Favorite Books – A List

I had a couple of requests, both on the blog as well as off it to list out good books that I have read. This blog tries to address the request.

A note of caution though. I believe every reader’s taste and perspective is different. Therefore, it follows that the books I liked (and which I listed here) might be totally lame to you. The methodology that I usually follow in case someone recommends a book is to go to Amazon.com and read up on the summary. If it sounds exciting, I pick up the book. Else, I ditch it. You are free to follow/ditch my free advice.

I will be putting this list up as a separate page on this blog and update it as and when I like some books. I request my blog readers to drop in comments/emails of their favorite books, in any category (not restricted to this blogpost). I’d be more than happy to read up on your favorite choices.

Here’s the list, divided into 5 sections – Fiction, Non-fiction, Behavioral Economics, Finance and Spiritual.

 Fiction 

1. Short Stories of Saki (can’t say enough; if you are looking for dark humor, the bucks stops here!)
2. P.G. Wodehouse – Leave it Psmith (One of my fav PGW’s books. Any PGW book will do)
3. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand (built my basic view of the world with this one)
4. Fountainhead – Ayn Rand (pretty good, but wait until you read Atlas Shrugged)
5. Perfect Spy – John Le Carre (Any John Le Carre book on spy warfare is great!)
6. The Spy who came in from the Cold – John Le Carre
7. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John Le Carre
8. The Day of the Jackal – Frederick Forsyth (it builds and builds, till it leaves you breathless)
9. The Eye of the Needle – Ken Follett (awesome!)
10. The Godfather – Mario Puzo (my first book on pure crime fiction, I think. Fantastic!)
11. Comprehensive literature on Sherlock Holmes (childhood memories, ahh!)
12. The Complete Book of Oscar Wilde (Sarcasms galore. Greatly inspired by his writing).
13. Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (read all 3 books in 10 days flat, I think).

 (Tried reading Bill Bryson, Terry Pratchett, Georgett Heyer – found them a bit boring for my style. Actually, Terry Pratchett’s pretty good, read only Good Omens, but not interesting enough that I go out and seek other books written by him. Also debated on Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses and Midnight’s Children – not really impressed, to be frank and hence not on the list. And no, I don’t like Harry Potter – I will watch his movies, thank you).

 Non-Fiction 

1. Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond (brilliant!, loved it)
2. Collapse – Jared Diamond  (Go Jared!)
3. The Third Chimpanzee – Jared Diamond (Go Jared!)
4. The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins (this is better than ‘God Delusion’)
5. The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell (‘Blink’ is bad, haven’t read ‘Outliers yet) 
6. The Long Tail – Chris Anderson (good with fundas, Wired article made into a book)
7. Free – Chris Anderson (very okish, Wired article made into a book)
8. What they don’t teach you at Harvard School – Mark Mccormack (Any book by this guy’s good)
9. Black Swan – Nicholas Naseem Taleb (awesome fundas)
10. Fooled by Randomness – Nicholas Naseem Taleb (awesome fundas)
11. India: A History – John Keay (currently reading)
12. India after Gandhi – Ram Guha (currently reading)

 Behavioral Economics 

1. Freakonomics – Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
2. The Logic of Life – Tim Harford
3. Discover your Inner Economist – Tyler Cowen
4. Undercover Economist – Tim Harford                          

All books are fantastic, entertaining and immensely insightful. But I think I am done with behavioral economics. These books have given me enough fundas. Any more books will probably give me different examples but with the same fundamentals. I will pass, thanks.

 Finance

1. The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham (The Guru, The God, period)
2. Liar’s Poker – Michael Lewis (Entertaining read)
3. When Genius Failed – Roger Lowenstein (Good one on the fall of LTCM)
4. Irrational Exuberance – Robert Schiller (The author’s brilliant. Yale professor. The book’s very insightful)

 I am pretty sure I have read many more Finance books. Will add to the list as I recollect them.

 Spiritual (if you want to call it that) 

1. Autobiography of a Yogi – Paramahamsa Yogananda (my first spiritual book)
2. Bhagavad Gita – G Venkataraman (can’t remember the exact title, but great read)

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