2026
- The Object-Oriented Thought Process by Matt Weisfeld Recommended Still reading (currently on chapter 4), but can already say that this book is a gem. It’s helping me think of modelling real-world problems in an object-oriented way. I am yet to implement concepts taught in this book.
- Public Choice A Primer by Eamonn Butler People believe that the government is just there to serve the interests of the people, but what about their own self-interest to extract as much money as possible from taxes, to maintain their position of power, and to finance their own leisure (security, helping staff, bungalows in South Delhi)?
- Database System Concepts by Abraham Silberschatz & S. Sudarshan One big step towards becoming cracked at Back-end Engineering.
- Antidote: Essays Against the Socialist Indian State by Sauvik Chakraverti Recommended This book made my beliefs on free markets, individual liberty, and strong property rights even stronger. It also discusses how the Indian government mirrors the British colonial rule, prioritizing its own interests over the public’s, but with an Asian skin tone, lol!
- The Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas & Andrew Hunt Recommended Helped me become a better programmer. Taught me best practices, enhanced my problem-solving skills and has a lot of real-world analogies. I’ve completed 75% of it.
- Silberschatz’s Operating System Concepts by Abraham Silberschatz Again Operating Systems is a fundamental topic for any tech professional. I did complete the playlist on OS by Gate Smashers on YouTube last year, but I wanted to read a book on it to get a deeper understanding.
- LearnCPP.com by Alex Allain Not a book, but an online resource that looks like a book to me. I have been learning ‘C with Classes’ from this website since January 2026. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy. But I know it is to refine myself. You might have your opinions about C++, for me, it’s just a tool to mimic God himself on a small scale.
- Docker Deep Dive: Zero to Docker in a single book by Nigel Poulton I learnt Docker from this book between December 2025 and January 2026. I did all the exercises and practicals as they were instructed in the book. I’ll have even better clarity after I work with real projects.
2025
- Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday The most inspiring character for me was Lou Gehrig, a baseball player who died young. However, the time span he was alive for, he had been an eptiome of discipline and dedication. Also learned a lot from American presidents like Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. JFK was truly an interesting character. Despite being a womenizer he was disciplined WOW (Cuban Missile Crisis).
- The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT by Gene Kim Recommended This book provided valuable insights into the inner workings of IT companies. One significant takeaway was the importance of crisis management.
- Pro Git by Scott Chacon & Ben Straub So my fundamental understanding of Git, version control, and source code management is great. Although when I read this book, I was new to IT and didn’t realize the true power of Git. I skimmed through the latter chapters but didn’t fully understand them. I need to brush up on branching strategies and Git internals. I read it after my late friend Shaik Ashish had offered me an access to a paid Git course by Mohit Dharmadhikari. That course was examplary, but it was tedious, and I don’t prefer to study through lectures. So I thought, why not read the book and learn directly from the source?
- Data Communications & Networking With TCP/IP Protocol Suite by Behrouz A. Forouzan Helped me understand the fundamentals of networking. Now I can imagine how data flows through the internet. It is the foundation on which I will build my knowledge of distributed systems. I recall buying this book based on Bitten Tech’s recommendation while watching his networking playlist on YouTube.