I read 22 books this year, of which three were works of fiction. Now I have kept stats of what I have read over the past two decades; I average 23 books a year, about a quarter of which are fiction. Two goals I have set for myself a few years back is to read more fiction, and read older books. On both counts I failed this year. Far too …
Book Reviews
Book Notes & Thoughts: ‘How Big Things Get Done’ by Bent Flyvbjerg & Dan Gardner
284 pages; published 2023; read March 2024
TLDR: Bent Flyvbjerg is an expert on megaprojects and why most fail to finish on time and budget. Only 0.5% of megaprojects are under budget as well as on time, he says. In this book he covers the why, and how you can get these megaprojects done in time and under budget. Good, easy read with lots of interesting examples. As with all …
Book Notes & Thoughts: ‘The Wright Brothers’ by David McCullough
[This was written in late’21, and I had posted it as a Notion page. Now consolidating all of these reviews posted elsewhere into this site.]
Published 2015; 320 pages. Read Nov’21.
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough was easily amongst top 2-3 books I read in 2021. It is a terrific portrait of two obsessed inventors from a small town in USA who were able to achieve what many well-resourced …
Book Notes & Thoughts: ‘Amazon Unbound’ by Brad Stone
[This was written in mid’21, and I had posted it as a Notion page. Now consolidating all of these reviews posted elsewhere into this site.]
Published 2021. 478 pages. Read Jun’21.
SPW stands for Sajith Pai’s words. These are my notes, comments, markups on the text.
SPW: Classic business narrative faction (my term for nonfiction) by one of the best Amazon-watchers out there. Brad Stone had written a previous book …
Book Notes & Thoughts: ‘Working Backwards’, on Amazon, by Colin Bryar + Bill Carr
[This was written in early ’21, and I had posted it as a Notion page. Now consolidating all of these reviews posted elsewhere into this site.]
Published 2021. 286 pages. Read Mar’21.
About the book
The book is written by two (now ex) Amazon old-timers (one of whom was Jeff’s shadow!). It is a good delineation of the management principles + practices that distinguishes Amazon such as
- ‘working backwards’ from
Book Notes & Excerpts: ‘What You Do is Who You Are’ by Ben Horowitz
[This was written in early ’20, and I had posted it as a Notion page. Now consolidating all of these reviews posted elsewhere into this site.]
2019, 273pgs, Read Feb’20.
The book looks at culture, what it means, and how to set it and sustain it. It does so through four historical examples and contrasts it with contemporary events and examples. The four historical examples are Toussaint Louverture’s slave …
Book Notes & Thoughts: ‘No Rules Rules’ on Netflix, by Reed Hastings + Erin Meyer
[This was written in late ’20, and I had posted it as a Notion page. Now consolidating all of these reviews posted elsewhere into this site.]
Published 2020. 293 pages. Read Oct’20. If you see ‘SPW’, that stands for Sajith Pai’s Words, essentially my comments and marginalia.
The book describes the unique culture at Netflix, one that Reed Hastings (Netflix’s CEO and cofounder) says has been instrumental in its long-term …
Book Summary: ‘Four Thousand Weeks’ by Oliver Burkeman
[This was written in mid’22, and I had posted it as a Notion page. Now consolidating all of these reviews posted elsewhere into this site.]
Four Thousand Weeks is one of those self-help books that transcend its genre to become something more (Atomic Habits by James Clear is one another). In style and in spirit it reminded me of the writings of Alain de Botton, which occupy the intersection of …
Book Notes & Thoughts: ‘Geek Heresy’ by Kentaro Toyoma
[This was written a while back (late 2020 mostly), and I had posted it on a Notion page. Now consolidating all of these reviews posted elsewhere into this site.]
Book published 2015. 334 pages (main book is 218 pages; rest is bibliography and references). Read Nov’20. I purchased this book on the recommendation of Abhishek Rai about 2-3 years back but it lay unread a while.
Structure of the book
…What I enjoyed reading, listening, and watching in 2023
There are 3 parts to this essay, a longer one on what I enjoyed reading (across books and podcast transcripts) this year, as well two shorter ones on what I enjoyed listening (music) and watching (web series).
Reading
Book reading is a competitive sport for some. Some want to read 52 books, one for every week. Some are more ambitious, going for 100 books. There was a time when I …
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