Books in 2022: Atomic Habits

Book #10

I realize that I was knocking off fiction books nearly every week. But this post after about 15 days pretty much sums up my abysmal pace of reading non-fiction, self-help books. Yet, on the other hand, reading such books gives me a strange kind of satisfaction - satisfaction of unlocking a level of improvement in me. May be for the same reason, I feel that these books deserve more time and a specialized focus. "Atomic habits" all the more, since it talks about inculcating good habits which forms a cornerstone of one's life and a necessary key to attain success.

Primary premise of the book revolves around four ways of forming good habits:

1. Cue - make it obvious. Techniques that author suggests - habit stacking, make it visible, change your environment

2. Craving - make it attractive. Techniques that author suggests - temptation bundling, join culture (strava :))

3. Response - make it easy. Techniques that author suggests - reduce friction, optimize small tasks, progress gradually (2 min rule), automate 

4. Reward - make it satisfying. Techniques that author suggests - immediate reward, habit tracker, never miss twice

To make the book more interesting, author, in parallel, also covers how these same patterns can be used to break bad habits - cue(make it invisible), craving (make it unattractive), response (make it hard) and reward (make it unsatisfying). 

As expected from a non-fiction self-help, there were too many take-away points apart from the ones mentioned above. In fact, I fear I may forget many of them as time passes. But still, I will try my best to remember at least some of them which have potential to alter my life. 

For one, author's explanation of how forming good habits and improving just 1% everyday, finally at the end compounds. I really liked the example he quoted about an imaginary scenario of a flight going from LAX to NYC, ultimately reaching Washington DC due to a minor 3.5 degree tilt while taking off.

In another chapter, author mentions the reason as to why you should inculcate good habits. Many of us tag it to achieving goals - "I want to train because I wish to run a marathon". But author presents a counter point of tagging the reason to changing identity instead - "I want to train because I wish to become a runner (or lead a healthy lifestyle)". Once the reason tags to identity, there is no looking back.

I can confidently say that this one is must read for everyone. Looking forward to some fiction now :P

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Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 4: The Wrath of Hellfires

 Book #9

There are battles and then there are lot of battles. And then, there is "Wrath of Hellfires". The fourth book of the Vikramaditya Veergatha series has so many battles to keep track of that I lost the count... and patience. As I intended in my previous post, I skimmed through the book in order to get a closure. 

Author did a great job at finally putting an end to all the plots. Except of course one  which, unfortunately, I was finding most intriguing - what happened to the marriage proposal of King of Heheya. All the confusion for nothing? Or may be there was something that I skipped while reading the chapters in fast pace. I would never know !

So happy to move to Atomic Habits now

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Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 3: Vengeance of Indra

 Book #8

Not every book is everyone's cup of tea. Unfortunately, I have learned this the hard way and definitely a little late. I should have stopped reading the series after the first book but, for some odd reason, I just kept going. May be it's some form of OCD where I can't abandon something that I started. Right now, I just want to run past the last book for the sake of closure.

Before going to criticize, I want to applaud the author to finally show some conflicts between characters and introduce complexities in the plots, specially the way I like it. In addition to that, there are too many threads that author is efficiently handling at the same time. 

Overall, the third book brought the entire pace of the story down. Specially plots like Shoorsena's marriage proposal or plan to approach Danavas in Dandaka were not developed a lot in this book. In fact I am almost sure that Ghatakpara's kidnapping, a new twist introduced in this book, is yet another side plot to show his gift to the readers. The plot will die its own death just like attack by Hunas and Ahi in previous one. I think with a little faster pace the series could have been culminated in this very book.

Second, I have a serious issue with the titles that Shatrujeet chooses for his books. This one is called "Vengeance of Indra". Again, this was a major incident that happened but not something around which the entire story was revolving. I feel like title of a book should represent the plot in its entirety. For example - "Rift among Navratnas" or may be something related to that but more flowery. In addition to that, vengeance is a strong word and to me it means a fierce and befitting reply to an extreme degree. However in this case, whatever information Indra tried spreading was all on Shukracharya's advice and on top of that it was not extreme at all. Everything depended on whether Shukracharya was right about Varurichi and whether Varurichi will reply in an expected way.

As already said, I just want to get past the last book :( 

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Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 2: Conspiracy at Meru

Book #7

For the better part of the book, I was wondering why is the book named "Conspiracy of Meru"? Is it because there was a sub-plot of Indra's conspiracy against Asuras or is it because of that brief chapter where Shukracharya hatched a conspiracy with Indra against Vikram? Whatever is the case, does the overall plot of the book revolve around any of these conspiracies to name the book after it? I doubt.

While starting, I was unable to wrap my head around significance of every sub-plot. Like what was the use of Shukracharya creeping into Avanti if he anyway had to leave it at the end. After all, he could have learnt all the details from his mandalas. In addition to that, Queen going back to her slumber-like-situation took the story back to square one. Or for that matter, Huna's attack on Dwarka or Ahi's attack on Avanti, they had no significance other than making navratnas aware of their gifts. But finally, may be in last three chapters, there was some respite where Shukracharya laid the stone to a conspiracy and a brief plot twist happened with past-revelations of Kalidasa and his exit from the kingdom.

Although I am still not very satisfied with the series, since, there is not much conflict between characters and not much plot twists which can keep me engaged with story, yet, I will give it away to the author to up his game this time with politics. It was interesting to read Shoorasena's plot and how the mis-understanding of Rukma's marriage proposal is hatching up.

Looking to read the next book. It isn't bad enough for me to leave it in between.

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Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 1: Guardians of Halahala

Book #6

After reading Mistborn, I was itching to read some Indian mythological fantasy series. I stumbled upon Vikramaditya Veergatha while searching for a series similar to Shiva trilogy which I read a few years back. Since the series had good reviews and the author chose an interesting plot I have begun reading it.

The first book is not a complete story in itself. It ends while Vikramaditya wins another battle against Devas but there are many more plots underway to be completed - like Indra's plan to reach Kuber for a third attack or Shukracharya's next step as the healer etc. I hope the author successfully brings everything together by the end.

Shatrujeet Nath's writing is really flowery. There is one GRE word thrown at you after every two sentences. But still, I think he has done a great job explaining the events and the setting. I could literally picture a movie in my head while I was reading it.

Particularly for me the book wasn't a major page turner. First of all, I was expecting some surprises or U-turns or some conflicts while the story evolved which kept me engaged. For example, while Vikramaditya was handing over the dagger to Betal he convinced him immediately. May be a conflict of interest, or a u-turn where Betal refused to accept the dagger may have raised my interest. Similar thing happened while Vikramaditya tried to convince Mother Oracle to live in the palace. There was some disagreement there but ultimately she agreed. I was expecting some things to not work, some failures or plot twists while these events happened. May be it's too early for me to judge and each of these events have some surprise element up its sleeves which will be revealed in coming books. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Second, the way story developed where Indra sent assassins one after another with different powers and plotted to do that again in the end, just seemed a bit comic-ish to read. Just like the Super Commondo Dhruv stories that I read when I was little kid. Ha !

And last, it has lot of characters to keep track of and they are thrown at you immediately as the story begins and at every other juncture. There is very less time to understand or may be deep dive into the prime characters, their behavior or gauge what's grey-ish about them.

Anyways, lot of critic but I admit that the book was a fast read. Looking forward to others in the series.

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Books in 2022: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Book #5

It was some odd day when while scrolling through twitter I found this book highly recommended by a friend. Ever since then I really wanted to read it. Now after I am done, I wouldn't shy away from saying that my friend was right. In fact so right that it is one of those rare books which I have rated 5/5 on goodreads.

Caution, do not judge the book by its cover! It is not at all about Buddha, at least not how I interpret it. It is about life journey of a guy named Siddhartha who pursued wisdom about life and world. Based on his experience he renounced all that was taught to him, abandoned his teachers and took his own journey to learn from the world. Siddhartha, in fact, met Gautam Buddha and had deep discourse about his teachings. He abandoned Buddha himself since he couldn't feel what Buddha felt while he got enlightened. Throughout his life Siddhartha makes lot of choices - good and bad, learns from them, listens to others' wisdom and finally reaches his enlightenment.

Book is heavy on philosophy. But, there are too many takeaway points to keep it aside. In fact, this could be one book that I want to keep by my side all through my life. The last conversation between Siddhartha and Vasudeva was so deep that I would want to read it again and again at every stage of my life, for I know that I will always learn something new out of it every time.

One another point apart from that conversation that touched my heart and mind was about the "time". We have always read how time is important, time is money, losing it cost us .. and what not! However, the book makes us think what if we remove time from our life equation? What if our life is just like a river that continues to flow from one point to another, there is no past and no future, everything is just present. Wouldn't all our problems just vanish?

"Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "It is this what you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?" "This it is," said Siddhartha. "And when I had learned it, I looked at my life, and it was also a river, and the boy Siddhartha was only separated from the man Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha by a shadow, not by something real. Also, Siddhartha's previous births were no past, and his death and his return to Brahma was no future. Nothing was, nothing will be; everything is, everything has existence and is present."

Books in 2022: Mistborn series, Book 3: Hero of Ages

Book #4

I found the end to the trilogy.. poetic. Who doubted itself at every step, questioned about the very existence of divine finally merged with One, became the One. Poem indeed ! 

I failed to realize that the Hero of Ages was always there in front of my eyes, I was reading about it every time, writing about here in the blog but still failed to recognize! May be I will decipher these patterns as I grow further into this genre. Nevertheless, it was satisfying to read how everything came together at the very end, everything demystified and all secrets revealed. Alas, Elend and Vin weren't there with me to celebrate the epic end.

Philosophy of religions probably had a roller-coaster ride throughout the series. On one hand, religions gave people enormous motivation and power, as we learnt in book 1, yet on the other, almost all of their faith was lost when  it was realized that they can manipulated by evil forces. However, at the end religions found their definition - "They weren’t all true. But they all had truth"

A journey from this:

"

How did men believe in something that preached love on one hand, yet taught destruction of unbelievers on the other? How did one rationalize belief with no proof? How could they honestly expect him to have faith in something that taught of miracles and wonders in the far past, but carefully gave excuses for why such things didn’t occur in the present day?

"

to this:

"

The religions in my portfolio weren’t useless after all, he thought, the power flowing from him and remaking the world. None of them were. They weren’t all true. But they all had truth.

"

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Books in 2022: Mistborn series, Book 2: The Well of Ascension

Book #3

On one hand when the first book had arguably a simplistic plot, I credit Brandon to make plot of his second book really convoluted and interesting. Last 100 pages of the book were so exciting that I nearly forgave the author for the long chapters of boring political discussions and soliloquies. 

It turned out to be that the three-armies-plotting-to-conquer-Luthadel was just a side plot while the main story was about secret hidden in the well of ascension. Just like book one, really loved how secrets are being revealed one by one. By far, Sazed's character has been the most intriguing. I loved his overall character arc where he went from loving and knowing everything about religions to losing all his faith while he learnt how religions and prophecies can be used to misguide people. 

Can't wait how all these mysteries will close. Looking forward for the third one.

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Books in 2022: Train to Pakistan

 Book #2

Once I wrote a blog post about overlapping philosophies among different novels I read. Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh re-kindled that memory. On one hand where Mistborn's first novel taught me how religion can bind people and can help them achieve what seems impossible, train to Pakistan introduced me to the other side of it - how religion can plague minds of entire population to an extent that they resort to violence.

To be honest, I don't think I am meant to read such novels. Kushwant Singh tends to be very descriptive about the locations, weather, actions of characters and what not, that I get too bored to completely digest what the novel wants to convey. The pace of the story is so slow that, at one point, I had to avoid reading 2-3 pages of description of monsoon weather and then about what Iqbal Singh and Hukum Chand were thinking while they were trying to sleep. 

It was hard but I finally succeeded to comprehend the use of Juggat Singh's character who spent like 50% of the novel's time in Jail. But I unfortunately failed to do that with Iqbal's one. May be I will try it again some other time and see if I have matured enough to digest Khushwant Singh's works.

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Books in 2022: Mistborn series, Book 1: The Final Empire

 Book #1

With the Mistborn series, I commence my journey with long high fantasy novels. "The final empire" is first book of the series written by Brandon Sanderson. 

Overall, the novel is really gripping, specially at the end. Though the plot is simple - group of rebels plan to overthrow a tyrant emperor and finally succeed - yet it contains lot of secrets up its sleeves. The way Sanderson has designed its setting and embedded some very strong characters, it has all come together really well at the end. Probably for the first time in a fiction novel, I really liked its characters - Kelsier, Vin, Sazed are my top picks.

I really liked Sanderson's writing style - simple yet loaded with philosophies. There were lot of take aways from the novel, however, one that really stood out for me was that it took to spawn an entire new religion to motivate people, who were apparently forced to slavery for a thousand years, to rebel against a tyrant government. It was quite refreshing to read positives of religion as to how it can bind energies of millions of people to accomplish something so great.

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