Book List of 2019

List of Books I read in 2019 and their short summary

1. Skin in the Game – Nassim Taleb (Jan 2019):  Book had very interesting idea that old ideas/laws that have propagated from olden days “Lindy effect”(name after cheesecake store in NY burrough famous for longevity) survived and for reason (effective). Decision makers without actual “skin in the game” (no direct consequences impacted ) are not trust worthy and view w/ suspicion. Book was very disjointed and written like some blog posts without simple explanation. There were lot of good points but mostly covered by poorly written explanation with lots of snarky personal comments. Very hard to read through and had to push through to finish it. 
2. Foundation & Chaos – Greg Bear (Feb 2019)
3. Foundation Trilogy Series – Issac Asmov (Feb 2019)
4. Foundation’s Triumph series – David Brin (Feb 2019)
5. Foundation’s Edge – Issac Asmov (March 2019)
6. Everest: The West Ridge – Thomas Hornbein – Re-read this classic, how Dr Hornbein and Will Unsoeld climbed West Ridge side of Everest which has yet to be climbed since. Amazing story of luck, foritude, and focus to summitting Everest. They weren’t the first Americans to summit yet was the most difficult route to summit.
7. Thanks a Thousand – AJ Jacob (March, 2019) : Very well written with lots of gentle personality coming through. While reading the book and more afterward, felt more appreciative of things and people around me. Not just to my immediate surroundings with family and friends but bigger circle of people and accomplishments of so many people past. After the book, I want to start my own Gratitude project by sending a copy of the book for close friends and hand written note explaining my appreciation and specifics of each individual’s things they’ve done for me over the years.
8. Upheavel: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis – Jared Diamond (skim through) May 2019
9. Rethink – re-reading May 2019
10. The Subtle Art of Not Giving Fu#k: Mark Manson- June 2019
11. Never Lost Again – Bill Kilday : June 2019 – Story of how Keyhold went to GoogleEarth and making GoogleMap to dominate location data and maps for mobile device
12. Everything is F*cked: A book about hope : Mark Manson: – Aug 2019 – great story of author of The Subtle of Not Giving F*ck of giving hopeful view of the world’s future in spite of bad things happening. Very heart warming stories and optimistic view of the world.
13. Master and Emissary – Ian McGilchrist – Scanned the book (very difficult to read and written for academic purpose) after listening to author from Hidden Brain podcast. Great podcast, author saying importance of having two hemisphere of brain, (left side sees the world in details, logic/reasons but right side gives purpose, give bigger picture). His podcast was excellent:
14. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World – David Epstein 
    • Talks about how specialization sometimes blocks solution and not able to see outside of silo of knowledge. 
15. Sapien – re-readed again. Yuval Hariai – great summary of human history and how it progress through