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2020 TBR: Redone!

Blarb (blurb + blab)

There comes a time (usually the middle of the year) when a TBR (to-be-read) starts looking dull and uninteresting.

To-be-reads or yearly reading lists tend to suffer from the current bias of being chosen for having great publicity, for being trendy due to societal disruptions, or for being a much-awaited addition to a series.

Something of the sort happened to me mid-July [yeah, so not exactly the middle of the year, get over it].

Back in March, when I decided to add books to my 2020 reading list concretely, I thought I'd picked a fair assortment of non-fiction and fiction, of politics and climate change, of politics of climate change, of some core science books related to my domain of interest, and what would hopefully make for interesting reads by writers having a very different perspective than I.

However, I soon got disenchanted with the fictional tales I'd chosen to read. I got annoyed at non-fiction authors for not coming to the point. I got deep into a slump when I couldn't move along with the second addition to a series because I wasn't in the mood for fiction whatsoever.

So I revised it a bit more and was enamored by Proust, Fitzgerald, and the idea of having a literary circle (quite like my interest in the Bloomsbury group), and fell into the scene of 1930s Paris, with its cafes and bookstores, its English writers, and Shakespeare and Co.

But Swann's Way does get dull at times, and there's not enough of a pull towards Shakespeare and Co. to compel me to read three books about it back to back.

Societal upheaval added twenty-or-so books to my reading list, and an additional five when I decided I would scrub away the politics on my social media because it had begun to eat into my day a little too much.

Hence, the re-revision of my 'concrete' 2020 reading list. This time, I sectioned out broad domains on which I'd choose my books so as to make full use of the next four months and focus only on what I really want to read, and not on what's new this season [if it's any good, it'll make it to my 2021 Jan-June TBR ].


Division by domain

  • History and Language — history of the world, society at large, how language changed, history of trade
  • Politics — some realpolitik, some political fiction, some self-validation, some books to counter my views, cancel culture, freedom of expression
  • Economics — different schools of thought, history of economics, behavioral economics, the economics of climate change, some introductory pieces on how the global economy really works
  • Climate change — books by activist/groups (fairly limited) for some on-the-ground experience retelling, scientific books on climate change (and countering hoaxes), politics of climate change 
  • Medicine and Neurology — a domain I haven't read too much about, and a book I've been meaning to read for the longest time now
  • Brain and Language — to develop a better understanding of how the brain works, how language was formed (so a bit of society and history there too), and how language affects the brain
  • Self-growth and development — some self-help books that appeared (and turned out ) to be helpful
  • Domain of Interest — history of quantum physics (in 500 pages, not two lectures), books by prominent researchers, history of communication, fictional adventures involving mathematics, and books like 'The Information' that I enjoyed reading.

A few books I'm really looking forward to reading


Why bother with a TBR?

I found that, like making a to-do list, a TBR greatly improves your chances of reading more books. In my first year of college, I maintained a (fairly small) TBR to get back into reading but foolishly skipped it during my second year. I read a lot more during my first year, and it was still better structured than whatever I managed to read during the second.

In Sum

Reading is fun, and so is structuring things. Take a leaf from Ben Franklin's book almanac, and revise your yearly lists and resolutions as and when you think fit. 



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