Keeping Up With my Book List (2025)

Continuing with the cadence of the annual ritual of me posting my reading list, which clearly did not happen last year, I present you all the books I read in 2025. The books in the list are a little unusual as they are not typical nonfiction I would go for. They are quite textbooky because my curriculum and the competitions I register for coerce me to read content related to them. I've learned so much from these books, and I would suggest everyone to look into works related to these. The rules of my "reading list post" are simple. I list down the book name, the reason why I picked up the book, the briefest note on the book's virtues and vexations and a note on what the book is about. Elaborate critique is excluded but posted individually later. Additionally, I post "book notes" on this section of my website where I compile direct quotes from the books I've read, so that non-readers and "revisers" can benefit. Enough of the declaimers, defenses, and dramatic digressions- let's see the books I read.

On Strategy by HBR Volume 1

hehehe.. The start- I know, I know. I started this book in early January because we had a course on Strategic Management in the 3rd term. After reading the whole book, which was almost six times the content required to score a perfect 10 GPA, I emerged heroically with a non-perfect 6. Keeping aside my brilliant performance, I'd say this book is brilliant; not everyone's cup of tea, but I am a coffee drinker anyway. It is a collection of articles that includes Michael E. Porter's "What is Strategy?" and "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy", "Blue Ocean Strategy", and many other introductory articles of this area. If strategy is a foreign language to you, then this is the dictionary. It was an ardour to read more than two articles in one sitting, but nonfictions like these that are densely stacked with concepts, deserve to be read with ease, calm, and undivided attention. It is a very flexible book. You can read it in any order and also choose to read only what you like. Individual critique or commentary on essays is out of the scope of this blog.

Up next, we have The Outsider by Albert Camus. This book found its way to me for free, thanks to a neighbour-uncle who was clearing up his pile. I successfully completed the book within a Saturday and a Sunday, and the process required an online dictionary and a pencil to label word meanings every now and then. It's a short read, but you'll be rapt by it. In his works, Camus discusses absurdism, human condition, morality, and other themes on this line. In other words, his books mainly depict a character who navigates his existence with the belief that life has no inherent meaning. Damn! 

It isn't a book I'd strongly recommend, but for some absurd reason, I would read it again. This book is now stuck between the lower drawer and the drawer frame of my hostel study table. If anyone wants it for free, they should get allotted Godavari hostel room number. 314 at IIM Jammu for the next academic year.

After a long hiatus from February to August, when I almost forgot I had to keep up with a hobby that I often flaunt subtly, I picked up The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications by Aswath Damodaran.

I chose this book because, again, I had a course called "Venture Planning" and I thought it would be a good supplement reading material. Now I invite you all to comment my GPA in this subject down below. Hint- I gave a heroic performance. The book is very elaborate. I will be honest, I did not even read the complete thing because it was too verbose, and one thought repeatedly came to my mind while reading- "Okay, okay, next... come to the point, please". No doubt the author is a brilliant professor and a writer, but at some points I felt that, had the book been half of its length, I'd be twice as happy. Given the choice, I'd skip this one as the concepts in the book can be realized through other shorter reads. You don't need to read a 500-page book to know its contents. Maybe the book felt dull to me because I was already binge-hearing it in my lectures. Had I not listened in class, I would have enjoyed the book more. In essence, if you're an absolute beginner to entrepreneurial themes, this book could be for you. But if not, I'd say it is not be worth giving time to.

The Little Book of Alternative Investments by Ben Stein &Phil DeMuth

I picked up this book because of the same course ("Venture Planning"), but the bonus this time was that by the time this topic came up in lectures, I had conveniently stopped listening. I enjoyed the book reasonably well. Before reading the book, I knew what alternative investment funds were. After completing it, I actually knew what alternative investment funds were. It's a short read that talks about stocks and bonds, and other investments like collectibles, commodities, real estate, etc, in a friendly language. It's about the flawed 60/40 Portfolio, the "Conventional" Alternatives, REITs, Hedge funds, and all you need to know and check before you start investing. It is not a comprehensive guide, but just a conceptual book.

Agentic AI – Theories and Practice

It is a Springer publication, so it ought to be concept-heavy. I picked up this book for competition purposes, which I ultimately didn't participate in, but I still finished it because it was quite good. It was like a midnight right swipe that turned out to be a good decision. This book provides an in-depth look at everything you need to know about AI Agents, from concept to ecosystem. It starts by defining AI Agents, their "how to", the business workflows that they enable, and their applications in many industries. It is not a tutorial per se, but an excellent foundational read. There is no room for zoning out in any sentence; if you missed the point, you'll have to go back. At times, even when you do not zone out, you'll have to do some serious revisits. I read it around mid-October only, but forgot a lot of stuff as it was more textbookish than a non-fictional read. I would recommend this book because supposedly it is the 'Age of AI' right now, and you cannot afford to be digitally extinct.

Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World by Parmy Olson

This book was on my list since the Financial Times announced its Business Book of the Year 2024. Every year, I read a few of their shortlisted books and try to guess which book is going to win. I was right about the 2022 winner. As I was short of time this year, I had to pick the winning book and go with it, and it was a good decision. This isn't the best FT Winner, but I admire this book a lot. It is well written as it reads like a fiction and flows like ice-on-ice. But soon, the ice starts melting, and the narrative begins to gain some friction. I'll be honest, I got a little bored by the time I reached three-fifths of the book, when the discussion about ethical AI became a little too serious. I even dropped the book for almost two weeks. I kept the ice back in the freezer. When I repicked the book, it became interesting again, and I was not disappointed thereafter. It is as thrilling as a real-life story can get. It is about how the leading companies like OpenAI and DeepMind came into existence. A comprehensive history of the founders (Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis), the rise of the companies, and all the key players, from Peter Thiel to Elon Musk, is outlined. Among the books in the list, I'll say go with this one first.

Listing unfinished books doesn't seem right, so I guess this was my list for 2025. Presently, I'll be posting book notes of the above-listed books. I reckon summaries and book reviews to be commonplace and hackneyed, so in the notes I compile direct quotes from the book in a way that makes sense. It presents the author's style in the rawest manner. My goal for the next year is twelve non-fictions and three fictions, given the fact that this year is also going to be busy. What are some of the books in your mind that you have decided to read this year? Let me know so that we can read and discuss together. Happy 2026 to all!