Top 5 books that I read in 2021
Each of them is an insight into a new world.
The pandemic brought back a very old habit of mine to my life. I started reading over 30 books annually as compared to the 15 I’d read with a full time job and travel. But you know what’s my favorite thing about this habit? Every year in December, I write about my top 5 and this has to be one of the toughest things that I do. One, because it’s just five. I come from the school of thought that no book is bad, so every book I read helps me learn something new. Two, I hardly ever restrict myself to a genre. I read about anything and everything and that helps me learn so many things. And lastly, I'm so biased about everything I read that I can seldom choose.
Anyway, cutting the long story short, this year I read 33 books (I still think I’ll reach 37 by the time Dec ends) and I found 5 to choose relatively easy. As someone with not a very strong memory, I tend to forget what I read, and usually only remember traces of some books. These 5- are imprinted deep into my memory an I have so much to say about each one of them. Without further ado, let’s get started:
1. The Book Thief
By Markus Zusak
My strong inclination towards war-time stories and books of historical importance is not unknown to anyone who knows me or even reads my articles. The Book Thief is the last book I finished and one, I’ll keep going back to for a long time. This book is beautiful, heartbreaking and heartrending all at the same time.
The first thing any review will say about this book is that it is narrated by death. So, I might as well get it out of the way. Death, the Hooded One, the Angel of the Night, narrates. He is very busy during the war years, as you might expect. Some people claim this is a mere gimmick, and that the story is strong enough as it is.
It’s also an unusual take on the Holocaust because it focuses on Liesel, an orphaned German girl living in Hitler’s birthplace. Liesel (The Book Thief) and the other characters in this book are rich, interesting, and wily.
Liesel’s adopted by 2 people in Molching, Germany. Their struggles, thought process and character growth is something that constantly drew me back to the book. This book focuses on all characters. Liesel, her foster parents, her friends, Max, every character has a story that’s driving them to closure which I think is one of the nicest parts of the book. It narrates death as dark and funny. Parts of this book will leave you bawling while also smiling.
Markus does a phenomenal job at explaining each and every character in depth. In fact some parts of the book made me sob too. This is a deep insight into socialism, casteism and even the classist attitude of people in the 1940s. Each character undergoes moral and social obligations and grows out of them beautifully. All in all, if you’re looking for a book to read about world war- 2, please feel free to pick this one up. I promise you wouldn’t regret this.
2. Atomic Habits
By James Clear
If I had a penny for every time startup Twitter, Industry 4.0 Twitter and Product Twitter recommended this book, I’d make more money than what James Clear made with all of his sales proceedings for this one.
The book got a lot of attention, and rightly so. I read this book when I was trying to build certain habits to ensure that I give myself scope to grow. It was also at the same time that I’d made certain major life decisions that impacted me in both good and bad ways.
This book does a great job of laying down the framework of how habits are formed, and shares insightful strategies for building good habits and breaking bad ones. Even though I was already familiar with research behind habit formation, reading through this book helped me approach habits I’m trying to adopt or break in my own life from different angles.
Atomic Habits is a valuable primer on forming the right habits, and ditching the bad ones. One habit at a time, you can improve your results in business and life. By losing unproductive habits and establishing productive ones, you make the little differences that add up to big success. Contrary to a lot of other popular self-help books, this one is more of a reality check. I absolutely love how each of these habits are positive and yet not in a toxic way.
3. The Psychology of Money
By Morgan Housel
This one’s a clear winner. The psychology of money was a gift to be by my father after both of us went through my statement, one fine day. His first thought was, my daughter reads a lot so the only way I can get something into her head is through a book. I started to read this book absolutely half-heartedly, until I didn’t. This book is an absolute winner because it teaches you so much without making you feel like it is.
This book is full of life lessons- big and small to make it for a happy life. Timeless lessons on wealth, greed and happiness- this book turned out to take my complete surprise.
This book has something for everyone. For me, the most interesting lessons were on greed and excess. For others, this can be a tool to make you a more intelligent investor.
In some chapters, it reads like a pure business book. In others, it feels more like a self-help project. But Housel is a talented writer who weaves these tones together smoothly. I suspect that if you pick it up, you’ll have a hard time putting it down.
4. What I talk about when I talk about running
By Haruki Murakami
Running has been the one thing that has helped me find the balance that I was lacking in my life for a long long time. Every time I felt like my life was losing track, I went back to the track. To an extent that my running playlist is called “Lose yourself to the track”. Anyway, jokes apart. Running is one of the healthiest habits that I’ve worked on honing in the last 2 years. From running a 5k in 38 mins to my recent best at 24:05, I’m so happy with how this habit of mine has grown massively while having the same impact at my mental state.
Haruki Murakami’s one of my favourite authors and I relate to all his books massively. However, with this I hit home! Murakami talks about his state of mind and experience through marathons and triathlons and truly the experience is out of the world. This book legit has the ability to transport me into a place that I didn’t even know I needed to be in.
This is not a “how-to” book, there’s no tips whatsoever. It’s just a book on what Murakami talks about when he talks about running. It is both generally his thoughts on running and specific descriptions of races he has run. Informative, and uniquely inspiring.
My favourite passage from this book is,
To get through life some people drink copious amounts of alcohol to de-stress. Others smoke tobacco or cannabis. Some try heavier substances. My drug of choice, my way of clearing my head, calming down and escaping for a few hours, is to run. I am an absolute junkie. Sometimes I feel like I live to run. When I’m not reading, writing or cycling to work, then I’m running. It’s a fantastic experience, blasting my favourite psychedelic rock albums as I lose all my troubles on the road. Anyone who has taken up running seriously will understand how much of a drug it can be.
This book I will read over and over again. I promise.
5. Shoe Dog
By Phil Knight
I’m a full Nike girl! From Metcons to Pegasus to AF1s, I have a pair in my wardrobe. I’m also obsessed with my shoes and keep buying a pair here and there to just treat myself. I also notice everyone’s shoes and usually remember their shoes over their faces, names or even clothes! For example, there’s a girl who sits on the 3rd floor of my office and wears a beautiful Lilac sneaker. Now I also know this because lilac is my favorite color but I pay a lot of attention to detail to shoes. Anyway, I simply started reading this book for my obsession to Nikes and because I trained with a Nike coach.
For starters, it’s so well-written. You stay in awe about how beautifully the author has written this one and how well he has understood different facets of the book.
This book made me cry. Twice! I did not know a book about what I had previously viewed as the definition of a big corporation could have that sort of power. I was wrong.
Phil Knight had been an unfamiliar name to me before I picked up this memoir. That, in itself, seems strange. I mean, I had no idea he’s from Portland, Oregon, or that, by trade, he’s an accountant, or that he identifies as an introvert. I didn’t know he had met his wife while teaching at Portland State (after leaving PWC to buy himself more time to work on building his entrepreneurial endeavor). Or that Nike literally means the Greek Goddess of Victory.
Oh, and his logo? The famous swoosh? That had been designed for $35 by a previously unknown graphic design student he commissioned. Unlike Steve Jobs, Phil Knight did not really have too much faith in advertising. He felt a good product would sell itself.
In closing, this book proves the American Dream is still alive. It’s not nearly as straightforward or as black or white (or even as legal or illegal) as one may imagine, but the opportunity is here! (Minus the factories, of course — those remain very much off-shore.). Also, and perhaps most importantly, if one or two or twelve of those dreams don’t workout, it’s ok (and possibly even admirable) to give them up, because “giving up doesn’t mean stopping.”
These were my Top 5 books from 2021. Tell me yours? Also if you’re an avid reader- I’d love to hear what you’re reading at the moment.
