Books - Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction Books that I have read since August 2024.

Starting from August 2014, I have decided to keep a record of the books that I have read or am currently reading. This list is just for my recollection, but once in a while if I find the book very appealing I may post a review somewhere.

Below I list all the non-fiction books I have read since August 2024 (in reverse chronological order). For all books, please refer to this page.

The books that are marked with a ** are the ones that I am either currently reading or have not read completely but plan to do so in the future.

All the books that I read are rated on Goodreads.

  1. The Green Book: An Observer’s Notebook, Amitava Kumar, HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.
  2. The Yellow Book: A Traveller’s Diary, Amitava Kumar, HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.
  3. The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal, Amitava Kumar, HarperCollins Publishers, 2022.
  4. The Prosecutor: One Man’s Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice, Jack Fairweather, W. H. Allen, 2025.
  5. The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible, Lance Fortnow, Princeton University Press, 2017.
  6. ** Algorithms Unlocked, Thomas H. Cormen, MIT Press, 2013.
  7. ** The Math Behind the Magic: Fascinating Card and Number Tricks and How They Work, Ehrhard Behrends (Translated by David Kramer), American Mathematical Society, 2019.
  8. A Rude Life: The Memoir, Vir Sanghvi, Viking, 2021.
  9. In the Beginning…Was the Command Line, Neal Stephenson, Perennial, 2003.
  10. Lucknow Boy: A Memoir, Vinod Mehta, Viking, 2011.
  11. Writing Badly Is Easy, Amitava Kumar, Aleph Book Company, 2019.
  12. ** Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction, Fred Piper and Sean Murphy, Oxford University Press, 2002.
  13. An Educated Woman in Prostitution: A Memoir of Lust, Exploitation, Deceit (Calcutta, 1929), Manada Devi (Translated by Arunava Sinha), Simon & Schuster India, 2021.
  14. ** Number Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Robin Wilson, Oxford University Press, 2020.
  15. The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece, Edward Dolnick, Harper Perennial, 2006.
  16. ** A Shadow of the Past: A Short Biography of Lucknow, Mehru Jaffer, Aleph Book Company, 2021.
  17. The Big Idea: Turing and the Computer, Paul Strathern, Arrow Books, 1997.
  18. The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer, David Leavitt, W. W. Norton & Company, 2006.
  19. Malicious Gossip, Khushwant Singh, HarperCollins Publishers India, 2012.
  20. ** From the King’s Table to Street Food: A Food History of Delhi, Pushpesh Pant, Speaking Tiger Books, 2024.
  21. May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India, Elisabeth Bumiller, Penguin Books, 1991.
  22. Women & Men in My Life, Khushwant Singh, HarperCollins Publishers India, 2010.
  23. Grand Delusions: A Short Biography of Kolkata, Indrajit Hazra, Aleph Book Company, 2013.
  24. A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna, Amitava Kumar, Aleph Book Company, 2013.
  25. 2024: The Election that Surprised India, Rajdeep Sardesai, HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.
  26. On Being Indian: The Organic Intellectual, Mystical Poetry, and Lineages of Indian Rationalism, Amit Chaudhuri, Westland Books, 2023.
  27. The Tandoor Murder: The Crime That Shook the Nation and Brought a Government to Its Knees, Maxwell Pereira, Westland Books, 2023.
  28. ** Why I Write, George Orwell, Penguin Books, 2004.
  29. মোৰো এটা সপোন আছে, Rubul Mout, Purbayon Publication, 2022.
  30. Fallen City: A Double Murder, Political Insanity, and Delhi’s Descent from Grace, Sudeep Chakravarti, Aleph Book Company, 2024.
  31. From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada, Sudha Bharadwaj, Juggernaut Books, 2023.
  32. City on Fire: A Boyhood in Aligarh, Zeyad Masroor Khan, HarperCollins Publishers, 2023.
  33. ** Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus, The Language of the Universe, Steven Strogatz, Atlantic Books, 2020.
  34. Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures, Robert K. Wittman and John Shiffman, Broadway Books, 2010.
  35. Me, The Jokerman: Enthusiasms, Rants & Obsessions, Khushwant Singh, Aleph Book Company, 2016.
  36. ** The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution, Gregory Zuckerman, Penguin Business, 2019.
  37. Celebrating Delhi, Mala Dayal (ed.), Penguin Books India and Ravi Dayal Publisher, 2010.
  38. ** Old Books in the Old World: Reminiscences of Book Buying Abroad, Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern, Oak Knoll Press, 1996.
  39. Anita gets Bail: What Are Our Courts Doing? What Should We Do About Them?, Arun Shourie, HarperCollins Publishers India, 2018.
  40. Rare Books Uncovered: True Stories of Fantastic Finds in Unlikely Places, Rebecca Rego Barry, Voyageur Press, 2018.
  41. Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins, Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong, Three Rivers Press, 2010.
  42. The Identity Project: The Unmaking of a Democracy, Rahul Bhatia, Context, 2024.
  43. Last Days in Old Europe: Trieste ’79, Vienna ’85, Prague ’89, Richard Bassett, Penguin Books, 2020.
  44. India After 1947: Reflections and Recollections, Rajmohan Gandhi, Aleph Book Company, 2022.
  45. Why don’t you write something I might read?: Reading, Writing & Arrhythmia, Suresh Menon, Context, 2021.
  46. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Simon & Schuster, 2023.
  47. Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art, Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo, Penguin Books, 2010.
  48. The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece, Jonathan Harr, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006.
  49. ** Backstage: The Story behind India’s High Growth Years, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Rupa Publications, 2023.
  50. ** Price of the Modi Years, Aakar Patel, Vintage, 2023.
  51. ** Calcutta: Two Years in the City, Amit Chaudhuri, Penguin Books, 2013.
  52. ** The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years, Sonia Shah, Sarah Crichton Books, 2010.
  53. A Bookshop of One’s Own: How a group of women set out to change the world, Jane Cholmeley, Mudlark, 2024.
  54. ** Never Tell Them We Are the Same People: Notes on Pakistan, Kesava Menon, Speaking Tiger Books, 2023.
  55. Goodnight and God Bless: On life, literature, and a few other things, with footnotes, quotes, and other such literary diversions, Anita Nair, Penguin Books, 2015.
  56. ** The Fears of the Rich, The Needs of the Poor: My Years at the CDC, William H. Foege, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.