This year, I read most number of books in a year in a long time. I’ve always loved reading. Books are my safe place, my escape route and my imaginary world. If I didn’t have to care about earning a living and you know usual day to day. All I would do is read. I’ve mentioned in a previous post – A few Books that influenced my life. that books are my life. How could my last post of the year not be about books. 🙂
I’m not sharing a list of all I read this year, just the top 5 I enjoyed the most.
Getting Things Done – By David Allen
This is the book that gave me more than a glimmer of hope from the overwhelming sense of impending doom. I didn’t realise when I slid down from feeling more in control and more productive in the time of stress to when even the smallest amount of stress was drowning me. Somehow, I’ve always had an overwhelming list of to-dos and the pressure just kept building on me. I was oblivious when it turned into constant self-criticism and my self-worth kept reducing. Among the to-do list were also the list of books I wanted to read. 🙂 Enough was enough. I finally made time and I started taking things easy, I wanted to be prepared for the time when the amount of work will take over my life again. This is one of the books that helped me organise myself.
Getting things done or GTD methodology is a personal productivity framework that redefines how you approach your work and life. The author David Allen worked with countless executives in the corporate world with people development and developed GTD methodology. This book was his idea to put it on paper as manual for the framework he formulated, tested and implemented. In the book it is helpful to see the examples he has from experience of working with various executives and managers in a variety of scenarios. GTD methodology focuses on 5 fundamental steps – capture, clarify, organise, reflect and engage. Something as simple as just a habit of writing things down on paper instead of keeping things in your head helped me immensely. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for ways to be more productive.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
A heart wrenching book that shows us the mirror that as humans we embody both the sanity and violence and depending on the circumstances, we can lean towards violence more easily than we would like to believe. During world war a plane that was evacuating a group of boys from Britain crashes on an island. In absence of adults these boys go through the process of finding themselves a leader and a set of actions they will need in order to survive and eventually be rescued.
The story starts off with innocence, friendship, curiosity and camaraderie until it slowly boils down to insecurity, fight for power and unexpected violence and chaos. Even though the author has crafted the story about a bunch of boys and not adults, he describes primal tendencies of human behaviour masterfully and keeps you on your toes, wishing nothing bad would happen. A beautiful book and no wonder a classic.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Kite runner is the first book I read from Khaled Hosseini. Looking at recommendations for similar books from him and ‘A thousand splendid suns’ was one among them. I enjoy learning about different cultures, their origin, history and evolution. I’m interested to know the history and how it took shape. The philosophical and psychological factors that affected its course or it came as a result of foreign influence. The magnitude of changes that a society or a country goes through when affected with external elements and the role that the religion plays.
Naturally, I was curious to read another story that’s weaved around all these elements. This story is about a girl born out of wedlock who worshiped her father. How her beliefs failed her and taught her to be a grown woman during war with Russia and Taliban regime. How the world as she knew ceased to exist and a new one took shape in an instant. Ultimately how she built a world for herself and for the ones she loved.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist and a holocaust survivor. I expected this book to be about his discovery of the big secret called “The meaning of life”. He had seen the worst possible time you can imagine during his time in Nazi concentration camps and had an epiphany one day. This is a question man kind has been asking for a very long time if not forever. We all have heard it that we are born with a purpose. The day we find it we’ll be content. That’s the secret to ultimate happiness. Well! I wanted to know that secret.
Guess what? I did not find that secret when I read the book. What I did find was unexpected and relieving. In this book, he briefly touches upon his life in concentration camps but his main focus is the foundation of Logotherapy. A form of analysis and psychotherapy about human existence that is different from Sigmund Freud.
It was a wonderful reminder for me that life does not have just one great purpose, but it is about finding the purpose in the day to day. It’s about the meaning and purpose you give yourself. It sounds cliché, but when you read about Viktor’s experiences during his time in the concentration camps and how it helped him think about human psychology and connect with his patients on their level. He didn’t lecture them to find motivation. Rather, he helped them discover simple things that they were not paying attention to, blinded by their grief.
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
I have a cat named Pepper. I confess I never seriously thought about getting a pet and my first reaction is not very good when a surprise responsibility is thrown at me. That’s what happened when one fine day, without any prior notice my husband brought home a kitten. Now it’s a kitten, you can be mad at your husband, but you can’t be mad at the kitten even if you try very hard. I wasn’t surprised that I fell in love with this furball in a matter of few minutes. While being mad at my husband for over a month.
Well long story short, I have a special love for cats now. So, while browsing the biggest book store of Europe, I came across this book, I couldn’t resist buying it.
It’s a beautiful story about a boy who has always wanted a cat but could not keep one. When he became a man a cat found him and he is travelling with the cat. ( I will not reveal the reason why) The story is written from a cat’s point of view. What the cat observes on its travels across Japan and how the journey ends. A heart-warming book for any pet / cat lovers out there.
What’s next?
I was hoping to finish one more book that I really like is 1984 by George Orwell. I’m not proud to say that my new hectic routine with intense travel and full time job, I’m reading as much. I intend to change that and keep the rhythm going. As any book lover I have a stack of unread books I need to get to someday and I will. 🙂 let’s hope that coming year I break my record of maximum books read in 2022. On that note, I wish you all a wonderful new year! Hope you have all your wishes come true and read more than before! 🙂 I will see you again on the other side.
Until next week. Ciao!
