Book Recommendations – 2024

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Story of a young doctor and how he faced cancer. I really liked this book. It gives perspective on how hard it is to make decisions when other people’s lives are involved. One statement that keeps coming back to my mind is when you are dealing with people’s life “Excellence is a moral requirement”.

Recommendation :  Yes

So You Want To Know About Economics by Roopa Pai

Basic introduction to how economy works and explanations for various jargon used in economics. Short read, if you have no idea about economics, go for it. 

Recommendation :  Consider it

The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory by Dr Julia Shaw

This book reviews progress made in human memory research. It talks about different ways in which the memory can fail and how people can have false memories.

Recommendation :  Yes

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

The story happens in the 1980’s Sri Lanka’s political/war environment, Follows life of a photographer. Initially I found it difficult to follow the narration, it could be because I read very little Fiction and am not used to this type of narration. As the story progressed it became Interesting and I couldn’t put down the book and completed the book in a couple of sittings. Even if you know little about Sri lankan politics, you will be able to understand the content. 

Recommendation :  Yes

Coffee Can Investing 

Find a few good companies and invest in them for a long time. This is the central idea of this book. Book has lot of data points to back this idea. The book also talks about how equities give best returns compared to other investment options. Some of the content about taxing is not correct any more due to recent changes in Taxation.

The book is accessible, you will be able to follow the content even if you are new to investing and equity markets.

Recommendation :  Consider it

Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Human memory is not perfect. We need all the tools that can help us in our professional and personal life. Checklists are one such simple and effective tool. The Book talks about the importance and effectiveness of checklists in hospitals. It’s a short read and I recommend it to everyone. 

Recommendation : Yes

13 Steps to Bloody Good Wealth by Ashwin Sanghi, Sunil Dalal

The book organizes and presents some of the good investment strategies. If you are just getting started with your investment journey, You should consider reading this book. 

Recommendation :  Consider it

When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamín Labatut

This is a interesting book, I didn’t recognize this book as having fiction content until the middle of the book. Towards the end, the content became unappealing to me. It mixes scientists and scientific discoveries with fiction. You will enjoy this book if you like this style of writing. 

Recommendation :  No

A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty

The book presents a few ideas on how to distribute the wealth equally and talks about how the modern world still needs to work in this direction. 

Recommendation :  Yes

Gopichand Rachanaa Sarvasvam – part 1 (Telugu book)

I am always on the lookout for good telugu books.  This book is a collection of stories written by Gopichand. I recommend this to everyone who can read Telugu.

Recommendation :  Yes

Vamsi ki Nachina Kathalu (Telugu book)

This book is a collection of telugu stories by different authors that Director Vamsi put together in a book. Most of the stories are very good and it’s hard to put down this book once you start.

Recommendation :  Yes

Chaduvu by Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao 

This is a good short telugu novel. The language is accessible, even if you are not comfortable with Telugu,you should be able to read and enjoy this book.

Recommendation :  Yes

Jeevanakalam by Gollapudi Maruthirao

Collection of essays written by Gollapudi Maruthirao collected and published as two books. Most of the essays are originally written for the newspaper editorial section. 

Recommendation :  No

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman

Life story of Claude Shannon, well researched and well written. 

Recommendation :  Yes

Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives On Civilisation by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Small book by Dr Tyson, I read it in a couple of sittings. Please note that this book is not about Cosmos/Austrophics. 

Recommendation :  No

What I Learned About Investing from Darwin by Pulak Prasad

This book also presents the idea of finding a few good companies and investing in them for life. Book tries to draw a parallel between evaluation and organisations. 

Recommendation :  Consider it

Broke To Breakthrough by Harish Damodaran

This is the story of Hatsun and its founder R.G. Chandramogan.Very well written and the author didn’t try to include too many boring details. 

Recommendation :  Yes

Engineered in India by B V R Mohan Reddy

Story of Cyient (Infotech) and Mohan Reddy. Content is dry at times but has many interesting details about challenges faced by founders in our country in previous decades. 

I recommend this book and Story of Hatsun to everyone who is thinking of taking a stab at entrepreneurship.

Recommendation :  Yes

These are some of the books I read this year, please do mention about the books you read and recommend to others.