2017 was mostly a non-fiction year for me. Among the books I loved most are Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and Rework, a business book by Jason Fried and David Heinmeier Hanson. In fiction I thought Samit Basu’s superhero novels Turbulence and Resistance were good fun. I also caught up on some philosophers who had been on my reading list for a long time, like AC Grayling for example.
Samit Basu is always eminently readable and is perhaps my favourite Indian fantasy writer. Sapiens, on the other hand, was a richly researched book about the human condition which painted a vivid picture of how we came to be where we are as the human race. Rework was a good read because it lays bare a lot of things that “everyone knows” about doing business and running a start-up.
Here’s a quote from Rework:
Plans let the past drive the future. They put blinders on you. “This is where we’re going because, well, that’s where we said we were going.” And that’s the problem: Plans are inconsistent with improvisation.
As far as discovering new authors in 2017 goes, none of note come to mind. I intend for 2018 to be more focused on fiction and new voices.
Read what five other avid readers have to say about their memorable reads of 2017!
