I’ve been doing these end-of-the-year book lists for 5 years now. You can read all my previous lists here .

This year I read 52 books (about 14,800 pages). Reading is like a marathon; maintaining a reading habit requires focus, effort, and endurance over time. Having a reading challenge like this helps make reading a daily habit and prevents compulsive social media consumption.

Like in past years, this year too, I have tried to sample as many genres as I can, but I primarily read biographies/autobiographies/memoirs because they read like fiction/stories and provide you with the learnings like non-fiction books. Reading fiction feels like I am wasting time, but it is enjoyable. Reading self-help books feels boring, because, oftentimes, there is only one central message repeated too many times in the book. (Auto)Biographies/memoirs fall in the sweet spot with good stories and life lessons. When well written, they have an afterglow of motivation in which you can bask for a while. Moreover, this “book high” seems to last longer when the stories are personal and real.

The books I recommend

A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold by Abhinav Bindra, Rohit Brijnath

When athletes are on top, they make everything seem effortless. They perform at their best almost in a meditative state. In this book, Abhinav walks us through what it takes to develop such stillness and fluency. It takes sheer obsession, working through pain - both physical and mental - and developing a tolerance to it, to the point that it feels like the athlete doesn’t feel the pain. The descriptions of the struggle and hard work in this book are very inspirational - I listened to this book while running and broke a few of my personal records.

“Hitting the bullseye isn’t enough. We have to hit a particular part of the bullseye….. William Tell with his crossbow had to hit the apple, Abhinav had to hit the seed inside the core of that apple. All the time, every shot”

－ Some of my fav quotes from this book

Not Too Late: The Power of Pushing Limits at Any Age by Gwendolyn Bounds

As I crossed over to my 40s this year, I spent quite a lot of time reflecting on what it means to get old. This book came in at a timely moment for me. An account of how a middle-aged non-athletic person went from a desk job to one of the top obstacle-course racers in the world will surely kick anyone out of their middle-aged malaise. It shows us that we all have the inner reserves necessary to push us through any obstacle. Most ultra-endurance books are written by people who do not have a family or a high-pressure job, and the race itself is their first vocation. Not here, and this is what makes this book a gripping read as the author also deals with life’s normal demands. You can push past your limits at any age, as long as you do not quit and push past the blocks with deliberate practice.

“It’s now, as the bright crescendo of our future and all its potential dampens into that subdued hum of maintenance and managing deadlines that we are in the most danger. In danger of no longer seeking new passions. Of giving up on old ones. Of tipping into a belief state that we are fully baked as humans. Of believing our bodies are too far gone for any real redemption. Fully mired in the malaise of “this is just how it is at this age”, we surrender. And so, the midlife assassin declares victory, another victim claimed. “

－ Gwendolyn Bounds, Not Too Late

Open by Andre Agassi, J.R. Moehringer

This could be one of the most entertaining autobiographies I have read. It has one of the best opening chapters I have read.

This is exactly what one wants from an autobiography, a story of honest struggle, a show of true personality, and a journey of discovery. This book doesn’t talk about how good Andre is at tennis. Contrary to what many would think, Andre hates tennis, and this book is about discovering what he wants.

“But I don’t feel that Wimbledon has changed me. I feel, in fact, as if I’ve been let in on a dirty little secret: winning changes nothing. Now that I’ve won a slam, I know something that very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn’t feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn’t last as long as the bad. Not even close.”

－ Andre Agassi, Open

In closing

At the end of this year, I asked myself: Why do I read? And why do I post a list like this every year?

After much reflection, I feel it is not to show off or to feel good having checked off an extrinsic goal of reading a certain number of books every year.

I enjoy reading, and I want to continue to enjoy reading. In these moments, it is best to think about “finite and infinite games” . Finite games have a clear, definite endpoint and a quantifiable outcome, but infinite games don’t have an end and no clear definition of “winning”. The point of infinite games is to keep playing for as long as one can. It also makes one focus more on a “qualitative” goal over a quantitative one.

If I choose a certain number of books as my goal, it becomes a finite game. What’s worse is, for any reason, If I do not hit that number, I would lose the game. It is better to convert my goal into an infinite game, by stating it as “to keep on reading and learning to enjoy reading stuff that I am interested in”. With this north star set in sight, having a reading challenge and a goal with a certain number of books helps to make it a habit. Further, sharing posts like these with the world simply acts as breadcrumbs, documenting my journey and further gamifying the process.

In the end, Reading is no lesser than magic. As one popular meme said:

Happy reading, everybody! May you discover something new, incredible and useful in the pages you will read in the new year.