Excursions

I finished reading Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson recently 📚

I enjoyed the first Ernest Cunningham novel with its uniquely fresh narration style. Though the second in the series has a similar tone, it felt repetitively bland this time. The story takes ages to kick off. Humour barely lands and feels there only to fill the pages. The same goes for the “cute” and frequent talk with readers—it just didn’t land for me. It irritated me every time.

I listened to this book this time, and the narration was terrible. It was so fast and messy that I couldn’t understand which character was speaking. I couldn’t get involved thoroughly; I was waiting for the book to end.

I haven’t read a more frustrating book than The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi. It has a smart premise. Pavesi was aiming to attempt something pretty unique. But then I feel he got distracted by the lure of surprising readers. The twists and turns were too many to keep the book coherent. There are no characters to connect with. No story that captures your attention. The seven stories narrated by the lead character are silly. The twists are sillier. And are one too many. It was frustrating to see a clever premise wasted through controlled writing.

At the same time, I haven’t heard many better narration performances than by Emilia Fox. She is extremely natural while voice acting in both stories and dialogues. I could visualize every character distinctly just through her voice.

The last time I was this impressed by someone’s narration was when I listened to Ray Porter narrate Project Hail Mary. Absolutely fantastic!

I stopped reading Linchpin today. I don’t think this one should have been a book. It’s very repetitive. Extremely shallow. Plus, it hardly has anything to say beyond what’s written on the back cover.

I finished reading Rework by Jason Fried today 📚

I loved the simple, usually apparent suggestions. Most go against the proven and often advised business best practices. I love the bold ideas and the no-nonsense way the suggestions are delivered through simple short chapters. But, I am afraid I will not be able to benefit from most of them. Jason targets folks like him who are in positions of decision-making regarding how their businesses are run. Not many are in that position. So, as much as I would love my organization to follow even a few of Jason’s suggestions, I am afraid I cannot influence that.

That said, though, I will keep the book close so that I refer back to the clarity of thinking that Jason has lived his business career with. I hope it comes in handy someday.

I finished reading: The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage by Holiday Ryan today 📚

Laced with real-life examples and a corresponding lesson in each chapter, Ryan Holiday presents valuable insight into handling obstacles. Nicely structured in three sensible parts – perception, action and will – this is a good, practical guide to staying balanced without getting bogged down by roadblocks and failures in life. Ryan doesn’t want to make this a guide for stoic philosophy. Instead, he sprinkles the best of the lessons throughout the book. That helps keep things simple, which most books on Stoicism fail to do.

As he mentions towards the end, many people he tells the tale of “embodied the best practices of Stoicism without even knowing it”. Ryan recommends that just doing matters more. For his intention to not complicate the philosophy, he deserves credit.

My daughter just shushed me because I talked to her while she was engrossed in her adventure novel. Now even I want to read the book.

Loved this line from The Obstacle is the Way by Holiday Ryan 📚

Stop looking for angels and start looking for angles.

This in context of persisting with your efforts when faced with failures.

I am reading The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci. It’s a standard action, suspense thriller. But it is built up really well. Interested to find out what comes next. 📚

I finished reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari today 📚

I loved the premise of this book but found the second half unconvincing. Sure, lack of sleep or hunger or extended work hours does lead to loss of focus. But they do harm our society in a lot of other ways. We can’t point to every problem that plagues the world today and say it affects our focus. Similarly, ridding ourselves of the focus problem can help us solve even more significant issues. But without concrete actions, it is all talk.

The extent of topics that Hari wants to cover with the book is too spread for my liking. I wished it was more focused on the subject.

I finished reading Think Again by Adam Grant today 📚

Though the book is in no way short, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Grant presents numerous ideas across sections and chapters – some focused on individuals, others on teams. Some on one’s personal life, others on the professional one. Given the recent trend of expanding trivial ideas into a book, I admire the depth Grant attempts with this book.

Sure, not everything works for me. Not all suggestions are practical. A few chapters and their conclusions contradict the more significant point being made. Some sections just have no relation to the central premise of thinking again. The conclusion sounds weakest as if it was added after the thought (something that Grant acknowledges in the Epilogue).

As I struggle today with forming opinions amidst the information overload, this was an essential read. Every help I get to think better is welcome.

A few audiobook narrators mar the book for the listeners, making me return a book immediately. Worst are those who sound sensual irrespective of the scene they are reading. Bloody I ain’t getting aroused as you tell me the character is staring at someone getting murdered 🤦🏽‍♂️

I finished reading A View to Die For by Cheri Baker 📚

I really enjoyed this one. Paul Gumbs, the central character, comes out as a natural hero. The mystery is breezy and never slows down unnecessarily. I am involved in Butterfly Island and the characters living there enough that I’ll no doubt pick up the next one in the series.

I finished reading The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Morgan Housel 📚

A short, but brilliant read. Housel writes in an easy-to-follow manner even though the topic he talks about is not. Some might say this belongs to a series of blog posts. But the chapters and respective takeaways sound coherent.

As Housel mentions, there cannot be a single investing strategy for every person out there. Each individual’s background is different. Their goals are different. And so are their perspectives. In the same spirit, two individuals cannot have the same set of takeaways from this book.

So do give this a read and discover for your own.

I finished reading The Comfort Book by Matt Haig today. Though I really enjoyed this book, I don’t think I am done reading it. I will keep this book close and revisit a chapter randomly whenever I feel down. Or feel that I need a nudge in the right direction. I don’t think this one is a book. Each chapter is a nugget of inspiration, of motivation, of reminders for what matters, presented in the most no-nonsense way by Matt Haig. 📚

Finished reading: Dark Matter: A Novel by Blake Crouch 📚

It had a brilliant premise — unique and fascinating. However, I didn’t enjoy the many turns it took in the second half. There were a lot of moments when the book felt stretched, unnecessarily rambling along when the point was already made. I didn’t like the simplistic conclusion either after Crouch had so well established the intricacies of the plot.

I wanted to love this book for its story, wish Crouch didn’t get distracted with and overwrote the specific moments in the story.

I got lazy, wasn’t reading much books. Just listening to audiobooks. Agatha Christie to the rescue again – she has pulled me out of the lull so many times before. She is doing it again.

I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed listening to a book as much as I did Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Of course, Weir deserves a lot of credit for writing such a smart book. But I am equally impressed by the performance, the voice acting by Ray Porter. I have rarely listened to an audiobook where I can’t separate the narrator and the central character in the book. Most of the folks read the book, performing the dialogs by characters differently every now and then. That wasn’t the case with Porter — he became the character Ryland Grace. The experience it leaves the listener with is absolutely brilliant. I could ignore many of the faults of the book, the plot because I was completely engrossed by the performance.

Sure, even the book is good. I can’t say the same for the writing. But who cares. There’s an innate charm with the way Weir writes his books. Or the way he structures his plot. There’s a lot of science that’s hard to swallow, at times almost at the verge of being stupid. Yet, it doesn’t come out as lazy to me. And I am not alone to feel so; Brandon Sanderson writes this in his review.

Well, what I love that Andy does is he shows that optimism can be compelling as a narrative. I don’t mind the grimdark movement. I think there’s lots of great books that have come out of it. And I like dystopian science fiction quite a bit. Some of my favorite stories are very depressing dystopian stories, such as Harrison Bergeron. But there is a certain electric-fun to optimism. And Andy Weir writes optimistic science fiction, optimistic hard science fiction, even when terrible things are happening.

I don’t think I can word the way I feel about Weir’s writing any better. He did that successfully with Martian. And he outdoes himself by being even more audacious with Project Hail Mary.

The book gets four star from me. And an added star just for Roy. No surprise, it’s rated (almost) five star on Audible. Absolutely brilliant!

Finished reading: Project Hail Mary: A Novel by Andy Weir 📚

I managed to complete (and crush) the 2021 reading challenge, the third in a row — read 35 against the 24 targeted. It was a wonderful year in that sense. And I am challenging myself for more this year. 📚

I have been searching for the next audiobook to listen to and am just not able to find one. The book that I want to read is not available on the Audible catalog. And the books that Amazon recommends are absolute shit. Sigh! The search continues. 📚

I finished reading Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie today. I didn’t enjoy this Poirot adventure as I did his earlier ones. Sure, the plot, the mystery is interesting. But the way the story unfolds leaves me wanting for a lot more. It’s not a satisfying conclusion — too farfetched. Rushed. Maybe, I am done reading all the good Christie novels. 📚

I finished reading Four Thousand Weeks, a philosophical guide by Burkeman about time. This one is the best time management book that preaches one should not fret too much about managing time. Live life being aware of its finitude. Doesn’t matter how much we try, we can never master time. It reminds you throughout the book that you don’t have time, but time is what you are.

Just like Burkeman did with his previous book, The Antidote, he left with so many profound observations and thoughts. This is not a practical guide of hacks that you could try to follow to improve your life. Rather, it lends an opportunity to reflect on at least a couple of ways you perceive the concept of time, and consequently, lead your life.

I finished reading Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman today. This is a wonderful collection of thought experiments around our perception of time. The summary of the book says it’s a collage of stories – but there aren’t stories. With each “story”, the author Alan Lightman instils a fascinating possibility for the concept of time being something uniquely different. What if everyone settles on their view of time? What if it is always in the past? Or always in the future? Or with just a day of life? It’s a thought-provoking list.

All these 30 dreams are poetic vignettes that paint the varied interpretations of time. They evoke emotions through vivid narration of people’s lives in such a world and their surroundings. I paused after each chapter, pondering over the impact existence of such realities could have.

At the surface, sure, these are just fictional stories. But dig deep, and you may be able to draw a parallel with realities of our world. With our perception of time. This is a beautifully written, short but profound read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📚

I finished listening to Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks and I instantly wanted to purchase the eBook version of the book too. This is one of those few books that are best read as both audio and text version. The audio brings out Matthew’s expertise as a storyteller — you realise how powerful the medium of storytelling is. However, as I had recently complained, it doesn’t give me enough chance to make notes from. Or to go back to those key sections and read them again.

I am not a storyteller by profession. I don’t get on a stage to narrate a story from my life to a group of strangers. Rather, I can’t even do that if I wanted to — the introvert in me shudders even thinking about it. But I do like to tell stories to the people I am comfortable with. To my family, my friends, my colleagues. And what Matthew attempts to narrate in this book is how to do that better.

But it’s not the “how to tell better stories” part that I found helpful. It is how to find those story-worthy moments from your life that had me excited. Matthew has a very natural, effortless way of conveying the methodical ways to identify, prepare and tell your stories easily. You would expect that, he is a teacher first, after all.

At the same time, he is also a writer and a renowned storyteller, though. So, listening to him tell his stories and use them as a tool to teach the process behind was fascinating. He has mastered the art over his many shows, and he lays out everything he has learnt through his experience for his readers to benefit from. He holds back nothing.

I have made so many notes, and I will make a many more when I read this book a second time. One thing, I have got homework for life now. And I don’t complain.

You should read this book even if, like me, you have no intention ever to tell your stories to strangers. Because, as Matthew says, there come moments in our life when we do tell our stories. So, instead of being terrible at it, we can attempt to do slightly better. Maybe we will not bore a few people the next time we ramble along in front of them. A must-read for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don’t remember the last book before How to Live by Derek Sivers that made me contemplate so many times while reading. The moment I was done with the last page, I had my diary out to capture my understanding from each of the 27 answers to that one principal question, how should I live.

As Derek says in the subtitle of the book, they are all conflicting answers. But the conclusion is not weird at all — for one, Derek is a masterful and a deep thinker. Each short chapter has most knowledge presented in the least number of words possible. Wisdom to words ratio is pretty high with this gem of a book.

At the surface, the book is pretty straightforward to read. Short chapters. Short, easy sentences. But, dig deep, and it is one of the most difficult books to fathom. It will force you to question what you have believed throughout your life, and it’s that questioning that will leave your mind unclouded.

It’s easy to write long, elaborate prose. But it takes time to shorten it, and I am glad Derek took that time. In his words, it took him four years, often writing 16 hours a day, to condense it down from the first draft of 1300 pages to 115.

What results is one of the most powerful and important books ever written. Take time and read it slowly. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I have heard many good things about Derek Siver’s new book “How To Live” from a few people I trust. So, it was instinctive of me to purchase the book the moment I saw Derek announce it is launched. I had missed purchasing this when Derek shared a preview link — no idea why.

Anyway, I am excited to read this, both as a reader and as a writer.