December 2021

I read 52 #books in 2021. The best #nonfiction was The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Succinct & deep. I can spend a decade practicing every sentence. The best #fiction was Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War. A brilliantly rich magic system, and what a plot, what an ending! My one-line #reviews of the books are below. http://www.s-anand.net/blog/books-in-2021/ LinkedIn

On my Goodreads 2021 reading challenge, I read 52/50 books in 2021. I managed 47/50 in 2020 (see 2020 reviews) and 26/24 in 2019. Here’s what I read (best books first). Mind-blowing The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. It’s the best non-fiction I’ve read in 5 years. It focuses Wealth and Happiness. It’s short. I finished it in a day. But it’s deep. I can spend a decade practicing just a single sentence. It’s available at navalmanack.com as a free e-book and audio book. Rhythm of War. The 4th book of the Stormlight Archives is an action-packed fantasy. A great gift for teenagers. In an extra-ordinary magic system, Brandon Sanderson builds up to the greatest climax I’ve read. What an ending! Death Note #1-#12. Light Yagami gets hold of a “death note”. If he writes a name on it, they die. “L” is out to catch him. In a cat-and-mouse psychological thriller, Light and L work next to each other, share their plans, and still try to outwit the other. It’s like chess. The pieces are visible. But it’s the strategy that counts. A brilliant comic series. Life-changing ...

Can foreigners break into #Hollywood? A break into films is hard. Particularly when you’re a foreigner. But is Hollywood more open or less open than other countries? If we go by iconic actors, the numbers are not encouraging. Just 2% of Will Smith’s co-stars are non-Hollywood. But over 30% of Jackie Chan’s co-stars are non-Chinese. But #clustering shows that Hollywood is actually among the most open to foreigners. #dataanalysis Read more at https://www.s-anand.net/blog/can-foreigners-enter-hollywood/ ...

An aspiring Malaysian actor posted on Reddit: I am a 18-year old biracial Malaysian kid who wants to be an actor in Hollywood. I’m taking a diploma for performing arts in a college called Sunway University in 8 days and I’m considering pulling out of it because why do something that I like when my dreams might never be fulfilled and the price for taking this diploma is seriously expensive. I am starting to doubt my chances of making it to Hollywood and I suffer from extreme anxiety. Is it possible for someone like me to enter Hollywood? What are my chances? ...