10 questions you should ask yourself at the end of every year:

1. What is one habit that I learned or got rid of?
2. Which relationships/friendship in my life should I eliminate?
3. What were the biggest wasted opportunities ?
4. What activity should I spend less time on in next year?
5. How much time I have devoted to my health?
6. Which movies/tv series I watched and were they valuable to my life?
7. Did I read any books?
8. Did I tell any big lies for which I suffered in the long term?
9. Did I get any major disease and what have I learned from it?
10. What were the reasons for fighting with my partner? 

Review: Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked by Adam Alter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some chapters of this book were overstretched but overall a nice read. Part 1 and Part 3 are worth the time while the middle part felt like a repetitive read.
What I like about Adam Alter is his choice of experiments that he includes in the book. The experiments make it interesting to go through.


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Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One belief that I always had is that being extrovert is the way to live life and have success. This book made me appreciate my introvert nature and not go against it.
Probably, this is a book which I am going to gift a lot to parents. Most of the parents believe in this principle of extrovert= success.

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Review: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had read "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg before reading this book. While Duhigg's book focuses on history/scientific anecdotes of habits, James's book is a more practical guide to forming habits.
I particularly liked the "Focus on Systems, not on goals" and " Design your environment" principles. I am quite positive that I am going to read this book again and again.

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My favorite 5 books of 2019

My definition of favorite books include books that:

a. I can re-read. 

b. has taught me something profound ( I expect 10 times returns from books, not linear outputs)

c. give me the knowledge that I can transfer in real life easily.

d. Maximum wisdom per page.

So on the basis of that, my favorite books are:

1.  Atomic Habits by James Clear: I had read "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg before reading this book. While Duhigg's book focuses on history/scientific anecdotes of habits, James's book is a more practical guide to forming habits. I particularly liked the "Focus on Systems, not on goals" and " Design your environment" principles. I am quite positive that I am going to pick up this book again in 2020.
2. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport: The biggest lesson that I learned from this book was that we should define our values first and then use technology to achieve that. Just mindless wandering on the Internet will make you caught in a loop and the loop will generally end with feelings of guilt and negativity. One thing that I implement after reading this book was to not use those services which serve news feeds on the basis of NN algorithms whether its youtube or quora or Instagram. 
3. Quiet by Susan Cain: One belief that I always had is that being extrovert is the way to live life and have success. This book made me appreciate my introvert nature and not go against it. Probably, this is a book which I am going to gift a lot to parents. Most of the parents believe in this principle of extrovert= success. 
4. Deep Work by Cal Newport: The biggest takeaway I got from this book was that we focus more on convenience than the effectiveness of employees in this century. I like books written by professors/ academicians/ researchers because they rely on scientific research and often the sources are cited in the end.
5. Transcripts of Naval Ravikant's podcasts: Naval Ravikant is the founder of Angel list and he has a famous tweetstorm " How to get rich " on twitter. I particularly liked his views on happiness, desires and reading books. 

Some other books that I liked are Jordan Peterson's "12 Rules for Life", Robert Wright's "Why Buddism is true", Sadhguru's "Inner Engineering", Make it Stick,  Why we sleep by Mathew Walker, and Ultralearning by Scott Young.

Review: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think that the count of reading books is a vanity metric. I try to find books that I can read again and again after a year or two. This book definitely falls into that category. I have probably read this book twice and I think I will read it again next year.

We are made to believe that we should be reachable easily or we should have zero inboxes. This book made me realize that its okay to be rude sometimes to concentrate deeply on your work life or personal life.
I am definitely going to gift this book as a giveaway to my friends.

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Review: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would have liked this book if I had not read "The power of habit" or "Atomic habits". I really liked the concept of "The Manipulation Matrix" which probably I use a lot when creating something.

I am giving 4 stars as the author maintains a good flow of the ideas, the examples are relevant, no beating around the bush and there are questions at the end of every chapter which can help you in reflection.

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Review: The Cheese Trap: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Get Healthy

The Cheese Trap: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Get Healthy by Neal D. Barnard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After reading this book, I am convinced that cheese is unhealthy. What I still find difficult to digest (pun intended), is how milk (or curd) can be dangerous. There are too many conflicting studies on the consumption of milk that it's difficult to know the truth. One question that I also want an answer for is how to get the necessary calcium if you don't have milk or eggs?
I am going to believe most of the claims of the author and I just hope they are correct.




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Review: When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like reading dying memoirs. I think death provides a lot of clarity and generally, in the last moments, people start accepting reality. After doing meditation for a year or two, you start to get a realization that everything is impermanent except death. It's a positive feeling rather than a negative one. You start understanding the importance of time and start focusing on things that are valuable to you.

I really liked this book. One thing that will perplex your mind is the ironies in the life of Paul Kalanithi: an English major returning to writing, a doctor becoming a patient, a new life was born when one was dying, etc.

If this book doesn't move you (especially the epilogue by his wife), you probably are not a human.

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Review: 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One question I often struggled to find an answer to is how to balance equanimity with ambition? Meditation does make you focus on the present moment, and get you rid of desires, the dilemma then is how to balance ambition with your peace of mind.
I appreciate the attempt of Dan Harris to answer this question but the explanation was very short. (last 2 chapters)Often the writers who write about the "Now" concept don't have a regular job so they have more freedom over life and can practice this concept. What I want to know is how one can apply these concepts in a regular job. Dan Harris is one such person who is a correspondent at a news channel.

The writing was really good and I didn't feel like putting this book down.

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Review: Who Will Cry When You Die? Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Who Will Cry When You Die? Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin S. Sharma
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like these kinds of reads where you can open any page and start reading. Sometimes you are waiting in a queue and you don't have enough time to read for a long time. So, to utilize my time, I read books like these where the chapters are 2 pages long.
This book has pretty good book recommendations in different chapters. I learned about Randy Pausch and Morrie after reading about them in this book.



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Review: Everyone Has A Story

Everyone Has A Story by Savi Sharma
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was recommended by a friend and after reading this book, I have stopped talking to that friend. This book is an upgrade for people who read Durjoy Dutta, Chetan Bhagat or Ravinder Singh. This is definitely not worth the time for people who read a lot.

One lesson that I learned after reading this book - be friends with good people as their book choices can impact you also.

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Review: The Race of My Life: An Autobiography

The Race of My Life: An Autobiography by Milkha Singh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those rare books where the movie adaption is actually better than reading the book. I was looking for something new in this book after watching the movie "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" but I was disappointed.
The book can be skimmed in one sitting.

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Review: Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best short books I have ever read.
All of the chapters generally have 3-4 good lines which are worth reading again and again. I particularly found Morrie's views on culture, death, and marriage to be quite thoughtworthy.

Most of the book can be skimmed but when those profound quotes come, do close the book to ponder upon them.


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