Books - Reading List


Am primarily interested in non-fiction. Books related to Business(Business History, Strategy & Innovation), Behavioral Economics, Anthropology, Psychology, Mythology, History and anything eclectic indulges me. The occasional fiction adds the much-needed flavour .... sometimes.

Books Read in 2021

  1. 'Negotiating the Impossible: How to Break Deadlocks and Resolve Ugly Conflicts' by Malhotra, Deepak
  2. 'The Art of Happiness at Work' by Dalai Lama XIV
  3. 'Catalyst: The ultimate strategies on how to win at work and in life' by Venkatesan, Chandramouli
  4. 'Meditations' by Marcus Aurelius
  5. 'The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable' by Lencioni, Patrick
  6. 'The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You' by Zhuo, Julie
  7. 'Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World' by Bregman, Rutger
  8. 'The Order of Time' by Rovelli, Carlo
  9. 'The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing' by Ries, Al
  10. 'The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation' by Dixon, Matthew
  11. 'Zurich Axioms' by Gunther, Max
  12. 'Ways of Seeing' by Berger, John
  13. 'The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor' by Marks, Howard


Books Read in 2020

  1. 'Moonshot: What Landing a Man on the Moon Teaches Us about Collaboration, Creativity, and the Mind-Set for Success' by Wiseman, Richard
  2. 'How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness' by Roberts, Russ
  3. 'Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley' by García Martínez, Antonio
  4. 'A Sense of Urgency' by Kotter, John P. 
  5. 'The Triangle of Truth: The Surprisingly Simple Secret to Resolving Conflicts Largeand Small' by McLeod, Lisa Earle
  6. 'Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts' by Holiday, Ryan 
  7. 'Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill' by Ricard, Matthieu
  8. 'The Art of Happiness' by Dalai Lama XIV
  9. 'Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach' by Reeves, Martin
  10. 'The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle' by Pressfield, Steven 
  11. 'This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life' by Wallace, David Foster
  12. 'Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment' by Wright, Robert
  13. 'That's Not How We Do It Here!: A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall--and Can Rise Again' by Kotter, John P. 
  14. 'Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World' by McChrystal, Stanley

Books Read in 2019

  1. Measure What Matters by John Doerr
  2. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
  3. Gems from Warren Buffett - Wit and Wisdom from 34 Years of Letters to Shareholders by Mark Gavagan
  4. Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope by Mark Manson
  5. 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life' by Manson, Mark
  6. 'Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind' by Harari, Yuval Noah
  7. 'The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers' by Horowitz, Ben
  8. 'Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell' by Schmidt, Eric
  9. 'A Short History of Drunkenness' by Forsyth, Mark 
  10. 'Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters' by Rumelt, Richard P.
  11. 'Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price' by Ramanujam, Madhavan
  12. 'Design as Art' by Munari, Bruno
  13. 'Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain' by Wolf, Maryanne
  14. 'Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt' by Harra, Todd 
  15. 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' by Rovelli, Carlo
  16. 'The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever' by Bungay Stanier, Michael
  17. 'Mortality' by Hitchens, Christopher
  18. 'The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice' by Hitchens, Christopher


Books Read in 2017

May:
1. Freedom from the Known by J Krishnamurti
2. The Flight of the Eagle by J Krishnamurti

Sept:
3. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
4. Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (and Jokes!) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and Everything in Between by Thomas Cathcart , Daniel Klein 
5. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande


Books Read in 2015

Jan:
1. "Kellogg on Strategy - Concepts, Tools and Frameworks for Practitioners" by David Dranove and Sonia Marciano
2. "HBR's Strategy Essentials - Create and Implement the Best Strategy for your Business"
3.  "HBR Case Studies: Keeping Strategy on Track"
4. "HBR's 10 Must Reads - On Strategy"
5. "The McKinsey Mind" by Ethan M.Rasiel and Paul N.Friga

Feb:
6. "Competitive Intelligence : How to Gather, Analyze, and Use Information to Move Your Business to the Top" by Larry Kahaner
7. "Smart or Lucky: How Technology Leaders Turn Chance into Success" by Judith Hurwitz
8. "What Leaders Really Do" by John P.Kotter
9. "David and Goliath - Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants" by Malcolm Gladwell
10. "Naked Economics - Undressing the Dismal Science" by Charles Wheelan
11. "Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want" by  Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda, Alan Smith, Trish Papadakos
12. HBR on Compensation
13. "The Geography of Thought" by Richard Nisbett
14. "Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn't Be Done" by Mick Ebeling

March:
15. "Zero to One - Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" by Peter Theil With Blake Masters.
16. "Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered" by E.F. Schumacher (not finished)
17. "The Rich - From Slaves to Super Yachts. A 2000-Year history" by John Kampfner

April:
18. "The Why Axis - Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life" by Uri Gneezy and John A.List.
19.  "Contagious - Why things Catch On" by Jonah Berger
20. "The Paradox of Choice - Why more is less. How the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction" by Barry Schwartz
21. "Corrugated Slices - The Social Jalebi" by Shombit Sengupta

May:
22. "The Logic Of Life" by Tim Harford
23. "No One Understands You and What to Do About It" by Heidi Grant Halvorson
24. "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism" by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. J. Shiller

June:
25. "The Emerging Mind" by V.S.Ramachandran
26. "When to Rob a Bank" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

July:
27. "The Little Book that Beats the Market" by Joel Greenblatt
28. "Winning At Innovation: The A-to-F Model" by Fernando Trías de Bes, Philip Kotler

Aug:
29. The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth" by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor
30. "Sources of Power : How People Make Decisions" by Gary Klein
31. "Inside Coca-Cola: A CEO's Life Story of Building the World's Most Popular Brand" by Neville Isdell with David Beasley

Sept:
32. "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison" by Mike Wilson

Oct:
33. "Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company" by Andrew S. Grove
34.  "Think Like a Freak: How to Think Smarter about Almost Everything" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
35. "Justice - What's the Right Thing To Do?" by Michael J. Sandel

Reading:
36. "Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough" by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir


Books Read in 2014
1. Tipu Sultan - The Tyrant of Mysore by Sandeep Balakrishna
2. Hoysala Sculptures in National Museum, Copenhagen by S.Settar
3. The Lakshmidevi Temple at Doddagaddavalli by R.Narasimhachar
4. Hoysala Temples by S.Settar
5. Dalit Millionaires by Milind Khandekar [Review]
6. Neuromarketing in Action: How to Talk and Sell to the Brain by Patrick M.Georges, Anne-Sophie Bayle-Tourtoulou and Michel Badoc
7. Purple Cow by Seth Godin
8. Picture This: Perception & Composition by Molly Bang
9. Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Economics I Learned from Online Dating  by Paul Oyer [Review]
10. Divining the Deccan: A Motorbike to the Heart of India by Bill Aitken
11. Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor by Charles Allen (Not finished)
12. The Mouse Charmers - Digital Pioneers of India by Anuradha Goyal [Review]
13. The Dilbert Future - Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century by Scott Adams
14. Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion by Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman
15. Shopping for Buddhas - An Adventure in Nepal by Jeff Greenwald
16. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho


Books Read in 2013

1. Ramayana by C.Rajagopalachari
2. Butterflies on the Roof of the world: A Memoir By Peter Smetacek [Review]
3. Reva EV: India’s Green Gift to the World By Dr S.K.Maini [Review]
4. A History of India - Vol 1 by Romila Thapar
5. My Journey:Transforming Dreams into Actions by A.P.J Abdul Kalam [Review]
6. The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre
7. The Nanologues by Vanessa Able
8. Essence of Leadership : Explorations from Literature by S.Manikutty and S.P.Singh
9. Blood Brothers - A Family Saga by M.J.Akbar
10. 13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
11. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
12. The Difficulty of Being Good - On the Subtle Art of Dharma by Gurcharan Das
13. Land of Seven Rivers: History of India's Geography by Sanjeev Sanyal
14. The Good,The Bad And The Ridiculous by Khushwant Singh [Review]
15. Khushwantnama - The Lessons of My Life by Khushwant Singh
16. More Malicious Gossips by Khushwant Singh
17. The Edge: How the Best Get Better by Michael Heppell
18. 99 Thoughts on Ganesha - Stories, Symbols and Rituals of India's beloved elephant-headed deity by Devdutt Pattnaik
19. Sita - An illustrated retelling of the Ramayana by Devdutt Pattnaik
20. Ajaya - Epic of Kaurava Clan - Book 1 - Roll of Dice by Anand Neelakantan
21. South Indian Customs by P.V.Jagadisa Ayyar


Books Read in 2012

1. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman  By Haruki Murakami
2. Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sports  By  Barbara Smit
3. Swag By Elmore Leonard
4. Golda By Elinor Burkett
5. Bobby Fischer Goes to War : How A Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine  By David Edmonds and John Eidinow
6. Thatcher's Britain By Richard Vinen
7. The Watson Dynasty: The Fiery Reign And Troubled Legacy of IBM’s Founding Father And Son By Richard Tedlow
8. Life of Pi  By Yann Martel (Illustrated by Tomislav Torjanac)
9 . Understanding Oil Prices : A Guide to What Drives the Price of Oil in Today's Market By Salvatore Carollo [Review]
10. From Stonehenge to Samarkand: An Anthology of Archaeological Travel Writing   By Brian M. Fagan
11. The Artist and the Mathematician By Amir D. Aczel
12. The Lonely Planet Story  By Tony Wheeler and Maureen Wheeler
13. Velocity – The Seven New Laws For a World Gone Digital By Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander [Review]
14. Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert M. Pirsig
15. Imagine: How Creativity Works By Jonah Lehrer [Review]
16. Impeachment By Anjali Deshpande [Review]
17. Whiskers For The Cat And Bilderoo Is Coming Enid Blyton's Mini World series
19. Barbarians at the Gate By Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
20. The Art of Intelligence-Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service by Henry.A.Crumpton  [Review]
21. The Hopeless life of Charlie Summers by Paul Torday
22. Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
23. Hell by Yasutaka Tsutsui
24. Guanxi (The Art of Relationships): Microsoft, China, and Bill Gates's Plan to Win the Road Ahead By Robert Buderi, Gregory T. Huang
25. Wise and Otherwise: A Salute to Life By Sudha Murthy
26. War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres
27. The Great Indian Bores by Jug Suraiya
28. Makers - The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson [Review]
29. Bangkok Days By Lawrence Osborne
30. Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis  (could read only half)
31. Make It or Break It: Mantras for a Successful Career by Partha Sarathi Basu
32. Jack's Business by Mr. Gabriel Fuchs [Review]
33. Daddy's Logic: Live A Life of No Limits, No Excuses, No Regrets By Anthony A. Rose [Review]
34. The Game Changers by Yuvnesh Modi, Rahul Kumar, Alok Kothari [Review]
35. The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi
36. Jaya : An illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattnaik


Books Read in 2011

1. "Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping" by Paco Underhill
2. "Thatcher's Britain: The Politics And Social Upheaval Of The Thatcher Era" by Richard Vinen
3. "The Lonely Planet Story" by Tony Wheeler and Maureen Wheeler
4. "Player One" By Douglas Coupland
5. "Salmonella Men on Planet Porno" By Yasutaka Tsutsui
6. "Have Pen, will Travel"M.J. Akbar's
7. "Microserfs" By Douglas Coupland  [Not Completed]
8. "Philosophy:The Latest Answer To The Oldest Questions" by Nicholas Fearn
9. "The Ghost Train to Eastern Star" By Paul Theroux
10. "Danziger's travels : Beyond Forbidden Frontiers" By Danziger
11. "iWoz" By  Steve Wozniak
12. "The Elephant Paradigm" by Gurucharan Das  [Not Completed]
13. "Siddhartha" By Herman Hesse


Books Read in 2009

1. "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami
2. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" by Mark Haddon
3. "Hard-boiled Wonderloand and the End of the World" by Haruki Murakami
4. "Blind Willow , Sleeping Woman" by Haruki Murakami
5. "Dance Dance Dance" by Haruki Murakami
6. "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad
7. "The Calculus Wars - Newton,Leibniz & the Greatest Mathematical clash of All Time" by Jason Bardi
8. "The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul" by Douglas R. Hofstadter, Daniel C. Dennett, and Daniel C. Dennett
9. "My Uncle Oswald" by Roald Dahl
10. "The Stranger" by Albert Camus
11. "The Eye of the Needle" by Ken Follet
12. "Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness" by William Styron
13. "Watchmen" by Alan Moore
14. "Surely You're Joking Mr.Feynman!" by Richard P.Feynman.
15. "The Fermata" by Nicholson Baker
16. "Disney War" by James B. Stewart
17. "McMafia - A Journey through the Global Underworld" by Misha Glenny
18. "Warlock" by Wilbur Smith
19. "How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space" by Janna Levin
20. "Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book" by Gerard Jones
21. "The Swiss Account" by Paul Erdman.
22. "Den of Thieves" by James B.Stewart
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