Book Recommendations from my Reading List of 2022

And just like that - I read 20+ books, mostly while walking or traveling, without any special effort. I enjoy reading books and I mull over them, integrating some of the learnings, deriving satisfaction or/and joy from my reading. Needless to say, the whole competition of how many books can I read with so many people claiming 50 plus books etc, is definitely not my cup of tea. I would hate to read in such a hurry. What's the point at the end of it?

Anyways, there are some remarkably great books I read in 2022, Sharing an eclectic list of 10.

1. A Thousand Brains- Jeff Hawkins. It's an amazing book about a new theory of Intelligence that provides insights into how the human brain works and how the current approaches to Artificial Intelligence will never result in AGI if the human brain is any example to go by. It's told simply, simple enough for any non-neuroscientist to understand.

2. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

With the recession hitting many parts of the world, this is a book that will probably appeal. The book narrates beautifully the fundamentals for sound investment strategies, pointing out the above and beyond all the jargon and sophistication, the fundamentals of sound investing are rooted in clean and sound common sense financial habits. What do you want? To be rich or To be wealthy. Morgan Housel brings out the stark difference between the concepts of Rich and Wealthy and forces the reader to think about what they really want in their life. I loved the book since it matches closely with my belief system of how money should be treated and why we need to define what is enough.

3. The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian

If you want to understand the topic of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence( AI) deeply and intrinsically in a format that explores the issue through the history of AI, then read this book. The book is full of stories of how issues of bias were uncovered in software and how the AI specialists are trying to address these. The book is comprehensive enough to encompass the various approaches and the author shares some insights into the way forward as well .

4. Karma- A yogi's guide to crafting your own destiny by Sadhguru

As somebody who believes in the power of Yoga and is a yoga practitioner, I often got asked ( by people outside India), as to the exact meaning of the word Karma. While I attempted to explain it, I always had questions that many of us have e.g " Why do good things happen to Bad People and Bad Things happen to Good people" . This book is absolutely the MasterClass on understanding the concept of Karma- not tied to any religion, Sadhguru explains the concept through examples and through almost commonsensical logic, yet so deeply profound. This is one of the books that brought a lot of clarity for me personally and I would highly recommend reading it. Its a must read in case you are on a spiritual journey of self betterment.

5. Influence is your Superpower by Zoe Chance

If you read the book, you will realize how powerful Influence is and even more so " How powerful of an influencer Zoe Chance is , as she effortlessly convinces you through the book. I wont say more, you have to read the book

6. Your Brain is a time machine by Dean Buonomano

I liked the book so much, I wrote a detailed review - Here it is The notion of Time from the lens of Neuroscience and Physics | LinkedIn

7. The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli and Reality is not what it seems by Carlo Rovelli

8. My man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse ( or any of the Jeeves Series by PG Wodehouse)

This one I re-read or rather heard it on Audible during my walks ( Having finished reading all Wodehouse books some 25 years ago). There is no comparison to the straight-faced humor woven so sophisticatedly ( or maybe not so ) in the stories. The Jeeves Stories are some of the best of PGW's writings. A class apart, read it if you enjoy clean, wholesome humor. Guaranteed to lighten the mood.

9. When Men behave badly by David M Buss

Around the beginning of last year, I heard some personal stories of violence against women. Some of these stories were about men similar to those that I could see around me, who seemed normal, who were educated and it's quite possible that women who meet them may have very different opinions about them, just by knowing them at a superficial level. I was very intrigued about the psychology which drives men to be violent in relationships that are probably the most pivotal to their life- namely their life partners. Serendipitously, while I was watching a podcast on some other topic, the speaker recommended this book. The book did address the topic I was interested in, however, it went deeper into the hidden roots of sexual conflict which were further shaped by evolutionary and social scenarios. It is heavy reading, but useful to get a better understanding of drivers of violence. I doubt that this book would have made it to this recommendation list under normal circumstances. However, we started the New Year with a horrific story of inhuman violence against a woman in Delhi. This is a stark reminder of the fact that we cnnot afford to ignore this topic or forget about these stories as days pass. So I decided to include this in the recommendation list.

I also read Particle Physics for Non-Physicists by Steven Pollock, and Dark Matter and Dark Energy by Brian Clegg ( both good books for any physics enthusiasts and you do need some physics background even though the book says "For Non-Physicists" , it is pretty involved and needs good prior knowledge of Fundamental Physics.