M4

 I had written in an earlier post the circumstances that led to my falling into the rabbit hole of fountain pens and inks. It was 2021, we were all bored out of our wits after a couple of years of staying indoors and I was losing my mind. The choice of this one vs. any other was part serendipity, part boredom and a whole lot of aspiration-meets-affordabilty. While the first year saw me just dipping my toes in very cautiously, I dived right into the rabbit hole in the second year and ordered a long list of pens. Of course, I had to temper my excitement in year-3 and be more conscious of what and why I pick pens to add to my collection.  The journey transpired just as expected and experienced by many others before me and I'd drawn inspiration, knowledge and advice from quite a few of them. For these and others that helped me along this journey - my sincerest thanks. I hope I can get down to writing a post listing all of them some day.  For today, here's my fountain pen collection

 For the first time ever, I managed to read as many non-fiction titles as I did fiction, in a year. And I found that these very well-recommended titles deserved all the praise they got from others. Well, most of them.  Here's the list-  The Almanack of Naval Ravikant – Eric Jorgenson The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel What got you here won’t get you there – Marshall Goldsmith The Richest Man in Babylon – George S Classon Nudge – Richard H. Thaler The Compound Effect – Daren Hardy Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker Think Again – Adam Grant The Inugami Curse – Seishi Yokomizo The Village of Eight Graves – Seishi Yokomizo The Afghan – Frederick Forsyth James Moriarty: Consulting Criminal – Andy Weir Murder House – James Patterson Moonflower Murders – Anthony Horowitz Shikhandi – Devdutt Pattanaik Black Wind – Clive Cussler Would definitely recommend #3 - 'What got you here...', #7 - 'Why we Sleep' and #8 - 'Think Again' to anyone. Talk about broadening the hori

 Tried reading more non-fiction this year. Took quite a bit of effort in finding the best/ most relevant ones to read; eventually ended up with a scarily long list of books to read.  Also, tried to diversify my non-fiction reads to newer authors, genres and languages.  Here goes the list-  Skin in the Game - Nassim Nicholas Taleb Pale Blue Dot – Carl Sagan The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham David & Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell Confessions of an Economic Hitman – John Perkins Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen The Honjin Murders – Seishi Yokomizo Impact Winter – Travis Beacham Poseidon’s Arrow – Clive Cussler Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn Private Berlin – James Patterson The Labours of Hercules – Agatha Christie Absolute Power – David Baldacci Some of these were fantastic reads- those that I wondered how I hadn't heard of sooner. Others- Impact Winter and Private Berlin - such drags! But then again, that is the idea of trying anything new: we

The first half of this year was so messy and turbulent in my life that I barely had the time or attention to read anything. And the second half of the year- well, I needed some comfort and solace. So this year, my reading list is all about the book-version of soul food.  The list goes thus- The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker Good to Great – Jim Collins 21 lessons for the 21 st Century – Yuval Noah Harari Elephants can Remember: Poirot – Agatha Christie A Caribbean Mystery: Marple – Agatha Christie At Bertram’s Hotel: Marple – Agatha Christie Dead Man’s Folly: Poirot – Agatha Christie Halloween Party: Poirot – Agatha Christie After the Funeral: Poirot – Agatha Christie The Return of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle His Last Bow: Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle The Sign of Four – Arthur Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle The extraordinary adventures of Arsene Lupin – Maurice LeBlanc Origin – Dan Brown Salvation of a Saint – Keigo Higashino The Odessa File

 This was the year we were all stuck at home, in a pandemic-induced lockdown. While the initial few months were chaotic, I quickly fell into a rhythm in what was then termed as 'the new normal' (sic).  This was also the year I finally gave in and got an audible subscription. Charges about INR 199 per month, offers one free title each month. Great deal, if you ask me. So, while I had been long struggling about getting around to sit down and grab a copy of books, with audiobooks, I can listen while doing other mundane stuff such as, say, taking a walk, or cleaning the car or doing meal prep.  And thus began my exploration of newer genres and non-fiction titles. For the year 2020, here's the list of titles I read/ listened to: Ikigai – Hector Garcia Puigcerver Inglorious empire – Shashi Tharoor The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz How the Mighty Fall – Jim Collins Blink – Malcolm Gladwell Death on the Nile – Poirot – Agatha Christie The Tales of Beedle, the Bard – J

A recent end-of-year retrospection showed me that as years go by, my activity on this blog here is turning sparser than ever, and so is the site traffic to my posts. This was only expected since people have moved on to alternate content formats - picture sharing on instagram, short format videos on tiktok or reels, and micro-blogs on substack, conversations in the form of podcasts (cringe!) or god forbid, revolting wisdom spewed on LinkedIn. What's more, blogging platforms themselves may be shut down sooner rather than later, as companies are caught between a dwindling audience and increasing costs to keep the tech running.  While the world may have moved on to shinier new stuff, I find myself in an alien world - where folks don't have the attention span to read or listen to what I have to say. And yet, the written word is something I can't break ties with.   I have recently found myself with a little too much time on my hands- more than I know what to productively do with.