My 25 Books in 2025

 

In January 2025, I set out to read 25 books in 2025 (It had a a good ring to it!). Now in December, after having read the last page of book number 25, I feel a elated. Reading is not an easy endeavor in 2025. You have to resist the call of YouTube, Streaming channels, Cinema halls, Sports and Social engagements to stay the course. 

From a humble book from a Zen Monk in January, to a humbling one on the the Cosmos, my reading journey was interesting. I have shared summaries for each of the 25 books (they are also in chronological order). I have tried to capture the 'big idea' of the book and why is it worth your time.  I have also added a Netflix style 3 point summary, for those who want to grab and go...

Book readers are a dying breed, and I am not sure how long we will be reading in the age of AI. If any of these inspire you to pick up a book in 2026 (and not let AI summarize it for you), please leave a comment below. Alternatively if you have read something transformative in 2025 please send my way  for my 2026 wish list!.

I wish you the best for New Year-2026 and Happy Reading!

A Monk's Gide to a Clean House and Mind  - Shoukei Matsumoto

Can the daily acts of cleaning your house be reframed into something profound?  For Shoukei Matsumoto  a simple act of gardening becomes a communion with nature, daily removal of rubbish from the house becomes an exercise nonviolence, and the very act of cleaning becomes a cultivation of mind. After reading this short manual, your attitude towards household chores may be transformed (and you spouse will probably be the most happy about it!). 

Greek Lessons - Han Kang

This is a story of kindling of love between two people - one is losing her speech, and another is going blind, and the things that connect them are their suffering and the Greek lessons they take. This is no Sunday afternoon reading, Han Kang's style of writing is unique- its like a river which sometimes runs calm and sometimes comes bursting forth with violence and you need to hang in there for a breathtaking ride full of beautiful sentences.

Science of Meditation   - Dan Goleman, Rich Davison

Since 2015 there is an exponential increase in scientific papers on the neuroscience of meditation. The Authors covers a wide spectrum of significant research (their own and others). They reach the same conclusions that ancient wisdom traditions have reiterated, that a long-term mediation practice is transformative - i.e. leads to altered brain states and finally these states become "traits".

Samskara   - UR Ananthamurthy

A devout and a well-respected Brahmin priest in a village commits what he perceives to be a sin. He leaves the village only to be overcome by a sense of loss and plans to return back while deliberating philosophical and existential nature of his actions. U R Ananthamurthy uses the narrative of this story to show us a the tradition of "rite of passage" which exists in a variety of forms in almost all cultures and tradition that it almost becomes a universal human condition. As Readers we are drawn into the predicament of the lead character with a recognition of situations in our own lives where we had to go through a rite of passage.

The Story of Yoga - Alitair Shearer

If you have wondered about Yoga's origin, this is a great resource. The author  takes you on a beautiful journey from ancient sages- who conceived it as a contemplative practice to cultivate the mind and experience "Samadhi" (loosely translated as flow experience in modern terms), to the middle ages where it morphed into streams of Knowledge (Gnana), Devotion (Bhakti) and Action (Karma) and finally to its modern syncretic version of physical exercises popularized by Krishnamacharya and his famous students like BKS Iyengar.

The Razor's Edge  - Somerset Maugham

A pilot who survives the war faces an existential crisis and sets out on a journey of self discovery against the wishes of his girlfriend who chooses a conventional life. He finally reaches India- meets a sage (modeled after Ramana Maharshi we are told) and through his own efforts finds peace. A sweeping saga of self-discovery in the 1940s may sound like a cliché, but the classic novelist Somerset Maugham produces moments of brilliance as he raises the question of materialism vs spirituality which is a conflict for many even today. The title - Razor's edge is a reference to a line in Kathopanishad which equates the spiritual path to walking on a razors' edge (which led me to next book below)

The Yoga of Kathopanishad   -  Krishna Prem

The story of Nachiketa is one of the most inspiring tales from the Upanishads. A puny boy meeting the God of Death to learn about the secrets of life, has a certain paradoxical beauty to it. This is also an allegory of how a student can transmute faith into knowledge. Krishna Prem (who many people suspect is the Pilot in Somerset Maugham's novel- see #6) gives us a beautiful translation of this classic text. But this is not an easy read, only those who have deep interest in Vedanta will appreciate this.

The City and its Uncertain Walls   - Haruki Murakami

A young man's girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, giving him clues to an imaginary city where her true-self lives. He searches for her and goes into the imaginary city only to realize he prefers the real world. Murakami is the master of the surreal, he makes even the mundane mysterious. If you are looking for a gripping, mind-bending tale you are in for a wild ride with this one.

Lian Hearn (pseudonym for the writer Gillian Rubinstein) is one of Australia's most internationally successful writers. The rich detail and the accuracy with which she imagines feudal Japan is fascinating. The entire Otori series is thrilling and feels like an anime movie, but reads like a literary novel. The tales of Otori is an immensely successful 4 part series (which I read many years ago). Heaven's net is wide is recently written prequel which peaked my interest in the series again and I  ended up reading Book 1 again. 

The Weavers Songs   - Kabir

This is a translation of 100 poems of Kabir  drawn from major sources in a variety of languages. Author stays close to the voice of Kabir  who communicates complex spiritual ideas in a simple and often satirical manner. Being a weaver in 15th Century Varanasi, Kabir was likely part of the urban poor with no literacy. So he likely composed his poems orally and sang them to an illiterate audience. And yet his poetry has such amazing spiritual insight and a timeless quality that makes us wonder at his genius.

Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf   - Ryokan

In Ryokan's poems there is a sense of quiet solitude, a freedom that comes from having no cares (I am drifting like a cloud, giving myself up to the wind) and a kinship to the natural world that is very calming. His poetry is about carefree love of life, love of nature and the simple things. While they look simple, Ryokan's poems are spontaneous expressions of a whole range of human experience: joy, sadness, pleasure, pain, love and loneliness.

Isha Upanishad    - Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo's translation and analysis of the Isha Upanishad which is one of the 10 principal Upanishads which discusses the nature of self (Atman) and is a key scripture in the Vedantic thought. In this unique take on this beautiful scripture of just 18 verses, Aurobindo presents a reconciliation and harmony of opposing concepts such as renunciation vs enjoyment, action vs freedom and immanent vs transcendent. This is not an easy read, only those who have deep interest in Vedanta will appreciate this.

Dopamine Nation    - Dr Anna Lembke

Dr Lembke likens our smartphone/social media/information obsession to "addiction" calls the smartphone a modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. We can all relate to this metaphor as become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. This book has practical tips to keep our consumption in check and find our way back to a fulfilling life.

What you are looking for is in the Library    -  Michiko Aoyama

Ordinary people who are "stuck" in cross roads of their life wander into a library where the librarian has an uncanny knack of recommending books that help them find a way forward. The author masterfully crafts the characters each with their own quirk, and the transformative power of books, brings them all together in a satisfying and feel-good finale. If you have loved the "before the coffee gets cold" books, this one is right up there.

Collected Poems    - Vikram Seth

What brought me to Vikram Seth was the poem A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 - a haunting account of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. I remember explaining it to my Son who had this poem as part of his school work. But what made me read cover to cover was the fact that Vikram Seth, like the classical poets uses rhyme and meter but still manages to sound like a beat poet. As a reviewer describes his poetry - He makes you laugh, he makes you cry and he makes you sigh!

Siddhartha    - Herman Hesse

This is my 4th reading of Siddhartha in 20 years and I find something new every time. Siddhartha's quest, his discontent and his struggles resonate with a lot of people who have read the book, as if there is a little bit of Siddhartha in them, longing for enlightenment. This shows the power of Hesse's extraordinary writing. This is a brilliant, once in a life time kind of a book that I recommend to everyone.

The Vegetarian   - Han Kang

Yeong-hye is not special in any way, a dutiful wife married to an office worker. But a sudden repeated nightmares creates a strong urge within Yeong-hye, to become a vegetarian seeking a more 'plant-like' existence. This creates a chain of events that breaks the serenity of their existence and sends Yeong-hye spiraling into an abyss. This is not a novel for the faint hearted, it disturbs, it provokes and sometimes horrifies. But there is beauty and power of Han Kang's language (and Deborah Smiths Translation) that holds it together. If you bite it, they will reel you in and there is no escape until you reach the unsettling climax. If you manage to hold on till the end, the few paragraphs of the last chapter will haunt you for days!

The Golden Road    - William Dalrymple

This is a must read for every Indophile, as it is rich in information that shows how Indian ideas interacted with and transformed other cultures. For instance, the author explores how trade with India helped fund the Roman Empire and how Indian religious and philosophical ideas shaped the spiritual landscape of China and Southeast Asia.

The Sacred and the Profane    - Mircea Eliade

This book is worth its weight in gold! It tells you how you are still religious (even when you think you are nor) and what it truly means to be religious in human terms. This a dense and richly nuanced work that cannot be easily blurb-ed. It is a great introduction to the phenomenology of religions and makes us familiar with hierophany, the manifestation of the sacred, which the author argues sits deep in the core of human experience. 

Proto   - Laura Spinney

This is a book for all who are fascinated by ancient history, culture, language and how it propagated (back and forth) across Europe, Middle east and the Indian subcontinent. There are fascinating cases of close linguistic relationships, for example- Lithuanian to Sanskrit. Decoding it  becomes an exercise in Linguistic, Genetic and Archeologic forensics. How these languages originated from common roots and were sustained in regions separated by 1000s of kilometers becomes a great detective story.

Flow  -  Milaly Csikszenmihalyi

Part science and part philosophy, this is not an easy read. But those who persist, will by that very act, become intimate with the concept of "flow". The author explains that flow can be experience in any activity, be it at home, work, personal relationships, or any daily activity. By exercising Psychic control on our inner experience we can  achieve flow, and hence determine the quality of our lives. If this sounds much like ancient wisdom, it most certainly is! The Author alludes to Yoga and other meditative and contemplative practices as "flow producing".

The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning    - Iain McGilchrist

As a modern society we are becoming increasingly left-brain dominant, with excessive use of rationality and reductionism. This work sensitizes us to the fact that - to quote the author- Meaning emerges from engagement with the world, not from abstract contemplation of it. How can we step back from excessive left-brain thinking and reframe our world view? Read this essay to discover more!

The Biology of Belief   - Dr Bruce Lipton

Dr Bruce Lipton passionately bats for nurture (rather than nature). Insights from his experiments on cells tell us a story that is contrary to what we have learned in our biology classes. Its not the genes that determine our attitudes (and hence our lives), it’s the environment that the cell operates in (our learned beliefs). As he quotes -  “human Cell is a machine that turns experience into biology” . And we have trillions of cells. So, when we change the way we perceive the world, i.e when we “change our beliefs,” we change our lives!

Human Universe   - Brian Cox & Andrew Cohen

 Professor Cox sweeps through cosmic history as well as human history in simple and often poetic language. It feels like listening to a kind and intelligent big brother who is answering your existential questions while making both math and science as simple as possible. As I finished the last page of the book I felt both fragile and powerful. Fragile, knowing that in the cosmic scale, both in terms on time and space, we are a small blip. Powerful, knowing that in a small corner of what could potentially be infinity of universes, we as human beings, are able to find meaning, and wonder about the cosmos and our own existence in it.