Summer Reading II: Non-Fiction

 

In the previous post, I had listed down books which predominantly fell into the fiction genre. In contrast, this post will focus primarily on non-fiction. However, before I start listing down my favorites of the genre, I’ll be doing a short section on contemporary fiction first for the sake of achieving a sense of completion.

Contemporary Fiction

To be honest, I haven’t read a lot of contemporary fiction. I haven’t all the books listed over here. I’ve included them purely on the basis of the recommendations of the online community as well as a few credible friends.

• The Fault in Our Stars- John Green
  Two terminally ill teenagers meet and fall in love. This books is an absolute favorite among my female friends. Get ready to get all teary eyed.
• The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseni
  Set in modern Afghanistan, The Kite Runner chronicles the lives of two young Afghan boys as they witness the fall of the Afghan monarchy, the Soviet intervention and the rise of the Taliban regime.
• Q&A- Vikas Swarup
  The book on which the Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire is based on, Q&A offers us a glimpse into the dark, macabre lives of children in Mumbai’s slums. After reading the book, you’ll genuinely happy and content with the quality of life you’ve got.
• The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
  Few books have left me in such a maelstrom of emotions as The Book Thief. Set in Nazi Germany and narrated by Death Himself, it is the story of 13 year old Liesel Meminger as she struggles to find happiness and meaning through books.
• Midnight’s Children- Salman Rushdie
  When a book wins the ‘Booker of Bookers’ in both the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize, you know it has to be something spectacularly good. Set in post-colonial India, with its magical realism, Midnight’s Children is just that. A must read for every literature aficionado.

Poetry

• The Prophet-Khalil Gibran
  The magnum opus of my favorite poet, The Prophet is filled with timeless advice on everything imaginable: love, work, family, children, relationships, hate. And the lines are so beautiful that they are bound to strike a chord with your heart.
• Gitanjali- Rabindranath Tagore
  This work by Tagore made him the first non-European in history to win a Nobel Prize. And it wasn’t without good reason. Even though I read the translated version, I found his verses to be overwhelmingly euphonious.
• 20 Love Songs and a Song of Despair– Pablo Neruda
  The champion of passion and unrequited love, Pablo Neruda has given words to the ardor of countless lovers across the globe. This is a collection of some of his very best (See Twin Geniuses: Tagore and Neruda).
• Essential Rumi- Coleman Barks
  The translated works of 13th century Sufi mystic poet Rumi, Essential Rumi is a treasure trove of wisdom imparted by the mystic almost over a millennium ago. Like Gibran, Rumi’s lines will definitely manage to reach the deepest centers of your heart.

I realize that the poetry I’ve listed are all translated works. If you want to read ‘pure’ English poetry, look for the works of William Blake (Songs of Innocence and Experience), Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, T.S.Eliot, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Edgar Allen Poe.

Biography

• Steve Jobs- Walter Isaacson
  What sets Walter Isaacson’s biography apart is its unapologetic honesty of the man who founded the most valuable company on the planet. Halfway through the book, I hated and loved Jobs at the same time. Very few books will give you such honesty.
• The Man Who Knew Infinity- Robert Kanigel
  My favorite biography, Kanigel’s account of Indian genius Ramanujan is probably the most comprehensive account you will get of the great mathematician’s life.
• The Accidental Billionaires- Ben Mezrich
  Although not a biography per se, Mezrich’s tale of the rise of Facebook and a bitter legal battle that ensued shortly after its launch makes it an exhilarating read.
• Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!- Richard Feynmann
  The autobiography of one of the most eccentric physicists of the twentieth century, this book is an account of the craziest adventures and discussions undertaken by Feynmann.

Art, Culture and History

• Natasha’s Dance- Orlando Figes
  Russia has given some of the greatest authors in history. Russian novels and stories can pierce your heart like no other. This book is an account of the cultural history of Russia that gives us an insight into the kinds of developments that took place that led to the rise of the Russian arts.
• The Story of Art- E.M.Gombrich
  This introduction to art gives us an account of its history from cave paintings to experimental art of the 1960s.
• On Writing- Stephen King
  This semi-autobiography of King is an ode to the art of writing and the struggles and delights of being a writer.
• The Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank
  The unintentional autobiography of Holocaust’s most famous victim, The Diary of a Young Girl gives us a surreal glimpse into the lives of the Jews hiding in Nazi Germany.
• Unbroken- Laura Hillenbrand
  This collection of stories from World War 2 gives us accounts of survival, resilience and redemption showcased by civilians and armies alike.

Technology, Math and Startups

• Zero to One- Peter Thiel
  A collection of the notes of the class taught by founder of Paypal and Palantir, Peter Thiel, Zero to One is widely regarded as the bible of starting up.
• The $100 Startup– Chris Guillebeau
  This book is about micro-businesses and roaming entrepreneurs and how it is actually feasible making a living out of doing something that you love (See Microbusiness and Travel)
• The Code Book- Simon Singh
  One of my favorite non-fiction books of all time, The Code Book narrates the little told story of the art of security and secret writing.
• Fermat’s Last Theorem- Simon Singh
  This book is an account of a three centuries long struggle to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem; a proof which Fermat claimed not to have put on paper because it required too much space.
• God Created The Integers- Stephen Hawking
  With commentary from Hawking, God Created the Integers highlights the biggest mathematical breakthroughs in the history of mankind which went to shape human civilization as we know it.

Science

• A Brief History of Time- Stephen Hawking
  Arguably the most famous science book of all time, A Brief History of Time gives the layman a glimpse into the wonderfully complicated universe that we live in and our struggle to understand it.
• A Short History of Nearly Everything- Bill Bryson
  This book on Big History gives us an account of the history of the Universe, from the Big Bang to the present day (See Big History)
• Chariot of the Gods- Erich von Daniken
  A bold hypothesis of how human civilization was shaped by extra terrestrial beings who visited Earth a long time ago, Chariot of the Gods is the quintessential account (and possibly proof) of panspermia and intelligent extra-terrestrial life.
• What If- Randall Munroe
  In this book, former NASA scientist and founder of xkcd comics Randall Munroe answers absurd questions regarding the world and the universe (See Of Science and Comic Books)

Philosophy and Religion

• The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins
  The bible of atheism, The God Delusion argues how the probability of a supernatural being existing is almost zero if the theory of evolution is to be believed.
• The Dhammapada- Anonymous
  The Dhammapada is a collection of the Buddha’s teachings and gives us a glimpse into the teachings and principles of Buddhism.
• History of Western Philosophy- Bertrand Russell
  History of Western Philosophy is an account of every major philosophical thought from the time of the ancient Greeks to the present

Economics and Psychology

• Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics- Steven Leviit and Stephen Dubner
  The craziest economics books you can find, Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics tell us about the hidden side of everything. Why do drug dealers live with their moms? Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance? How did legalization of abortion lead to a drop in crime rate in the US? Read the books to find out.
• Thinking Fast and Slow- Daniel Kahneman
  The bible of Behavioral Economics, Thinking Fast and Slow is one of the best books you’ll read on the subject (See Revisiting Psychology)
• Predictably Irrational- Dan Ariely
  Like the previous book, this too gives us an insight into the anomalies and idiosyncrasies of human behavior. A must read for anyone who plans on starting a business or is in marketing or public relations (See Human Behavior and Irrationality)
• Economics in One Lesson- Henry Hazlitt
  A champion of the Austrian School of Economic Thought, Hazlitt tries to explain the problems with traditional economic principles through a series of well known historical cases.
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat- Oliver Sacks
  A brilliant account of the strangest cases encountered by Sacks in his medical career, this book is a must read for anyone with the slightest interest in Clinical Psychology.
• Interpretation of Dreams- Sigmund Freud
  One of the pioneers of the field of Psychology, Freud sets out to explain how our dreams can tell us much about our deepest desire, passion, pain and ambition.

And I shall stop here. I think I have covered a majority of the major fields of interest. Yet, I understand that one person’s experience with books leads to the creation of a relatively skewed list. Again as before, this list is in no ways exhaustive of any kind. There are plenty of amazing books I haven’t listed or have missed out on. Please feel free to list them in the comments.

A Short History of Everything- I

 

As I had mentioned in Big History, I had zeroed in on Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Everything as my primary source of getting to know more about the subject. I’m halfway through the book and the content provided by the book so far has been so vast and so diverse that I felt it more appropriate to update about it in a series of posts. Devoting a single post to the history of everything didn’t seem to do the book justice, so there.

Firstly, the book does live up to the hype and its ratings. I spent a huge amount of time in middle school reading up Horrible Science books. As a result, I am in possession of a large mental repository of facts about science and scientists that are usually not found in science textbooks. After going through three hundred odd pages, I realized how much I didn’t know about stuff that ought to be known by everyone. How is the age of the Earth and the Universe calculated? Why and how were the dinosaurs suddenly wiped out from the face of the planet? And some of the facts the book stated were really bizarre. Isaac Newton wrote the Principia when a fellow astronomer, Edmond Halley asked him about how and why the earth revolved. Apparently, Newton had formulated his laws of motion and the universal law of gravitation decades ago. He simply didn’t bother to publish his results. It was only upon the insistence of Halley that he wrote the book and became, arguably, the greatest scientist the world has ever known.

If there were a comet or an asteroid approaching our planet, we wouldn’t be aware of it until two weeks before it was due to collide and by then, it would be too late to do anything. Essentially, if there was an asteroid approaching our planet, we would be in the dark (quite literally) about it and the havoc it would create on colliding with the planet i enough to end the human race as we know it. And considering there are hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our system, every moment we live might be our last. Terrifyingly fascinating, isn’t it?

It is facts like these, backed up by credible scientific research and evidence that makes Bryson’s book such a compelling read. So far, I have read about the Big Bang, the Universe, the Galaxies and our Solar System. You may feel that you have adequate knowledge of the aforementioned topics but it is only after reading chapters dedicating to these topics due you actually grasp the magnitude of your ignorance (at least in my case). Did you know, for instance, that until very recently the Earth was believed to be only a few million years old? Or that the first dinosaur fossil found was discarded as the discoverer couldn’t grasp its importance?

Bryson’s later chapters are devoted to the planet we live on and broadly gives an overview of the planet from the viewpoint of two subjects: Chemistry and Geology. After reading the chapter on Alchemy, Chemistry and the Elements, I kind of grasped as to how cruel and unfair the world of science can sometimes be. Some of the greatest geniuses who ever lived are not even mentioned in scientific literature. Take Swedish Chemist Carl Scheele, for example. This man independently discovered eight elements including hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine. But he is not given credit for it. The majority of the world doesn’t even know his name.

I’ve never been a fan of Geology or Geography but the fact that I went through almost a dozen chapters dedicated to them effortlessly speaks of the effortless ease with which the author conveys major ideas to us. Although it is highly unlikely that I will pick up a book on Geology as a follow-up, I can confidently say that I know enough to discuss a few topics with a geologist over a cup of tea.

The latter half of the book covers Biology and Evolution and I’m sure it will be an even more exhilarating read than the former. I liked Biology at one point of time. I have a feeling I still do. I maybe just halfway through the book but here’s one piece of advice I’d give to anyone who wants to know about how the universe and the world works: read the book. Trust me, it’s worth it. Every single page of it.

 

Big History

 

Recently, I viewed a TED Talk titled David Christian: The history of our world in 18 minutes. It was on a subject known as Big History. Big History, as the speaker David Christian explains, is an emerging academic field that undertakes a highly ambitious task of narrating the entire history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present. It does so through a potpourri of scientific fields including astrophysics, geology, biology, anthropology etc. It is this polyamory of so many diverse fields that drew me to the subject and had me wanting for more.

A quick search for Big History books got me one clear winner: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. The book is considered as the Bible of the subject. I’ve gone through the first three chapters and I’ve not been disappointed. It is immensely beautiful as to how Bryson so seamlessly takes the discussion from the realms of Physics to explain universal laws such as that of gravitation to that of geology to explain the formation of mountains and calculating the age of the planet we inhabit.

Big History covers so many fields that I do not think I will be able to do justice to it by writing about it in just one post (Also, I haven’t even finished a tenth of Bryson’s book). Hence, I will be updating about the various eras of history that I’m learning and reading about. It will easily take up portions of about half a dozen posts.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m done with three chapters and I’m on the verge of completion of the fourth. So far, Bryson has explained the Big Bang, how the entire universe came out of a singularity, the nature of the solar system, the planets in it, the position of our planet in the Universe etc. in the first part of the book (Chapters 1-3). In Chapter 4, he turns his attention to our planet. What is its circumference, its mass, what kind of orbit it revolves around and why, why does it have mountains, the seas etc. The debates that have raged over these topics are definitely worth a read. I’m not even a tenth into the book and it has already given insights into the minds of over a dozen geniuses. Big History is a rough guide towards the entire field of science. To condense so many fields into a single subject may seem like an almost impossible task but if the TED Talks and the books are to be reviewed, I must say it has been wildly successful so far in its attempts.

Guitar, Buddhism, Wilde and Cancer

 

DP19

As you may have guessed from the title, a lot has been going on the past two days in my life. Firstly, I completed my 50th book of the year (yes, I know I said I’d stop reading until the end semesters but I couldn’t resist), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It is undoubtedly one of the best works of fiction I’ve ever read and probably will ever read. This is the book since The Da Vinci Code that I was simply unable to put down. The story of a man who sells his soul for eternal youth. There is a romanticism simply in the one line description of the book. One of the main characters of the book, Lord Henry, is, to put it in layman’s terms, the villain of the book. Yet each line attributed to him is an absolute delight to read. He speaks the truth and his words pierce you like a dagger. I’ve never fell as much in love with any fictional character than I did with this spoiled connoisseur.

I had read up a little about Buddhist philosophy and the concept of Nirvana was particularly interesting so much so that I picked up the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings by the great Buddha. The book was small but its wisdom far transcended its size. Some of the Buddhist ideals are really worth applying to in our lives. I felt a sort of liberation simply by reading the book. Although I do not think I will be able to apply the principles of asceticism and stoicism that the Buddha so staunchly propagates, I do find myself wiser knowing about it. According to Buddha, Nirvana can be attained only when one is free of desires. When one is stoic to the face of pleasures, he/she becomes indifferent to grief. It is indifference to these multitude of emotions that can give you freedom from the continuous, hapless cycle of rebirth. I, however, feel differently. I believe that we ought to embrace these emotions to the fullest. We need to allow grief to sear holes into our hearts and in turn let joy fill in those holes. Emotion is paramount to human existence. It’s what makes us alive. It is the mother of all art. It is what survives in the sands of time.

The second book I’m reading on Buddhism is a certain Siddhartha by Hermann Heese. I’m almost halfway through the book and so far, it has turned out to be a pretty interesting read. Although I do not identify myself with all the principles of Buddhism, I do intend on visiting a monastery soon. If there is one word that could sum up this entire religion, it would be peace.

Today, I finally summed up the will to resume playing the guitar again. I went through the first two weeks worth of course material of Berklee’s Intrduction to Guitar. It felt really good to play the instrument after such a long time again.

Last, but not least, I ended up writing my term paper for Engineering Electromagnetics course. It was on the possibility of a correlation between cancer and increased exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Honestly speaking, I learnt more researching about this topic than all the classes I have attended combined. It would be really cool if profs assigned a considerable portion of the course grade to term papers. That would do wonders to my GPA and would actually imbibe some knowledge of the department I’ve come to hate so passionately.

(And in case you’re interested, you can find the paper here)