2020 Reading list

When the lockdown commenced there was a part of me that saw a ray of hope. I imagined myself devouring more books than ever in the year. But alas, keeping pace with reading turned out to be difficult. Previously, I would spend hours stuck in the serpentine Mumbai traffic or in long flights ticking off my reading list. But then COVID meant no travel and it took me some time to get back to my reading routine !

Here's my 2020 reading list:

1. The World As It Is - Ben Rhodes -- "The Obama years seen through the eyes of his speech writer - could be an interesting book to read before "A Promised Land" "

2. The Courtesan the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin - Tales from Indian History - Manu Pillai -- "A collection of articles on nuggets of Indian History - Manu Pillai shows that studying history could actually be fun !"

3. The Razor's Edge - Somerset Maugham -- "A timeless classic. I wish I had read Maugham's works earlier"

4. Adi Shankaracharya - Hinduism's Greatest Thinker - Pavan K Varma -- "A marvellous work to help understand the contributions of Adi Shankaracharya to Hinduism and how they could not have come at a more critical time"

5. Dashavatar - Stories Of Lord Vishnu - Piyusha Vir -- "A quick read on the myths behind the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu"

6. The Insurgents : David Petraeus and the plot to Change the American Way of War - Fred Kaplan -- "A deep study into how difficult it is to change accepted norms of action and thinking even in large institutions"

7. Euclid's Window : The story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace - Leonard Mlodnow -- "A window into the marvellous world of Geometry ; rekindled the curiosity of my school days"

8. Dharma: Hinduism and Religions in India - Badrinath Chaturvedi -- "On the importance of the concept of Dharma"

9. India's Most Fearless 2 : Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh -- "Stories of valor which makes wonder what gives people the courage to perform acts that are certain to end in death"

10. Mission Overseas : Daring operations by the Indian Military - Sushant Singh -- "A wonderful account of three operations by the India army in different continents and in different roles"

11. The Case of Exploding Mangoes - Mohammed Hanif -- "A book of fiction based on the assassination of General Zia. The humour in the book is gold standard"

12. Coffeeland : A History : Augustine Sedgwick -- "How a simple bean could cause political, economic and social upheavals through the centuries"

13. Seventeen Equations that Changed the World - Ian Stewart -- "Helps you understand why it could be worthwhile to pay attention in science and maths class in school and college"

14. Zafarnama (English translation) - Guru Gobind Singh -- "A letter written by Guru Gobind Singh to Aurangzeb - contains the famous lines 'When all has been tried, yet Justice is not in sight, It is then right to pick up the sword, It is then right to fight'. "

15. Kautilya: The first great political realist -Roger Boesche -- "Why the Arthashastra is an important piece of work and why it is different"

16. The Lessons of History - Will Durant -- "An understanding of the various themes underlying history"

17. 1857 : The Real Story of the Great Uprising - Vishnu Bhatt Godshe Versaikar - translated into English from Marathi by Mrinal Pande -- "A first person account of a itinerant Chitpavan Brahmin who was traveling in Central India during the 1857 mutiny. Helps understands that tectonic historical changes are often unplanned and sudden - and the impact that they have on the common citizens are enormous"

18. Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions - Sundeep Khanna and Varun Sood -- "A peek into the life of one of India's best known entrepreneurs and why he chooses to give away his wealth"

19. Code: The hidden language of computer hardware and software - Petzold Charles -- "What makes computers work"

Unfinished:

1. Markandeya Purana

2. Circe - Madelline Miller

3. The Content Trap - Bharat Anand

Out of the above, are the books that I enjoyed reading [in no particular order] :

1. Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions - Sundeep Khanna and Varun Sood

2. The Razor's Edge - Somerset Maugham

3. The World As It Is - Ben Rhodes

4. Mission Overseas : Daring operations by the Indian Military - Sushant Singh

5. The Case of Exploding Mangoes - Mohammed Hanif

6. 1857 : The Real Story of the Great Uprising - Vishnu Bhatt Godshe Versaikar - translated into English from Marathi by Mrinal Pande

7. The Courtesan the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin - Tales from Indian History - Manu Pillai

8. Adi Shankaracharya - Hinduism's Greatest Thinker - Pavan K Varma