5 Books I Enjoyed Reading In 2011

Reading is a passion for me which started with Asterix, Archies and Tinkle. Graduated to Jeffery Archer, Leon Uris and Sidney Sheldon. Then being interested in History, I got addicted to non-fiction books. I wish I could have read more books this year but did manage to read a few.

Here are 5 of my favourite ones in 2011…

Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson

I was never too concerned by Steve Jobs as I am not really an Apple Inc fan. But I appreciated his genius for design and simplicity. The book brought about the complex, brilliant and at times not such a nice person behind the the legend to life. Even if you are not a Apple or Steve Jobs fan, it is a great chronicle of how technology companies evolved over the past 30 years.

Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor by Everitt Anthony

Never had read much about Ancient Rome before, but this biography of Augustus (the first Emperor of Rome) was fascinating. It was not too dramatic and did not take artistic licenses (as far as I know). It was not exactly boring either. Augustus is a great personality to study when it comes to governance and how it evolves.

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

This books is a fictional auto-biography of the Roman Emperor Claudius (grand nephew of Augustus). It brings alive the way of life of upper class Romans in a way that no one could imagine. The book is pretty old and was written in 1934. It is one of the rare books set in ancient history which is extremely witty.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Another non-fiction. It chronicles super successful people and the reasons they were successful. The idea behind the book is simply, no one is self-made completely. It takes a certain environment and luck along with it.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

First few days of 2011, were dedicated to reading the original Dracula. This one is eerie at times but fascinating. The book was written in 1897 and they are still telling vampire stories (albeit all lame compared to this one). One can say this book is where all modern horror films began.

I managed a few more books but most of them were not my favourites. All of them were interesting though. Did you read any books this year? Drop in your favourites in your comments.

Also you can look up my book lists at my GoodReads profile (Goodreads.com/aditya80)