My [Book] Year in Review 2022

My [Book] Year in Review 2022 

 2022 

1. "Foundation" - Isaac Asimov 
2. "Maxims for Thinking Analytically: The wisdom of legendary Harvard Professor Richard Zeckhauser" by Dan Levy  
3. "Easy Money" - Vivek Kaul 
4. "Last Among Equals: Power, Caste and Politics in Bihar's Villages" - M R Sharan 
5. "The Scout Mindset - Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't" - Julia Galef 
6. "Think Like A Rocket Scientist" - Ozan Varol 
7. "Vyasa Katha - Fables from the Mahabharata" - Nityananda Misra 
8. "Spielberg - a retrospective" - Richard Schikel 
9. "The Tyranny of Metrics" - Jerry Z Muller  
10. "Ceo Excellence: The Six Mindsets that distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest" - Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller 
11. "Mythic Imagination" - Joseph Campbell  
12. "Greenlights" - Matthew McConaughey  
13. "The book of Indian Kings: Stories and Essays" - Various 
14. "Zen in the Art of Archery" - Eugen Herrigel 
15. "Five and Twenty tales of Vikram and Vetal" - by Sivadasa and retold by Deepa Agarwal 
16. "The Dream of a Revolution - biography of Jayaprakash Narayan" - Dr Bimal Prasad and Sujata Prasad 
17. "Annihilation of caste" - B R Ambedkar 
18. "Eskimo Folk Tales" by Knud Rasmussen and W J Alexander Worster 
19. "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" - John Perkins 
20. "Navagraha Purana" - VS Rao 
21. "The Quiet American" - Graham Greene  
22. "Shah of Shahs" - Ryszard Kapuscinski 
23. "The Outsider" - Albert Camus 
24. "The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhav Rao's Hints on the Art and Science of Government" - Rahul Sagar 
25. "Doglapan - The Hard truth about Life and Start Ups" - Ashneer Grover 

When 2022 dawned, I promised to myself -  

1. Read less of management tomes 

2. Read more of diverse and good story telling [fiction and non-fiction]  

3. Experience the goodness of Hindi literature".  

 I failed abysmally on [3] but made good progress on the other two. 

There is no set order to how I decide what to read. A few of them I pick up from references on the TV shows that I watch [for example, I read "Eskimo Folk Tales" by Knud Rasmussen after I heard about it on "Borgen" - a Danish series on Netflix] and "Greenlights" by Matthew McConaughey after a mention on a talk show. 

"Last among equals" by M R Sharan is a riveting account of how grass roots democracy and activism work and what better state than Bihar as the setting for the plot. Bihar was the flavour when I picked up "The Dream of a Revolution", a biography of a man who captured the imagination of India in the 1970s - Jayaprakash Narayan.  

"Annihilation of Caste" by B R Ambedkar provides an excellent view into the incisive mind of one of India's most original and progressive thinkers and how the question of caste came to shape Indian politics.  

I did read less of management tomes and focused on topics that interest me - how to think better ["Maxims for Thinking Analytically", "Scout Mindset" and "Think like a Rocket Scientist"], how metrics can shape organizations ["The Tyranny of Metrics" and leadership ["CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best leaders from the Rest"]. 

My father recommended two books - "The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and "The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhav Rao's Hints on the Art and Science of Government". The latter should be essential reading for professionals (irrespective of where you serve) while the former is a peek into how superpowers can shape the world according to their interests.  

"Easy Money" by Vivek Kaul is a good series to understand how our lives are intertwined with finance and money. If you like Spielberg's movie, then "Spielberg: A retrospective" is a journey into the craft of the man who entertains us. You must be living on another planet if you have not received WhatsApp forwards with the words "Doglapan" or "Bhai, kya kar raha hain tu" - and what better way to know the originator of those phrases than the book itself. 

Hindu mythology continues to fascinate me and "The Navagraha Purana" [a masterful retelling of the myths of the planets] and "Vyasa Katha" [a translation of the numerous fables in the Mahabharata] did not disappoint.  

"Five and Twenty Tales of Vikram and Vetal" made me relive whatever little memories I had of the Doordarshan Series "Bikram and Betal" and also pick up some important precepts on navigating the world. 

I got curious about "Shah of Shahs" by Ryszard Kapuscinski when it was mentioned on Twitter as essential reading for students of International Relations and History.  Reading "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene and "The Outsider" by Albert Camus was a sincere attempt at absolving myself of sin for not having read these great authors ever in my life in spite of being a voracious serious reader - and boy, the redemption felt enlightening.  

"Zen In the Art of Archery" was a meditation on what it means to exert the right effort and how the journey is the reward. "Mythic Imagination" is collection of short stories written by Joseph Campbell - a genre for which he is much lesser known compared to his authority of the role of myths in civilizations. "The Book of Indian Kings" can be best described as the trailer of the movies behind the lives of the numerous kings that ruled the sub-continent. 

And how can I conclude by not mentioning that my Kindle reading insights has kept track of the numerous Amar Chitra Kathas that I have devoured. 

What's your list?

Here's to 2023! 

#Reading #2022 #Books