Yash Parikh

06Books

Books

The books I'm reading, the ones up next, and the ones I've finished, with what stayed with me.

Reading now · 2

Up next · 1

Finished · 21

Would reread · 8

  • The Courage to Be DislikedIchiro Kishimi and Fumitake KogaThe title felt gimmicky; three pages in, I was hooked. I challenged Adler’s ideas, argued them out with AI, and they’re now how I live. Read it as early in life as you can.

    I only kept going because someone I look up to suggested it. I didn’t take Adler on faith: I thought about his ideas deeply, pushed back on a lot of them, and arrived at my own conclusions. One of the most amazing pieces of nonfiction I’ve read. It helped me immensely, I suggest it to everyone, and I can’t wait to read it again.

    The earlier you read it for the first time, the better it takes effect. Expect posts here about how it changed me.

    Read in 2025
  • The War of ArtSteven PressfieldThe first time, it felt like a hoax because I didn’t need it yet. Now I can see the Resistance and name it. A bible for an artist: I can’t wait for the morning I open it, read ten pages and go write a song.

    Later I entered a phase of life where I could feel the resistance every day, and the book started coming in handy. It was a relief to be able to see it, using the words I’d read here.

    It isn’t a book you read once and understand. It’s one to come back to every couple of weeks, almost religiously.

    Read in 2025
  • The Almanack of Naval RavikantEric JorgensonMy introduction to Naval, and I’ve been a fan since. Pages of it live on sticky notes on my wall: simple ideas, hard to keep in mind. Practise one page until it’s part of you.

    I listen to a lot of his podcasts and interviews now, and this book is where it started. Once in a while I open it to a random page and realise that even though the ideas are so simple, they’re very hard to hold onto all the time.

    Take one page and practise it until it becomes part of your life. It can change your entire life, one page at a time.

    Read in 2024
  • Atomic HabitsJames ClearA magical book. It changed my life in ways I don’t even notice anymore, its principles come back to me without trying, and I keep going back to it.

    My motivation was on a different level the whole time I was reading it. It’s full of practical tips, and the recall is great: years later, I can still pull up one of its principles exactly when I need it. This is a book I want to keep going back to.

    Read in 2022
  • IkigaiHéctor García and Francesc MirallesMore a primer than a book. I wish I lived by every idea in it, which is exactly why I keep going back.

    An immense help, full of different ideas. It’s the book I return to whenever I want to make a change, and every time, there’s something in it I haven’t put into practice yet.

    Read in 2021
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ckMark MansonIt found me at a tricky time in early adulthood and gave me the clarity I needed. Years later, I still remember exactly where I was sitting when I read the last chapter, about feeling alive at the edge of a cliff.

    That chapter was about the rush and the survival instinct you feel in your body when you sit on the edge of a cliff. That’s the calling of life, and that’s how closely you can feel it. I had never thought about life that way, and in that moment I felt magical.

    Sometimes a book touches you in a way you never forget. You can be a different puzzle piece at different phases of your life, and back then I was exactly the piece that fit this book. I’ll always be thankful to it.

    Read in 2018
  • Eat That Frog!Brian TracyOne of the first books I ever bought, and I still have it. I’ve since learned the beauty and the poison of productivity, and I still want to go back to it for Rosebot, the daily accountability bot I plan to build.

    It’s a short book full of practical techniques, and it’s been so long that I want to read it again. I’ve come to see both sides of productivity since, and this one still earns its place. Worth reading for anyone.

    Read in 2017
  • How to Win Friends and Influence PeopleDale CarnegieI wasn’t socially sharp as a teenager, and this cracked open a skill I didn’t know could be learned. What stayed: put yourself fully in the other person’s shoes. Not a technique, a way to live, and I use it every day with stakeholders.

    I came to it late. I’d always wondered why some people were naturally likeable, and why others, trying really hard, never were. This book explained the game. I put a lot of it into practice and it worked: I could get closer to the people I wanted to be close to.

    None of it feels fake to me. It’s not about being someone else, just a better version of you. Putting myself in the other person’s shoes is exactly what an analyst and a consultant has to do every day, and I’m relieved I learned it when I did.

    Read in 2016

Glad I read it · 11

  • Show Your Work!Austin KleonIt fit the shape I was in perfectly. Showing your work takes courage, and I’m still finding mine.

    I loved every page and took away a lot of ideas, but I couldn’t put most of them into practice. Showing your work matters as much as doing it, and it takes real courage. I’m still working on showing mine in a way that’s intriguing, interesting and entertaining.

    Read in 2024
  • Working BackwardsColin Bryar and Bill CarrA gift from my manager. My shape and the book’s didn’t match at the time, and I don’t think I got the best out of it. I’ll go back for the key chapters.

    It’s a great book. I just had a feeling, as I read it, that I wasn’t the right shape for it then, and that I was missing the best of it. I’ll find the time to read it again, or at least go through the chapters that matter most.

    Read in 2024
  • Zero to OnePeter Thiel with Blake MastersIn a world of dropshipping and reselling, I respect a book about building something truly new. But a book is a puzzle piece that has to fit its reader, and I wasn’t its shape.

    I get the concept, and I respect it: there’s a different kind of fun, and a different kind of need, in going from zero to one. But a book is more than its content. It was a short, good read. I just don’t want to read it again.

    Read in 2024
  • 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You ThinkBrianna WiestNot a book to judge whole. One essay became the idea behind one of my songs, and anyone will find ten that stay with them. Best opened at a random page.

    It’s a collection, so I’d rather judge the essays than the book, and I really liked some of them. I won’t reread it cover to cover, but every once in a while I pick it up, open a random essay, and see what it gives me that day.

    Read in 2023
  • The Ikigai JourneyHéctor García and Francesc MirallesI picked it up because the first one was so good. Entertaining, but it didn’t stay with me the way the first did.

    Still a really good, entertaining read. The ideas just didn’t come back to me later the way the first book’s did.

    Read in 2022
  • The Power of HabitCharles DuhiggThe habit loop is what stayed. Without Atomic Habits I’d rate it higher, but when someone asks me for a book on habits, I point them there.

    Other than the habit loop, and how a habit forms and holds, I don’t remember much of it. Atomic Habits feels like the better version of the same idea. Had I read only this one, I think it would sit much higher in my mind.

    Read in 2020
  • Everything Is F*ckedMark MansonThe story of a man who stopped feeling emotions, and watched his life fall apart, brought me closer to my own. Somewhere between glad I read it and wanting to read it again.

    Before it, I don’t think I had ever looked at my emotions, and the things I care about, that way. That story made me see how much they matter. I picked the book up because the first one was so good, and it was a good read for sure.

    Read in 2019
  • MindsetCarol S. DweckOne of the books that shaped who I am. It landed so hard in one reading that I don’t need it again, but I’d hand it to anyone, just in case they do.

    It’s so well written that I got the whole idea in one go, and it changed me in that one reading. That’s why I don’t feel the need to go back, even though I’ve thought about moving it to Would reread. If you need it, it will change your life. If you don’t, that’s okay. It’s worth the shot.

    Read in 2018
  • If on a Winter's Night a TravelerItalo CalvinoI rarely read novels, but Kanan Gill recommended this one. It’s so fragmented it shouldn’t make sense, yet it does, and I’m still a little shocked I finished it.

    A novel written in pieces that still holds together blew my mind. It took real effort to understand and to finish, and that’s part of why I’m glad I did.

    Read in 2017
  • The UpstartsBrad StoneA gift from a friend who always wanted to start a company, when I never did. It showed me the mindset and energy it takes to start something, and it’s been long enough to give it another go.

    Startups were never my thing, but reading it was fun, and it showed me how someone could think about starting a company. I’m glad I read it in my early days.

    Read in 2017
  • Steal Like an ArtistAustin KleonI used to treat originality as sacred, and this showed me everything is inspiration. Beautiful to hold, and the most borrowed book in my library.

    I used to put a lot of weight on the fingerprint of a piece of art: how unique a painting or a song was. Every page of this made sense to me, and I became a huge fan of Austin. It’s beautiful to look at, and owning it is its own small joy: I keep opening it to a page or two just because it’s so good to hold.

    Whenever someone visits my library, this is the book they reach for.

    Read in 2014

Wouldn't recommend · 2

  • The Quick and Easy Way to Effective SpeakingDale CarnegieI did open mics and stand-up in Bangalore for four years before COVID, and read this when I missed the stage. Speaking is a muscle: this book can make you feel like you’re improving when you aren’t. Go to an open mic instead.

    I’ve always been shy, with real stage fear, and this book does scratch the surface of that and give you some pointers. But the one thing I’ve learned about speaking is that the only way to get better is to do it, regularly. Find the courage, get up there once in a while, and read the room.

    Read in 2022
  • Do Epic ShitAnkur WarikooIt does one job well: big fonts and easy pages get you reading. Nothing in it stayed with me, and there are better books to start someone on.

    That’s not nothing. Getting someone into reading is a real job, and this book does it. But apart from being easy to read, I don’t think it has any lasting value, and if I wanted to hand someone their first book, I’d pick one that leaves them with more.

    Read in 2021