"Wawaweewa. Nice. Wu La La. King in the castle. King in the castle. I have a chair. And I have read books. 120 of them. What a year!" I spoke in my Borat imitation.
"Hold on. Hold on. You can fool the stats. But, you can't fool me, " interjected Pongalswamy.
"Fool you? Why? How?" I asked.
"Out of 120, 40 are children's books and 40 are audio books. So, essentially you have read only 40 books."
"Hey ! Hey ! Children's books are books. Audio books are also books. How does it matter if you just read them, or listen to while you are walking. "
"And what about the 10 DNFs?"
"To avoid the trap of sunk-cost fallacy."
"So, essentially only 30 meaningful books."
"Hey ! Hey ! It doesn't matter. What matters is it is the highest number I have ever reached."
"OK. Whatever makes you happy," smirked Pongalswamy.
"Now, go away. Let me reflect."
Books Read - 120
Books Reviewed - 79
Fiction - 41 (English-24, Hindi -10, Odia -7)
Non-Fiction - 38
Children's - 41
Audio Book - 40
Best fictions in English
Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa * * * *
More Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa * * * *
Best fictions in Hindi
आको बाको by Divya Prakash Dubey * * * *
Best fictions in Odia
ଐକତାନ by Pratibha Ray * * * * * ( Favourite and best book of the year)
ଚତୁର୍ଥ ବନ୍ଧୁ ଓ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ କାହାଣୀ by Manoj Das * * * * *
Notable Non-Fictions
How Prime Ministers Decide by Neerja Chowdhury
On Tyranny and On Ukraine: Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine by Timothy Snyder * * * *
Stop Reading the News by Rolf Dobelli * * * *
Win Every Argument by Mehdi Hasan * * * *
Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg * * * *
Learn, Don't Study by Pramath Raj Sinha * * * *
Best Children's books
How Humans Took Over the World by Yuval Noah Harari
Exam Warriors by Narendra Modi * * * *
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate * * * *
Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate * * * *
George's Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen Hawking * * * *
The Magic of the Lost Temple by Sudha Murty * * * *
The Girl Who Chose by Devdutt Pattanaik * * * *
The Boys who Fought by Devdutt Pattanaik * * * *
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier * * * *
Best Audio Books
How Prime Ministers Decide by Neerja Chowdhury, narrated by Benaifer J. Mirza * * * *
A Promised Land by Barack Obama, narrated by Barack Obama * * * *
Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg, narrated by Charles Duhigg * * * *
Brave New Words by Salman Khan, narrated by Salman Khan * * * *
Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, narrated by Jeff Harding * * * *
आको बाको by Divya Prakash Dubey, narrated by Bageshree Bhalerao * * * *
यार पापा by Divya Prakash Dubey, narrated by Divya Prakash Dubey * * * *
The Re-Reads
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari * * * * * (Still Favourite)
The Giver by Lois Lowry * * * *
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl * * * *
The Worst Reads
One Arranged Murder by Chetan Bhagat * * (Audiobook)
Razor Sharp by Ashwin Sanghi * * (Audio Book)
The Dark Side Of Startups by Arvind Arora * *
How India Votes And What It Means by Pradeep Gupta * *
How to Finish Everything You Start by Jan Yager * *
Famous books that failed to make a mark (May be next time)
The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
