Reflection On 37 Books Read In 2025

Harshal
1 day ago
4 min read

Rating And Thoughts On Books In AI Engineering, Wellness, Parenting, and More

In 2026, I read 37 books across 2025 with the usual focus on health and wellness, but an added focus this year on parenting and AI engineering.

I reflect on my year through the books I read, similar to a yearly Spotify wrap-up. I use an Impact Rating for each book (explained below) and list books by impact rating.

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Yearly comparison

I read 37 books in 2025, 74 in 2024, 106 in 2023, and 96 in 2022. I spent far less time reading in 2025 because I had my second child, changed jobs, and spent a lot of time learning AI engineering (but not from books). I also read less because I did not work out for many months, which cut into the time I had to listen to audiobooks. I stopped going for walks and did fewer pickups and drop-offs, which further reduced how much I could listen to audiobooks.

Top Picks, my favorite reads of the year

My top picks this year were:

Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking. I used to rely on food science from non-Indian contexts and often did not get support from family or friends when I tried to apply it to Indian cooking. This book helped me connect food science, culinary science, and Indian cooking.
Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will. It changed how I think about the factors that shape our actions and decisions, and clarified ideas about blame, praise, and free will. I had read a book about the absence of free will 20 years ago, but could never find it again. This book filled that gap in my philosophy.

Impact Rating For Books, Not Stars

I realized that using the conventional star rating system could make my ratings appear objective. My ratings are not objective; they are subjective. So I call it an "Impact Rating". I give an Impact Rating to each book based on:

Change in my beliefs
Actions I took in my career or life
New information vs my previous knowledge

I rate each book on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. A lower Impact Rating does not mean a book is poor in quality. For example, a book may have great content but I already knew its content. Or a book may have great content but I did not take any actions in my career or life from the book.

Last year, some readers doubted whether I could truly learn from reading so many books. To address this, I now write about each book's impact on me. This practice serves as a forcing function to ensure I extract value from each book and show that I am not just reading for the stats.