Epics, Health and Leadership: My Top Reads from 2024
Each year I like to review what I read and share some of my favourite or most impactful books. Here are some of my favourite reads from 2024. I share reviews on almost all the books I read at Goodreads and I am always appreciative of recommendations on books.
Reading in 2024 served many purposes for me. I delved into some epic fantasy series’ that provided a great escape from daily life. Reading provided me with some of the most helpful resources to handle new learnings and challenges from of a professional perspective, and reading helped catalyse new passions for trail running, and evidence-based nutrition that have led to quite drastic changes in my life even in a short period of time.
Epic Fantasy Series
2024 was the year where I completed the 14-part, Wheel of Time Series epic series. The book was a real journey, both literally and metaphorically. It contained the best character development I have ever experienced in a text and the first and final 3 books in the series were simply an immersive pleasure. The middle books were a drag, but if you are thinking on embarking on the journey then I cannot recommend this series more highly (just be prepared to be reading for a while!)
I enjoyed two other series, the Dandelion Dynasty was written in a style that I found super easy to read. The author is the English translator for the first and third of the Three-Body problem books and they are a master of describing macro-level political machinations in a way that is engrossing. Finally, the Gentleman Bastards trilogy was a fun romp and a lighter hearted read with lots of heist plotline elements. I would suggest reading Book 1 but Books 2 and 3 are a little rinse and repeat.
Long Distance Running
Long-distance running has been a lifeline for me. As a South Asian who loves eating carbohydrates and is endowed with a natural proclivity to pack on pounds, running has been helpful for seeking to maintain a healthy body but perhaps even more so a healthy mind. In 2024, I ventured off the tarmac and into the trails and mountains and experimented with trail running. I embarked on the experiment with a fair amount of trepidation. I have faced some ankle and knee challenges in the past, and I was nervous about whether trail running would flare these ailments.
I am the type of person who likes to read first and experiment second, and this was no different with trail running. Training for Uphill Athlete and The Lore of Running provided all the physiological, training and mental details anyone could possibly want (and a lot more) for anyone interested in endurance sports and specifically trail running.
Finally, Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance created a lot of curiosity as I read about the real life experiences of tenured long-distance runners. The book helped allay concerns around whether the challenges I faced while running — particularly mental — were unique to me (they were not) and how to push through them.
Nutrition and Health
Nutrition is fascinating. We all eat, and we all have deep-seated opinions on diet and nutrition. However, I find that the science around nutrition is so difficult to engage with and often seems paradoxical. Furthermore, we all can experiment on ourselves and see the effects of nutrition changes on our health and well-being. In 2024, I engaged in a lot of this experimentation along with the distance running and found it to be a fun side hobby.
My reading started with Understanding Anemia as I sought to learn more of the technical details on the health challenge that I work on professionally. I also really enjoyed Glucose Revolution though found it to be a little simplistic and lacking evidence. I highly recommend the more comprehensive The Science of Nutrition: Debunk the Diet Myths and Learn How to Eat Well for Health and Happiness as a primer on nutrition basics.
Professional Leadership
Leadership and strategy tend to topics where I find it most challenging to find high-quality, evidence-based books. In 2024, there were a handful of books that I found were both enjoyable to read but practically applicable.
The First 90 Days is a very applicable book for those who are shifting into new professional roles or organisation. Getting Things Done and Team: Getting Things Done with Others were game changers for my productivity. I have incorporated many of the techniques in these books into my daily workflow and I can attest to the tangible benefits that they have had on my productivity. Finally, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a tried and tested book that provided me with a framework for how to think about the development of a high-functioning leadership team.
Other Great Reads
Not the End of the World is an optimistic book that uses robust data and evidence to contextualise the global, existential challenges we face but also the opportunities that exist to handle these challenges. If you care about how to improve the world, this will be a refreshing balm to the constant negativity of the media.
A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs that Made Our Brain is perhaps the single most enjoyable book I read in 2024. As we all scrambled to understand the potential impending doom from our AI-overlords, this book contextualised AI using the framing of the human brain function. I learned so much from this remarkable book and recommend it highly.
Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics is a text that I expect to return to multiple times. The idea that happiness is in the act of doing and not the outcome may seem simple but is so profoundly deep, and consistent with other schools of thought, that it serves as a powerful reminder. For me, the act of reading great texts brings me happiness and as such I hope to continue the great privilege of reading great books into 2025.
