Review of books I read in 2020
[books 
A married man with no kids has plenty of time for himself. When a lockdown occurs he gets a plethora of the same and eventually gets bored. I had a personal new year resolution to read 10 books in 2020 and thanks to the unfortuante covid19 lockdown I was there by mid year. I summarise my thoughts and reviews about the 10 books I read this year. I believe it can be useful for your next pick.
- 1. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- 2. The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well
- 3. The Problem of Pain
- 4. The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
- 5. Alexander the Great: The Macedonian Who Conquered the World
- 6. Sadhu Sundar Singh: With and Without Christ Book and Testimony
- 7. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
- 8. Men of the Bible
- 9. Rich Dad Poor Dad
- 10.The Malay Dilemma
1. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Author: Cal Newport
- The book explains what deep work is and how it differs from normal work / hard work / smart work.
- It made me think about my working habits such as listening to music when working, multitasking, constantly reiterating tasks etc. I found that a good amount of these habits are harmful even though they appear to do good. Find out why by reading this book.
- I recommend this book to anyone who is willing to take a step forward to get better results in their life (personal / professional).
2. The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well
Author: Meik Wiking
- The books attempts to explain to the world how to find happiness, the danish way.
- The book has some content like how to get the lighting in your home right, what is the best furniture for your place, some danish recipes for your tummy and tries to connect all these to happiness in life.
- The author gives me inspiration that one day I will be able to write a book as well.
- This easily makes it to my ‘worst books I ever read’ list.
3. The Problem of Pain
Author: C.S. Lewis
- The books deals with the subject of pain and why it had to come / exists / and will be in this world.
- The book flips back and forth with many instances of pain from the bible and explains why God allowed pain to exist.
- The book is not in simple english (thanks to CS Lewis) and hence it was a bit demanding for me to figure out some explanations in one read.
- If you are looking for answers on why pain exists in this world, I recommend you to read this.
4. The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
Author: Robert C. Martin
- A non-technical book on code of conduct for programmers.
- Robert C Martin is well known in programming circles for his many books and this book remains true to it’s topic.
- Some interesting topics discussed are when to say ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to your boss and how to estimate when you can finish an app development and how to test softwares in order to get a good night sleep.
- The author explains from his very own experience and there’s no B.S. about professionalism here.
5. Alexander the Great: The Macedonian Who Conquered the World
Author: Sean Patrick
- Free book
- A very short book briefly covering what drove Alexander to conquer almost the entire known world by the age of 32.
- I was surprised by Alexander’s drive to an extent that I spent a good two weeks watching youtube videos of war strategies made by Alexander. Adding link below if you are interested.
- An impressive book by an young author.
6. Sadhu Sundar Singh: With and Without Christ Book and Testimony
Author: Sadhu Sundar Singh
- memoirs from a sadhu (a sage) about the lives of people he encountered in his world travels.
- the chapters non-christians with christ and christians without christ imparted knowledge and made see insights which I never had before.
- a very short book written by a quiet, humble man in an easy dialect.
7. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
Author: Jordan B Peterson
- 12 rules to life by a slightly controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson
- The rules are true and impart good knowledge on what we need to do to survive in this absurd and chaotic world.
- The chapter ‘Tell the Truth’ and ‘Compare yourself to who you were yesterday’ had a deep impact with me and made me change on a personal level.
- A really long book, where the author sometime go into the unknown that made me think is this book even going to end ??
8. Men of the Bible
Author: Dwight L. Moody
- Simple, straightforward summary of chosen men from the bible
- Some never before heard insights about Abraham, Joseph of Arimathea.
- First book I read from this infamous author. Impressed.
9. Rich Dad Poor Dad
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
- a book that provides financial literacy / education to the middle class or children who were bought up by monthly salaried fathers.
- the book has been criticised to some extent but the content it shares is relevant and enlightening to people like me.
- I picked up the difference in thinking between a business person and a salaried person.
10.The Malay Dilemma
Author: Mahathir bin Mohamad
- mum’s the word. I would like to hold my words about this book to myself due to the fact that I’m not a Malaysian and I don’t want to comment on the political / social issues of an other country.
- Do read this book if you would like to know how Malaysia was made in the 70s
- The author is the longest serving prime minister of Malaysia and also served as the oldest leader in the world.
Note: Rating deliberately left blank for this book.