My 2018 Book list - year in review

With the start of the new year 2019, its time for many of us to reflect on the past year. While I fell short of my target of reading 36 books in 2018, I did end up reading 23 books spanning biographies, science, technology and history. Feel free to refer to the entire list on Goodreads here

If reading is part of your goals in 2019 and you are looking at where to start, here is an initial list of books I would recommend.

Biographies

• Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

For the uninitiated, Trevor Noah is a South African television and radio host, political commentator, and comedian. He is known for hosting The Daily Show, an American satirical news program on Comedy Central.

Born an illegal child ( as per laws during apartheid), Trevor Noah chronicles his difficult childhood days as a colored kid in this book. He was shunned by the society, schools and did not find many people accepting his existence. His travails though those formative years and how he beat the odds multiple times to exist in this world will make you laugh,cry and infuriate throughout the book.

“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.” 

One of the key takeaways I have from this book is that language, more than color defines who are you to people. If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.A shared language says "We are the same". A language barrier says "We are different". 

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

One woman's cancerous cells are multiplied and distributed around the globe enabling a new era of cellular research and fueling incredible advances in scientific methodology, technology, and medical treatments. This strain of cells, named HeLa (after Henrietta Lacks their originator), has been amazingly prolific and has become integrated into advancements of science around the world (space travel, genome research, pharmaceutical treatments, polio vaccination, etc). It was indeed wonderful reading about the life of Henrietta Lacks. It is shocking, informative and tragic by all accounts.

“Henrietta’s cells have now been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside it” 

• Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele

This is an interesting book on the extraordinary life of Howard Hughes. Billionaire, playboy, filmmaker and an aviator - Howard Hughes dreamt big and attained success across diverse industries. In some sections, the book is way too long and there are sections which delved way too much into complicated lawsuits involving Trans World Airlines and Hughes declining health conditions. One can draw striking similarities between the lives of Howard Hughes and Elon Musk with their involvement in variety of ventures spanning multiple industries.

“Do the impossible, because almost everyone has told me my ideas are merely fantasies” 

Science

• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

This is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating, engaging and insightful books that I have read last year. The importance of 8 hour sleep every night has been explained in a very lucid way. The countless health and memory benefits of natural sleep and the factors affecting sleep have been described well, backed by good research. The author has touched upon multiple aspects of sleep -

1. Evolution of sleep in humans from primates to the industrial era
2. Sleep patterns in various living organisms
3. Stages of sleep and triggers for sleep
4. Effect of sleep on memory, skill improvements and creativity 
5. The processes that happen in various stages of sleep
6. Effect of alcohol and caffeine on sleep, sleep debt and the effect of sleeping pills

“The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations—diseases that are crippling health-care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, and cancer—all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep” 

• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

This is a book about the topic of dying. But, dying on one's own terms. The author Atul Gawande argues that the medical world has got it wrong when it comes to the treatment of the dying. The objective of medicine should not be to ensure health and survival, rather it should be about the quality of life and what it means to die with dignity, a sense of purpose, and most importantly, control over one's life.

“Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end”

• Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh

I had read 'The Code Book' by the same author in 2017 and I had high expectations from this book. This is a terrific read to quench one's curiosity about the world we live in and where it came from. This book deals with theories about the structure, age and the creation of the universe. Simon Singh has done a good job in narrating the chronological events that have shaped our perception of the creation and the existence of the universe.

• How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson

 The most profound innovations that have made our lives what we are today involve glass, cold, sound, cleanliness, time, and light. The author illustrates the ‘hummingbird effect’ in innovation - how an innovation in one field can lead to series of innovations in seemingly unconnected fields that produce previously unthinkable applications. As enlightening a read as it is enjoyable, this book will inspire you to look at the world with amazement and curiosity anew!

“Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press created a surge in demand for spectacles, as the new practice of reading made Europeans across the continent suddenly realize that they were farsighted; the market demand for spectacles encouraged a growing number of people to produce and experiment with lenses, which led to the invention of the microscope, which shortly thereafter enabled us to perceive that our bodies were made up of microscopic cells. You wouldn’t think that printing technology would have anything to do with the expansion of our vision down to the cellular scale, just as you wouldn’t have thought that the evolution of pollen would alter the design of a hummingbird’s wing. But that is the way change happens”  

History

• The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

The Silk Roads presents a broad and comprehensive overview of the history of the world centered around the movement of goods, and it challenges the traditional view that the world was shaped by the Romans or the Greeks. The author mentions that the silk roads are synonymous to the arteries of the world where goods, people and ideas have flowed since 6th century BC. He explains the transition in power centers and economic activity of the world from the Persians ( Central Asia ) to Europe, USA and the Middle East and China over several centuries.

• Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford, Jonathan Davis 

Born in 1162, Genghis Khan grew up an uneducated outcast on the Asian steppes. He learned through harsh experience to be an astute judge of people, to be self-reliant and to be completely ruthless. He set his own traditions. He valued loyalty first followed by competence. Lineage and social standing did not matter. 

Genghis Khan forever changed the world. Prior to his reign, Europe, China and India were all isolated from each other. The Muslim (Arab, Turkic, and Persian) realm was the most advanced in literacy, education and in trade. What limited commerce existed between West and East went through the Middle East and made its way from tribe to tribe along the Silk Road south of the Mongol homeland. Genghis Khan would bring the world, its goods, ideas and technologies, together. 

“In 25 years, the Mongol army subjugated more lands and people than the Romans had conquered in 400 years”

• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

This book presents an extremely beautifully written account of the University of Washington's Rowing team that won a gold Metal in 1936 Berlin Olympics. Its really interesting to understand the sports of rowing and the sort of coordination required between nine men in a boat to create history.

“Harmony, balance and rhythm. They`re the three things that stay with you your whole life. Without them civilization is out of whack. And that's why oarsman when he goes out in life, he can fight it, he can handle life. That's what he gets from rowing” 

Others

• The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr

This is an excellent book that decodes how the human nose senses smell. The book is all about a scientific maverick named Luca Turin and his quest to unravel the mysteries of smell. Drawing on cutting edge work in biology, chemistry and physics, Turin turned his obsession with perfume to experiment ruthlessly and discover the science of smell

• Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari

Chasing the scream is an absolute gem of a book. The author focuses on some of the pressing questions revolving around drug addiction and the pros/cons of legalizing drugs. Johann Hari starts off this book well by explaining the dynamics of work in a street gang or the hood selling drugs, life in a cartel and how the war on drugs has lead to more killings than drug addiction or drug overdose. The author has quoted many stories in the book around lives of drug addicts and it has been a revelation to learn the reasons leading to drug abuse and why governments and policies have been wrong in dealing with the addicts. Hari also touches upon the different ways countries have dealt with the war on drugs - United States, Uruguay, Netherlands and Portugal. He also draws parallels to the alcohol prohibition period and the effects of legalizing alcohol consumption.

There is a section in the book where the author explains the pursuit of intoxication in the animal kingdom - of elephants getting drunk of fermented fruits, monkeys snacking on magic mushrooms, cats sniffing aromatic pleasure plants and playing with imaginary objects, and how there is a natural tendency in animals to engage with such substances. 

This is a very worthy and well researched book. One of those books which will change your mindset about drugs and help you see the world in a different light altogether.

“It isn’t the drug that causes the harmful behavior—it’s the environment. An isolated rat will almost always become a junkie. A rat with a good life almost never will, no matter how many drugs you make available to him. As Bruce put it: he was realizing that addiction isn’t a disease. Addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you—it’s the cage you live in ” 

Other books I find worth recommending are - Tools of Titans by Timothy Ferris, Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine and Arrival by Ted Chiang

I urge fellow book readers to give suggestions for my 2019 reading list.

Hope you all have a prosperous and fruitful 2019.

Happy new year!