The Best Books I Read In 2020

I feel like books have a way of shaping the journey of our minds.

And there are certain books that drop in at just the right time, leaving behind ideas and emotions that our minds bind to, which eventually shape the way we move forward.

That is what I seek — ideas and inspiration. Ideas that lie underneath all the minutiae. The details matter, but only to the extent that they establish credibility. Outside of that, it is the ideas that linger. It is the courage that inspires. It is the vulnerability and self-awareness that binds you to the author as tears of unfulfilled potential trickle down, all somehow connecting back to your own personal journey.

Of the 35 books I read last year, these lingered.

Humankind by Rutger Bregman

In a year marred with hopelessness and negativity, Bregman dared to defend that humans are basically decent people. Most humans are okay, and our MO needs to involve trusting people more.

Bregman is an excellent thinker and writer, and when you layer years of history on him, he has an engaging way of finding patterns that are hard to argue against — like people are generally good; and if you don’t get scammed at some point in your life, you’re probably not trusting enough. He is unafraid of challenging Harari and Pinker, and at one point, he also takes on the holocaust. Yeah, I know.

Bregman fills the pages with unconventional and riveting anecdotes that make for a pretty fantastic read. And after reading this book, for a well-earned bonus, microwave some popcorn and go listen to this podcast where he discusses it with Steven Pinker.

Livewired by David Eaglemam

If you have heard of Eagleman, you know that he is a neuroscientist and more crucially, an excellent writer. He has written a plethora of books about the brain that should pretty much be classified as neu-erotica.

In his newest book, Livewired, he talks about the brain (again). And talks about its plasticity and adaptability (the usual brain stuff). But what really stayed with me from this book is when he talks about what we can learn from the brain. I know that sounds meta-weird but hear me out.

The brain, in combination with our human body, is highly adaptable and nimble. If you lose your hearing, our other senses compensate, and we quickly adapt. If we lose a leg, we still hobble along. Add some prosthetics and electricity to the equation, and the brain figures out a way to make sense of all the data it receives and still function.

Now contrast that with some of the machines and products we build today — a slight malfunction, and kaput they go. They are not “livewired” as our nimble brain is, they are “hardwired”. This simple idea really struck a chord as I start thinking about the social enterprise I am currently building — how can we be “livewired” as an organization?

Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

Waste and poverty and “sustainability” is the space I am currently starting something in. So, this year I read quite a few books around that, but none of them were as powerful as this one. And I was annoyed because I was late to this party, and I wish I had read this book earlier. Why?

Well, the authors strip through all the tree-hugging, elite idealism that mars the sustainability space with an ideological alternative that makes a lot more objective sense.

They preach that we do not have to necessarily reduce our consumption but instead, redesign the way we consume. Instead of reducing our carbon footprint, how can we ensure that carbon stays where it needs to be — in the soil, and produce cars that take in CO2 and spit out oxygen as a by-product instead like trees? If we like long hot showers, why not build a shower and a plumbing system that infinitely recycles the water instead of drowning yourself in moral misery?

Yes, a little radical, but they also practice what they preach. So, if you care about sustainability, please read this, and reconsider if we want to be in a world that is merely sustainable, or ina world which thrives with humans as net positive assets of the ecosystem.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

My hero. I teared up, and at times wept, through many parts of this book. Barack Obama is not perfect by any means, but his integrity, intellect and intention are nothing short of inspiring.

It is amazing how tough politics is; how the opposition, at most times, cares only about leverage. It has almost become a classic example of how a democratic system set up for debate-based progress is exploited through filibusters and propaganda.

It seems like it is all about gaming the game which in itself is worth mourning while accepting it for what it is, before perhaps, trying to alter it. A world where there is little room for good people, but a dire need for a lot of them.

And I learnt so much about the world through this book — the history, the context, the complexity of decision making, the varying sides of an issue and the importance of the people around you.

But hands down, the most effusing feeling I had after reading this book was the sheer admiration and respect for this complex man. A person who holds dearly onto the two most defining tenets of humanity: truth and self-awareness.

I will defend him and what he stands for with all my might, and this is despite him being far from perfect. Because as true as Shakespeare was when he said that the “evil that men do lives after them”, I want to fight for the good they do that does not have to inter with their bones, especially when it is drowning in copious amounts of good and good intentions.

There were other books that also played their part. Katherine Boo’s non-fiction narrative of the lives of waste-pickers living in urban slums left me weeping. Don Moore’s take on the perils of overconfidence and under-confidence in decision making felt like the right dose of reality I needed when I read it. Robin Jeffrey and Assa Doran’s Waste of a Nation gave me a detailed overview of the waste space in India, along with a couple of crucial advisors for what I am pursuing.

In the end, in a year filled with loneliness and a big fat pandemic, books, once again, served as worthy companions. Here’s to continued cheery companionship in 2021, minus perhaps, the pandemic.

P.S. Goodreads is where I maintain my reading lists, and sometimes review some of the books I read if I am sufficiently shaken. Plus, it’s arguably the only social media platform I’m not ashamed of spending time on.