#52in52

This is Year Two of my goal of reading at least one book a week. I was not able to reach 52 books this year for various reasons including a cross-border migration and a two week break for Vipassana.

(I’m posting my list in unedited format for now. Prettying up will happen eventually.)

Here are the books I read in 2017.

• [x] Week 1/2: Thomas Jefferson - the Art of Power by Jon Mecham. A massive book which took me two weeks to finish. The book delves into Jefferson's legacy but doesn't quite explain his exercise of power. It picks up threads but doesn't follow them to conclusion. Exhaustive bibliography though. (Roughly 800p.)
• [x] Week 3: Dark Matter: a novel by Blake Crouch. The premise is weird, some of the execution tacky, but I'm giving it 5-stars because it used an idea from the chemistry of the brain that I myself have had. In terms of technique, the author doesn't seem comfortable with dialogue. Most of the book is staccato descriptive sentences. (342p.)
• [x] Week 4: The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow: a novella by Cory Doctorow. A SciFi story set in dystopia earth with a transhuman immortal as the protagonist. (272p.) Loved the Creativity vs Copyright speech which came with the novella
• [x] Week 10: Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas (198p)
• [x] Week 11: The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy (313p)
• [x] Week 12/13: planet of the apes - tales from the forbidden zone edited by Jim beard. A collection of 16 short stories set in the Planet of the apes timeline. Fascinating stuff man (300+p)
• [x] Week 13: the eternal husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I wish I understood the novella better than I actually do. I find the change of names confusing. Don't like the unstructured, long paragraphs, and the "indiscriminate" use of quote marks.
• [x] Week 13: An anthropologist on mars: seven paradoxical tales by Oliver Sacks. Interesting cases from the realm of neuroscience. Story 1: of Jonathan I who could not see color, only shades of black and white. Story 2: of Greg whose tumor likely lobotomized him leaving him incapable of forming memories and stripped him of his being-beds. (More to come obviously.) Story 3: carl Bennett, a doctor, surgeon in fact, with Tourette's Syndrome. Story 4: Stephen Wildridge and his art obsession. Story 5: Temple Grandin and her autism.
• [x] Week 14: Quantum evolution: life in a multiverse by Johnjoe McFadden. The book seems intriguing with the premise that quantum forces underpin evolution. Right now, I'm in the first chapter so the quantum mumbojumbo hasn't starred yet. The book covered so much basic science that I lost interest in the content. The new ideas he expounds on are interesting and probably worth discussing in more detail.
• [x] Week 14: The Undoing Project: how a friendship changed our minds by Michael Lewis. What a well written, accessible description of the relationship between Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman whose work blew up and rebuilt economics.
• [x] Week 15: everything and more: a compact history of infinity by David Foster Wallace. A very engaging, technical overview of the history of math and its slow convergence on and acceptance of the idea of infinity. Definitely worth a read though I glossed over so much material in the interest of getting the gist of the history.
• [x] Week 15: The Untethered Soul: the journey beyond yourself by Michael A. Singer. The author discusses spirituality in absolute self defined terms with few examples or citations. Yet, I find myself agreeing with his ideas because I myself have thought those thoughts. The ideas tend to get a little repetitive. I wish I could say I read and absorbed everything in the book.
• [x] Week 15: the game: the game is life book 1 by Terry Schott. Easy read. Finished it one session. Does this make the book better than a more difficult book to read?
• [ ] Week 15/16: Beyond the Farthest suns (book 1 short stories) by Greg Bear. Finally a satisfying Sci Fi short stories compendium. In Asimov's mould. Good job Greggie
• [ ] Week 17
• [ ] Week 18
• [ ] Week 19
• [ ] Week 20 (week 24)
• [x] Week 21: The Pierre Hotel Affair: How Eight Gentlemen Thieves Plundered $28 million by Daniel Simone 402p. WTF dude, the writing was terrible. It was a fun read but by god was the writing cliched and repetitive.
• [x] Week 22: the hobbit by JRR Tolkien 306p. I'm glad I read this book as an adult. When I read LOTR as a kid, all I wanted to do was to finish the book. I took my time with The hobbit and enjoyed it for what it was, not a book that was made into a movie.
• [x] Week 23: the wishing tree by William Faulkner. A sweet fable of children who travel to a wishing tree led by an ugly red haired boy named Maurice. I finished it in one day.
• [x] Week 24: The new new thing by Michael Lewis 279p. A portrait of Jim Clark, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded silicon graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon among other ventures. Interesting and inspiring for someone like me. I found myself identifying with some of Clark's traits
• [x] Week 24: the divide: American injustice in the age of the wealth gap by Matt Taibbi 412p. WHAT A BOOK! Eye opening and brilliantly argued. Thank you Matt Taibbi
• [x] Week 25: The Attention Merchants by Tim Will 339p. Brilliant description of the society's evolution told through the story of advertising. Really really amazing book. Insightful, well balanced, detailed. Love it.
• [x] Week 26/27: Spellbound: seven principles of illusion to captivate audiences by David Kwong 279p. Great material but didn't draw a tight enough connection between the principles of magic and their applicability in business. Would still recommend to others though.
• [x] Week 28: mortality by Christopher Hitchens 100p. Didn't discover anything I didn't already know about him
• [x] Week 29: bossypants by Tina Fey 300p. Funny but also vaguely unsettling. Like inadvertently seeing someone you know sniff their armpit. It's not a terrible thing to have done but now you know this person is an armpit sniffer.
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• [x] Week 34: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin 273p. The imagined history of Rome, the empire told through the eyes of Lavinia whose marriage to Aeneas begets an empire.
• [x] Week 34/35: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick 290p. I didn't understand some of the action in the book as it was occurring. The language was just tough to wrap my head around. One review on Amazon said PKD was no wordsmith and that I can agree with
• [x] Week 35: Eon by Greg Bear 450p. A big Stone arrives suddenly over an Earth riven by Cold War rivalries. A planet wide culling ensues where humanity loses nearly two-thirds of its people. The species behind the Stone have their own rivalries to contend with.
• [x] Week 36: never split the difference by Chris Vos and Tahl Raz. (Reread)
• [x] Week 37: Sita Warrior of Mithila by Amish 270p. The book is an easy read or maybe I think it's an easy read because I'm familiar with the historical territory it covers. Few Indians born and raised in India don't know the outlines of the story of Ram covered by the epic Ramayana. Amish introduces a twist in the tale by elevating Sita (Ram's wife) to co-equal status with Ram. Technically, at times, I found myself paying attention to the structure of the words and sentences in the book rather than the story being told. When this happens, I consider it a sign that the writer's style does not exactly mesh with my expectations.
• [x] Week 37: Information does not want to be free by Cory Doctorow 194p: a contrarian meditation on the nature of doing business and earning a living on the internet.
• [x] Week 38: the immortals of meluha by Amish 397p. Easy read. Shiva is cool.
• [x] Week 38: switched on: a memoir of brain change and emotional awakening by John Elder Robison 643p. A memoir of an Aspie guy who undergoes an experimental treatment - TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) - which results in his autism symptoms abating and an emotional intelligence emerging.
• [x] Week 39: The Tell Tale Brain by V.S.Ramachandran 829p. A detailed "lay of the land" synopsis of the current state of neurology. Each chapter can be read on its own. Each contains a few self-contained back references. The chapter on art and the mind strongly resonated with me.
• [x] Week 40: A man in full by Tom Wolfe 740p. Wonderfully detailed book set in Atlanta. A juicy read with references to Epictetus and the Stoics, politics, and wealthy life.
• [x] Week 41/42/43: the journey home by Radhanath Swami 355p. The story of an American boy who found his life’s mission in ISKCON. (#33)
• [x] Week 42/43: Pather Panchali by Bhibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay 358p. The song of the road about a rural, impoverished Bengali family in pre-independence India. Beauty. (#34)
• [x] Week 43: Cockfosters by Helen Simpson 180p. Collection of short stories with women protagonists by a woman. Very lovely short stories. In a year, I probably won’t remember reading this collection but I’m glad I read it.
• [x] Week 44/45: The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort 1353p. Easy read. Not exceptionally interesting or insightful. Finished in 3 days
• [x] Week 45: the kingdom of speech by Tom Wolfe 274p with endnotes. Book on the history of humanity’s understanding of speech.
• [x] Week 45: Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory ~380p. Surprisingly sprightly read. Great characters. Exceptional plotting of Buddy’s character. Funny. Interesting. Humane.
• [x] Week 46: the empress: the dramatic life of a powerful and enigmatic leader by Kalyani Shankar 156p. The story of J. Jayalalithaa’s ascension to power in Tamil Nadu.
• [ ] Week 47
• [ ] Week 48
• [x] Week 49: Dune by Frank Herbert 1579p. The ascension of Paul Muad’Dib