Bookshelf

Here’s a list of books I’ve read. These days I rarely finish books that I’m not enjoying, so these are pretty representative of my reading taste. Book recommendations are, of course, always welcome :)

2024

  • Theft of Fire by Devon Eriksen
  • Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin

2023

  • Wohpe by Salvatore Sanfilippo(translated by Bridget Pupillo)
  • Against the Odds by James Dyson
  • Creativity by John Cleese
  • Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber
  • Tsalmoth by Steven Brust
  • Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyien
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Nutshell by Ian McEwan

2022

  • Losing the signal by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff
  • Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
  • The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
  • Built to fail by Alan Payne
  • The Hot Hand by Ben Cohen
  • Someday is today by Matthew Dicks
  • Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy
  • The Prestige by Christopher Priest
  • Momente in München(Dino Lernt Deutsch, #4) by André Klein
  • Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur Clarke
  • Permutation City by Greg Egan
  • 1984 by George Orwell

2021

  • Octopus by Guy Lawson
  • Anathem by Neal Stephenson
  • The Baron of Magister Valley by Steven Brust
  • Sethra Lavode by Steven Brust
  • The Lord of Castle Black by Steven Brust
  • The Paths of the Dead by Steven Brust
  • Five Hundred Years After by Steven Brust
  • The Phoenix Guards by Steven Brust
  • Ferien in Frankfurt(Dino Lernt Deutsch, #2) by André Klein
  • Café in Berlin(Dino Lernt Deutsch, #1) by André Klein
  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
  • Abaddon’s Gate(The Expanse #2) by James S. A. Corey
  • Caliban’s War(The Expanse #2) by James S. A. Corey
  • Leviathan Wakes(The Expanse #1) by James S. A. Corey
  • Diaspora by Greg Egan

2020

  • Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda
  • Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks
  • The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova
  • Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks
  • Julian by Gore Vidal
  • The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin
  • Vallista by Steven Brust
  • Hawk by Steven Brust
  • Tiassa by Steven Brust
  • Iorich by Steven Brust
  • Jhegaala by Steven Brust
  • Deep Work(Audiobook) by Cal Newport
  • The Idea Factory: Learning to think at MIT by Pepper White
  • The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
  • The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
  • Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
  • Range by David Epstein
  • Ultralearning by Scott Young
  • The Start-Up of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

2019

  • Dzur by Steven Brust
  • Issola by Steven Brust
  • Dragon by Steven Brust
  • Orca by Steven Brust
  • Exhalation by Ted Chiang
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • The Little Elixir & OTP Guidebook by Benjamin Tan Wei Hao
  • Athyra by Steven Brust
  • Phoenix by Steven Brust
  • Backstabbing for Beginners by Michael Soussan
  • Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool
  • Taltos by Steven Brust
  • The Defining Decade by Meg Jay
  • Teckla by Steven Brust
  • A Mind For Numbers by Barbara Oakley
  • Yendi by Steven Brust
  • Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
  • Jhereg(Vlad Taltos, #1) by Steven Brust
  • Learning to Climb Indoors by Eric Horst
  • Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy Minded World by Tim Harford

2018

  • Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
  • The Push by Tommy Caldwell
  • Alone on the Wall by Alex Honnold and David Roberts
  • Death’s End by Liu Cixin
  • The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
  • The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
  • Blood, Sweat and Pixels by Jason Schreier
  • Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
  • Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
  • One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer
  • American Gods by Neil Gaiman
  • Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez
  • Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan
  • Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

2017

  • Artemis by Andy Weir
  • Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
  • Justice by Michael Sandel
  • Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
  • Superforecasting by Philip E. Tetlock & Dan Gardner
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths
  • The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson
  • Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson
  • Axis by Robert Charles Wilson
  • Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
  • Overcomplicated by Samuel Arbesman
  • The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead by Charles Murray
  • The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
  • Deep Work by Cal Newport
  • The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
  • Calculated Bets by Steven Skiena
  • 11/22/63 by Stephen King
  • Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

2016

  • Mastery by George Leonard
  • Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
  • Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
  • Creation by Gore Vidal
  • Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
  • World War Z by Max Brooks
  • Applied Economics(Audiobook) by Thomas Sowell; read by Brian Emerson
  • Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger
  • No Imperfections Noted, Vol. 1 by Casey Muratori
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  • Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
  • Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick and William Simon
  • Bringing Down The House by Ben Mezrich
  • The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Cuckoo’s Egg by Clifford Stoll
  • Cumulus by Eliot Peper
  • Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
  • On Writing Well by William Zinsser
  • Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
  • Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  • I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
  • The Making of Prince of Persia by Jordan Mechner
  • The Making of Karateka by Jordan Mechner

2015

  • The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
  • Flatland by Edwin Abbott
  • The Code Book by Simon Singh
  • The Idea Factory by Jon Gertner
  • On Writing by Stephen King
  • Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age by Stephen Levy
  • The Martian by Andy Weir
  • Skunk Works by Ben Rich & Leo Janos
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
  • Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
  • The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley by Leslie Berlin
  • Dealers of Lightning by Michael Hiltzik
  • Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
  • Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
  • Make it Stick by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel

2014

  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  • Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
  • Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • The Dilbert Future by Scott Adams
  • In the Plex by Stephen Levy
  • Masters of Doom by David Kushner
  • Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Coders at Work by Peter Siebel
  • Hackers by Stephen Levy
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  • Reamde by Neal Stephenson
  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  • The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • Freakonomics by Steven Lewitt and Steven Dubner
  • SuperFreakonomics by Steven Lewitt and Stephen Dubner
  • The Subtle Knife by Philip Pulman
  • The Golden Compass by Philip Pulman
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2003-2013 (not in order)

  • Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  • Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
  • Sphere by Michael Crichton
  • The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
  • The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
  • The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
  • Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
  • E=mc²: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis
  • The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
  • Learn to Earn by Peter Lynch
  • The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
  • The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
  • Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
  • The Google Story by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed
  • Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age by Paul Graham
  • The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
  • The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
  • Deception Point by Dan Brown
  • Journey to the Self by Luna Shrestha Thakur
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
  • Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
  • The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  • Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT by Chetan Bhagat
  • 2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat
  • The 3 Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat
  • In The Mind of the Machine by Kevin Warwick
  • Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch
  • Congo by Michael Crichton
  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  • A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  • Palpasa Cafe by Narayan Wagle
  • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
  • The Business of Dying by Simon Kernick
  • The Testament by John Grisham
  • The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick
  • Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, Ambition by Chetan Bhagat
  • The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
  • Veronica Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  • Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
  • Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
  • 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
  • The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  • Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
  • Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman
  • The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
  • The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer
  • Honour Among Thieves by Jeffrey Archer
  • Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
  • Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
  • Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
  • Eldest by Christopher Paolini
  • Eragon by Christopher Paolini
  • Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay
  • The Royal Ghosts by Samrat Upadhyay
  • The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
  • Have a Little Faith: The Story of a Last Request by Mitch Albom
  • Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  • For One More Day by Mitch Albom
  • A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays by Stephen Hawking
  • The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
  • George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen Hawking and Lucy Hawking
  • Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
  • Firestarter by Stephen King
  • Riding the Bullet by Stephen King
  • UR by Stephen King
  • Carrie by Stephen King
  • iWoz by Steve Wozniak

CS and programming books

Comic books/Graphic novels

  • Maus by Art Spiegelman
  • Open Borders by Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith
  • Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
  • Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
  • Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
  • Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon
  • Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan and Pia Guerro
  • Habibi by Craig Thompson
  • Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
  • Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
  • Blankets by Craig Thompson
  • Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou
  • Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi