Book Box | What to do when reading becomes a productivity problem?

DCapitulum Reader,How do you handle your sterling(a) resourcefulness — the gift of attending? How do you decide what books to read and which ones to give a pass to?In this first week of the new year, I am wondering what to do with my 2026 reading.I could go with the zeitgeist of the times — be culturally current, and read the long lists, shortlists and winners of the Women’s Prize, Booker, the Pulitzer, the Nobel, the awards given by bookstores like Waterstones and Crosswords, and those by literary festivals like the Deodar Prize.Or I could piggyback on recommendations by readers whose bookish tastes align with mine, like Barack Obama. I could do what I did last year — scour the best book lists from the year before and build myself a nice reading list.I found some of my best books of last year like this, including How to Read a Book by Monica Wood, the story of a book club set in a prison, and Colored Television by Danzy Senna, the snarky novel of a screenwriter.I could be quirky and play a game with myself: create a book bingo. Take a grid of 4-by-4 squares and fill each with a fun category like “Read a YA book”, “Read a book with a beautiful cover”, and “Read a book with a rat in it”. I could be meticulous and build my book list by reading book reviews in different publications — everything from Biblio to the Mekong Review, to Substack newsletters like Maria Popova’s motivating The Marginalian. Then there are the bookish podcasts, a whole treasure house of them, like Anne Bogel’s What Should I Read Next and, closer home, the delightful Litpickers by Supriya Nair and Deepanjana Pal.If I am to promote the professional in me, I could read books that bolster my business school professor persona. I teach a course on Persuasive Communication and one on Storytelling in Business, and there is a wealth of books around both these subjects, with new ones coming out every day. Plus, re-reading old classics like Influence by Robert Cialdini and The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell would definitely stand me in good stead. But my life isn’t lived only in the classroom. Now that I live in the Himalayas for at least half the year, I find that my academic persona must make room for the version of me that belongs to a mountain village. My book list might need to stretch to include everything from mountain expedition stories to the lore of the goddess Hidimba, whose temple is a short deodar forest walk from my home.All these approaches seem legitimate, and I have tried a few already with different degrees of success. But they are also intimidating. Somewhere along the way, they have made reading another productivity problem to solve.For now, I will put such strategies aside. Instead, I have decided to begin with the books I have received in the last few months as presents from friends and family. And so, for now, I am managing my attention by entrusting its first hours to the people who know me. This small, gifted stack feels like a map of my relationships. It feels like a choice to start my reading year from a place of connection rather than curation. The zeitgeist and the book bingo can wait. They will always be there, clamouring for my attention. But these book gifts — from my friend Natasha, On the Banks of the Pampa by Volga and Amma by Perumal Murugan; from my Manali neighbour Tansy, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible and Called by the Hills by Anuradhapura Roy; and from The Other Reader, the One I Married, How Words Get Good by Rebecca Lee— they are here, now, a quiet and personal summons.What about you, dear Reader? Do you champion a single method, or do you, like me, find yourself torn? Is your 2026 list a strategic plan, a thing of beauty, or a haphazard pile of gifts and chance encounters?(Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)