Hello!
An Awkward Intro
Hope you had a Merry Christmas. Christmas is over and it only means that the new year is peeking around the corner. This is that time of the year when most people – YouTubers, bloggers, life coaches, motivational speakers, mentors – reflect on their accomplishments this year and think about the new resolutions to kick start the coming year. This is the time when people decide, based on their respective caliber, how much money to burn for the gym membership. Brace yourselves for the tsunami of 2020 resolutions and goals related posts.
The Build-Up
It’s awkward to write the rest of this post after that intro. Anyways, coming straight to the point – I set myself a reading challenge every year. This initially started as a brute force technique to help me pick up the reading habit so that I can inculcate this habit in my daughter. And I must admit this worked. If not on the quality of the content I read at least on the quantity. Every year, I set myself a goal of reading one book a month or 12 books a year. I don’t know about you but for me, this is a high bar. But I have improved over the years.
Below is a snapshot of my reading challenges and how I fared in them for the past few years.
As you can see, I have been very regular in setting up the challenge and even more so in purchasing the books. Unfortunately, I spend much faster that I read.
Drum-roll
This year I set up the usual challenge but I started picking up the regular reading habit. I forgot about the challenge. When I checked a few days ago to see how I’m doing, I was genuinely surprised that I have read quite a bit more than what I anticipated. If your mind is already pondering a number influenced by YouTube videos like “how to read a book a day” or “how to read a book a week”, stop. Hold your horses. This is nowhere close. Below is the number
28 books. That’s impressive by my standards. Obviously, not all of them are the size of The Lord of the Rings. In fact, most of them are around 150-200 pages. But hey, it was 233% of what I had planned originally.
Devil is in the details
So, what are the books that I read this year?
| Title | Author | Number of Pages | My Rating | Average Rating |
| Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered | Austin Kleon | 224 | 4 | 4.09 |
| The One Hour Content Plan: The Solopreneur’s Guide to a Yea’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas in 60 Minutes and Creating Content That Hooks and Sells | Meera Kothand | 108 | 3 | 4.14 |
| The Rudest Book Ever | Shwetabh Gangwar | 224 | 4 | 4.38 |
| All You Need To Know About Bruce Lee: The Remarkable Life Of The Legendary Martial Artist And Actor Bruce Lee | Scott Adams | 3 | 3 | |
| Bruce Lee: be like water! Inspirational quotes and fascinating insights of a legend. (bruce lee, biographies & memoirs, quotations, biographies, entertainer, … photography, sports & outdoors, reference) | Andrea Dillon | 25 | 3 | 4.56 |
| Ninaithaal Nimmathi (Tamil) | Thenkatchi K.Swaminathan | 214 | 3 | 4.42 |
| 3: Jokes in Tamil Volume 3 | Ganesh Kumar | 54 | 2 | 4 |
| Notes for Healthy Kids | Rujuta Diwekar | 248 | 5 | 4.34 |
| Minimalism: 50 Tricks & Tips to Live Better with Less (Minimalist) | Robert Norman | 53 | 3 | 3.37 |
| A-Z of Minimalism: A practical guide to Freedom | Upasna Sethi | 95 | 3 | 3.67 |
| Less is More | Art of living a meaningful life | Minimalism : A guide to live an uncluttered life with less stuff. | Sherman Rickky | 12 | 2 | 2.71 |
| The Art Of Sarcasm | Aaron Smith | 73 | 1 | 1 |
| Smart Work, Hard Work: (Penguin Petit) | Atul Magoon | 17 | 3 | 4 |
| Parthiban Kanavu (Tamil) 3 | Kalki | 407 | 5 | 4.57 |
| Parthiban Kanavu (Tamil) 2 | Kalki | 239 | 5 | 4.44 |
| Parthiban Kanavu (Tamil) 1 | Kalki | 104 | 5 | 4.45 |
| Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World | Cal Newport | 305 | 5 | 4.2 |
| OFF. Your Digital Detox for a Better Life | Tanya Goodin | 112 | 4 | 3.46 |
| Technology Addiction: The 14-Day Detox (Phone Addiction, Social Media, Disconnect, Digital Detox) | Lauren Moray | 24 | 2 | 2.67 |
| Today I Am Offline: The Digital Detox Guide To A Better Life | Liam Belfort | 58 | 3 | 3 |
| The Happy Mind: A Simple Guide to Living a Happier Life Starting Today | Kevin Horsley | 127 | 3 | 4.02 |
| Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking (Mindfulness Books Series Book 1) | S.J. Scott | 157 | 3 | 3.68 |
| 10-Minute Digital Declutter: The Simple Habit to Eliminate Overwhelm from Technology, Social Media, and Online Distractions | S.J. Scott | 145 | 2 | 3.41 |
| To-Do List Formula: A Stress-Free Guide To Creating To-Do Lists That Work! | Damon Zahariades | 109 | 3 | 3.92 |
| THINK STRAIGHT: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life | Darius Foroux | 82 | 3 | 3.83 |
| The Politics of Ram: (Penguin Petit) | Devdutt Pattanaik | 18 | 2 | 3.67 |
| Life’s Amazing Secrets: How to Find Balance and Purpose in Your Life | Gaur Gopal Das | 169 | 3 | 4.26 |
| Do It Today: Overcome Procrastination, Improve Productivity, and Achieve More Meaningful Things | Darius Foroux | 118 | 3 | 4.19
|
Some of these books had a deep impact and some not so much. A couple of them were rubbish. The books that did make an impact are
- Deep Work
- Notes for Healthy Kids
- The Rudest Book Ever
- Show your work
The books that I enjoyed reading in addition to all of the above
- Parthiban Kanavu – 1, 2, 3 [Absolute pleasure reading this series]
- Ninaithaal Nimmathi
- All You Need To Know About Bruce Lee: The Remarkable Life Of The Legendary Martial Artist And Actor Bruce Lee
So, how many books have you read and what were your favourites this year?
Pointless & Prosaic 
I just hit 26/30 according to my Goodreads count. I’ve had many, many distractions this year, so though I won’t hit my magic number, I’m pleased to have logged at least 26 escapes from reality.
26 is no small feat at all. That’s one book every two weeks.
I read 10 books. Novels and dramas. Had planned to read more but with the beginning of my professional time, I’ve not been able to get a lot of time. I’ve enrolled myself for MA english.. So I’m hoping to read much more next year.
Professional life*
When put in terms like that, it does seem like a lot! Thanks for the change in perspective.