Books

I have written about some of them in more depth (depends on which ones have enough depth to write about). I try to extract meaning from each book I read, but obviously it doesn't really work out that well. So, a I figured a better way is to sometimes appreciate that too.

What follows is roughly how I'd shelve them: the series I grew up on, the science books, the fiction, the self-help I mostly tolerated, and finally the biographies — which get their own write-ups at the bottom of this page.

The series I grew up on

Rick Riordan

I have to start with him because I have read every single book in the Percy Jackson universe. This includes

• ☑ Percy Jackson series - 5
• ☑ Heros of Olympus series - 5
• ☑ Kane Chronicles - 3
• ☑ Trails of Apollo - 5
• ☑ Magnus Chase - 3
• ☑ Greeks heroes and gods - 2
• ☑ A few latest releases (though I did not like them much, might also be because I am older now)

All thanks to this dude. He really kickstarted my reading journey back in the days (when I was 12 or so)

Geronimo Stilton

I believe any list will be incomplete without mentioning this mouse. Everyone I know has at some point in their lives read about this dude. I have read something like 20 books in this, I don't even remember the names now, but I can recall the feeling of opening up my cupboard just to see all these GS books looking back at me!

Assassin's creed

Yeah I read the book before I played the games. I read only 4 of these though:

• ☑ Renaissance (That's Ezio's story before he's old)
• ☑ Brotherhood (That's a continuation)
• ☑ The Secret Crusade (Personal favourite, Altair's story)
• ☑ Revelations (That's when Ezio dies :()

Diary of a wimpy kid

I mean, who hasn't read the entire series 5 times over (I was so obsessed I would read this instead of youtube while eating)

Tom Gates

I wouldn't count the number of books in this series because I forgot, but it a pretty fun series for kids. I was a kid too you know, loved reading this. I bought the first book named Excellent Excuses because I thought it'll give me a LIST OF EXCUSES to make. Either way, turned out to be a good buy.

Science and big ideas

That's all for series I guess. I read some science books as well! Yeahh, it was a good passtime.

Physics and the universe

• ☑ Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time (was possibly the first science book I bought and I understood jackshit back then)
• ☑ Michio Kaku - Parallel Worlds (Some mind-twisting stuff inside that, but I was slowly getting a hang of it)
• ☑ Stephen Hawking - Brief Answers to Big Questions (this was still a doable read because of my "experience" now)
• ☑ Manjit Kumar - Quantum (Introduced me to quantum mechanics like no other book could ever. I felt like I was living with Bohr)

Maths, systems and computation

• ☑ James Glieck - Chaos (A beautifully complex book, took me a while to finish, and even longer to understand what I had just read)
• ☑ Steven Strogatz - The joy of X (Thanks to 3b1b who introduced me to him after an interview. This is pretty much a chill and fun book, nothing serious)
• ☑ Roger Penrose - The Emperor's New Mind (The one book which sparked my interest in computer science, and everything in it. What a man!)

Minds and how they work

• ☑ Joshua Foer - Moonwalking with Einstein (Initially I was skeptical about the name but it's a very good and a new t idea which I still could bring to fruition)
• ☑ Daniel Kahneman - Thinking fast and slow (I mean, who hasn't read this. But the real question is, do you use anchor theory in your life? If not, do it. It's awesome)

Us, as a species

• ☑ Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens (A nice and long history of everything we've done right and wrong. I love how blunt he is!)
• ☑ Yuval Noah Harari - Homo Deus (Some good ideas. By this time, I had learnt some things that I could have opinions of my own and challenge some of his)
• ☑ Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene (My first book on evolutionary biology and boy it was done right)

The scientists themselves

• ☑ Richard Feynman - Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman (Haha, fuck up, but own it, and recover. Man really liked to live)

Fiction

There are some stories that I have absolutely cherished. The ones I can remember off the top of my head are

The Russians

• ☑ Fyodor dostoevsky - The White Nights (What a love. I had no words. The neglect hurt more than the fact that he meant nothing)
• ☑ Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment (Classic classic. Betrayed himself for nothing. I think this is the theme for most of his novels!)
• ☑ Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov (Haven't/Couldn't finish this yet. Let's see what this brings up. The ideas of self-deception are clear here as well. As I said...)
• ☑ Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina (Yooo, another melodrama! But damn, reminded me of this one specific movie called malena, though they are completely unrealated, I always pictured her)

Absurdism and the uncomfortable ones

• ☑ Franz Kafka - The Trail (Man this was haunting. Led me into a deeper study of absurdism and kafkaesque writing styles. You know, any screenplay I thought of since, always had this element)
• ☑ Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis (Another one of Kafka's "you can't control, you will die" novels.)
• ☑ Albert Camus - The Plague (I think it was a thoughtful tale though I didn't know how to feel after having read it, it leaves you blank I would say, you're still glad that atleast the town is safe)
• ☑ Albert Camus - The Stranger (One of the weirdest books I have read and I never hated the protaganist of a book this much before. I don't really sympathize with his philosophy, even from an atheist's perspective)
• ☑ Goerge Orwell - The Animal Farm (I knew what to expect. Its hard to escape the logic he presented isn't it. That's kind of how we are at this point)

Lives, ordinary and otherwise

• ☑ Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist (What a surprise, I had been avoiding reading this book for so long for absolutely no reason, glad I came through because it genuinely is one of the most moving books out there!)
• ☑ V. S. Naipaul - A house for Mr. Biswas (Never thought I would enjoy the melodrama but here we are, because the setting and plot is so simple, and yet so elegant)
• ☑ Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner (This felt more raw and emotional that most other stories, again a simple plot but expressed nicely. But honestly, nothing too over the top)
• ☑ Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo (Hope and wait, a story where no character is morally good or evil only selfish)

Still unfinished

• ☑ Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren (The one novel I still can't finish. That's all you need to know about this)

Self-help and money

And some Self-help books. I didn't really enjoy them much, I read because my dad had a bunch of them in the house

• ☑ Adam Grant - Think Again (Talks about the need to rethink old ideas and ways of thinking. I always took as a message to break conformity and think for yourself)
• ☑ James Clear - Atomic Habits (Who hasn't read it. I found it reminiscent of this one speech given by Admiral McRaven at the University of Texas. Some ideas were nice, like those for removing distractions)
• ☑ Morgan Housel - The psychology of money (Not really self-help I guess, but I don't remember anything that was there in that book. Besides all of them seem like a part of The Intelligent Investor)
• ☑ Benjamin Graham - The Intelligent Investor (How could I not. The OG self-help book. Reading this, I started my investing journey, with the help of my dad of course)

Biographies and autobiographies

And for my favourite section: Biographies and Autobiographies! I think I will write indivdual sections for those because I have a lot to say about them.