Books Read 2021

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 1 The Immortals of Meluha- Amish Tripati

Category- Fiction
Read- Jan 2021
Pages: 440
Rating: 4/5

This is the first of the series of books from Amish Tripati on Shiva Trilogy. The book breaks down the image of Shiva from that a divine being and remoulds him as a common man who emerged as a savior of the kingdom of Meluha.

Amish transports us to an alternate universe with this book. The story plays out several centuries back in the backdrop of a tribe whose leader Shiva is discovered as the predestined protector of Meluha. The narration is vivid and the author develops each of the characters in great detail.

Reading this book gives us the feel of a grand mythology. The plot is riveting and the settings esp. the battles keeps the reader on the edge. The book has the potential to be developed as a grand movie of the scale of Baahubali someday.

2. Secret of the Nagas- Amish Tripati

Category- Fiction

Read- Feb 2021

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5

The Secret of the Nagas continues the story of Shiva and Meluha. It introduces us to the tribe of Nagas. One interesting element of this book is that several of the mythological characters such as Ganesha, Kali, Karthikeya are portrayed in an alternate reality. Perhaps it is the use of these familiar characters in an unfamiliar setting that makes the series a great read.

Although this second book was a good read on it's own, i felt that the pace of narration was a bit slow compared to the first book in the series. 

3. The Oath of the Vayuputras- Amish Tripati

Category- Fiction

Read- Mar 2021

Pages: 604
Rating: 3/5

The Oath of the Vayuputras completes the Shiva trilogy. Several stories that we might be familiar with such as the one involving Daksha, Parvathi and the yaga has been customized in context of a new narrative. 

The finale was bit of a letdown for me. The climax did not do full justice to the plot developed until that point.

Shiva trilogy was a great start for the 2021 reading journey. The trilogy kept me hooked for a good 3 months and touched me profoundly.

4. Chasing the Cup: My America's Cup Journey- Jimmy Spithill

Category- Non-Fiction
Read- Apr 2021
Pages: 197
Rating: 3/5

Chasing the cup was gifted to me by Miguel, a mentor in by running journey and an inspirational leader from whom i drew a lot of energy from.

Chasing the cup  follows the journey of a young kid Jimmy Spithill from Australia who went on to become one the most legendary sailors. One of the highlights of Jimmy's career involves leading Team USA to victory against New Zealand in 2013 by winning 8 consecutive races after trailing by a huge margin and almost on the verge of defeat.  This is dubbed as one of the biggest comebacks in sports ever.

The book traces the ups and downs in the life of Jimmy and how he shaped up to be a legendary sailor of all times. It opened me to a new found appreciation for the challenges these sailors undertake at the expense of their very lives. There are episodes in the book where in Jimmy describes the adventure at rough seas over many days and the narrow escapes his team had in making it to shore alive. It's a fun breezy read.                                                  

5. Sapiens- Yuval Noah Harari

Category- Non-Fiction

Read- June 2021
Time: 15 hours
Rating: 4/5

Sapiens has become a cult book that is bound to be read by any book lover at some point in time. I got to this masterpiece by mid of the year. My wife had told me about Harari as a vipassana meditator who goes into several weeks of retreat every year. She had been impressed with his clarity of thought and consequently i was curious about what lay in store. 

The book was a huge revelation. It traces the human history from almost 150,000 years until the modern era. Along the way, it explains divergent concepts around religion, democracy,humanism, currency, credit, colonialism in a simple and understandable way. The ease of narration is possible one reason why the book emerged as an all time best seller. It was a refreshing read that was educational and entertaining. Loved it!!

6. No Rules Rules- NetFlix

Category- Non-Fiction
Read- June 2021
Time: 10 hours
Rating: 4/5

Netflix as we know is a global streaming giant that pivoted from a simple mail order business to streaming platform that has presence in close to 200 countries. This book interestingly is less on the actual story of Netflix( which is a separate book) but rather focussed on what makes Netflix click as a company. If you are someone who wonders about what gives fulfillment at workplace, this book can provide an interesting take. 

The culture of transparency and candor that Netflix exemplifies was eye opening. Here were some interesting tidbits from

the book that stayed with me.

1. Netflix publishes the earnings result to the employees before it goes out to the street.

2. Netflix believes in paying top of market for its employees. In fact, it encourages employees to actively talk to recruiters to know their true market worth at all times.

3. Earn your position every day- the keepers test.

4. Lead with context- not control. When someone has made a mistake, as yourself as a leader- what is the context you have set in the first place.

5. Empowered organization is not a pyramid- rather it looks like a tree wherein the boss sits at the root and allows employees to flourish.

The narration style of the book has also been unique whereby it has been organized in a question/answer format with founder Reed Hastings explaining the rationale on seemingly eyebrow raising
decisions.

7. The Ride of a lifetime- Bob Igler

Category- Non-Fiction
Read- July 2021
Time: 9 hours
Rating: 3/5

The ride of a lifetime traces the story of Robert Iger who was the long standing CEO of Disney from 2005- 2020. The book is very much the story of Disney and how it grew to be the entertainment giant that we know it to be. 

Disney as a company has primarily grown through acquisitions. The book traces the companies such as ABC, Pixar, Marvel( creators of Captain Marvel, Avengers), Lucas films( creators of Star Wars), Fox (huge presence in India with Star Plus, streaming service Hotstar, Simpsons
) that Disney has bought at different times. Each of these acquisitions are narrated with the backstories around it- for instance Pixar was a brainchild of Steve Jobs. Though the Disney- Pixar started originally as a collaboration, Pixar started overshadowing Disney in terms of the quality. Purchasing Pixar from Steve was a huge win dor Disney but something that went with a lot of back and forth. If you are into Boardroom power politics this might be the book for you.

The book also touches on some of the more recent forays of Disney with its own streaming platform inthe form of Disney Plus.

8. Why we Sleep - Matthew Walker 

Category- Non-Fiction
Read- Aug 2021
Time: 13 hours 52 min
Rating: 4/5

Bill Gates Blog had high recommendation on this book which is how i became aware of it. It is a looooong book that takes a lot of patience to get through. In retrospect, i would rate it as one of the most impactful books for me in 2021. 

The book is all about Sleep- the science and mechanics of it, the benefits of sleeping and the short/long term health issues of not getting enough sleep. As someone who has been exploring newer ways to stay healthy, this served as a great handbook. The benefits of a good 7-8 hours of sleep cannot be overstated. It helps your system reset, helps you to get creative and productive for the day ahead. There is unfortunately a lot of glorification associated to the increased productivity at the expense of sleep. Phone and Streaming devices have only eaten onto the hours of sleep. Consequently there is increased anxiety and stress levels.

After reading the book. i have been measuring the hours of sleep and the correlation to my blood pressure readings. Surprisingly, the days i get a good 7+ of sleep, the readings are fairly normal. Now, one could argue that this is no rocket science discovery- but the journey through this book to make a basic lifestyle adjustment  and reap its benefits has been a revelation. 

9. AI Superpowers- Kai Fu Lee

Category- Non-Fiction
Read- Sep 2021
Pages: 232
Rating: 5/5

AI Superpowers is a book that discusses the two largest information superpowers- China and US and their race for emerging as the leader of Artificial Intelligence. The book opens a whole new perspective into what the technology sector in China is all about. We do not find too much coverage in the western media about the Chinese tech companies- barring some big names like Alibaba and Tencent. The book provides a ring side view into how tech companies emerged in China, how they transformed the society and  and why China is uniquely positioned to emerge as the leader in the coming years in the AI race.

A lot of early stage startups in China were copycats of US products. This is also the reason why the west dismisses China as a me-too player. Meituan is a copy of Groupon, Dianping was a copy of Yelp, Renren was the copy of Facebook, Tujie the replica of AirBnB , Didi Chuxing a copy of Uber etc. The chinese competitors also started copying from each other. Consequently the Chinese entrepreneurs had to get really scrappy, innovative and cut throat that has accelerated the pace of innovation.  Over time these companies have got acquired by bigger players(Alibaba, Tancent, Baidu).

Author makes some interesting differentiation of how tech companies in China differs from US:

1. One App vs Multiple Apps

WeChat owned by Tencent is the swiss army knife for a chinese consumer. Unlike US consumer who goes to different apps for different things, Chinese consumer uses Tancent for most of their day to day needs. This is a fundamental shift in the consumer mindset.

2. Scale

9 out of 20 world's top tech companies are from China. Where China beats out the competition is in scale. China by virtue of population also has a larger scale than US in terms of reach and impact. Here's how China and US goes head to head on key sectors: Food delivery(10:1), Mobile Payment (50:1), Bike sharing (300:1), e-Commece (2:1)

3. Online to Offline

Author also makes the argument that unlike the US innovation which has largely stayed in the digital realm, the chinese tech companies have done a more impactful job of bridging online to offline. This has led to accelerating the pace of adoption and changing the landscape of the country.

AI Superpowers is a super interesting read that opens you to a new technology paradigm- something that we are not as familiar with.

10. The Richest Man in Babylon- George S Clason

Category- Non-Fiction
Read- Sep 2021
Pages: 194
Rating: 4/5

Richest Man in Babylon is a set of simple fables set in Babylon that conveys the principles of creating and growing wealth. The book is a breezy read that conveys the points as story takeaways. The author George S Clayson penned these stories and distributed them as pamphlets back in 1920's. Their popularity led the stories to be compiled into this book that took a cult status eventually.

11. A Man called Ove- Fredrik Backman

Category- Fiction
Read- Sep 2021
Pages: 337
Rating: 4/5

This is an adorable read on the day to day eccentricities of a man called Ove. How Ove goes on from being a hated person to a beloved man through the people he comes in contact with is the crux of the story.

It makes a light read. There's also a movie that has been adapted from the book.

12. Swipe to Unlock- Aditya Agashe, Parth Detroja, Neel Mehta

Category- Non- Fiction
Read- Oct 2021
Pages: 349
Rating: 4/5

Swipe to Unlock is a primer on how tech works for one and all. It distills down a lot of day to day questions pertaining to technology into a simple , easy to digest format. The book is co authored by 3 product management professionals who work in the FAANG companies. There were some great stories on tech has revolutionized countries such as Kenya, India using innovative and scalable solutions . Highly recommended book for aspiring tech/product product professionals.

13. Hooked- Nir Eyal

Category- Non- Fiction
Read- Nov 2021
Pages: 242 
Rating: 3/5

Hooked was another book on tech that explores how various apps such as Instagram, Facebook creates habituates customers. It explores the hook model that comprises of the elements involved in creating an engaging and immersive experience. As much as the book was useful, it also felt a bit dry in parts. Reinforced some basic concepts around engagement.

14. Brida- Paulo Coelho

Category- Fiction

Read- Dec 2021
Pages:  256
Rating: 3/5

Brida was borrowed from my good friend Kalesh who is also an avid reader. The book is another adventure story from Paulo Coelho (similar to alchemist) that has a heavy spiritual bend of mind. The story explores the journey of Brida- the girl who is in the search for a spiritual teacher. She finds two tutors who are masters of two different schools of thought- the philosophy of sun and the philosophy of moon. How Brida forges her path forms the crux of the story. This was a good read although i found it to be very similar to the Alchemist line of narrative.

15. The Guest List- Lucy Foley

Category- Fiction

Read- Dec 2021
Pages:  312
Rating: 4/5

Closed the year with a good suspense thriller in the form - The Guest List. This book was ranked as a bestseller in New York times which prompted me to pick it up. The book was an absolute page turner that explores who commits a murder at a remote island gathering. The book stood true to its promise with the suspense unfolding in the very last page. Something that stood out for me is the style of narration where in each of the chapter is written from the lens of a different character in the story. This lend a different perspective of the same event from different players. Loved closing the year with this fast paced crime thriller.