Tuesday, January 09, 2018

2017 - List of books

So its that time of the year when I come back to my much neglected blog and put up my reading list of previous year. Something I have been doing throughout this decade along with my cousins who have a much bigger and super interesting  year end book lists put up on their blogs here & here.

Well back to the list, this year all my reading was done on Kindle ebooks which has been a conscious decision and over the last 2-3 years I migrated to mostly ebooks and this is the first year it has been exclusively ebooks. I don't think its the future ( it may well be), but I think this makes it much easier to read as I do read using my laptop and even Mobile phone. So makes it much easier and reading on phone is one of the reasons I have been able to progress with my reading this year.

Enough of analysis, without further ado here is the list and some thoughts on a few books

1.Open - Andre Agassi

Really enjoyed this one. Like several books in this list, this was a book I wanted to read for a long time having seen most of the matches/tournaments described in the books during my childhood days. I was a huge Sampras fan but towards the later stages of his career I did not mind Agassi winning. The book is like its title, really open and was an entertaining read. I hope to read the one from Sampras this year to see how things stack up the other end of the court. I don't think anyone can match the colorful narration from Agassi though!

2.Things Fall Apart: African Trilogy, Book 1 by Chinua Achebe

Recommended by my friend Ramki, this was an excellent read and is a classic I guess. Story of clash of traditional/animist culture with Colonialism & christianity

3.Ghachar Ghochar  by Vivek Shaunbag & Srinath Perur

4.NW: A Novel by Zadie Smith

5. Moonglow: A Novel by Michael Chabon

6.A Farewell to Walmart by Carly J Hallman

I decided to try something different from usual fare and picked some Kindle singles - which is books from new/upcoming authors and this being set in rural Texas not very far from where I live made me pick it up. Was about growing up in small town America and the impact of Walmart on the local economy and life of folks there.

7.Paper or Plastic? : The grocery store chronicles by Ricky Bylina

Kindle pitched this to be based on the one above - its diary account of a person who recently retired and decided to work an year as night shift checkout clerk at a local big brand grocery store

8.Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Had heard a lot about this one and it really was a page turner! Filmy yes but readable as well and glimpse into world of nouveau riche from Asia

9.Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike - by Phil Knight


10.Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier - by Edward Glaeser

11.River of Gods by Ian McDonald

Dystopian sci-fi set in future with AI out loose trying to escape humans and running amok, might seem standard stuff but what made this interesting for was this being set in India of 2047 ( a century after independence) which has split into several nations at war/conflict with each other over water. AI has progressed to attain consciousness and there is a squad to catch rogue AI called Krishna cops. The story is mainly set in Varanasi on the banks of river Ganga. He also introduces a new neutral gender ( nutes) and the story is a mismash of several characters and how their lives intersect which is standard potboiler stuff, but having this set in India  and incorporating some Indianness in the concept made it a really good read for me

12.A Walk in the woods - Bill Bryson

I read one book from Bill Bryson every year and this one was about his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail . Interesting and hilarious with loads and loads of trivia and information tossed in as usual was a good read for me.

13.Consider Phlebas: Culture Series, Book 1 - by Iain M. Banks

Among the best stuff in science fiction perhaps, really liked this intro to culture series which I heard several times earlier and finally decided to start this year. Enjoyed this one and hope to read more of this series in 2018. Excellent stuff!


14.Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations - by Thomas L. Friedman

15.Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment - by Michael D. Smith

16. The second machine age - by Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee

17. Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money - by  Nathaniel Popper

Good accessible primer on origins and history of the most discussed term of the year perhaps - Bitcoin. I thought it gave a good idea of how bitcoin originated and looked at its evolution and adoption through the people behind it from libertarians to cyberpunks and tech geeks to dark web pioneers to astute businessmen and silicon valley VCs who were able to see the future. The concept of bitcoin and 'blockchain' piqued my interest sometime in the middle of this year and I quickly realized learning about the fundamentals is more important that the price action and this was one the first books I read to learn more.

18. The Ivory Throne  by Manu S Pillai

Last year I read a book on Vijayanagar empire and decided to try and read at least one book every year related to South India. So it was Kerala this year and this book by Manu S Pillai on travancore royal family through last few centuries with focus on the ruling queen Sethu Lakshmi Bai. Very well researched and narrated and a good read for anyone interested in Kerala's history. Covers this mostly from ruler's perspective from 1500s onwards but also spends time covering the customs and practices as well especially the matrilineal system and how women had much better rights in the medieval society than modern one! Highly recommend this one

19. Fifty Inventions that shaped the modern economy by Tim Harford

Fascinating stuff, the only book from 2017 in this list. I had listened to Tim Harford on BBC podcasts talking about this and was sufficiently intrigued to pre-order this book. Was a good read

20. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything - by Chris Hadfield

I had attended some training session in office and a guy played some cool videos and this was one the books the guy in the cool video suggested.

21. Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan

Having lived for 6 months in Dubai and having interacted with folks there I have heard about the life there first hand. By now most folks know that life in desert paradise is not easy for the immigrant worker with minimum rights and how they get fleeced and are 'kept in their place' even though they do end up earning several times what they make back home in Indian subcontinent. This book covers all that and explores what these identity-less/powerless temporary migrants to gulf nations (who are in fact majority of the population in those nations) go through but is told with inventive prose with dash of magical realism thrown liberally. Just like gleaming immaculate cities in desert nations which look fantastic at surface but you really peer closer you see all the inequalities, injustice and stuff. The book I think is not everyone's cup of tea, there is not a single straight forward story, but most of them are metaphorical takes. I think through the surreal stories he conveys the rigid hierarchical and racist society and the precarious world of a lowly migrant worker and covers some instances when these worlds clash and disastrous consequences. Knowledge of Malayalam was a big plus while reading

So that's the list, 21 this time. 

Did I say 21 books, may not be much but 20 was the lofty target I had set for myself for 2017 and glad I actually crossed it. I covered a lot of ground middle of the year when I was working from home and had relatively light work load between projects. I wanted to read a little more fiction this year as I was moving towards reading non-fiction by default and wanted to break that habit. So this time it was 8 fiction and 13 non-fiction which seems to be good ratio, since I don't get time to sit down and read mostly and get disturbed often. Except for 4 books, all the rest were borrowed from library for free so big thanks to US library system and their Kindle integration which made it really easy for me to put 'holds' get notified via email and click a link and add it to my Kindle effortlessly.

I'm hoping to read more varied list of books in 2018, I'm positive I may not make it to 20 with all the learning targets I have set for myself. Last year I spent a lot of time trying to reequip myself with more skills to succeed careeer-wise and enrolled in a few programs in Coursera. I hope to spend lot more time on those things this year and so setting myself a target of 15 books and also hoping to use Goodreads at least this year. At least it will make putting this list up easy!