Books

Oct 13, 2024 ∞

Sweet Bean Paste -Meaning of Life

“Is a life worth living even if it doesn’t seem to offer any value to anyone? This beautiful book by Durian Sukegawa (real name Tetsuya Akikawa) offers an answer in this heartwarming story of an old lady who decides to work for a dorayaki (a Japanese dessert) seller. The answer is, ‘There is meaning in every life.’

P.S. The bookmark in the picture is made by my little daughter who is in love with bookmarks and books.”

Sep 23, 2024 ∞

Sweet Bean Paste is one such a sweet read. Absolutely loved this book for its simplicity, story and characters. And, it was a memorable read for some other reason as well- the beautiful bookmark created by Ameya for this book.

Jan 20, 2024 ∞

What I read in 2023

The absurdity of the hope that we will do things differently in the new year than what we did in the year gone by is mindboggling. Yet, hope and optimism force us to persist in our practice of making resolutions. Last year, I had planned to read copiously on the nexus of nature, climate change, and religion but barely managed to read a couple of books. This was part of my old practice of picking a theme and going deep on that subject. While the reading lists that I had for this year remained unconquered I devoured a lot of material on these topics. My shelf of half-read books is getting bigger and bigger. There are many great books worth reading and I have been made helpless by time poverty. Being selective is the only option.

Non-fiction

Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly
The Creative Act – A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Life is Hard – How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya
Midlife by Kieran Setiya
Climate, Catastrophe and Faith by Philip Jenkins
Everything and Nothing by Tony Cartwright
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins

Fiction

The Year of Locust by Terry Hayes
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz
Long Shadows by David Baldacci

2022 2021 2020 2019 2018(2) 2018(1) 2017(2) 2017(1) 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2008 2007 2006

Aug 30, 2023 ∞

#Metacognition refers to people’s knowledge of their own thought processes. We often have little conscious awareness of how we think. Self-monitoring your own thought processes is one way to improve how you think." #CriticalThinking

Jun 7, 2023 ∞

“In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius.” - Thomas Friedman

May 28, 2023 ∞

Finished reading: Desert Star by Michael Connelly 📚

May 25, 2023 ∞

Finished reading: The War Of Art: Break Through The Blocks And Win Your Inner Creative Battles by The War Of Art: Break Through The Blocks And Win Your Inner Creative Battles 📚

May 22, 2023 ∞

Finished reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚

Jan 1, 2023 ∞

My Reading List – 2022

I already wrote about what happened with my reading routine and habit this year. But still managed to read some books. Here are the books that I finished this year. There are at least 3-4 books that I am done halfway and will include them in the next years list.

The first two in the list are recommended to anyone who is interested in reading books that fundamentally change your perspectives about many things. The first one changes the way you look at success, time, and life and the second one changes the way you look at money.

Previous Years

2021 2020 2019 2018(2) 2018(1) 2017(2) 2017(1) 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2008 2007 2006

Jun 3, 2020 ∞

Malice - Another gem from Higashino

Keigo Higashino is referred as ‘the Japanese Stieg Larsson’ on the cover of this book. I think this is a very bizarre comparison if I consider the plot and writing style of these two authors. The comparison can only be justified if we consider a) both write crime fiction, and b) both have been bestsellers in their respective countries. Anyway, I am happy if this comparison brings more people to read to this master storyteller’s work.
Malice, written in 1996, is the third book by Higashino to be translated in to English from Japanese. The other two books “The Devotion of Suspect X” and “Salvation of a Saint” are among the best murder mysteries that I read in last five years. In both these books, readers were aware of who committed the crime but the mystery was how the murders were committed. In Malice, we know who committed the murder but the mystery was why the murder was committed.
Kunihiko Hidaka, a bestselling author, was found dead by his wife Rie and friend Nonoguchi just before he was to move to a new country. Detective Kaga, ex-colleague of Nonoguchi, gets the responsibility of the case and soon he discovers major flaws in Nonoguchi’s alibi. Nonoguchi, a writer himself and aspiring to be a bestseller author like Hidaka, confesses his crime but there were many missing pieces in his confession about the motive of the crime.
Higashino narrates the story through Nonoguchi’s and Kaga’s written accounts of the event during the investigation. The two main characters of Malice are writers and there is a lot of discussion of meeting timeline and writing styles, yet Higashino’s prose is bereft of any literary-ostentatiousness. Higashino is easy on his readers.
Malice is another gem from Higashino. I am eagerly waiting for his other works to be translated in English.

Dec 31, 2016 ∞

What I read in 2016

Non-fiction

Connect by John Browne
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami
Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Hooked by Nir Eyal
Saving Capitalism by Robert B Reich
The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman

Fiction

Birdman by Mo Hayder
Stranger by Dean Koontz
Memory Man by David Baldacci
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
The Last Mile by Michael Connelly
The Short Drop by Mathew Fitzsimmons
Instruments of Night by Thomas H Cook
Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben
A Midsummer’s Equation by Keigo Higashino
The Absent One by Jussi Adler Olsen
The Guise Of Another by Allen Eskens
Make Me by Lee Child

Dec 31, 2015 ∞

What I read in 2015

Non-fiction

Essentialism by Greg Mckeown
Move Up by Clotaire Rapaille and Andres Roemer
How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland
Looking Away by Harsh Mander

Fiction

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
Einstein’s Dream by Alan Lightman
The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman
The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins
One False Move by Harlan Coben
The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Descent by Tim Johnston
The Gir in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz
Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
Villain by Shuichi Yoshida
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada

Dec 31, 2014 ∞

What I read in 2014

Non-fiction

Capital by Thomas Piketty
The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
Think Like a Freak by Levitt and Dubner

Fiction

Decoded by Mai Jia
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
The Colorado Kid by Stephan Kind
Deception by Jonathan Kellerman
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
Personal by Lee Child
Yatrik by Arnab Ray
Malice by Keigo Higashino

Dec 16, 2014 ∞

The Goldfinch - A very short review of a rather long book

I just finished "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tart. A really bulky book (784 pages) and on top of it this is a very slow book. I read some glowing reviews of this book and since I was planning to read something other than a murder mystery or thriller I chose to read this book. This was anyway the first book from this author so I had no clue about what kind of experience I am going to have.

This is a story of a son who lost his mother in a bomb blast in a museum and gained multi-million dollar painting "The Goldfinch". The whole book is about a dead mother, a lost painting and growing up years of a grieving son. However, the supremely detailed narration is drab and dreary. I kept on going through this book, searching for things that made this novel the most talked about bestseller fiction of this year. The Independent and many others summarized this as a gripping page turner that describes modern day life. Surely my reading taste is different than many of these reviewers. Although, there are still some readers who will agree with me.

Aug 2, 2014 ∞

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hours Bookstore - A nostalgic read

Some places might not be very exotic, scenic or on people’s list of must see-must visit but often they offer something that many places do not: nostalgia and comfort arising out of familiarity. The neighbourhood park where one spent many of the childhood evenings playing with friends is one such place. If we take this analogy to stories, Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hours Bookstore is one such story. This is a story of 24 hour bookstore which employs a recession-hit, out-of-the-job website designer Clay Jannon.

A simple story which takes you through some of the familiar world of books and technology. There is an undercurrent debate on traditional books/bookstore vs the modern technology; and a fistful of elements taken from mystery and suspense thrillers thrown in there. The story forces one to move from one page to another, but for me reading the book was akin to visiting the neighbourhood park of my young days. There were a lot of things to make me feel nostalgic or relate to the story. Clay was a web-designer, loves technology (is a MacBook/iPhone/Kindle guy) and loves book…

Mr. Penumbra’s quaint bookstore is not a normal bookstore, it has mainly arcane and cryptic books for a devoted clientele. Mr. Penumbra’s bookstore has a higher purpose and Clay Jannon, the bookstore clerk, is not supposed to know that. But the curiosity gets better of him. With the help of his friend ( a lady who works at Google ) and Google’s tech-tools, Jannon tries to figure out the true story behind this unusual bookstore full of books containing gibberish.

Robin Sloan provides interesting glimpses of a modern metropolitan life, and pervasiveness and potential of technology. However, the story takes a formulaic path in the end and is only salvaged by the characterisation and the narrative.

Dec 31, 2013 ∞

What I read in 2013

Non-fiction

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Eat by Globe by Simon Majumdar
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnman
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Elder Shafir
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Focus by Daniel Goleman
The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stieglitz
Why Does the World Exist by Jim Holt

Fiction

The salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino
The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
Phantom by Jo Nesbo
Woman with Birthmark by Hakan Nesser
Immoral by Brian Freeman
The White Lioness by Henning Mankell
The Footprints of God by Greg Iles
A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
Inferno by Dan Brown
The Killings of Badger’s Drift by Caroline Graham
Blowback by Brad Thor
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin
The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
Deception Point by Dan Brown
Policy by Jo Nesbo
The Crucifix Killer by Chris Carter
The Luminaries by Eleanor Cotton
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall

Dec 31, 2012 ∞

What I read in 2012

Non-fiction

The Stuff of Thoughts by Steven Pinker
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Fiction

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin
Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Shibumi by Trevanian
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Things Fall Apart by China Achebe
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? Agatha Christie
The Green Mile by Stephen King
The Poet by Michael Connelly
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
The Day of Jackal by Fredrick Forsyth
The Stalker by Bill Pronzini
Gone Gir by Gillian Flynn

Sep 28, 2011 ∞

The Mind of the Market

For someone who works on ‘understanding markets’ and is familiar with previous works of Michael Shermer, picking “The Mind of the Market” from the bookshelf was an impulsive decision. And, the blurb made it clear that I have an interesting read for my weekend.

Shermer, drawing extensively from behavioral economics, neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary biology, offers his explanation of our seemingly irrational and often unpredictable economic behavior. Shermer, en route to his explanations, builds an excellent repository of cutting edge research in several disciplines and provides his readers a plethora of interesting examples and theories which have been part of great debate among academics; this itself makes his book immensely valuable and enriching. He starts with drawing parallels between Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Adam Smith’s invisible hand makes a cogent argument about interconnectedness of these two seminal works and how they affect behavior. His rebuttal of ‘Homo Economicus’ might not be very convincing to some but it does provide some good insights nonetheless.

“Morality of the market” and “morality and market” are the two themes you will come across in many chapters. While Shermer confesses the limitation of research findings when applied to real life settings, yet he does resort often to the same for his arguments. Shermer cherry-picks cases and examples to establish the creativity and efficacy of markets and its self correcting mechanism; and this has invited a fair amount of criticism to this book. This was almost expected if you consider that Shermer is also known as skeptic and wrote a scathing criticism for Ayn Rand’s philosophy in his essay “The unlikeliest cult in history” , in this book Shermer the skeptics takes the back seat and Shermer the libertarian emerges very strongly.

Jun 10, 2011 ∞

What I read in 2011

Fiction 1. Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Kazuo Highly recommended if you are looking for a good thought provoking science fiction. A mushy story about the lives of clones who were raised to be ‘donors’ for human beings. Was shortlisted for Booker in 2005.

2. 1984 by George Orwell I read a couple of dystopian novels recently. This was surely one genre defining novel. Does not need any recommendation.

3. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Probably the most widely read novel by an African author. Loved this book, reading this book was a pleasure. Simple story, simple writing, great impact.

4. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevesky One of the greatest Russian novels. You will love the struggle of ‘the original’ protogonist with the materialistic society. The tragic love story of Prince and Nastasya adds a number of new dimensions to relationship and love.

5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The second dystopian novel that I read this year.

6. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain A very highly rated crime novel. Some people put this novel in top 100 novels of last century. Did not impress me that much, story seems too familiar.. probably I read too many adaptation or saw different versions of the story in some movies.

7. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King Somehow finished it. I am not a big fan of horror stories, Stephan King’s writing and story telling skills made me tolerate this one.

8. Along came a Spider by James Patterson Wanted to read some light fiction and picked the Alex Cross series for time pass. Nothing much to write about here. A time pass.

9. Max: Maximum Ride by James Patterson Juvenile fiction. Well just picked it out of curiosity and lack of other options.

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse I read this 15 years ago, could not get much of this book at that time. Re-read it.

11. 2666 by Roberta Bolano A slow and very lengthy novel. Over 1000 pages. It was an ordeal in patience and test of my passion for reading as the story did not move much in first few hundred pages.

Non-Fiction 12.I hope they Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max Curiosity. Yes, that’s why I picked the book.

13. May I hebb Your Attention Pliss by Arnab Ray By One of my favorite bloggers who turned author. A great satire on our life in eighties and nineties.

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Sep 17, 2010 ∞

Night Train to Lisbon

Some stories gradually grow on you and some characters seem that they have been made from ingredients picked from your own life. And when this happens in a book, which is written lyrically and full of erudition, for readers like me, it is a something mesmerizing. A few weeks back I finished Pascal Mercier’s “Night Train to Lisbon”, a book originally written in German and later translated in several languages. The theme of book is delightful mix of philosophy and suspense. This concoction is very much expected as Pascal Mercier is pseudonym of philosophy professor Peter Bieri. The philosophy does not seem to take precedence, often case with most of the philosopher cum writers, it unfurls itself subtly with the story.

When I saw the blurb of the book, I was immediately tempted to grab a copy and I did just that. A middle aged teacher of Classics walks out of a class to explore life of an enigmatic Portugese doctor, a few pages from a book written by the doctor pushed him on an uncertain journey. The teacher, Gregorius middle aged, relatively well ensconced in his life, walking out on sheer impulse and on pull of an enigma, is in itself awe inspiring considering the way we cling to nugatory inane stuffs. Though the book intrigues you when Gregorius walks out but soon relegates Gregorius to a secondary role, he just becomes a prop in emergence of a larger than life character of Portugese doctor Prado. Prado is our typical larger than life hero who resides in almost everyone , struggling to come out but succumbs to cruelties of rational mind and selfish emotions. A hero, whose personality is carved with a mute conflict between a father and a son, a conflict which stemmed from deep love and unexpressed expectations, Prado is gifted in many ways. The life of Prado is portrayed in the book in many stories told by Prado’s friends and his sister to Gregorius. Marcier’s virtuoso story telling makes each of phase of Prado’s life and his struggle come alive in front of your eyes with exquisite stories told by different characters in the book. Gregorius goes on to discover Prado and his extraordinary life, punctuated by many events depicting superlative emotions, and this discovery for him becomes a self-discovery. This is surely one of the better books I have read in recent times, would recommend to anyone who savors intelligent well written fiction.