31,393 Pages across 100 books in 2023
HETAL SONPAL
TEDx Speaker, IRONMAN, LISTENER, Angel Investor, COACH, Sales & Strategy Leader, Author, topmate.io/hetal_sonpal
Yes, its that time of year!! As we move from Christmas to New Year's eve, the social media feed is full of book reviews, book(s) of the year, favourite reads for the year, etc.
So here is my own small contribution.
So the news in brief - I read 100 books this year. It's no longer news, because this is SIXTH CONTINUOUS YEAR that I have achieved this feat. The idea started with lots of promise and enthusiasm in 2018 and now its become yet another one in long list of chores for me! But it was a bit tough towards the end. I was struggling to keep pace. Different reasons, the biggest among them had picked up some huge (read voluminous) books like Snowball and Elon to read and I wanted to consciously reduce the proportion of audiobooks, which meant I had to increase overall reading time.
Unburden by Nithya Shanti was the unlikely surprise among spirituality books. Writing style is simple, but it has lots of depth. Strongly recommend it.
Hygge, Stumbling on Happiness, The Artist's way and The Compound Effect were books that simply did not live upto the hype behind them.
Smart Brevity was a simple, easy read.
I read a lot of biographies and Rafa was among the stand out ones. I have always been a Federer fan, so it is a reflection of the quality of the book that I have lot more respect for Nadal after reading it.
The Night swim was the rare fiction I read during the year.
Breathe Believe is absolutely brilliant. Its always a pleasure to read a book where you know the author. This was one such case.
I have touted Susan Cane's Quiet as one of my all time best reads, so Bitter Sweet was an eagerly awaited read. And the book does not disappoint. It's a very well researched and beautifully articulated book.
So it was in Feb/March time frame when I started reading the gigantic bio of Warren Buffet, Snowball, and my reading frequency went for a toss as I chugged along some 29 hours on audible for this one. Its of course, extremely detailed description of his life and works. But I found it worth the read.
From Strength to Strength by Arthur C Brooks is a fabulous read. Resonated with another book, "The Second Mountain" that I have read earlier.
Secret Lives of Color is an interesting read and tells us some interesting tales on 75 of the most popular shades.
Proust and the Squid and The Art of Management were the super disappointments in this list.
Letters from a Stoic is very deep and hard read. But the amount of wisdom in the book is simply mind blowing. I read it over a period of almost 4-5 months. On lines of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.
Derek Sivers is a fabulous writer. His books are an easy read and pack lots of value in them. Good for all ages.
Why We Swim, is an immersive and eye-opening perspective on swimming—and on human behavior itself. Helps us understand why swimming should come as naturally to us, as running.
Movemint Medicine is by a famous sports physio whom I know personally, so the story is totally relatable and believable.
Richest Man in Bablylon is a legendary book on investing. Short read, but loads of deep wisdom packed in the 100 odd pages.
Art of Profitablity is absolutely brilliant. It should be a compulsory reading in B schools. Loved the style of writing.
Courage is Calling is yet another marvel by an author I admire, Ryan Holiday. Great collection of stories shared to explain a lot of points on Courage.
Will was a biography that I had been very excited about. While the actor is amazing and many stories from his life and worth reading, the book overall did not live upto my expectations.
Gaur Gopal Das is fantastic in reels and I would prefer he stays there instead of writing books.
Annie Duke has written a fabulous book on the importance of knowing when to Quit and I totally loved the way it has been explained.
Fast Feast Repeat was the book I was reading when on 21 day 16 hour IF and it was very helpful.
Ozan Varol is among the few authors whose newsletter I read regularly, I eagerly awaited release of his second book. Awaken your Genius is definitely worth the wait and totally a must read.
Spare by Prince Harry was yet another biography that dominated my reading this year. It partially lives up to the hype. To his critics, hey, he wrote what his life was about. He did not feel the need to spice it up and create stories!
Dunkirk - well, better watch the movie.
Stillness is the Key is another masterclass by Ryan. But definitely not his best.
101 Essays is written in an easy to read format. Its an ideal book to have on your bed-side.
Your Table is Ready opened up the world of food, high end fine dining restaurants and the stories that go on behind them. Extremely well written book, I would say.
Howard's Gift is a great book where a student describes learnings from his professor.
Daring Greatly is not such a great book by a great author, Brene Brown.
Life Force by Tony is impressive. But he has put in a lot of information from many disparate sources and it lacks originality.
Billion Dollar Whale is ideal for a Hollywood pot-boiler and will be surprised if it is not converted into a movie already.
Grapes of Wrath was a hard and tough read.
Food for life was yet another book I read this year on food and helps us understand what we eat a lot lot better.
Lou Holtz's Wins, Losses and Lessons - I really loved reading perspective of a US College Football coach and the goings on behind the scene in life of a coach.
Oxygen Advantage reiterated some of the points that I learnt from James Nestor's Breathe.
Longevity Paradox was yet another book I read on science of living longer and healthier.
Outlive by Peter Attia, who is a master in the filed of longevity, is a great read, if the topic interests you.
Humour, Seriously emphasises how one can actually BUILD a sense of humour over a period of time. It also helps us to appreciate people who make the effort, a lot more.
Facing Up is a chilling description of a 24 year old Brit's attempt to climb Mount Everest and it was a simply unputdownable book.
Wind up Bird Chronicle, known as a classic, was tough read for me, seriously.
Bookshop in Berlin has a very interesting storyline.
Eve by Cat Bohannon has been termed as 'The Sapiens for Females'. Its a myth-busting, eye-opening account of what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today.
The Treeline is yet another interesting book which goes into our forests and explores the myriad types of trees on our planet and story that they tell us.
Essence of Bhagwad Gita has described the wisdom of The Gita very well and is an absolute must read.
The Mom Test is a fabulous fabulous book, especially for entrepreneurs and people who hope to be on their own someday.
Elon helps dispel a lot of things about Elon Musk. Isacsson has delivered yet another classic in his enviable series of biographies.
White Chrysanthemum is a tough read and has a very emotional storyline.
Lives of the Stoics was a surprise disappointment.
This year, there were many authors, of whose, I picked up the second book. Bear Grylls, David Goggins and Morgan Housel, to name a few here. Morgan was fabulous among these. Goggin's first book is so so classic and he not a naturally born writer, so his second one is only good in parts. Housel has picked a totally different topic from his first book, and hence brings a very fresh perspective in this one.
Write Useful Books is one of the most practical, easy to follow guideline on writing books and no aspiring author should miss reading this one.
In Summary:
So hear comes the tough part. I again had a health mix in terms of physical, digital and audio books in my 100 books this year. The resistance to continue reading difficult books was the least and I not only skipped paragraphs and chapters, but gave up the book completely, if I was not enjoying the experience.
Picking up the top 10 is difficult I do it instinctively rather than applying lot of thought, as its IMPOSSIBLE to select 10 from these 100. But, making an effort :
Now onto 2024 !!
Communications professional at Intel India
11 个月Speaks volumes!
Co-Founder | CEO | Building DB Tech
11 个月Congratulations HETAL SONPAL It’s day by day process and at the last its looks like this.