Interesting Books I Read In 2025

Another year with the books — the early mornings, some from insomnia, some for early flights, and some born from the sheer curiosity of a reader who lives in the land of words as much as the real one.

- Rajesh Nair

Rory, an ex-Ogilvy Mather top executive in the UK, has an endearing and hilarious contrarian view of everything we consider rational. He avers that economics and logic are 'broken binoculars' because they see only what is measurable and miss the emotional and behavioural ambit of ideas.

This is the 30th year of clocking a hundred books, trying to time box it as a habit every day. I reckon a few rituals stay with such stubborn loyalty.

Like every year, I do suffer from recency bias, though the good ones always float right up there. As a caveat, I mention — as always — this was the year I read the book, and it has nothing to do with its original printing year. Here is a peek into some interesting ones, each stimulating a different cognitive corner of the mind.

Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia - Sam Dalrymple

It is a masterly attempt at deciphering the fractured division of the old Indian empire into a patchwork of nation states across five partitions. Burma's separation (1937), Aden and the Gulf's detachment, the 1947 partition, integration of 550 princely states, and the secession of East Pakistan into Bangladesh. We enjoy history because it combines the incredulity of fiction with the authenticity of real events. But the narrator still wields the urge to steer interpretation — and this is where Sam's debut work scores very high. Someone once described it as revisionist history — not really, I reckon.

Stronger Ground - Brené Brown