Anmol Pushjai Goel

The library

A real book should hurt.

A good book finds the most comfortable thing you believe and tests it. If you finish one and think exactly as you did before, you held it for a while and gave it back unharmed.

So read less, and read slower. Choose the books that disagree with you. One book read closely is worth forty skimmed.

This is my library: a list for each year since 2022, the full shelf from A to Z, and reviews as I write them.

Anmol Pushjai Goel

My library

A list for each year since 2022, and the full shelf from A to Z. Hover over a spine to see the author.

ABCDGHIMOPRSTW
1
1984George Orwell2023
A
Annihilation of CasteB. R. Ambedkar2025
AntifragileNassim Nicholas Taleb2024
B
The Beginning of InfinityDavid Deutsch2025
The Better Angels of Our NatureSteven Pinker2024
Beyond Good and EvilFriedrich Nietzsche2023
The Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoevsky2023
C
CapitalKarl Marx2023
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky2022
D
The Dawn of EverythingGraeber & Wengrow2025
Debt: The First 5,000 YearsDavid Graeber2024
The Denial of DeathErnest Becker2023
Discipline and PunishMichel Foucault2022
G
Godel, Escher, BachDouglas Hofstadter2025
The Gulag ArchipelagoAleksandr Solzhenitsyn2023
Guns, Germs, and SteelJared Diamond2023
H
The Human ConditionHannah Arendt2025
I
The Idea of IndiaSunil Khilnani2025
M
Manufacturing ConsentHerman & Chomsky2024
The Master and His EmissaryIain McGilchrist2024
MeditationsMarcus Aurelius2022
The Myth of SisyphusAlbert Camus2025
O
On LibertyJohn Stuart Mill2025
The Order of ThingsMichel Foucault2025
OrientalismEdward Said2023
The Origins of TotalitarianismHannah Arendt2024
P
Poverty and FaminesAmartya Sen2025
The Power EliteC. Wright Mills2024
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of CapitalismMax Weber2022
R
The RepublicPlato2022
S
SapiensYuval Noah Harari2022
Seeing Like a StateJames C. Scott2024
The Selfish GeneRichard Dawkins2023
The Society of the SpectacleGuy Debord2023
Steve JobsWalter Isaacson2022
The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsThomas Kuhn2022
T
A Theory of JusticeJohn Rawls2024
Thinking, Fast and SlowDaniel Kahneman2022
W
Why Nations FailAcemoglu & Robinson2024
The Wretched of the EarthFrantz Fanon2022
The shelf is growing. This is a first selection.

Reviews

Long-form reviews: what each book argues, where it holds up, and where it does not. 10 so far.

Papers worth reading

Academic papers that shape how he reads markets, institutions and people.

  • 2010

    The Weirdest People in the World?

    Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan, Behavioral and Brain Sciences

    Behavioural science generalises from Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic samples. A caution that applies directly to how India is studied.

  • 2001

    The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development

    Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson, American Economic Review

    Institutions, more than geography or culture, explain why countries diverge. The empirical basis for Why Nations Fail.

  • 1979

    Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk

    Kahneman and Tversky, Econometrica

    Losses weigh more than equivalent gains. The asymmetry changed every model of choice that followed.

  • 1973

    The Strength of Weak Ties

    Granovetter, American Journal of Sociology

    Information, jobs and influence travel through acquaintances more than close friends. The paper that founded network sociology.

Anmol Pushjai Goel seated on library steps

If you finish a book and you are the same person, you did not read it. You held it and gave it back unharmed.

Anmol Pushjai Goel