Hi! It’s me :) Sorry for having dropped off the map since starting grad school. I’ve spent the last few months adjusting to a new city, meeting new people, and reading and writing a lot, unfortunately just not for myself.
When 2023 started, I had a pretty specific vision of where I’d be now — saying my final goodbye to New York and looking forward to several months in India. As you know, my goodbye to NYC happened a while back, and I only find myself at home for a few weeks of winter break. When I started Chai Masala twelve months ago, I had also hoped to write a lot more here than I actually have.
I am a little wistful, but I know I might live some of these visions outside the twelve month yardstick we set ourselves. This Kendall Roy Instagram meme really spoke to me today:
This year I finally rounded out a goal I had set out on in 2019 — to own and commute on a bicycle. Growing up in Delhi and busy / negligent parenting meant I was fully 21 years old before I learnt to balance on a bike, in an adult education class in New York during my senior year internship. The timeline to proficiency I had envisaged then was probably a few months. With the pandemic, that timeline turned into four years. During that period I used to beat myself up for ‘giving up’ on another thing I wanted to do, but now I look back and wonder what the point of all that urgency was.
In this spirit, I am learning to reorient myself to a new life that is not what I had anticipated, but one that has already brought joy in unexpected ways. Always the misanthrope, I have often turned to books over other people to process unexpected changes. Reading someone else’s story, even if they are fictional, alleviates existential solitude without the saccharinity of sympathy received from someone you can actually talk to. My days this year were too packed to process with books, and so you find me processing in this post which was purportedly about said books.
In 2024 I hope to rebuild my routines in Boston, mostly centred around walking and reading (which, inadvertently, this Substack has also been centred around). Grad school has been great but has so far felt incredibly consumptive — I run from one talk to the next, take notes and write questions for myself, but rarely find time to process what I heard and saw. The semester system tries to squeeze a year’s worth of engagement into 12-14 weeks. When I returned home this break, I crashed for several days after weeks of overstimulation. I realised I hadn’t actually outgrown my yearly burn-out ritual from undergrad. I am older now but in 2024 I want to return to being wiser :) Please send me recommendations for long walks in Boston and shorter reads I can reintroduce to my nightstand.
And now we turn to the main point of this post — to talk about an arbitrarily defined goal (36 books) in an arbitrary timeline (Gregorian calendar year). I missed this ‘goal’ by a few books this year, but I had a mighty great time reading the books I did finish. The notes accompanying the books are stream of consciousness and unedited so don’t take them too seriously. If you are curious about a recommendation, email me and we can chat! Enjoy :)
Past book lists here: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2016-19
Books I read in 2023
In roughly chronological order. Strong recommendations highlighted with ⭐
⭐ Our Kind of Traitor, John le Carré: My first le Carré book and I am sad it took me this long. I love the international intrigue and muted British writing.
Practising the Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Escape into Meaning: Essays on Superman, Public Benches, and Other Obsessions, Evan Puschak: Culture essays from the YouTuber behind nerdwriter. Easy read that might help if you are in a reading slump.
⭐ 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, Elif Shafak: I am usually more taken by books than I am by their authors, but every so often I encounter some writers with a consistent and consistently captivating style -- Mohsin Hamid, Anthony Marra, Amor Towels, and Elif Shafak. This was only my second Shafak book and it built on everything I loved about the first (The Bastard of Istanbul) -- a strong female point of view, a rooted sense of place (also Istanbul), and unexpected communities and connection. Shafak's writing transports the reader to mid-20th century Istanbul and empathetically explores the lives of people shunned by their own families. At its heart however, this is a book about friendship. Strongly recommend.
⭐ I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS, Bhanwar Meghwanshi: Highly recommended for anyone trying to understand the Sangh Parivar’s reach in India.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid
⭐ Africa is Not a Country, Dipo Faloyin: Excellent collection of essays on Africa delving into the continent’s popular representations in the West. I loved Faloyin’s sardonic writing style. My favourite essay was inspired by Binyavanga Wainaina’s essay, “How to Write About Africa,” which I’d also strongly recommend.
⭐ Babel, or the Necessity of Violence, RF Kuang: I had more to say about this book than will fit on this page. My long review is here.
⭐ Blockchain Chicken Farm, Xiaowei Wang: Social anthropology essays on how technology is changing rural China. I know little about the topic and really appreciated this book.
Seeing Like a Feminist, Nivedita Menon
What Tech Calls Thinking, Adrian Taub: I had a lot of hope for this book — it is part of the same series as Blockchain Chicken Farm and Subprime Attention Crisis (both books I loved) and seeks to contextualize the tech industry’s seemingly discrete decisions into broader structural forces and history. Instead, the book falls into the same traps it critiques 20th century philosophers for (notably Marshall McCluhan) — too many haphazard references that seem to exist just so we know that the author knows. The author (a professor of comparative literature) seemed to be critiquing the “aesthetics” of tech culture much more than the structures it thrives on. This was a decent, skimmable read, but largely felt like a lost opportunity. Instead I’d recommend some of Jill Lepore’s writing, especially her podcast series on Elon Musk.
⭐ Maryada: Searching for Dharma in the Ramayana, Arshia Sattar: I’ve struggled with finding ways to engage with Hindu mythology that feel right to me. This book is an incredibly thoughtful meditation that made me think about duty and dharma, and reflect on the difference between what is “right” and what is “good.” The author herself has a fascinating personal history and I’d strongly recommend listening to her interview with Amit Varma.
The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, Pico Iyer
⭐ Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us, Rachel Aviv: I read this book after listening to Aviv’s interview with Ezra Klein (which I also strongly recommend). Aviv considers questions that have plagued me for a while -- what does it even mean to be mentally ill? Can diagnosis be self-fulfilling? When does mental illness become a part of our identity and how do we then ‘cure’ ourselves? (Changing how my internal monologue identifies me, from “an anxious person” to “someone who sometimes has anxiety”, has drastically changed how I deal with my anxiety) Is this ‘illness’ often a natural reaction to the injustice in the world? (Klein in conversation with Aviv: “living within the truth and totality of historical crimes and sins is psychologically destabilizing.”) Aviv doesn’t ‘answer’ these questions (they are unanswerable) but considers them empathetically. This book helped me question a lot of my priors, and that is the highest compliment I can give a piece of content :)
⭐ The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker: This is a fantasy novel about a djinn and a golem, set in 19th century New York City. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did — Wecker is a great writer who brought to life New York landmarks and helped me see them in a new light through the eyes of these supernatural creatures.
Istanbul, Orhan Pamuk: The first Pamuk I actually managed to finish, I read this while in Istanbul. I was in Istanbul for work and spent several days by myself, with Pamuk’s essays on growing up in the city as my companion. His words influenced the pictures I took there and helped me see the soft melancholy and grace of the city.
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion: This is Didion’s memoir about her grief following her husband’s sudden death. I read it on a flight after my grandfather’s passing and found Didion’s reflections resonant, calming, and supportive.
The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India, Ajantha Subramanian: An academic book that traces the history of how the language of ‘merit’ has been co-opted by upper castes in India by focussing on the case study of IIT Madra. Recommended reading for anyone who has ever encountered the deification of IITians (which is everyone).
The World For Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources, Javier Blas & Jack Farchy: An excellently investigated book on commodities trading covering the genesis of major companies (Vitol, Glencore, Cargill) and significant political moments. I was especially captivated by the stories of these companies drastically influencing politics in fragile states (Chad, Kazakhstan, Kurdistan) by extending capital in the riskiest parts of the world. Some of the chapters are skimmable if you aren’t too interested in the deep history and politics of these firms, but I still learnt a lot from the book.
⭐ Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino: Words are not enough. This is a book one returns to again and again over a lifetime.
What We Owe The Future, William MacAskill: I was initially reluctant to read this book because I have qualms with many longtermist ideas in EA. But then I was moving out of my apartment and I felt bad giving away a beautiful hardback without skimming it. I was pleasantly surprised by the first third of the book, which considers how we can bring about progress in morality and values in society. I didn’t vibe a lot with the rest of the book which delves into more classic EA-style longtermist topics but it might be a good introductory read if you are curious and otherwise unfamiliar with the area.
Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School, Philip Delves Broughton: I read this because I wanted to know what I was getting into. It was edifying for me personally and is a useful read for anyone who actually idolises HBS.
Economic Rules, Dani Rodrik: Enjoyable philosophical essays on the ‘point’ of economics. Could’ve been a lot shorter.
⭐ The Wizard and the Prophet, Charles Mann [Audiobook]: Interesting consideration of the opposing worldviews on ‘progress’ and ‘conservation’, illustrated through Norman Borlaug (father of green revolution) and William Vogt (father of degrowth movement).
Goodbye to All That: Essays on Loving and Leaving New York, Ed. Sari Bottom: Cute essays I read in my last few months in New York, but the original tops them all.
The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance, Eswar Prasad: The ‘payments professional’ in me got the better of me and I laboured through this book. Could’ve been a podcast or 200 pages shorter but I did appreciate this ‘history of money movement’ chapters in the beginning.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman: This is an ‘anti-productivity’ book that reads more like some literary self-help to relax and stop trying to do so much. Fun, easy read or you can also check out How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.
⭐ Trust, Hernan Diaz: The first book I read after moving to Boston and obviously it had to be set in early 20th century New York. Trust is an extraordinary book that considers the same story from four different angles. It calls into question our reading of ‘factual’ events and what kinds of narrators we deem to be ‘unreliable’. The book is very different from but did remind me of Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry.
The Colossus of New York, Colson Whitehead: Essays on New York, which I read on my first trip back after moving away. Whitehead is an excellent writer but is also famous enough that now he can get away with writing whatever he wants. What we get is a pastiche of musings on NYC emblems and experiences that can feel a little disjointed, but also lyrical and a joy to read if you too love the City.
Superforecasting, Philip Tetlock: I often say that the best thing my statistics degree gave me was a deep seated suspicion for all numbers. I have come to appreciate Tetlock-style forecasting for its simplicity and abstraction away from punditry. The book is accessible and fun to read. Alongside Carl Bergstrom’s Calling Bullshit, it is an excellent popular introduction to probabilistic thinking and causal inference.
⭐ Momo, Michael Ende: A young adult book that is surprisingly a cutting meditation on the capitalist capture of time. Momo is an incredibly loveable character and while the arc of the story is predictable YA, the symbols and motifs Ende sets up are captivating.
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke: I think I would’ve enjoyed this more if I wasn’t jetlagged when I read it. An incredibly unique book that deserves a lot of the hype it has gotten, but does take ~60 pages to get into properly.
The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt: I had fairly negative priors on Haidt because of his very reductive takes on cancel and campus culture but the book is reasonably interesting. I am averse to pop psychology in general but for someone who has been asking “How can we bring about values change in society?” for the better part of two years, I think I should start engaging with this stuff more.
⭐ Quarterlife, Devika Rege: I am still reading / processing this book, which is semi-autobiographical for urban Indian youth of my generation. After reading tons of recent Indian fiction books that are clearly written for a Western audience (no, please do not explain to me that a gol gappa is a ‘deep-fried breaded sphere’), it was refreshing to read a deep, well-considered book that is unapologetically for me. Rege cultivates a pantheon of characters with differing perspectives. The book has, in turns, made me feel seen and called out. Strongly recommend, especially if you are an Indian twenty or thirty-something.
Books I started but hope to finish in 2024
Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh
The Newlyweds, Mansi Choksi
Reducing Guilt: Minding Our Way, Nate Soares
The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth [2 years and counting]
On Freedom, Maggie Nelson
The Echo Maker, Richard Powers
The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption, Sebastian Mallaby
The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite, Duff MacDonald
Really enjoyed Superforecasting and The Night Manager (also, excellent mini TV series!). I read Italo Calvino too but the book felt more like something I'm supposed to enjoy, than something I actually do enjoy. Have stolen a ton of recommendations!