Category: Books

Guns Germs & Steel

Not an easy read, but persist and you will be rewarded with a fascinating answer to the question that the book’s blurb asks – “why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe?”. While the more famous “Sapiens” tackles how humanity reached its apex position in evolution, it doesn’t try to answer why, say the Spanish conquered South American empires, and not the other way? By looking beyond the proximate answers to that question, the book is able to reveal important insights on evolutionary determinism even within the species.

A Man Called Ove

Sharp, hilarious, poignant. If a book manages to balance all these adjectives, it has to be special. It took me from smile to laugh to moist eyes in a span of 30 pages, and that’s no mean feat. In addition to this, characters written very well, and a deftly delivered commentary on the changing nature of society and its value systems made this book a favourite.

Enlightenment Now

The book makes a case for reason, science, humanism and progress. You might wonder if it really needs to be made, but 450 pages have been devoted to address the rebuttal for the author’s earlier work on a similar subject! While that is done eloquently, my skepticism arises from the definition of progress and how it manifests in the specific human condition. We are better off when we measure ourselves based on past societal indices, but I am not sure the indices of the future will tell the same story.

The Master Switch

The books I really enjoy are the ones that capture and articulate a fundamental insight. This is one such. Tim Wu studies the history of information and communication empires, and illustrates a predictable path they follow – he calls it The Cycle. The biggest game changer we have seen in modern times is the internet, and the question he seeks to answer through this book is “which is mightier : the radicalism of the Internet or the inevitability of the Cycle?” An absolutely fascinating read.