SHORTS
☘☘☘ Letters by Vivek Rai
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List of Books I Have Read

Books are magic.

[*] currently reading, [+] recommended, [-] annoying

2019

  1. * Perez, Caroline Criado ‘Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’
  2. King, Stephen ‘On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft’

2018

  1. + Duckworth, Angela ‘Grit’
  2. ++ Hadden, Mark ‘The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time’
  3. ++ Feynman, Richard ‘What Do You Care What Other People Think’
  4. +++ Strunk Jr., William ‘The Elements of Style’
  5. +++ Kuroyanagi Tetsuko., ‘Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window’
  6. Hall, Zachary., ‘Don't Sleep on Planes’

2017

Challenge: 40 The year was an eventful one considering other aspects of my personal and professional life, but very disappointing for my book reading challenge. Will reduce the reading challenge to a realistic goal for next year.
Completed: 5

  1. Bloom, Paul ‘How Pleasure Works’
  2. MacAskill, William ‘Doing Good Better’
  3. Mistry, Rohinton ‘Family Matters’
  4. Gowers, Timothy ‘Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction’
  5. Eco, Umberto ‘How to Write a Thesis’1

2016

Challenge: 24
Completed: 20
Partially completed: 4

  1. * Mahajan, Sanjoy ‘Street-Fighting Mathematics’
  2. Orwell, George ‘Burmese Days’ (review)
  3. Murakami, Haruki ‘The Elephant Vanishes’2
  4. + Satrapi, Marjane ‘The Complete Persepolis’
  5. Thorsby, Øyvind ‘Transdimensional Brain Chip’ (comic)3
  6. * Murakami, Haruki ‘1Q84 - Trilogy (#1)’
  7. + Gallwey, W. Timothy ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ (review)
  8. Adams, Douglas ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy (#1)’
  9. Adams, Douglas ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (#2)’
  10. Ford, Michael T. ‘Suicide Notes’
  11. ++ Sacks, Oliver ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’
  12. - Sandel, Peter ‘101 Things Everyone [..] about Economics’
  13. ++ Salinger, J. D. ‘The Catcher in The Rye’
  14. * Lane, Nick ‘The Vital Question’
  15. Mlodinow, Leonard ‘The Drunkard’s Walk’
  16. Fine, Debra ‘The Fine Art of Small Talk’
  17. + Keynes, Daniel ‘Flowers for Algernon’
  18. ++ Harari, Yuval N. ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind’
  19. ++ Yalom, Irvin D. ‘Love's Executioner: Ten Tales of Psychotherapy’
  20. ++ Clarke, Arthur C. ‘Rendezvous with Rama’
  21. + Vizzini, Ned ‘It's Kind of a Funny Story’
  22. * Garder, Jostein ‘Sophie's World’
  23. - Ball, Jesse ‘Silence Once Begun’
  24. + Wells, H.G. ‘The Time Machine’

2015

Challenge: 20
Completed: 13

  1. Crichton, Michael ‘The Terminal Man’
  2. ++ Orwell, George ‘1984’
  3. * Hayakawa, S.I. ‘Language in Thought and Action’
  4. Kafka, Franz, ‘The Metamorphosis’
  5. Crockford, Douglas ‘JavaScript: The Good Parts’
  6. * Sussman et al., ‘SICP’
  7. + Orwell, George ‘Animal Farm’
  8. Dawkins, Richard ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’
  9. * Sompayrac, Lauren M. ‘How the Immune System Works’
  10. Wodehouse, P. G. ‘The Code of the Woosters’
  11. + Khandekar, V. S. ‘Yayati: A Classic Tale of Lust’
  12. Gladwell, Malcolm ‘The Tipping Point’
  13. Camus, Albert ‘The Outsider’
  14. ++ Murakami, Haruki ‘Kafka On The Shore’
  15. + Duhigg, Charles ‘The Power of Habit’
  16. ++ Schrödinger, Erwin, ‘What is Life?’

2014

  1. ++ Mistry, Rohinton ‘A Fine Balance’
  2. Premchand, Munshi ‘Godan’

Reviews and recommendations are always welcome!

  1. Although most of the examples in the book are sourced from the study of classical literature, the suggested ideas are still highly relevant. On a bonus point, the author also clarifies a few issues commonly faced by new graduate students related to their research (impact of their research, breadth and depth etc.).

  2. Not as good as Kafka on the Shore, but Murakami knows how to hook the reader nonetheless!

  3. Thoroughly enjoyed this Thorsby’s comic - Based on invention of a new brain chip that allows you to communicate with versions of yourself in other universe. I would also recommend his other work The Accidental Space Spy (++).

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