Another year has passed since I started keeping my record on Goodreads. 2023 was a year of change for me, I moved out of my house for the first time to join Integrated-PhD at NISER. Undoubtedly, these transformative experiences must have left its mark on my reading journey. Anyway, let us start with some stats that GR provides.
Books read: 98
Pages read: 33,813
Average Book Length: 345
Average Reading: 2.8
The year started with finishing Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies which was a 5/5. I really do need to buy the other two books in the series. Next was Joad's Guide to Modern Thought, which was my first review of the year. Quoting from the review:
My edition is a reprint of 1947 edition, so "modern" in the title may be misleading now. The book primarily focuses on the impact of certain scientific discoveries, including some pseudoscientific concepts such as ghost mediums, on philosophy.
I have no idea why the book has an average rating of 3.89/5.
I read Basic Income: A Transformative Policy For India which converted me to a pro Basic income (as far as Micro Implications are considered, I have yet to study macro implications in detail.) A compelling read that should be on the must-read list for Economics and Public Policy courses. Another book related to policy was Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India. It is written by the son of the current CJI and the grandson of another. Found him a bit biased in the direction I thought he would be, but a fine book nonetheless. Lidl & Pilz's Applied Abstract Algebra was a great book I read for the course in Discrete Mathematics. I hope my research in future would be in a related direction.
Next, I was in the mood for some Hindi (I often have periods of reading Hindi Literature) but found both Raag Bhopali and काशी का अस्सी were much overhyped and did not live up to their reputation. The same was true for Way Beyond The Three Rs, Rise of Modern Japan and Bhārat: India 2.0 read during the same period.
Next were some books which could be called to be aligned to Pro Hindutva ideology. As in often the case with such books, I had to read Kautilya on moral hazard, poverty & systemic risk and Mathematical Method of Sanskrit Grammar both of which were products of Quackery. In fact I think I read a lot of quackery this year which must explain the low average rating. This is when I read Vikram Sampath's most talked about Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 which I think will become a classic. I have already ordered the second part in Hindi but have had not the time to read it yet. Interesting is that I finished the book on 7th July while started in May. This means I was reading it throughout my BSc and entrance exams. How I read it this long when the college library did not allow reissuing of the book? Its all thanks to the symbiotic relation me and Aman Kushwaha had (thought I have left to believe the scales were heavily tilted in my favour.) Anyway, the biography have left me further in awe of Hindutva.
The next book worth mentioning was Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People. Initially I read it to prepare for interview at IACS (wherein for unknown reasons I managed to get AIR 1 in the written exam.) Although due to network issues (and honesty I had no heart to join even if selected since I already had the offer letter from NISER) I did not give the interview, the study of algorithms is quite interesting.
A literally life changing book was Monika Halan's Let's Talk Money: You've Worked Hard for It, Now Make It Work for You. This finally got me to think about money, the fact that in a few months I have was to be given a stipend by DAE to live on my own is what led me to read the book. I have bought Let's Talk Mutual Funds and started reading it, and have also started to invest via Mutual Funds (#SahiHai) and done a NPS too.
With money matters settled (theoretically) and a Int-PhD offer letter in my hand, Imposter syndrome (I hope its just a thing in my mind but you never know...) kicked in and I began binge reading PhD advice books. Most of the are focused on labs sciences or s*cial "sciences" and none based in the Indian context, but one have to make do with what was available. 57 Ways to Screw Up in Grad School and Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School were genuinely funny. A Field Guide to Grad School (Despite her ideological leaning which sweeps much into the text), The Professor Is In and Grad School Essentials were helpful, at least in views of the first year me. Next I read श्यामला दंडकम् with a not so good translation, I planned to memorize it but got too busy and neglected it lol.
Upto this point, a majority of books I read came from library of my College (or via LibGen.) I did not notice at that point but SVC library is very well stocked and it was a joy to randomly find books in it. In comparison to it, NISER library is nearly empty, possibly due to the much more focused nature of the institution or due to the small time it has been since its establishment. But anyway, the SVC library is much missed. The first book I finished from the new library was My Numbers, My Friends: Popular Lectures on Number Theory, not really much interesting.
When I went back home in September, I took A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with me. Parents were quite angry (Faltu ka wajan leke aa jate ho) but it was worth it. A big 5/5. Another classic I read was The Return of Sherlock Holmes, almost 5/5 but a 4/5, which is my first Holmes novel. Continuing with classics, I tried to read a Hindi translation of Swami Vivekanand's Rajayoga but the translation did not work for me. I later read the English original. At year ended with the banger named The Three-Body Problem.
A very few words on the Blog
A look at my reading list would have helped justified the name of the blog - बहुश्रुतस्य परिभ्रमान् - the ramblings of one who have heard a lot. I hope to write randomly on random topics I become obsessed with at that time in the blog.
Goals for 2024
- 52 Books
- 3 Books in Hindi
- 2 Books in Sanskrit or on IKS
- 1 Book in Odia
- Finish "3 Body Problem" series
- Read at least one work of Swami Vivekanand
- Complete Volume 2 of Vikram Sampath's Savarkar
- Read Rise and Fall of Rome Vol I
- 3 Books for "Ideologically Opposite" Camp
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