State of Reading 2022

I finished 37 books so far this year. I might finish one other before the year ends. There are many more in various stages of progress, but incomplete. These 37 span 9537 pages, so that's roughly 237 pages a book on average. When I started this year, I wanted to read a lot less that I did before. I failed by at least 15. Most of my reading happened just these past six months - I only read 8 books or so prior to June/July.

• Four of the books are technical. One of them as part of the book club at work. I regard these as high leverage activities. At least two of them informed how I go about building systems in my day job.
• Completed a few others are also thanks to another management-oriented book club at work. I still get hits on the website for the book notes on High Output Management.
• I read five works of fiction, of which three were comics. The only virtues of the comics were that I didn't waste too much time on them. In hindsight, I should not have even started with Graham Greene. I am not sure what traces it's going to leave on my mind. The lone fiction I am glad to have read is Kuvempu's. I need to read a lot more Kannada works in the future.
• Two biographies, one of which was about Aurobindo. Reading this before Kuvempu's book helped me synthesize some of the ideas I had about the development of Hinduism, especially the influence on Bengal Renaissance across the subcontinent. Related, finally finished Tagore's Sadhana earlier this year. That one is not going to become an emotional touchstone.
• The toughest books I read were David Reich and Debt. These had ideas that fall under the "big if true" category, while also being inaccessible. They have definitely have changed my perspectives on the world. Worthwhile. I could only really understand their theses when writing about them.
• Quite a few Dharma books. Biggest discoveries have been R. Ganesh and DVG.
• A couple of birthing books. I don't think I would have found value in them if I wasn't closely tracking the wife's pregnancy using their appendices. Better than the internet, and there are citations whose trail I can follow.
• Read Annie Ernaux before she won the Noble. I think a New Yorker profile led me to her book. Short. I enjoyed the intense cross examination of her memories. I would like to write like her.
• As usual, some self help and productivity books. At the least, I got posts out of it. Dan Charnas' framework is interesting and I think quite pragmatic. That book deserves a second reading.
• Just two academic Indology/Indian Studies books. I liked both of them and wrote about each here.

Some desiderata for the next year

• No self help or productivity books. I think I know enough to get around for the rest of my life now. A waste of time.
  • Tiny Habits is an exception. Already working my way through it.
• No comics. Again, a waste of time. Even if they are quick reads. I am at a stage now where I want books to leave a trace in my life. Comics don't serve that purpose any more.
• I have a few books about writing in the pipeline. I am enjoying them. Since I want to write a lot more and want to get better at it, I am likely to finish these next. Then there is question of how to convert what I am reading into actionable insights.
• Dharma books are nonnegotiable. Have a few in the backlog. Krishna Sastri. R.L. Kashyap. It's also time to re-read Aurobindo.
• Want to finish and write about some hard tree books: Beginning of Infinity, Niscaldas and Hinduism. Re-read Julius Lipner's Face of Truth. Eliot Deustch's book on Advaita Vedanta.
• I only want to read Indian fiction works. I have Jeyamohan on my shelf. There is also Kuvempu and Bhyrappa.
• Parenting books. I suspect this is going to dominate the year. Includes Hitopadesha and Manoj Das.
• I am re-reading Reflections on Silver River now, and I have a feeling I will tackle Dogen next. I don't think I can ever be rid of the meditation itch.
• I should really be reading a lot more technical books this year: Re-visit the ML Engineering book, read Human in the Loop Machine Learning, the second system design book. Finish grokking functional programming.

Considering how little I remember of most books I have read, I don't want to read more than 25 books next year. Lesser, if I can get away with it. Reading has become a crutch to avoid thinking. It is easy to eliminate a great many books from consideration just by reading reviews and reading the Kindle samples. My reading life has taught me that the books that are most rewarding are those at the intersection of interesting or insightful ideas and at the same time at least a little robust and critical about the epistemological foundations of the claims they are making. I might have a few like that.

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