20 Books To Read In 2020

What do some of our most cherished leaders - Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk - have in common? They are all voracious readers, and credit at least a part of their success to their reading habit.

That said, while good books can be an everlasting love affair, bad books can be more boring than a date gone horribly wrong! So here is a small and humble effort to help you choose the ''right'' reading list for 2020, curated by yours truly for being life-changing and highly engaging. Just 30 minutes before bed to end your day wisely!

Some motivation before we start. We enter life with the confidence that we can conquer the world. Unfortunately, the rigmarole of daily existence – work, relationships, rat-race, expectations – often enervate us. And the grand idea of being wise & great gets quietly put aside. Why not let the ageless wisdom from good books serve as our guide as we navigate through the roller coaster of career and life? I promise you: each of these 20 books carry the potential to make us better humans and better managers.

[The 20 books below are across 5 genres. Have included a few lines on the book and how it has impacted me. You could also click at the link for their one page summary on my blog]

A. Siddhartha (Herman Hesse)

Siddhartha, Siddhi + Arth or ‘he who has found the meaning (of life)’, is just the book a ‘seeker’ could ask for: a young, intelligent man’s quest for fulfilment and peace. When I was turning 30 and wondering what I wanted from life, this helped me crystallise the path that has brought me thus far.

?B. Tuesdays With Morrie (Mitch Albom)

A dying professor teaches his young student many deep lessons on life. They meet for 14 Tuesdays, each with a new theme like the world, emotions, love, forgiveness, money, regrets etc. My 12 year old daughter and I read it together, and it prompted her to start writing her own blog.

C. Man’s Search For Meaning (Viktor Frankl)

This ‘classic tribute to hope’ says that we are happy when we find a meaning, a contribution, a calling in our life. Life without purpose, even with all comfort, will be hollow and aimless. Whenever I feel frustrated with life, this book tells me we, who have so much, have no right to complain. 

?D. The Power Of Now (Eckhart Tolle)

Those who seek the calmness of a still mind, a no-thinking time, will find the path to the Here & Now. Every time I get lost in the stress of job, Tolle reminds me that all the things that truly matter – joy, love, beauty, creativity, inner peace – exist only in this present moment.

A. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey)

The top 5 best-selling business book of all time, answers What is it that makes some people more effective than others? I try to use its teaching all the time, and even my wife says our married life has become richer since I read this book! What bigger endorsement do we need?

B. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff (Richard Carlson)

Carlson reminded me that much of our daily ‘stress’ is actually the “small stuff” – urgent deadlines, corporate bureaucracy, rude emails, demanding bosses, an assumed rat race, traffic problems, etc. The real problems –job layoffs, violence, death – are really few and far between. So why worry?

C. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Marshall Goldsmith)

People are successful because of certain good habits and in spite of some bad habits. The latter, if left uncorrected, can put serious brakes in our career. I met Marshall and can vouch that his list of 21 fatal flaws helped me confront my own demons and blind spots. 

D. The Leadership Pipeline (Ram Charan, Steve Drotter, Jim Noel) 

I have often wondered why so many bright careers hit a glass ceiling. Promising performers at entry level become below average at higher levels and do not get further promoted. Charan shows us it is because we fail to master the incremental skills needed for the next level.

E. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (John Gray)

“A man’s sense of self is through achievement, motivated only when he feels needed. A woman’s is through feelings, motivated when she feels cherished.” My wife, Saba, and I have been married for 20 years and we credit this book to have (at least partially!) understood each other.

A. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)

A moving story from Afghanistan, it had all the deeply emotive themes of guilt, redemption, father-son relationship, violence and rape. Made me cry, cringe and nostalgic. After all, good literature is but a narrative of life itself.

B. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

Rand’s magnum opus, is a brilliant paean on capitalism and individualism. When government tries to be coercive, all productive people go on a strike, led by the mysterious John Galt. I have developed a strong dislike for authority that doesn’t allow the workers to actually perform.

C. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

Listen to this beautiful, moving tale of what happens when the Developed White meets Traditional Africa. Is no one wrong or are both wrong? I spent 4 years in South Africa and found this one of the most balanced, objective portrayals of the inherent conflict. 

D. Animal Farm (George Orwell)

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. A sine qua non for our times, it has shaped my own views against false leaders and totalitarianism. Written in a beautiful story using powerful allegory, takes just a couple of hours to read.

A. Screw It, Let’s Do It (Richard Branson)

Take a bow to the sheer magnitude of Sir Branson’s vast, multi-dimensional successes (billionaire entrepreneur, adventurist, bestselling author, social leader, maverick). In the corporate world, we often lead a rather dull boring life, and this book inspires me to shine in many arenas.

B. My Experiments with Truth (Mahatma Gandhi)

The saint who walked is not fully understood by our modern generation. And yet there is so much to learn from him on how to build character and impact. My own first international trip was to present my paper on Ailing World, and a Gandhian Alternative in Germany!

C. Steve Jobs (Walter Issacson)

One of the best biographies of one of the most interesting men in our times. Steve Job changed the world of not just personal computing (Apple), but also Music (iTunes), mobile phones (iPhones) and animation (Pixar). How can we ever call ourselves successful when there is so much to achieve? 

A. The Greatest Mind and Ideas of All Times (Will Durant)

Be spell-bound as my favourite teacher, Durant, combines deep cerebral knowledge with a poetry like prose, and tops it with a contagious passion to teach. It was Durant’s book, sans any mobile device, that I took to Everest base camp just wanting to come back wiser and clearer. 

B. Homo Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)

Compared to the origin of universe 13.5bn years ago, Homo Sapiens own presence for a mere 70,000 years, is hardly a tick. And yet, when I met Yuval, his deep insights on our evolution and future were awe inspiring. 

C. Freakonomics (Steven D Levitt (Economist) and Stephen Dubner (Journalist))

Instead of taking economics as a dismal, boring science with only theory and numbers, Levitt argues: If morality is about how humans should behave, economics tells us how they actually behave. Indispensable, as I tried to get my kids interested in economics!

D. Physics Of The Impossible (Michio Kaku)

I am a big fan of high science, and have watched all Star War and Marvel movies! Kaku uses known laws of physics to answer mesmerising questions: One day, can we actually become invisible? Or read other people’s minds? Or teleport ourselves through space? 

***

We can go on but the list is already long. [For those still interested, I maintain a blog on 100 Books To Make Us Wise, with a summary of each book]

Let’s wish ourselves well on this collective pursuit of wisdom. Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. Let these books revive the spark, the desire of greatness inside us, of doing more and being more. 

Nishant

PS: Views expressed are personal.