1. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

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Sapiens singlehandedly turned my view of the world and human psychology on its feet. Life would have been different had school taught human history as interestingly as Harari explains it in this book.

Sapiens connects the events of human evolution to their impact on our present lives. The facts in this book blew my mind. They made me realize how our perception of life and existence is so far from reality in certain aspects. For instance, our modern-day habits, such as gluttonizing, are not just laziness and greed. They’re our primal instinct acting from the depths of our ancestor’s DNA. Also, homosexuality, polygamy, and DNA alternations are not “unnatural” because anything that occurs in nature is, by virtue, natural.

These and many other facts in this book opened my eyes to the many facets of human behavior. It changed the way I think about our species and helped me make my peace with the world around me. Additionally, it equipped me with the knowledge to think critically about the information modern-day media feeds us.

“Money is the only trusted system created by humans that can bridge almost any cultural gap, and that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age, or sexual orientation. Thanks to money, even people who don’t know each other and don’t trust each other can nevertheless cooperate effectievly.”

― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“As science began to solve one unsolvable problem after another, many became convinced that humankind could overcome any and every problem by acquiring and applying new knowledge. Poverty, sickness, wars, famines, old age and death itself were not the inevitable fate of humankind. They were simply the fruits of our ignorance.”

― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

2. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

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Like most people, I thought I needed to learn complex numbers and the stock market to understand money management. In The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel debunked this myth for me.

Apparently, spreadsheets and numbers don’t determine a person’s financial status. Their psychology and behavior do. Understanding this one fundamental of money management changed the way I think about personal finance. Sure financial knowledge is important, but it’s secondary. Your decisions with money are far more important because money drives our decisions, which is directly linked to our psychology. Hence, if we can tune our money-based psychology to think in the right direction, we can make better financial decisions and maintain our financial health. How to do this is precisely what Housel explains in this book.

Anyone with a basic idea of income and expenditure can read this book. The pieces of advice in it are easy to understand and implement, some of the examples being “save a penny instead of spending it on a luxurious asset” or
“never make any investment out of pure greed.”

I especially recommend this book to those clueless about the basics of money management. I was, too, until I read this book.

“Someone driving a $100,000 car might be wealthy. But the only data point you have about their wealth is that they have $100,000 less than they did before they bought the car (or $100,000 more in debt). That’s all you know about them.

We tend to judge wealth by what we see because that’s the (self-edit: only) information we have in front of us.”

― Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money

“To grasp why people bury themselves in debt, you don’t need to study interest rate: you need to sturdy the history of greed , insecurity and optimism.”
― Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money

3. Atomic Habits by James Clear

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I find the paradox of habit building funny. Bad habits are as easy to pick as fallen pebbles. Good habits, on the other hand, seem like moving mountains. But this was until I read James Clear’s Atomic Habits.

This book introduced me to the amazing idea that habits are nothing but human psychology into play. Anything easy, obvious, attractive, and satisfying is easy to pick. You’ll notice most bad habits such as smoking, binge-eating, and substance addiction fall into this category. Most good habits, unfortunately, don’t endow any of these properties. That’s why they’re so hard to adapt.

Reading this book made me realize that I could drive big changes in my life if I paid attention to small steps. Things like designing the environment for a particular habit or using a habit tracker for instant dopamine hit will make it easy for me to pick the good habits. Doing the opposite for bad habits will help me shun them, for instance, placing junk food on a high shelf that makes it hard to reach them frequently. It was as if I was seeing the same everyday habits in a new light, in terms of how easy or how hard I make them for myself.

This novel approach to habit-building transformed how I do simple things to leverage big changes in the long run.

“A very small shift in direction can lead to a very meaningful change in destination”
― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

“How to Break a Bad Habit Inversion of the 1st law (Cue): Make it invisible. Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving): Make it unattractive. Inversion of the 3rd law (Response): Make it difficult. Inversion of the 4th law (Reward): Make it unsatisfying.”
― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

4. A Brief History of Time By Stephen Hawking

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I look around and see how big my problems are. Then I look up and remind myself of the insignificance of my existence in the grand scheme of things in the universe.

Concepts like the origin and timeline of the earth and the stars and planets above have fascinated each of us at some point. Yet, we dread visiting the complex laboratory formulas that hold the key to the vast known and the unknown. I consider physics as one of the most boring things to read about, but Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time made it so interesting that I couldn't help but read this book multiple times since I read it first.

Hawking has explained complex concepts in such a relatable and fascinating way in this book that even someone with zero knowledge of physics can lose themselves in it. It’s as if you’re listening to one of the most genius minds in the world speak to you.

This book didn’t pacify my hunger for the knowledge of the universe. Rather, it deepened my sense of awe and wonder. As Plato famously said, “I know that I know nothing.” When I look at the sky full of stars above me at night, I am humbled because thanks to this book, I know forces bigger than humans are at play.

“There could be whole antiworlds and antipeople made out of antiparticles. However, if you meet your antiself, don’t shake hands! You would both vanish in a great flash of light.”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

“If there were events earlier than this time, then they could not affect what happens at the present time. Their existence can be ignored because it would have no observational consequences.”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

5. The Art of War by Lao Tsu

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The first question I’m asked when I recommend this book is, “Why would I read a book about war strategy in the 21st century?”

The answer is simple: we need war tactics now as much as yesteryears’ soldiers did. In the complicated times that we’re all living in today, we’re at war with everyone around us except for our loved ones. Colleagues and bosses at the workplace, business clients, capitalist corporates, society, and even our own conscience. Now more than ever, we need strategic skills such as resource management, team skills, lessons in efficient functioning, and the art of decision making to maneuver our way to survival and prosperous victory. This is precisely what the book teaches you.

It fascinates me how this text has traveled millenniums to reach us. Chinese war general Lao Tsu wrote this book in the 6th century BC. The way this book sharpened my deduction skills even as I understood how battlefield tactics were so accurately applicable to my own life blew my mind. It made me believe in the value of written words passed down through generations.

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

6. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

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Let’s address the elephant in the room here: every one of us, including me, has limited time on our hands. As much as I want to, I can’t ponder over original Stoic texts for hours at end before I use them in my everyday life. Instead, I need quick tips that go, “Do this. Do that. Don’t do this and don’t do that.” That’s why, right after I read the introduction of Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, I knew this book is perfect for busy, impatient bees like me.

Manson’s funda is simple: life is short, and you’ve got limited fucks to give. Why not channelize them into getting things in your control rolling and stop wasting time thinking about things you can’t control? His book narrows down the list of things in your control, followed by practical tips to address them. It also makes you see the uselessness of worrying about things you can’t control, thereby convincing you to drop them like hotcakes.

This channelized, no-nonsense approach to self-help hit me hard. It opened my eyes to the measure of time and effort we spend on futile things when we can invest the same resources to tangibly better the situations in our life.

“If you’re stuck on a problem, don’t sit there and think about it; just start working on it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, the simple act of working on it will eventually cause the right ideas to show up in your head.”
― Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

“The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.”
― Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

7. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostovesky

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I’ll be honest I’m only halfway through this book right now. But in half the pages, it has given me twice the life knowledge of a typical self-help book.

For those unaware of the title or the author, this 19th-century masterpiece is a philosophical courtroom drama of the Russian Revolution era. The Karamazov family has four members: three sons and their debaucherous father. This book follows them on a journey to understanding how different humans function and react in different situations based on their personalities and the environments they’ve been brought up in.

This book spans nearly 1000 pages because Dostoevsky shows you all aspects of a particular character. Every character in this book is multi-dimensional, as real humans are. Anyone whose actions appear criminal in public will do something to justify their actions in the next few pages. As soon as I judge a particular character, Doestovesky shows me their humane side and baffles me.

Like in real life, even in this book, no person is inherently bad. It’s situations that make them act in a certain way. The Brother’s Karamazov is the epitome of this fundamental principle of human existence that I believe no book can explain better than Dostoevsky's masterpiece.

Of course, the thrill of conquering this 1000-pages book is extra.

“The more stupid one is, the closer one is to reality. The more stupid one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence squirms and hides itself. Intelligence is unprincipled, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Being in love doesn’t mean loving.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“It’s the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet, tender joy. The mild serenity of age takes the place of the riotous
blood of youth.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov