I used to maintain a running list of the books I read on Twitter (now X). But the whole book-a-week drill started to feel a bit performative. So last year I stopped live-tweeting my reading. But then I wrote a book of my own and acquired a fresh appreciation of just how much of a difference the honest recommendations of a genuine reader makes to a newly published author. So I decided to create a list after all.

Of the many books I read this year, these were the ones that stood out:

The Greatest Invention

Forged in Crisis

Nehru’s India

The Bomb, the Bank, the Mullah and the Poppies

Your Face Belongs to Us

Once Upon a Prime

Digital Empires

The Colonial Constitution

We the People of the States of Bharat

Delhi Reborn

The Eastern Gate

Surveillance State

The Brandeis-Frankfurter Connection

Our Biggest Experiment

Rules: A Short History of What we Live By

Vajpayee

Wilderness Dreaming

Land Guns Caste Woman