Books on saahityaedams

Re: 2025 -> 2026 Reading

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

2025 Retro

The first half of 2025 went great in terms of my reading. I started off the year strong with some fun reads and the momentum just kept me going for a while. I liked the fact that in hindsight my book choices were so weird, random and have no clear rhyme and rhythm. Some of the weird and wonderful books I liked were

No Presents Please (book review)
Don’t Tell Me I Can’t (About an enterprising home schooled kid from rural Utah who builds a ranch and more)
In Service of the Republic (Incredibly good public policy book)
The Scaling Era (book review)
The Inner Game of Tennis (It’s not about tennis)

Now coming to things that went bad for me this year. Understandably, I struggled to make time for reading in the last quarter since I was balancing (or struggling to balance more appropriately) work and a hectic semester of study (I really should have planned this better). Another pattern I noticed was I saw myself slipping into spending more time reading light-weight substack articles and tweets over long-form substantive books (or articles) I wished to read. I really started off the year, hoping to write more book reviews ¹, that didn’t happen too. My general observation has been, I enjoy writing book reviews and this feeds into a feedback loop of getting me to read more books.

Don't Tell Me I Can't Review

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The book “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t” is the memoir of an ambitious 14 year old who is homeschooled. It is singular in its genre for being heartfelt and authentic. Reading this book really did feel like a very mature child talking to me. The fact that is 73 pages and written in plain conversational English makes for a great one sitting read.

The book written in first person by Cole Summers (pseudonym) talks about his homeschooling journey which includes starting multiple businesses (I love that he derives inspiration and quotes Buffet and Munger throughout the book). From his first business at 7, breeding and selling rabbits, to then purchasing a 350 acre ranch (for rearing meat goats) at 9 and buying/renovating a house shortly after that.

Moneyball Review

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rough Notes

Reading the book moneyball felt like a slog (maybe I would be better off watching the movie) and made me feel like the book was overhyped. This could be due to the fact that I knew zilch about baseball before reading the book, and had to do basic wikipedia research while reading the book.

The narrative while strong within a chapter didn’t flow through the whole book and the later part of the book felt boring. In contrast, a narrative of this genre that I loved was “Soul of a new machine”.

No Presents Please Review

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

‘No Presents Please’ was a fun, light and breezy first read of the year, consisting of 16 short stories set in Mumbai. Following the lives of working and middle-class characters (from the 1990s?), the stories capture people’s interactions against the backdrop of their daily work lives, reminded me of a less romantic and primitive version of the Modern Love TV show.

The characters resonated with me deeply, partly due to the nostalgic setting. These are honest people making just enough to get by, living simpler lives while facing universal human challenges. Despite their modest circumstances, their stories touch on fundamental aspects of the human condition.