Varun's Books of 2019

Varun and I have always connected on books. We started the year with a book bingo to guide our reading and then later in the year, we buddy read The Book of M. With 2019 wrapping up, and me talking to book lovers, it is of paramount importance that I talk to Varun and share his journey in books with you.

Like all posts in the 2019 in books series, remember that Varun’s words are in italics and since this is a bookish discussion, all book links open in a new tab so that you can refer to them afterwards.

Welcome to Armed with A Book, Varun. 🙂 Tell me a little bit about your love for books.

Hey! It’s more of a ‘Welcome back’ for me! It was fun to contribute to two great articles on The Book of M, and, you know, I’ve discussed opportunities for more buddy reads with you. I’m looking forward to being here more often!

My love for books goes all the way back to Grade 7 when I first read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I jumped right into that 636-page book, having no clue whatsoever of the backstory, the characters as well as the time it would take me to finish it! I still remember that I had to get it reissued thrice from my school’s library, and the librarian was generous enough as well. That’s when I got hooked and have been involved ever since. I even went as far as borrowing and finishing all the books from the Harry Potter series after that. Not a single penny spent. 

That makes me wonder, what got you into reading? I’ve read bits and pieces about it on your past blogs and on Armed with a Book as well, but have never known the entire story. 

Papa’s side of the family always had a fierce love for reading and I think I got it from them, even though I did not grow up with them. Papa used to send these parcels of books from twice a year almost. One of the things I loved about those rituals was that Papa didn’t really ask if I finished the books he had sent earlier. So, I ended up reading what I could and then reading from the new batch. 

I got into a discussion about reading and ratings with Ariel couple weeks back and we decided to come up with a more comprehensive rating system than the sheer number count in Goodreads. I found a book called Plotting the reading experience which I am slowly making my way through to find out more about reading, what it means, what the research says about it, and how we can find what we truly value in a book. One of the exercises that I have found is to create a ‘collage’ (more like a journal entry to be honest) about the critical incidents in life which have influenced me as a reader. I think you will really enjoy that article when I get to it, and it would be a good one to try for yourself too!

Do you participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge or set reading goals for yourself? How do you usually choose this goal and what was your goal for this year?

Yes, I do. I should mention that I haven’t been as consistent as you have (I saw that you doubled the target a couple months ago and achieved even that. Wow!) but I make it a point to set a goal and read as religiously as possible each year, in the hopes that I can achieve my goal before the year ends. 

I usually keep it to 20 books a year, based on the idea that I would read 2 books a month for eight months and 1 book a month (Those books shall be longer) for the remaining four. This year, my goal was to read 24 books based on the book bingo we’d decided upon in the very beginning.

I love how practical you are at setting this goal. 🙂 How do you choose your books to read?

That’s a great question because it makes me wonder about the answer.

I feel that we choose our books the way we choose our friends to share specific parts of our life with. If I need inspiration at my job or in my career, I tend to include biographies in my list. If I’m looking at improving my personal finances, I would look at books that are best suited for that. There are moments when I feel exhausted and out of depth. That’s when I resort to fiction, partly as an escape partly as a way to find creativity. So it’s more of a mixed bag, and I guess that’s how things are with life in general too.

What makes you pick up a book? 

I use the cover and synopsis to help me decide if I want to read the book. I sometimes also check out the main genre that the book has been labeled under. Though I don’t always go out of my comfort zone if I am approached by an author and their book is quite unique, I would consider to review it. There aren’t any political, economic or environmental topics that I am interested in though I like reading books about education and productivity. So, anything related to that will catch me eye and I am likely to request/buy it.

About the books this year

Were there any books this year that challenged your thinking or you learned a lot from?

I think The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath was the perfect precedent to my journey at the local Toastmasters club. I learned a lot about creating experiences and first impressions. Surprisingly, they matter much in the long run – an overall sub-standard effort at creating something can be overshadowed by an amazing introduction. It’s the same with many roles at the club as well: a great beginning gives you the confidence to rise and do your job better. Everyone remembers how it all came to be.

I read that last year and got some really good pointers from it. A book I would reread for sure!

A book that changed my perspective of running is Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Who knew that a Mexican tribe could have the best endurance runners the world has ever seen? I never knew that running is second nature to humans, and many pre-historic activities of ours such as hunting also had running as an essential ingredient for success.

Did you read any books that had practical strategies to apply to life?

I’m currently reading one called The Intelligent Investor written by Benjamin Graham. It’s a book to understand how stock markets work and what one can do to actually make money out of it. A lot of people believe that stock markets are a gamble but in reality, anyone who’s seriously interested in earning out of stock markets needs to study the listed firms and their performance first. 

As it is the case with any avocation, there’s a learning curve to it and the good thing is that you need to keep using the skills you’ve gained out of the lessons on a rolling basis. Learning and execution go hand-in-hand.

I know it is hard to give recommendations, especially when we read so many books in a year! If you had to choose, tell me about four books that I should check out and why.

Alright, so I’m gonna keep it short and sweet:

• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: It’s equally horrifying and enlightening. Memories of the Holocaust aren’t ones to be kept. But if someone had to gain something out of desperation and hopelessness, what would they do? This book is perhaps the only one that brought tears in my eyes after I was finished reading that cursed account.

• Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance: He’s perhaps one of the most controversial entrepreneurs of our generation but also one of the most hardworking and insanely perseverant. Highly recommended.

• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry: I would recommend it in the audiobook format as it’s narrated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson himself. His glib voice is enough to direct your attention to what he wants to convey in the book. Our problems and presence in the world seem insignificant once we learn more about the cosmos and the extents of the universe, along with its behaviour.

I read that one too this year! 🙂

•  The Difficulty of Being Good by Gurcharan Das: This isn’t your conventional story of the Mahabharata. The book discusses human values in a new light and relates messages from the Mahabharat with the lives we live and the way we live them. This one’s a gem.

The Year Ahead

Would you change anything, whether it is your reading habits, review routine or reading goal, for 2020?

I would definitely substitute certain activities, like checking social media ever so often, with reading. The search for a quiet place to read is also underway; living in a shared space isn’t exactly conducive to reading for me. 

I reviewed my first book on my dusty old blog last month. I’m getting the hang of it and I think you might see more reviews in the future!

The reading goal’s gonna stay the same: 24 books for next year as well. But I’ll try to accomplish that faster!

Through our discussions, I know that you’ve brought some changes in your review routine and I wish you all the best for its successful implementation. Encountering so many books from different sources each month is arduous; I hope you’re able to find time for yourself in the process.

Varun’s Little Book Bingo

I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Varun! Please let us know what you think and share with your circles! Our handles will be tagged if you use the tweet below.

Ways to connect with Varun:

Next up, on the 1st, I’ll have my bookblogger friend, Stephen, over to learn about his year in books.

Thanks for reading! ❤️