The Books I read in 2020
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Last year I decided to read more books. I’ve always enjoyed reading from a young age. I wouldn’t say it is an escape from the woes of reality but it successfully transports me to different worlds with each different book I pick up.
The list of books that I read in 2020 contains both fiction and non-fiction titles. I pick up anything and everything which piques my interest. There were a few titles I couldn’t finish due to time restrictions and I’d like to read them again. And then there were a few which were not easy reads.
The Story of the Human Body by Daniel Lieberman
This book was a thought provoking read. I actually found a reference to this book in another book called Human Errors which described different quirks of the body that evolution had resulted into. Daniel Lieberman starts at the beginning of time and describes the various factors which resulted in the evolution of our bodies the way they are.
Some points that are worth noting are:
— Humans lost the ability to speak, breathe and swallow at the same time. Apes can do this.
— We stopped synthesizing nutrients internally like Vitamin C after we started eating citrus fruits.
— The human spine has several design flaws and is ill suited to the modern human sedentary lifestyle.
— As the food we ate became softer, we lost our huge jawbones and now wisdom teeth have little room left to grow in our small mouths.
This book is highly recommended if you want to get an in-depth reading about human evolutionary history.
Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World by Haruki Murakami
One of my friends is a huge fan of Murakami. I’d always wanted to read his works and finally got a chance with Hard Boiled Wonderland.
The story is set in Japan but it feels like New York City. At first I was confused and thought that I missed a chapter but it is the way the book has been written which was completely new to me. As I read on, I started following the story. What caught my attention was that as the story was unfolding, I was theorizing as to what was going on. Very few authors write in this way where the story is so thought provoking.
