My lifetime goal is to read all the books.
Haha, just kidding, of course I can’t do that. *sob*
Currently reading
Updated 14 April 2021
- Rendezvous With Rama / Arthur C. Clarke
- Antifragile / Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- The Fountainhead / Ayn Rand
- Working / Studs Terkel
- Dark Forest / Liu Cixin
Reading notes
I send weekly reading notes via newsletter; see the archive here.
Reading goals
(2021) Keep reading more fiction; continue reading notes as a way to remember more of what I read; seek and read more book recommendations from friends.
(2020) Read more (in general); read more fiction; quit reading books I don’t love; remember more of what I read.
Favorites
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson is one of my all-time favorite books. N.K. Jemisin’s trilogy is amazing. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell is also excellent. I love the Silver Mystic quartet by Loren Andrews: City of Husks, Family of Ruin, Champion of Sin, Isle of Before. Andrews is one of my favorite dystopian writers. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu is great and I’ll read the other two in the trilogy this year. East of Eden by John Steinbeck is heart-rending and beautiful and bleak and rich. Barbara Kingsolver is an incredible writer; any of her novels is going to take you somewhere worth going. Bukowski’s poetry makes me cry in a good way.
If I were going to recommend one book from the entire nonfiction list, it would be James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games. Mastery and 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene are well worth the time investment. I read Ferrini’s Love Without Conditions and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations regularly, and revisit Henry Cloud, James Clear, Greg McKeown, and Alan Watts often. Systemantics by John Gall and A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell are thought-provoking in very different ways.
Reading lists
Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books (NPR)
And here’s my progress.
An ever-growing TBR list
| Achebe, Chinua | Things Fall Apart | F | ||
| Adler, Alfred | What Life Could Mean to You | N | ||
| Arendt, Hannah | The Life of the Mind | N | ||
| Bach, Richard | Illusions | N | ||
| Bowen, Elizabeth | The Death of the Heart | F | ||
| Busby, F.M. | Rissa Kerguelen | F | ||
| Campbell, Joseph | The Hero with a Thousand Faces | N | ||
| Dalio, Ray | Principles: Life and Work | N | ||
| Damasio, Antonio | The Strange Order of Things | N | ||
| Davidson, James Dale | The Sovereign Individual | N | ||
| Deutsch, David | The Beginning of Infinity | N | ||
| Dyson, Freeman | Disturbing the Universe | N | ||
| Edwards, Betty | Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain | N | ||
| Feynman, Richard P. | Six Easy Pieces | N | ||
| Gardner, Martin | Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science | N | ||
| Gleick, James | Chaos: Making a New Science | N | ||
| Gornick, Vivian | The Situation and the Story | N | ||
| Greene, Robert | The Laws of Human Nature | N | ||
| Harari, Yuval Noah | Sapiens | N | ||
| Hartley, Nina | Nina Hartley’s Guide to Total Sex | N | ||
| Heller, Joseph | Catch-22 | F | ||
| Herrigel, Eugen | Zen in the Art of Archery | N | ||
| Jaynes, Julian | The Origin of Consciousness | N | ||
| Kingsolver, Barbara | Flight Behavior | F | ||
| Klosterman, Chuck | But What If We’re Wrong? | N | ||
| Koestler, Arthur | The Act of Creation | N | ||
| Leonard, George | Mastery | N | ||
| Liu, Cixin | The Dark Forest, Death’s End | F | ||
| Miller, John H. | A Crude Look at the Whole | N | ||
| Murdoch, Iris | Existentialists and Mystics | N | ||
| Musashi, Miyamoto | The Book of Five Rings | N | ||
| Nietzsche, Friedrich | Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is | N | ||
| Palmer, Amanda | The Art of Asking | N | ||
| Peterson, Jordan B. | 12 Rules for Life | N | ||
| Pinker, Steven | The Better Angels of Our Nature | N | ||
| Pollan, Michael | How to Change Your Mind | N | ||
| Powys, John Cowper | The Meaning of Culture | N | ||
| Rand, Ayn | The Fountainhead | F | ||
| Rhys, Jean | Wide Sargasso Sea | F | ||
| Ridley, Matt | The Rational Optimist | N | ||
| Rushdie, Salman | Midnight’s Children | F | ||
| Sagan, Carl | Contact | F | ||
| Shepherd, Peng | The Book of M | F | ||
| Smith, Adam | The Wealth of Nations | N | ||
| Steinbeck, John | The Grapes of Wrath | F | ||
| Sowell, Thomas | Economic Facts and Fallacies | N | ||
| N | ||||
| Taleb, Nassim Nicholas | Antifragile, Fooled by Randomness | N | ||
| Thomas, Angie | The Hate U Give | F | ||
| Watts, Alan W. | Become What You Are | N | ||
| West, Geoffrey | Scale | N | ||
| Woolf, Virginia | To the Lighthouse | F | ||
| Wyndham, John | The Chrysalids | F |
2020 Reading
| Author | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Andrews, Loren | Silver Mystic | |
| Arden, Katherine | The Bear and the Nightingale | |
| Banks, Iain M. | Consider Phlebas | SF/F list |
| Bukowski, Charles | Ham on Rye | |
| Bukowski, Charles | Factotum | |
| Dick, Philip K. | The Man in the High Castle | SF/F list |
| Egan, Jennifer | A Visit from the Goon Squad | |
| Dashner, James | The Maze Runner | With Mara |
| Gaiman, Neil | American Gods | SF/F list |
| Gaiman, Neil | Neverwhere | SF/F list |
| Jemisin, N.K. | The Stone Sky | |
| Kingsolver, Barbara | The Poisonwood Bible | |
| Liu, Cixin | The Three-Body Problem | |
| Pullman, Philip | The Book of Dust | |
| Rand, Ayn | Anthem | |
| Saunders, George | Lincoln on the Bardo | |
| Smith, Betty | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | |
| Steinbeck, John | East of Eden | |
| Tremblay, Paul | The Cabin at the End of the Wood | |
| Wells, Martha | The Cloud Roads | |
| Wood, Charlotte | The Natural Way of Things | |
| Brown, Brené | Dare to Lead | |
| Bukowski, Charles | Essential Bukowski: Poetry | |
| Cardone, Grant | Be Obsessed or Be Average | |
| Cloud, Henry | The Power of the Other | |
| Dass, Ram | Grist for the Mill | |
| Ginsberg, Scott | Stick Yourself Out There | |
| Krishnamurti | Total Freedom | |
| Nouwen, Henri J. M. | The Inner Voice of Love | Partial |
| Stone, Hal and Sidra | Partnering | Partial |
2019 Reading
| Abe, Kobo | The Woman in the Dunes |
| Buck, Pearl S. | East Wind, West Wind |
| Cline, Ernest | Ready Player One |
| Jemisin, N.K. | The Fifth Season |
| Jemisin, N.K. | The Obelisk Gate |
| Kadish, Rachel | The Weight of Ink |
| L’Engle, Madeleine | The Small Rain |
| Malerman, Josh | Bird Box |
| Mitchell, David | The Bone Clocks |
| Stephenson, Neal | The Diamond Age |
| Yancey, Rick | The 5th Wave |
| Andersen, U.S. | The Magic in Your Mind |
| Newport, Cal | Deep Work |
| brown, adrienne maree | Emergent Strategy |
| Clear, James | Atomic Habits |
| Dweck, Carol. S. | Mindset |
| Ferris, Tim | The 4-Hour Body |
| Ferrini, Paul | Love Without Conditions | Notes |
| Finkel, David | Build a Business, Not a Job |
| Foroux, Darius | Think Straight |
| Gall, John | Systemantics: The Systems Bible | Notes |
| Gray, Kyle | The Story Engine |
| Greene, Robert* | Mastery | Notes |
| Hardy, Benjamin P. | Slipstream Time Hacking |Notes |
| McKeown, Greg | Essentialism |
| Norris, Dan | The 7-Day Startup |
| Pearce, Joseph Chilton | The Crack in the Cosmic Egg | Notes |
| Waitzkin, Josh | The Art of Learning |
| Willink, Jocko | Discipline Equals Freedom |
| Cameron, Julia | The Artist’s Way |
| Campbell, Joseph | Myths to Live By | Notes |
| Carse, James | Finite and Infinite Games | Notes |
| Ferris, Tim | Tools of Titans | Notes |
| Ferris, Tim | The 4-Hour Workweek | Notes |
| Ferris, Tim | Tribe of Mentors | Notes |
| Greene, Robert | 48 Laws of Power |
| Hill, Napoleon | Truthful Living: The First Writings of Napoleon Hill |
| Jerzak vel Dobosz, Konrad | The Secrets of Polyglots |
| Moran, Brian P. | The 12-Week Year |
| Pirsig, Robert M. | Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | Notes |
| Sowell, Thomas | A Conflict of Visions |
| Sunzi | The Art of War |
| Tadd, Ellen | The Infinite View |
| Watts, Alan W. | The Wisdom of Insecurity | Notes |
| Yudkowsky, Eliezer | Map and Territory | Notes |