Asra Yousuf

2022 has been the year of book hopping. I have picked up more books than I can remember, only to leave them midway. A part of me is proud for not forcing myself to complete books for the sake of checking a box. But a part of me is also concerned about my dwindling attention span. Or maybe it is the books that aren’t gripping enough. Let’s pin it on the books for now!

Nevertheless, despite all the hopping, I did manage to finish some great books this year and I would love to share the ones that were pure gems. So here are some of my favorites of 2022 pertaining to different aspects and genres of life:

Personal Finance: Psychology of Money

This book by Morgan Housel is a classic. It applies to everyone at every stage of their life. This isn’t your typical personal finance book. It doesn’t give any investment advice or talk about saving strategies. Instead it is about how the same amount of money can hold different value to different people. Its about how to be thoughtful when it comes to making financial decisions, without getting influenced by fluctuating markets.

I have often struggled with my relationship with money. I aim for minimalism yet like some of the good things in life. I aim for frugality but also have to make a conscious effort to draw a line somewhere so as not to miss out on things that matter. I particularly enjoyed this book because it taught me that your relationship with money is your own to craft and you do not have to prescribe to any standards of the world. For more thoughts on the book, check my post here.

Motivation: The Comfort Book

Mathew Haig wrote this book when he was going through a particularly tough phase in life and was battling depression. The essays range from one paragraph long to a couple of pages. Some read like a friend sharing words of wisdom and some are fun lists of things to see/ watch / listen to pick yourself up. It is like a warm hug on a cold rainy day. Pick it up when you are craving comfort from the mess that life can sometimes feel.

Favorite Quote: “The western idea of self-empowerment requires you to become better, discover your inner billionaire, get beach-bodied, work, upgrade. It says the present is not enough. It’s self-loathing masquerading as salvation. We need self-acceptance. Self-compassion. Our present bodies and minds and lives are not things we have to escape. We need to remember the messy miracle of being here. Acceptance. There comes a beautiful point where you have to stop trying to escape yourself or improve yourself and just allow yourself.”

Business: The Cold Start Problem

I am a sucker for start-up stories. Stories of a vision coming to life. Stories of crazy ideas questioning assumptions and eventually changing the way we live. The Cold Start Problem is all that and much more. Andrew Chen takes a case-study approach to talk about the challenges of network effects and the strategies to overcome it. He takes the examples of now-giants like Instagram, Uber, Tinder, Dropbox and talks about their journey from the first handful of users to millions of daily active users. It is quite an information packed book and might very well be my most highlighted book so far.

Autobiography: Maybe you should talk to someone

Lori Gottlieb talks about the complex problems of her patients against the backdrop of her own struggles and the career journey that led her to the therapist’s chair. This book gives you a close up view of the myriad conversations that take place behind the closed doors of a therapist’s office. One of my biggest learning from the stories shared in the book was that most of life’s problems are contextual. You cannot understand them in isolation but have to look at all the past experiences leading up to it. As humans, we are complex characters, further complicated by the experiences we’ve been through and the people we have met. Figuring out our troubles is often like untangling a tied up ball of wool and connecting the dots looking backward.

Dystopian Fiction: Brave New World

Brave New World has been on my list ever since I read 1984 and heard about it. But somehow never picked it up. So when my book club chose it earlier this year, it was a perfect opportunity to finally get to it. To be honest, I didn’t think too deeply and critically as I read the story. But with each book club discussion, I began to see the nuances in the story and the parallels that can be derived in our everyday lives. There are scenes from this book that made me question certain fundamental beliefs in life and hence this book had to make it to the list.

Relationships: The Course of Love

What I loved about this book is that it wasn’t your typical preachy relationship book, listing the do’s and don’t of a happy relationship. Instead, Alain De Botton takes the help of a fictional story to bring out the nuances of a relationship and in the process makes you realize that there is no definite recipe for a happy relationship. As we grow, our needs and that of our partner’s evolves and the key lies in understanding each other’s needs in each phase of life. As we witness the journey of a young couple go from the initial “butterfly in your stomach” phase to juggling marriage and kids, it makes you realize that relationships require constant love and attention, and if done right they can be the single best source of fulfillment in life.

So here were my favorites! Would love to know what were your best reads of 2022 or if you have any suggestions for 2023!