It is that time of the year again when social media will be rife with lists-of-the-year posts. The lists could be about videos, podcasts, movies, etc. I’ve been doing end-of-the-year book lists for 2 years now. You can read my previous lists here: 2020 , 2019 . So I asked myself, Should I write one this year too? I realized the answer to that lay in the more intriguing question: Why am I doing this?

The end of the year is supposed to be some form of contemplative and reflective time. As I went down the rabbit hole, I came up with many possible reasons why I wanted to - To push myself to read more? To show off to the world? To improve my writing skills? Might be fun for my future self to read?

There may be some truth in all the above, but the reason I do this is to help people find books based on what helped me - maybe others might find something interesting to read in the new year.

So, I write once again about the best books I read in the year - overall I read 72 books in total.

Here are the very best ones I read in 2021:

Business

The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time by Jim McKelvey

“The Innovation Stack” is about the origin story of “Square” - the “payments startup”. Although this book is the story of Square, it is actually much more - part philosophy, part biography, part business book.

An entrepreneur will usually begin their journey in an area where there is no market. In this new market, they will have to try something truly new. This will inevitably force them to solve a series of problems and the solution to one problem leads to another problem or many problems. This “problem-solution-problems” cycle continues on and in the end, they will have a series of independent and interlocking inventions, which is an Innovation Stack. Or they will have failed.

I have written about this in detail here .

Biography

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman

There are biographies and then there are biographies!

For those who do not know of him: Think of Shannon as Feynman minus the antics/theatrics!

If I sound like a fanboy, that is because I am. Claude Shannon is a hero of mine. He is one of the most important people in the world of mathematics, communications, computer science, and engineering. Arguably, without Shannon, there would be no Internet!

Every email we have ever sent, every DVD and sound file we have ever played, and every Web page we have ever loaded bears a debt to Claude Shannon.

‐ Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman

Shannon’s secret: Constructive Dissatisfaction and useful irritation

We get good insights into Shannon’s thinking, as one of the excerpts in the book provides a window into his brain. On the topic of creativity, Shannon had the following thought:

The great insights don’t spring from curiosity alone, but from dissatisfaction — not the depressive kind of dissatisfaction, but rather a “constructive dissatisfaction,” or “a slight irritation when things don’t look quite right”. A genius is simply someone who is usefully irritated.

Apart from being extremely brilliant, he was also very private, quiet, and introverted - these do not bode well for the biographers as the job of documenting his life is very difficult. Still, the authors do a tremendous job of unfurling his life and work for the rest of us.

As the authors write, If there were a Nobel Prize for Maths, Shannon definitely would have won one.

Philosophy

A Million Thoughts by Om Swami

Written by a mystic living in the Himalayan foothills who previously also founded and ran a multi-million dollar software company, this book is a comprehensive guide to meditation. However, instead of being a checklist manual and a simple how-to book, this book goes under the hood, providing details about the various nuts and bolts of our thinking brain. The author’s history with running a software company is evident - he is even able to explain philosophy in a lucid, structured approach.

The absence of anything dictates the value of its presence. When we express gratitude, when we feel it in our hearts, it helps us value what all we have in our lives. And that is a divine start to a good life.

‐ Om Swami

If you have ever thought of giving meditation a try and don’t know how to begin - this book is a great place to start!

Memoir

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (Translator)

Part travelogue, part training log, and part memoir, this book is introspective and thoughtful - The author uses running as a metaphor for finding your philosophy in life to self-improvement. And so it was a perfect genre for me as it fell in the dead center of my reading Venn diagram - philosophy, productivity, fitness, and self-improvement.

No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough, and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act.

‐ Haruki Murakami

Self-help

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

The topic of our relationship with money is a fraught one and is complex to write about. This short book makes good work of it and is an enjoyable read. Filled with insights, it will act as a mirror for your own “money habits”.

Wealth is what you don’t see. Wealth is the nice cars not purchased. The diamonds not bought. The watches not worn, the clothes forgone and the first-class upgrade declined. Wealth is financial assets that haven’t yet been converted into the stuff you see.

‐ Morgan Housel

The author encourages us to get off our hedonistic treadmill and look at our savings as a hedge against life’s inevitable ability to surprise the hell out of us at the worst possible moment. Balance is the key as it increases the odds of being able to stick with a plan and avoid regret if any one of many things(income, savings, commute time, family time, etc) fall to the extreme sides of the spectrum.

Fiction

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

This is Rashomon meets Groundhog Day meets Agatha Christie.

It is a murder mystery, in which the protagonist relives the same day while waking in different bodies each day. Wrapped in the murder mystery is also the elusive question - how will the protagonist survive this - will he escape this daily loop?

It has a perfect mix of suspense, twist, fun, and intrigue!

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap on my reading year. While I will remember 2021 for various other eventful reasons in my life, this being the year COVID wreaked havoc, I think I am sufficiently happy with the books I read this year.

So what’s next? I do not know - I look forward to being pleasantly surprised by a book this new year!