The first book I read on anthropology was Guns, Germs & Steel, way back in 2005. While I enjoyed the insights and talked about it for a long time, it was not yet time for me to develop my reading habit. So, it took half a dozen years before I started on the next anthropology book – Collapse, incidentally by the same author Jared Diamond. By this time I was quite deep into reading non-fiction and a steady stream of great books enriched my knowledge across history and anthropology. Special mention among them would go to The Naked Ape and Origin of Species for being focused on anthropology.

By the end of 2017, I became a believer of science and encountered two enlightening books by Yuval Noah Harari that took my understanding to the next level. Sapiens gave concrete shape to the vague idea I had around how humans came to rule the world. And its sequel Home Deus painted a plausible picture of what future holds for us! It was sheer awesomeness to realize that the beginning of history was only 70,000 years ago with cognitive revolution. And how lucky we are to have gotten the accidental genetic mutations that changed inner wiring of our brains! It is difficult to comprehend that before cognitive revolution, history was just biology, with human life following predetermined pattern like any other animal – dictated by instructions encoded in their DNA!

One should read the book to appreciate the profoundness. The insights at the end of the book are compelling, comparing conventional thinking with contemporary science.

Now that I am wiser, what next? Time to embrace the prophecy and prepare for the future! I started learning TensorFlow and instantly understood that the future of programming is in machine learning. As I started appreciating science, I also realized that Mathematics enables science. Math skills are becoming increasingly key to success in computer science and programming.  And Math skills are fundamental to machine learning! Lot more to learn and that keeps life interesting!!!

As I wrote the blog on books I enjoyed in 2016, the realization stuck that I had slipped from reading habit during the previous year and a half. After finishing more than two dozen books each in 2013 and 2014, I had read only a couple of them in 2015. While I thought it was primarily due to extensive time spent during the weekends for cycling / running / recovery time, it also coincided with my taking up a new job towards the end of 2014. It took another year to sense knowledge debt building up again as my effectiveness as a speaker and motivator for my teams diminished a bit. When I read a book on leadership or anthropology, I immediately relate it to events around me and apply some of the learnings. This happens sub-consciously and I realized it only when while introspecting on recently diminished effectiveness.

In April 2017, I made efforts to restart my reading habit and made one of the best investments in recent times when I bought Kindle Paperwhite. I would later know from “The Everything Store” on strategic thought process from Jeff Bezos and Amazon that went in building an eBook Reader that would be affordable with a comprehensive book store behind it. I can vouch for it after using it for about ten months. You can pretty much find any English book ever published  and at a price that is most competitive! With backlight, I can now read without disturbing the rest of my family and e-ink technology lets Kindle run for days together on a single charge! I might sound like an Amazon marketer, but really admire the value Kindle brings with it!!!

I started with “Great by Choice”, a book by Jim Collins whose “Good to Great” was one of the books that got me interested in non-fiction. It was on familiar Jim Collins style and I could relate to some of the principles that I always followed in my life. No wonder I am great! – just kidding. It was just reassuring to know that some of my principles are good for long-term success. The quote from Roald Amundsen, the first man to The South Pole will always be etched in my memory: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order – luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precaution in time; this is called bad luck”.

From “Great by  Choice”, I got reference to another couple of fantastic books that demonstrated Jim Collin’s theory about the best leaders being more disciplined, more empirical and more paranoid. They were the next books I read – “Scott And Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth” and “Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster”.

It was then time for “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry”. I got this from reading recommendations given by one of the senior leaders in my organization.

After my Europe trip, I wanted to know more about the history of Europe and particularly on what happened to Roman Civilization. It took almost four months to complete all the six volumes of “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” written by Edward Gibbon in 1770. A true classic like “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin and worth the effort.

After immersing in history for several months, I wanted to read about some contemporary achievements and went back to the reading recommendations. I read books on two of the modern great companies on Technology space – “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” and “The Google Story”. In between, I also finished “Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone” within a few weeks of Satya Nadella releasing it. All of them reinforced the need for discipline, work ethic and team work – there is no short cut to success! That rounded up 2017, a fulfilling year for reading good books. As I write this, I already finished reading “The Great Convergence” that I got referred from Hit Refresh. More about that when I write about by 2018 experience.

My reading list from 2017: