Books Read in January 2022
Last year, I read a total of 29 books and as the year came to a close, I listed out my top 10 books in a post right here. Now since I comfortably crossed my goal of reading 12 books in 2021, I have doubled my target to 24 in 2022. Another thought that came to my mind is that every month, come up with a post wherein I list the books that I have read in that particular month. This is the first in the series.
This month, I read a total of 5 books. I’m currently reading 2 at the moment as I write this post but 5 books I have finished this month. Although there are a couple of days left, I doubt if I can finish any additional book to the 5 I have already read. So, that is why I’m already writing the post for January. Now, which were the 5 books I read this month? Let’s find out.
- The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock
I had started reading this book in December 2021 but got to finish it this month. I have always been intrigued by Afghanistan and the various conflicts that have taken place over there throughout history. In fact, I had even written an article on the same sometime back. Whether Afghanistan can be indeed described as “The Graveyard of Empires” is debatable, but certainly, the country has become the graveyard of peace and 4 consecutive American administrations have seen to it that Afghanistan is right on top of the list of failures committed by the United States in its history. Read the book to know more
2. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
Every investor’s sacred book of sorts, I started reading this book also in December 2021 and finished it this month. It is an excellent book. Something that everyone who is interested in investing, must-read. I only wish that I had read this earlier so that I would not have committed some of the mistakes that I did when I started my investing journey a few months back :)
What is remarkable is that even after all these years, a lot of what was written by Graham way back in 1949 still remains relevant. The commentary by Jason Zweig is an added bonus and helps us relate the concepts taught by Graham in the context of the modern world.
3. Growing up Karanth by K Ullas Karanth, Malavika Kapur, and Kshama Rau
Outstanding would be an understatement to describe this book, a biography on arguably India’s greatest polymath since Rabindranath Tagore. I always knew about Shivaram Karanth being one of the greatest Kannada writers of all time and a recipient of the prestigious Jnanapeetha award. But I didn’t know that he was not just one of the greatest Kannada writers of all time, but the greatest polymath since Tagore himself. This book is written by his children — Malavika Kapur, Ullas Karanth, and Kshama Rau as a tribute to their late parents and it is a moving gesture by the three of them to celebrate the life of their parents and share the memories they had of their father Shivaram Karanth and mother Leela Karanth.
4. Manohar Parrikar: Brilliant Mind, Simple Life by Nitin A. Gokhale
This is an excellent book. The author, Nitin Gokhale is one of India’s foremost defense analysts and he knew former Defence Minister of India and former Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Manohar Parrikar quite well. Most of the things about Parrikar are already known to the public but this is still a must-read book to appreciate and celebrate the life of Parrikar, a one of kind politician in India who genuinely cared for the people and whose early demise was a great loss to our nation.
5. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
This is an interesting book and helps you see money, investing, budgeting, etc from a new perspective. My request to you would be that when you are reading this book, do make notes and highlight stuff you think is important. It will definitely help you make decisions while dealing with money in the future. At least, that’s my hope for sure.
These were the 5 books I read this month. The best thing is that I’m back to my preferred way of reading which includes reading three books at a time — one book in print, one on my Kindle, and a Kannada book. I’m currently reading two books right now. Hopefully, they will be appearing in the next month’s post :)