Tennis
I love playing tennis. I train with my coach every week or so, especially working on my single-handed backhand. Die-hard fan of Roger Federer! Currently playing with a Wilson Shift.
I am a geek at heart and love tinkering with software. I've toyed around with ever-reliable raspberry pis, home servers (including a full-blown email server!) . I love photography - I have a Canon EOS 500N, 500D, a solid 35mm prime lens, and the trusty iPhone Pro. Avid reader - even if I may say so myself. Pride of our home is the library.
Tennis
I love playing tennis. I train with my coach every week or so, especially working on my single-handed backhand. Die-hard fan of Roger Federer! Currently playing with a Wilson Shift.
Reading
Organised by what I tend to reach for. Covers sourced from Open Library.
Fantasy & Sci-Fi
Con-artist meets high fantasy. Took me 2-3 starts to get going, somehow. After getting past the initial slowness, absolutely gripping and funny! Lynch is a superb writer. The other books in the series are very good too, but this is a notch above Red Seas under Red Skies and Republic of Thieves.
A gift from a dear friend, I finished this in about 3-4 sittings. Story of three people, in different narratives. Beautiful story telling!
The political stances, deep exploration of themes such as caste, gender, dissent, combined with the world building make this one of the best Indian SFF books written.
The Bartimaeus Trilogy is truly funny, and a great great read for someone starting out with urban fantasy. Bartimaeus is easily one of my favourite characters, and enough has been said about the footnotes!
There's a scientificness but gentleness to the magic system in Foundryside. Clef in particular is superbly written. The political undertones, again, plus the humour laden paciness make this one of the better contemporary fantasies.
Mystery & Spy Fiction
What do I say about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy that has not been said before. Book is better than the movie?
Read it to experience the creepiness of Uketsu's books. Its quite something.
The Appeal has funny characters, annoying ones, creepy ones. You have no idea what is happening in the book, which talks about a run of the mill event being planned, all the while keeping you insanely hooked.
The best mystery I have read in recent years.
I picked up Damascus Station after not having read a spy thriller in ages, and it did not disappoint. The tradecraft is very real, very Le Carré-esque.
Mukherjee's books are a very cozy read set in Kolkata and around. Got hooked onto them from the first book itself, but this particular one is, I feel, the best of the lot.
I can honestly say that the writer I have enjoyed the most has been Horowitz. This one in particular, is a full book set INSIDE another full book (and there are two more such books!). Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable.
Tech Studies
Traweek embeds herself in SLAC, a high-energy physics lab, and studies physicists like a field researcher would study a tribe. Fascinating look at how scientific culture actually works vs. how it presents itself.
Orr works as a Xerox technician, to study how the technicians actually solve problems, share knowledge, and carry about their practice. One of the more enjoyable ethnographies in tech.
Campbell-Kelly is a gifted historian, who has in this multi-edition revised book captured a thoroughly comprehensive history of computing and the computer industry. The tech, its evolution(s), business decisions, everything.
I guess it is quite typical of someone in my industry to like this novel-like wrapper over devops.
Every single developer, engineering manager, VP, CxO should read this. Especially the essay No Silver Bullet. The hypotheses have remained true prior to the writing of this, and continue to do so. AI or no AI.
Pop History
In the preface, Mukherjee writes about cancer cells — "Cancer cells grow faster, adapt better. They are more perfect versions of ourselves." Gave me shivers. The book reads like a thriller. Mukherjee is superbly gifted a writer.
Kalanithi's memoirs, published just after he passed. Another gifted Indian doctor-writer.
Space stuff is fascinating. Who better than Gene Kranz, who sat at the helm of some of the greatest human spaceflight missions.
The inside story of Lockheed's secret advanced aircraft division — the SR-71, the U-2, the F-117 stealth fighter. Engineering stories that read like spy fiction because they basically are.
Literary Fiction
This short but incredible book is a must read. Translated from Kannada — a simple but nerve-wracking psychological thriller.
I did not enjoy the Poppy War trilogies so was sceptical of this. But Kuang delivers and how! The tongue-in-cheekness of an Asian writer writing about a Caucasian person impersonating an Asian person, is mind blowing.
I genuinely wish I could get myself to read the rest of the Ibis trilogy. This book, though, is impeccable story telling. The linguistic mastery Ghosh has over not just English — I don't have words for this! Malum Zikri, anyone?
Well.
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