After a disappointing quarter of reading, I am switching things up for Q3’2024.
Instead of reading fictions again this quarter, I will go back to the genre that kicked off my reading habit few years ago — non fiction.
Rolling back the years, if I were to look at books that had the greatest impact on me, they were always non fictions that had a practical relationship to whatever I was going through in life at that time.
In other words, I have come to accept the fact that I enjoy reading the most when it enhances my real life, rather than giving me an escape from it.
That said, for Q3’2024, I have picked 5 non-fictions that should have a direct impact on my day to day life.
In this blog post, I will introduce you to the 5 books and walk you through my reasoning of picking them over the myriad others staring at me from my bookshelf across the room.
Let’s get started.
Goodreads Rating: 3.91 (46K ratings)
Dopamine Nation talks about the balance between pain and pleasure and how the modern high-dopamine lifestyle can be detrimental for our mental and physical health.
Recently, I have been very interested in mindfulness, or the lack thereof, resulting from the frequent use of social media and mobile phones.
I have tried to incorporate different techniques into my own life to reduce my screen time and try to live more in the present.
Anna Lembke is an American psychiatrist who works at Stanford University. From her countless talks, interviews and podcast appearances, her expert view on addiction became obvious to me.
Given the role mobile phones play in our lives today, who else to better explain it’s addictive influence on our life, than the person who has done extensive research on the opioid epidemic in the United States.
I am really looking forward to it, and this will be the first book I pick up after finishing my current read.
Goodreads Rating: 4.25 (133K ratings)
Currently, I am reading The Intelligent Investory, which is an all-time investing classic.
I started reading the book in early June and have devoured every page so far. It’s quite a dense book spanning close to 600 pages. But, so far, it’s been worth it.
The book primary talks about “value investing”. It’s full of historical case studies.
It’s been so interesting to learn about the market cycles that the United States has gone through in the past, and so much of it has been repeating in the last couple of years.
Red hot markets with crazily overvalued stocks is nothing new. It has happened in the past, followed by big crashes, and the eventual recovery to even higher highs.
What’s the main takeaway? Don’t try to time the market. Don’t pick individual stocks. Buy an index fund, set up automated recurring investments, set your time horizon to 10+ years, and forget all about it.
In the long run the market always goes up, so as long as you are in it for the long run, you will do just fine.
That teaching can be summed up in a blogpost, but what makes the 600-page book worth the read is the countless case studies and historical data that backs up the claim.
I am around 80% done with the book. Expect to see a book report soon once I am done.
Goodreads Rating: 4.45 (50K ratings)
According to Goodreads, Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur, philosopher, and investor who has captivated the world with his principles for building weath and creating long-term happiness.
Before my introduction to this book, I consumed countless hours of Naval’s podcasts, speeches, videos, and just his thoughts overall. Out of most modern thinkers, I resonated the most with his philosphies and way of thinking.
I was actually not aware of this book’s existence, until I randomly came across it in a local bookstore in Nashville. After picking it up, I read through the first few pages, while sipping on my coffee, and fell in love.
It was such a great aggregation of everything Naval said that resonated with me that I had to read it, and more importantly, make it part of my book collection.
Goodreads Rating: 4.15 (1K ratings)
Since moving to engineering management a few years ago, I have been trying to consume as much content about leadership and strategy as possible.
This book came to me as a recommendation of one of my closest mentors that I admire a lot.
Because of that, despite the low Goodreads rating, I decided to pick it up and give it a go.
In my experience, management books can be full of fluff and leave you with nothing actionable. I have come across too many of those books.
Instead, I am hoping this book falls into the other category — an impactful management book that has a tangible impact on my management style. The only book that resides in that category for me is The Making of a Manager .
Goodreads Rating: 4.21 (255K ratings)
Since the proliference of Artificial Intelligence through chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, I have spent many hours thinking about the future of technology.
It has piqued my interest to know more about the endless possibilities when it comes to the future of the world.
Over the past few centuries, the world has come a very long way. Especially in the western world, most probles arise from overabundance of pleasures than the lack of it.
Things such as famine, plague, and war are no longer the biggest concerns of the Western World. The average American has most things people in other parts of the world can dream of.
I had thoroughly enjoyed Yuval’s other book — Sapiens. He had some great insights about the past and everything that has led to today.
I have also heard his opinions on many other world affairs, and in general, I find his way of thinking very insightful.
That’s why, I am picking Homo Deus as my first book about the possible futures of the world.
Overall, I am very excited for the next 3 months.
I am hoping that the change from fictions back to non fictions can finally start turning the tide on what has been an underwhelming reading year for me so far.
If you want to stay connected, here are a few ways you can do so: follow me on Medium or subscribe to my website.