Recommended Readings
Books that I felt are “must-reads” in life. They helped build my character and made me the person I am today.
Creativity Inc.
Since Pixar’s 1995 hit film Toy Story, the studio has produced a staggering amount of timeless classics.
How were they able to do it? How did they create a culture that drove the artists to this new level? So passionate that Toy Story 2 was saved due to a backup copy made by a technical director working from home.
Ed Catmull, ex-president of Pixar describes the company culture and the extensive use of the “Brain Trust” to ensure a close knit and knowledgeable team.
This book the ins and outs of Pixar and is a must-read for anyone who wants to cultivate a better team or even to hear the crazy insider stories to one’s favorite movies.
The Midnight Library
My old manager at Siemens recommended this book to me one day. She told me how this book helped her throughout her life and was an essential reading to who one is.
And I must say, I have to agree. The Midnight Library follows the story of a middle aged woman named Nora Seed. A brilliantly intelligent individual, Nora finds herself at the Midnight Library where she can read all the lives she would have lived were she to choose different paths in life.
This book is a must-read because it helps one comes to terms with the decisions made in their life. Each “what-if” version of you has an equally regretful “what-if” to the life you’re living.
Life has an infinitesimally vast amount of decisions to make. There will be decisions you will regret taking, and there will be decisions you will regret not taking. Nora Seed shows you that these regrets are okay to have. There are decisions you made an alternate version of you wishes they made, so enjoy your life and live it to the fullest.
Grit
What makes high achievers successful?
Duckworth’s hypothesis that the real guarantor of success may not be inborn talent but a special blend of resilience and single-mindedness grew out of her upbringing: as a child her scientist father lovingly bemoaned the fact his daughter was ‘no genius’. Duckworth was determined to prove him wrong and spent her youth smashing through every academic barrier. As an adult she became focused on proving her theory and to find out if grit can be learned or cultivated.
This book explains the psychology to succeed and has helped me motivate and push myself to improve and refine myself — I hope it can do the same thing for you.
The martian
Andy Weir’s The Martian is a story of one man’s survival on the harrowing dunes of Mars, where each day brings forth new challenges. The astronaut Mark Watney struggles with his own mortality and the inconceivably bleak chances of his survival as he finds a way back home.
And I laughed.
This book was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. It strikes the perfect balance between a thrilling struggle for survival and as an outstanding pitch for Andy Weir’s standup career.
Andy Weir explains complex scientific theories and orbital mechanics in a way the general public can understand. And not just understand, but enjoy it. That itself deserves a reward.
Along with that, this may be one of the cases where the movie is better than the book.
So yeah, just read this when you can.