Books I read in 2019

I wanted to talk about the books I have read in 2019. I feel like I have learnt some good things from books and I feel like I should share with everyone. So here we go!

It has been a good year since I started realizing the power of reading books. I spend most of my times with books related to the things I like viz: software development, astronomy, personal finances among many other things. A detailed list of books that I read in 2019 is here on Goodreads. This blog talks about the books I loved the most and recommend everyone to read once if interested in that genre.

I will mostly talk about the books of Personal Finances and Astronomy. Let’s start with Personal Finances first.

Personal Finances

Personal finances got my interest at the beginning of my senior year of college. I had taken a course called Financial Engineering and later on, I started liking the various concepts of finances(like options, trading, hedge fund market etc.). Later on, I read some books on personal finances. My personal favourite, on this topic, has been Rich Dad Poor Dad.

This book changed my vision of how I think about finances and expenses. This book teaches us the major difference between the Rich and Poor, which is the mindset (and money follows that). This book teaches you the mindset required to be rich. The author presents very good real-world examples which support his arguments. A simple example, taken from the book:

The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.

The book is filled with much such great advice which will change the way you look at your finances. Personally I agreed with almost all of the advice that was given in the book to be rich. But it is not an easy path to create wealth. The way we have been living our lives has conditioned us to the exact opposite(at least for me). So it requires a lot of discipline, and frequent self-introspection to ensure I am applying those learnings from this book.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has never cared about personal finances(literally, complete beginners) and who are struggling to get their financial situations right.

I was very keen to implement those learnings from Rich Dad Poor Dad, and so I started looking for books which teach what all financial instruments are available in India and their analysis. So the next book, I read was What Every Indian Should Know Before Investing. This is a great book for complete beginners who are not very familiar with the various financial instruments like Fixed Deposits(FD), Recurring Deposits(RD), Mutual Funds, Equities, and their tax implications. After gathering sufficient information, I started investing in multiple instruments. These books gave me enough exposure and confidence to take good care of my finances. Highly recommended!

Astronomy

Astronomy intrigues me on a very different level. I like to read about the discoveries and happening of the outer worlds. This subject is just so delightful to read about on any given day. Cosmos by Carl Sagan is such a treat for astronomy lovers. In a 384 pages long journey with Carl, you will discover many worlds like Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. You will find out what these worlds are made of, the possibility of intelligent lives on these worlds and their probable fate. I love the way he presents information about these world by logical inferences which are so simple to understand, they don’t require a very sound understanding of the Physical Sciences. After reading the books by Carl, I would say he is the best teacher I have got in astronomy. His books always spark curiosity in me to explore the unknown.

Apart from these two subjects, I read a few books targeted on the contemporary political scenarios of India. The free Voice by Ravish Kumar is a good example which presents various incidents happened around India which reflect how India as a nation is changing democratically and culturally.

So, overall it has been a good year. I learnt a lot of new things and applied them in real life. Looking forward to an even great year ahead!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter for any conversations on this.