Many of you have reached out to me – over the years – seeking book recommendations, or asking me – who my favourite authors are.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve simply read enough in life to be equipped to suggest/recommend but, for what its worth, here are a few that I absolutely love.

These are the books and authors that have shaped my world-view and have had a lasting and transformative influence on me. (So, my friends and family, you know who to blame!)

Books/Authors arranged genre-wise.

Biography: 

1. Walter Isaacson – Especially, Leonardo Da Vinci, Steve Jobs, and The Code Breakers.
2. Andrew Roberts – Napoleon and Churchill.
3. Ramachandra Guha – Gandhi 
4. Barack Obama – his Autobiography. 
5. Roy Jenkins – Churchill.  
6. Ron Chernow – Alexander Hamilton. 
7. Trevor Noah (Born a Crime!)  (Autobiography)

History (Particularly, narrative history!)

1. Erik Larson (Splendid and the Vile (WW II), and Devil in the White City. I am reading the rest. I’ll read everything he’s ever written. Even his to-do list!) 
2. Ben Macintyre (War History, primarily. Some of his best works: Spy and the Traitor, and Agent Sonya). 
3. Yuval Noah Harari  (Sapiens, 21 Lessons. Desperately waiting for the next one!) 
4. Will Durant (for everything he ever wrote!) 
5. William Dalrymple (for his writings on the Mughals in India).

Fiction: 

1. Salman Rushdie  
2. Arundhati Roy 
3. Vikram Seth 
4. George Orwell
5. Julian Barnes
6. Manu Joseph 
7. Margaret Atwood.
8. Shrilal Shukla
9. Khalil Gibran
10. Albert Camus
11. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
12. Kazuo Ishiguro
13. Amor Towles
14. Ian McEwan
15. Shashi Tharoor (The Great Indian Novel)
16. Neil Gaiman

Humour: 

1. David Sedaris (Funniest man alive!)
2. PG Wodehouse. 
3. Stephen Fry (there’s no one wittier!. Also – the best narrator of audio books, EVER!)
4. Douglas Adams
5. Allie Brosh (For the writing, and the illustrations!)
6. Bill Bryson (Best story teller ever!)
7. Oscar Wilde.
8. Thomas Hathcart and Daniel Klein (for their outrageously funny- Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar : Understanding Philosophy through Jokes)

Non-Fiction: 

1. Sam Harris (Atheism, Spirituality, Thinking, and on Meditation) 
2. Christopher Hitchens.
3. Rolf Dobelli  (On better thinking!)
4. Daniel Kahnemann (On better thinking!)
5. Benjamin Dreyer (On English) 
6. Siddhartha Mukherji
7. Josy Joseph
8. Malcolm Gladwell

And, last but not the least:
Poetry:

1. Billy Collins
2. Vikram Seth 
3. David Whyte
4. Gulzar

*In no particular order

PS : I’m mindful that my readings may not be diverse enough. Beginning this year, I’m making a conscious attempt to read outside my comfort zone and gather varying perspectives. Reality, after all, is often multi-sided.