpected shift. She has to serve dinner to the restaurant owner who stays in room 604 where no one had ever seen him outside of that room for years. What happens in room 604 after she goes?

As usual, Murakami leaves a lot of details for the reader to interpret. We don't even get to know the name of the protagonist?

Tags: fiction, open ending, quirky

Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom

Author: Sylvia Plath

Read on: July 2021

Open ending. Multiple interpretations. A very crisp book.

Mary Ventura was made board a train by her parents which takes her to Ninth Kingdom. She meets a stranger in train who says that the Ninth Kingdom is only one-way passage i.e no one returns from that place.

Now what's the Ninth Kingdom comprised of? Did Mary still pursued going to Ninth Kingdom or abandoned her journey in the midway? What happens to her? Is the stranger a good lady who genuinely wanted to help Mary or an evil person who misguided her? All these questions were left unanswered which brings in for multiple interpretations.

The author was suffering from clinical depression and killed herself also suggests a different perspective for this short novel. Despite this being rejected as a book, it's beautifully written (apparently she wrote during her studies)

Tags: fiction, open ending, quirky

Strange Planet

Author: Nathan W Pyle

Read on: July 2021

P.S: It's almost similar review for both the books.

What's the language of alien? Or a species (robots) who might laugh at some of the customs/traditions of humans. Read this short comic to get the sarcastic tone of some of the most human things that we do.

Very funny and written in satirical tone. The words that author came up to describe objects i.e sustenance, revolution day, mouth pushing, ingesting, two-wheel leg pusher, star light dimmer, comfort squares, seriousness cloth, rest-flat place are all very funny when read in comic

If you want some upbeat, do read this and the next book (Stranger planet) by the same author. It barely takes few hours but I'm sure your lips produce U-shape i.e Smile, trying to write in author's tone :)

Tags: witty, quirky, satirical

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Author: Hiro Arikawa

Read on: July 2021

When you read some books, you get feeling of warmth, cozy, lively and sort of feel-good satisfaction. It's as if the story is played on a screen. Or you are a third person viewing the entire story from a distance. Well, this is one such book written and translated brilliantly.

Nana, a stray cat was bought and sheltered by Satoru. Though they were happy, one day Satoru decides to give away the cat. Despite his humongous affection towards cats, why did Satoru decide to leave it? Did he leave it?

Read the book which explores friendship, funny episodes, emotional bonding as the two travel and meet Satoru's friends. We can view many things from a cat's perspective which at places produced quite a good laugh.

Tags: fiction, emotional, feel good, satirical, funny

Stranger Planet

Author: Nathan W Pyle

Read on: July 2021

P.S: It's almost similar review for both the books.

If you want some upbeat, do read this and the previous book (Strange planet) by the same author. It barely takes few hours but I'm sure your lips produce U-shape i.e Smile, trying to write in author's tone :)

Tags: witty, quirky, satirical

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death

Author: Caitlin Doughty

Read on: July 2021

Funny, pretty short and highly informative book.

The only thing that's common among all humans (or for that matter, all living beings) is “Death”. Cultures, regions, countries, races varies no matter what. Even how different organisms born, different organisms breath varies. But death is the only phenomenon that unites us. And thus it's really important to learn about death.

This book is not sad, and doesn't deal about how people die and all. It deals with questions about what happens to the body after we die (Personally this is my first book in this sub genre and I learned a lot)

This book is written in a Q&A format where the author answers most common questions regarding death such as

1. How do we smell after we die?

2. Will we really see a white light at death bed?

3. What if an astronaut dies in space?

4. Can I wear my dead grandma's bones as jewelry?

And a lot more.

Tags: science, death, little bit quirky, fun

The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success

Author: Darren Hardy

Read on: July 2021

Old school. Redundant, routine and almost everything he says is well known to us. He himself says it: “There's no secret formula. Magic bullet. All you need to do is track your habits and start small changes”

These self-help books help only if you aren't pretty clear and are demotivated/looking for strength etc; I realized that spending more time on self-help, personality development books won't really change us much. Read 2-3 books in this genre (at max 5) and start implementing the good points from them instead of clinging over a pile of self-help books for years and repenting later that your life didn't change much.

The number of self-help/personality development books you pick every year should be reducing no matter what.

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: self help, savings

Value Investing and Behavioral Finance: Insights into Indian Stock Market Realities

Author: Parag Parikh

Read on: June 2021

Overall it's a 4/5 but felt uninterested while reading parts because of the repeated content.

His previous book “Stocks to Riches” is better at understanding the cognitive biases while investing. While this book also lists out, I find the methodologies, analysis and inferring on Sensex data more usual and informative. A good read for a beginner who's looking to learn about value investing, our cognitive biases and how to avoid them. And has some interesting analysis on Sensex data (some ideas might be counterintuitive till we see the tabulated results)

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, psychology

How to Avoid Loss and Earn Consistently in the Stock Market

Author: Prasenjit Paul

Read on: June 2021

Beginner level book for stock market. Covers a lots of basic concepts and as the title suggests, it's really a practical guide to small investors. Content wise it's 45. I found some redundantbasic material as I read few books in this genre.

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, psychology

The Dhandho Investor: The Low-Risk Value Method to High Returns

Author: Mohnish Pabrai

Read on: June 2021

The author offers a framework for low-risk, high-returns investments. The best part is, he gives a lots of references on where to look and get ideas for value investing

There are lots of anecdotes at the start about Patel, Manilal's, Mittal's etc; to describe the Dhandho framework. That part can be just glanced. Otherwise it's a 4/5.

A good read for anyone looking into value investing.

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, psychology

The Little Book of Value Investing

Author: Christopher H Browne

Read on: June 2021

Every investor want to pick the 'next-great-stock’ and want to be like Warren Buffet but very few (maybe 1%) of the investors actually generate huge wealth. It's not because of lack of intelligence. As said in the book. “The lack of temperament is the main issue for an investor to be wealthy”.

“To be wealthy, you don't need an excellent IQ. An average IQ person who can control their emotions during the bear and bull phases and invests for a long duration had never failed in the 100 odd years of stock market”

I am convinced. The best way (not the easiest) to beat the market is “Pick the right stock and stay for long enough”. Now, how to know which is the right stock? And how long to stay?

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, psychology

The Little Book That Stil Beats the Market

Author: Joel GreenBlatt

Read on: June 2021

While the content is good, it's almost same as the previous version “The Little Book That Beats the Market”. So, no need to spend more time reading book which carries almost same info

But the logic of magic formula is quite good and practical to implement with their website. For Indian Markets, a little bit of manual work has to be done, but it's practical

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, psychology

Stocks to Riches

Author: Parag Parikh

Read on: June 2021

Introductory but very important for all investors. Gives a gentle touch to “Behavioral Finance”, how our emotions cloud our judgement, take irrational decisions during volatile markets etc;

Personally, I've suffered from these cognitive biases during this one year of investing in market. Practicing these to control emotions during investment is the toughest and most underrated one.

Anyone who's interested in the long term investing must look into this book not because it offers any techniques but explains our psychology, emotions towards money and how we can leverage for our purpose

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, psychology

The Richest Man in Babylon

Author: George S Clason

Read on: June 2021

If you didn't start investing/savings, then the anecdotes mentioned in this book will definitely have an impact. It's not that we don't know or the author tells new points towards savings, it's about how people over 5000 years ago viewed savings, how their principles are still sound and practical

The most important takeaways are: 1. Always put 10% of your income aside irrespective of your lifestyle and needs.

2. Spend only 70% of your income for yourself and your family

3. Never buy something that you can't afford

4. Invest with the help of wise people. Don't get lured by irrational returns/schemes

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, psychology

The Little Book That Beats the Market

Author: Joel GreenBlatt

Read on: June 2021

The technique described in this book can be directly applied in US market (as they already maintain a website for that). If we want to apply for Indian market, need to do some work in filtering out companies using the prescribed criteria (Not big task, but still a task)

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, stockmarket

Coffee Can Investing: the low risk road to stupendous wealth

Author: Saurabh Mukherjea

Read on: June 2021

Good read. No in depth theory and highly practical. Very relevant to Indian investors in creating an entire portfolio from scratch.

1. For Large Cap –> ETFs and Coffee Can Filters (looking into few values from balance sheet and filtering out companies)

2. Mid and Small Cap –> Mutual funds, Coffee Can Filters

3. Debt funds –> Mutual funds

Read Goodreads full review and this detailed notes.

Tags: finance, money, savings, wealth, stockmarket

Zikora

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Read on: June 2021

Zikora, a 39-yr old lawyer tells her lover that she got pregnant which makes him to leave her. Despite that, she decides to carry the baby and the rest of the story is about how they actually met, the relationship between her and her mother, her mother and her father.

It describes the pain carried by women during pregnancy and the biological differences, how it makes them difficult to live. Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: pregnancy, motherhood, fiction, feminism

The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

Author: Morgan Housel

Read on: June 2021

When it comes to investment, I also believe that the greatest skill to master is not math or finance but the psychology. The temptation to have ripe fruits when you can wait and get the entire farm. The fear of losing our capital when all you need to do is sit back and relaxed

It's easy to say and very difficult to follow. I myself can't follow at few occasions and when I feel there will be a short fall, I will book profits, and reinvest when it reached a min point. I think I am playing clever but in reality it's not.

Read Goodreads full review for summary points. Check this for detailed notes.

Tags: finance, psychology

The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To

Author: Dean Burnett

Read on: June 2021

Witty, funny and I've learned new concepts in neuroscience. The author explains the neurological point of view for several daily happenings such as

1. Why do we feel motion sickness?

2. Why do we feel very sad during breakups?

3. Why do we get scared at the shadow of a tree?

4. Why do we remember faces but not names?

5. How we fail to differentiate the taste between apple and potato? (It's true under some conditions)

And a lot of cognitive biases, delusions, illusions etc;

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: science, neuroscience, psychology

Hardcore Self Help: Fk Anxiety

Author: Robert Duff

Read on: June 2021

Very brief. To the point and offers some good suggestions. Robert Duff clearly says that it has lot of swearing, uses informal language and it actually works for some because it feels as if he is talking to you

He talks about what anxiety is (a brief intro), how it comes (mental and physical factors) and how to deal with it. He also talks about people who doesn't face anxiety in life, how they can support their friends/family if someone feels anxious and they don't know how it feels to be anxious.

Tip: “Don't give free advice when someone is anxious because most probably, they know about it”

Tags: self-help, psychology

The Gene: An Intimate History

Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Read on: May 2021

There are only few books which gives a detailed introduction, history and the future prospects of a field. This book is one of them. Can be considered as a primer for genetics.I can't summarise or try to list important points because there are a plethora and that itself makes a small book.

If you are interested in science, want to know about yourself and what all this genetic stuff is about do pick the book. It's highly information loaded and will take sometime to read and understand but at the end, you will feel a satisfaction on how the science had evolved from mere ideas to rigorous experimentation.

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: science, biology, ethics, genetics

If Cats Disappeared from the World

Author: Genki Kawamura

Read on: May 2021

Quirky. Philosophical. Comical. Thought Provoking. Bit Emotional. A mixture of all these features, this small book describes about a person who is about to die, but magically gets an opportunity to extend his life for one more day. In return he needs to make one item disappear from this world (a trade for his one day)

What did he made disappear in this world? How the world changes because of his decision? Theoretically, he can exchange infinite objects and get infinite days to live. But will he chose to do so? This book makes one to think about the extravagant life that we, present day humans live. The calmness of simplicity is powerful and it's demonstrated (though fictional, most of the points resonate deeply)

“If you want to gain something, you need to lose something”, “Life and love are beautiful because they have endings”

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: fiction, philosphy, quirky, emotional, comedy

The Blue Umbrella

Author: Ruskin Bond

Read on: May 2021

A feel good novella using simple yet elegant English. It talks about a Binu, a village girl, who ends up possessing a beautiful blue umbrella and the consequences she has to face because of the umbrella. The main lesson I captured is “Don't lament for something if it's not necessary”

Tags: comedy, children story, fiction

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Author: Austin Kleon

Read on: May 2021

No bullshit and lengthy, self-repetitive self-help theory. Austin Kleon directly gives 10 points which helped him to be creative. At the start, he writes “When people give advice, it's as if they are talking to their past self”. It literally makes sense.

Main points covered are:

1. Copy from your heroes (there's a subtle difference between copying and plagiarizing)

4. There's nothing original. If anyone claims that their piece of work is original, you can backtrace it to some previous version or can find the inspiration for their work.

9. Use paper often. More ideas come when we use pen and paper and when we are in boredom

16. Hobbies, side projects are something which takes nothing and gives joy. So, pursue them throughout your life

25. When you read a book, do check the bibliography. Your next book often lies there

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: creativity, advice, self-help

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Author: Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

Read on: May 2021

The most important points are

1. Libertarian Paternalism: The policy and intervention should be minimal (thus providing freedom of choice to individuals i.e Libertarian) but should provide an intrinsic nudge towards general good (give a gentle push towards a choice if the individual is confused, thus paternalism)

2. Default choice: Most of the time, we just stick with the default (the wallpaper, ringtone etc;) So, policymakers need to make sure that the default is a good one (for public)

3. Talks about education system, climate change, credit cards, savings, investments, insurance, healthcare and how small, subtle changes bring great outcomes in society.

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: economics, psychology, behavioural science

Sync: The emerging science of spontaneous order

Author: Steven Strogatz

Read on: May 2021

One of the most informative and interesting book I have read. Often we observe natural phenomenon but can't comprehend the science or mechanism behind them. Steven H. Strogatz beautifully explains without using any mathematical equations (and superb metaphors, stories to relate to non-technical readers). Some of the phenomenon covered are:

1. How fireflies light up at the same time?

2. Why we sleep easily at particular time of a day but can't sleep at other time of the day (circadian rhythms)?

3. Decoding brain waves, how to understand the waves

4. Superconductors, how they are created and what laws govern them

5. How networks work, best example is how epidemics (such as Covid) spread in a given cohort?

6. Why (and how) do people in an auditorium clap in harmony?

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: science, math, chaos

Freedom from the Known

Author: J Krishnamurthi

Read on: April 2021

J Krishnamurti talks about several basic elements of human life like humility, violence, time, sorrow, silence, happiness, joy, pleasure, anger, relationships, love, meditation, religion, memory, thought etc; and at almost all the places, shatters our common perception.

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: philosphy, spirituality

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Author: Daniel Goleman

Read on: March 2021

People care more about the mathematical or technical prowess i.e an indicator of IQ. “If you have more IQ, you are good”, “Having a good IQ –> success, well settled, rich etc;” is what they believe. But Daniel Goleman explores Emotional Intelligence Quotient/ EQ, Emotional Intelligence and makes a compelling case that this metric is far more important to measure how happy you will be in future (or) how successful you might become etc;

Read Goodreads full review.

Tags: psychology, self help, , biology, neuroscience

Surely You're joking Mr.Feynman

Author: Richard P. Feynman

Read on: March 2021

Well…most of us know Richard Feynman as one of the world's famous physicist. And a few might have heard about “Feynman technique” when learning a new concept which roughly goes like this “You can vouch that you understood a concept only if you can explain it to a 7 yr old kid and the kid can understand it perfectly”

This book shows the other shades of Feynman. Before reading this, I thought Feynman is a studious fellow who just delves in books and equations. But this gives an entirely new picture of this guy I believe lived his life to the fullest He entertains not just himself but everyone who's with him with his sarcasm, idiosyncratic nature and stubbornness. A party guy, who visits bars frequently (and presumably do physics while enjoying), learns new skills (such as playing drums, learning Japanese, Portuguese, painting) to entertain himself himself and get satisfied while he travels across the world (to give lectures).

There are few incidents in this book which makes us laugh at how childish he behaves at others (though his stubbornness is altogether the next level) such as

1. For a particular trip, the manager asks to produce tickets to reimburse the amount. Feynman says he won't give tickets because you have to trust on what he say instead of some paper. Finally, he doesn't get his reimbursement and continues not to produce tickets

2. For a particular contract, he says he'll only sign at 13 places. But the entire contract has 14 signatures with the last one being his paycheque. Still he doesn't sign on that

And there are lot of other incidents which I am sure will make us laugh. Some of them made me think “Is he really the Nobel laureate?”

Check Amazon.

Tags: memoir, biography, funny, science

The Silent Patient

Author: Alex Michaelides

Read on: Feb 2021

Usually, I read a book slowly, to grasp details and feel it. But this one, I felt anxious to reach till the end and probably that made this book my fastest fiction read. The suspense carried till the end was just amazing. The way the author unravels the facts at the last 10-20 pages literally makes one jump out of the seat.