My semi-annual 2023 book list
- Ayushi Mishra
- Jul 3, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 14, 2023
Following is a list of books I read in the first half of the year. I here discuss only highlights that come to the top of my head about the book. It is neither a summary nor a review, but a gist of what the book is about, what I like and dislike about the book, and major highlights. I bring up points that can help you decide whether this book is for you or not.
By Dr. Anna Lembke
Wanted to start the year with something light and smooth and this book seemed perfect. It is uncomplicated but also sophisticated- a great blend of being informative whilst also not being overwhelming. The book is about how the brain processes pleasure and pain in the same region. It discusses how the brain responds to certain behaviors, substances, and addictive activities. As this book is written by a psychiatry professor, it is more about the psychology of behavior and addiction we witness in daily life and not the biochemical working through which the brain processes pleasure and pain. By saying this, I am not implying that psychiatrists don't know the latter, but that she mentions aspects in the book from a phycological point of view. The author writes interactions with her patients who have gone through addiction and become sober again. After elaborating on the interaction, she tells how and why we get into specific troubles and how we can effectively combat the predicament.
I found some interactions boring, I briskly read through some or skipped them entirely. The discussion parts were more interesting. The highlight of the book was when the author discusses how pain causes dopamine release. Certain demanding behaviors, like exercising or running, can feel extremely rewarding even though they cause pain in the instant. The concept of cheap dopamine vs "expensive dopamine" can attract everyone's attention, and this book has done justice to that. The book can feel familiar and repetitive if you are not new to the topic, but it can help fill some knowledge gaps. The rise of social media has made this subject extremely relevant.
By Steve Brusatte
This book is all about where dinosaurs came from, how they rose to dominance, how some of them became colossal and others developed feathers and wings and turned into birds, and then how the rest of them disappeared, ultimately paving the way for the modern world. If you do not intend on becoming a paleontologist but have an appreciable interest in dinosaurs, then this book is THE one to follow. Reading this book is more than sufficient to fulfill your appetite for dinosaur enthusiasm.
The problem with this book is that it is not for everyone. It is full of dinosaur names and I had to google search every time a dinosaur species or a group was mentioned. If you don’t know the meaning of some general dinosaur terms like ‘Velociraptor’, ‘Brachiosaurus’, ‘Raptor’, ‘Theropods’ etc, the book is going to be hard to follow. It was for me. I had to google a lot of things to create a mental picture of what is being talked about. Also, if you are not making notes while reading, you are probably going to waste hundreds of hours of reading time. But on the plus side, I was able to complete the book only because it is very well written in my opinion. The interactive nature of the book makes it like a nice movie, a difficult-to-follow plot, but worthwhile. It is not just straight-up facts. The author mentions his adventures and experiences and also of other paleontologists to immaculately explain the rise and fall of dinosaurs. Despite being so intensely informative, I liked it. Try the Google sample before you buy it.
By Vaclav Smil
This book is a gift to our modern society. When I picked up the book, I was skeptical whether it would fully address the title. The book delivered! It does tell you how the world really works. Vaclav Smil is a brilliant energy scientist. His books are fabulous, very well written, practical, and not dubious at all. When you read his books, you can tell that the man is wise, a great observer with practical knowledge, and an exceptionally intelligent man.
So this book deals with everyday things that everyone should know to understand how the world really works. The complexity of the modern world is enormous and no one can keep up with everything that is going on. But this is not an excuse to ignore the basics and appreciate how wheat is grown or steel is made or realizing that globalization is neither new nor inevitable. After all, it's not the same as asking someone to comprehend femtochemistry or polymerase chain reactions, or electrodynamics. This book is an attempt to reduce the comprehension deficit, and to explain some of the most fundamental ruling realities governing our survival and our prosperity. Urbanization and distancing ourselves from where the production of many of our daily needs happen is one of the reasons why we are so unaware of our surroundings. The other major reason for the poor, and declining, understanding of these fundamental processes that deliver energy and durable materials is that they have come to be seen as old-fashioned or outdated—and distinctly unexciting compared to the world of information, data, and images. Rahul Gandhi was frowned upon when he couldn't differentiate between red and green chilies. It showed how dethatched he was from the very core.
I find this book falls short of nothing. One thing to know is that in some places, it has a lot of data, and by-A LOT I mean-A LOT. A quick skim through those parts will not harm you.
After knowing how the world works, it surely is worth it to know how our bodies work. This book is a story of one of the largest and most widespread organ systems throughout our body. After the nervous system and the brain, our immune system is next in line for being complex and widely misunderstood. The beauty of the book lies in the fact that even if you are not aware of what a cell is, you can understand this book. Imagine if you were given a task to explain calculus to a child in 8th standard. The author has successfully done a similar job. Everyone should know what is keeping their bodies alive. After reading this book, you will appreciate your body more and give it the respect it deserves. The graphics in the book made it fun. The metaphors make the understanding of the immune system a cakewalk. I find nothing unappealing about this book. It is a league of its own. A few negative reviews on the internet say that the metaphors are irritating, but I think it would be impossible to understand the immune system without them. It has also bothered a lot of people that this book is written by a YouTuber (Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell ), but I think that shows how conservative their thoughts are.
The list seems short because I dropped a lot of books mid-way. I get around three books at a time and then read a few pages and then continue with the one I like the most. If I like more than one book equally or start losing interest quickly in the chosen one, I switch my books. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History Of The Twentieth Century by Brad De Long and The Rise and Reign of Mammals by Steve Brusatte are the books read half. There are three others I dropped. I will surely complete them by the end of the year. I dropped them not because they were boring, but because other books in line seemed more interesting.
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