Read.

2022

Don Quixote — Miguel de Cervantes (reading)

A Place for Us — Fatima Farheen Mirza * * * *

The Malaise of Modernity — Charles Taylor * * * *

Dieter Rams: The Complete Works — Christian Werner Thomsen * * *

2021

Walden — Henry David Thoreau * * *

Personal Knowledge — Michael Polanyi * * * *

The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama * * * * *

Maximum City — Suketu Mehta * * *

The Making of Prince of Persia — Jordan Mechner * * * *

The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority — Martin Gurri * * * * *

Second Foundation — Isaac Asimov (Foundation #3) — Isaac Asimov * * * *

Foundation and Empire — Isaac Asimov (Foundation #2) — Isaac Asimov * * * *

Foundation — Isaac Asimov (Foundation #1) — Isaac Asimov * * * * *

Elements of Clojure — Zachary Tellman * * *

Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson * * * *

Travelling Home — Abdal Hakim Murad * * * * *

Stories of Your Life and Others — Ted Chiang * * * *

Exhalation: Stories — Ted Chiang * * * * *

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome — Mary Beard * * * * *

Bowling Alone — Robert D. Putnam (shelved)

The Making of the Atomic Bomb — Richard Rhodes (shelved)

The Power Broker — Robert A. Caro (shelved)

The Splendid and the Vile — Erik Larson (shelved)

How Asia Works — Joe Studwell (shelved)

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big — Scott Adams * * *

Born a Crime — Trevor Noah * * * *

Lolita — Vladimir Nabokov * * * * *

Great Founder Theory — Samo Burja * * * *

The Enigma of Reason — Hugo Mercier * * * *

Good Economics for Hard Times — Abhijit V. Banerjee * * * * *

Gang Leader for a Day — Sudhir Venkatesh * * * * *

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels — Jason Schreier * * * *

Dune Messiah — Frank Herbert (Dune Chronicles #2) * * * *

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt — Michael Lewis Just your usual pop-non-fiction books. Pretty sure Flash Boys was written for folks like me: outsiders to the HFT world entertained by a good finance story (almost regardless of how true it is). If it’s anything like usual narrative-driven books about the computing industry, there’s probably a lot to be skeptical of. But it was still fun to forget about all that. * * * * Good Strategy, Bad Strategy — Richard P. Rumelt * * * Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)^† — Carol Tavris Just your usual pop-non-fiction books. Pretty sure Flash Boys was written for folks like me: outsiders to the HFT world entertained by a good finance story (almost regardless of how true it is). If it’s anything like usual narrative-driven books about the computing industry, there’s probably a lot to be skeptical of. But it was still fun to forget about all that. * * *

A Collection of Essays — George Orwell * * * *

The Impossible State — Wael B. Hallaq * * *

The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God — Al-Ghazali (shelved)

High Output Management — Andrew S. Grove I promise I’ll stop reading these soon, I’m just curious what it’s like ‘on the other side’. Staying on-brand, a lot of this reading was motivated by this sense of inherent distrust I’m apparently cultivating. * * * The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — Stephen Covey * * * Radical Candor — Kim Scott * * * * The Manager’s Path^† — Camille Fournier I promise I’ll stop reading these soon, I’m just curious what it’s like ‘on the other side’. Staying on-brand, a lot of this reading was motivated by this sense of inherent distrust I’m apparently cultivating. * * *

The Elements of Typographic Style — Robert Bringhurst Used these as style-guides for the site. * * * * Typography for Lawyers — Matthew Butterick * * * The Visual Display of Quantitative Information^† — Edward Tufte Used these as style-guides for the site. * * * *

Working in Public^† — Nadia Eghbal Worth just skipping to the last third of the book, where it’s more speculative and interesting (and closer to her writing elsewhere). * * *

Logicomix — Apostolos K. Doxiadēs * * * *

The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant — Eric Jorgenson * * *

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle^† — Haruki Murakami Picked this up after reading this profile on the author. Will have to read more of him, it’s too good. * * * * *

2020

Dune — Frank Herbert (Dune Chronicles #1) Will probably pick up the rest of these series soon, especially Dune. These are all sci-fi/fantasy, and as far as world-building goes, pretty stellar. * * * * The Three-Body Problem — Liu Cixin (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1) * * * Red Rising^† — Pierce Brown (Red Rising Saga #1) Will probably pick up the rest of these series soon, especially Dune. These are all sci-fi/fantasy, and as far as world-building goes, pretty stellar. * * *

Interpreter of Maladies — Jhumpa Lahiri * * * * *

The Robots of Dawn^† — Isaac Asimov (Robot #3) Enjoyable, light, and easy to get into (also enough of a segue to pick up the Foundation series). * * * * *

Americanah — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi * * * * *

The Greatest Urdu Stories Ever Told — Muhammad Umar Memon * * * *

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft — Stephen King Mostly autobiographical but also a fun foray into what an ‘expert’ POV in a domain I have no idea about (popular fiction writing) is like. Also picked up an actual book of his, which was meh. * * * * The Institute^† — Stephen King Mostly autobiographical but also a fun foray into what an ‘expert’ POV in a domain I have no idea about (popular fiction writing) is like. Also picked up an actual book of his, which was meh. * * *

The Glass Castle — Jeannette Walls * * *

1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh — Srinath Raghavan * * * *

American Psycho^† — Bret Easton Ellis The author was unwell writing this. I couldn’t actually finish it because of how gratuitous and grotesque it was. Only went as far as I did out of spite (don’t ask), but had to spoil it for myself to get me to stop. *

Between the World and Me — Ta-Nehisi Coates * * * * *

The Fire Next Time — James Baldwin * * * * *

Night — Elie Wiesel (The Night Trilogy #1) * * * * *

One Hundred Years of Solitude — Gabriel García Márquez * * * *

The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts^† — Shane Parrish Could have been a blog post, which happens to be a thing. * * *

Animal Farm — George Orwell * * * *

Thinking in Systems: A Primer^† — Donella H. Meadows Essentially an engineering systems course applied more broadly. The appendix of “system models” is a useful list to have in one’s toolbox generally. * * * *

A Philosophy of Software Design — John Ousterhout * * * *

Before

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo^† — Stieg Larsson (Millennium #1) The murder mystery had me hooked throughout. Lisbeth Salander was expertly written; I’m hoping to get to the rest of the series. * * * * *

A Brief History of Time — Stephen Hawking * * * *

The Catcher in the Rye — J. D. Salinger * * *

When Breath Becomes Air^† — Paul Kalanithi Beautifully written, had to finish it in one sitting. * * * * *

Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman * * * *

Blindness^† — José Saramago The lack of punctuation can take some time getting used to, but the characters are painted colorfully enough for you to tell who’s who. For the duration that it’s still ambiguous, it’s in keeping with the theme of the book. * * * * *

Predictably Irrational — Dan Ariely * * *

American Gods — Neil Gaiman (American Gods #1) * * *

The Metamorphosis — Franz Kafka * * * *

The Prophet — Kahlil Gibran I first got into Khalil Gibran when trying to find literature to make my university essays seem sophisticated, but these are some of my favorite books. Start with The Prophet. * * * * * The Broken Wings — Kahlil Gibran * * * * The Madman^† — Kahlil Gibran I first got into Khalil Gibran when trying to find literature to make my university essays seem sophisticated, but these are some of my favorite books. Start with The Prophet. * * * * *

Annihilation — Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach #1) * * *

Catch-22 — Joseph Heller Two of the funniest books I’ve read to date. * * * * * The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy^† — Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #1) Two of the funniest books I’ve read to date. * * * *

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! — Richard P. Feynman * * * * *

The Trial and Death of Socrates — Plato * * * *

Sapiens — Yuval Noah Harari I don’t understand why people like these books. They’re horrible. * Outliers^† — Malcolm Gladwell I don’t understand why people like these books. They’re horrible. *

Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell * * * *

Brave New World — Aldous Huxley * * *

A Game of Thrones — George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) This girl I liked in high-school owned copies of this series. I had to keep borrowing them to keep talking to her. * * * * A Clash of Kings — George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) * * * * A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow — George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #3: Part 1 of 2) * * * * A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold^† — George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #3: Part 2 of 2) This girl I liked in high-school owned copies of this series. I had to keep borrowing them to keep talking to her. * * *

The Black Swan — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Went through a Black Swan phase in high-school. Thought it was pretty good at the time. Found it a bit rambly on a re-read (though still, with decent ideas). * * Fooled by Randomness — Nassim Nicholas Taleb * * Antifragile^† — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Went through a Black Swan phase in high-school. Thought it was pretty good at the time. Found it a bit rambly on a re-read (though still, with decent ideas). * *

Dark Matter — Blake Crouch * * *

The Prince — Niccolò Machiavelli * * *

Hamlet — William Shakespeare * * * *

Islam and the Destiny of Man — Charles Le Gai Eaton

The Incoherence of the Philosophers — Al-Ghazali

Al‑Ghazālī’s Path to Sufism and His Deliverance from Error — Al-Ghazali

To read.

Neuromancer — William Gibson (Sprawl #1)

The Name of the Wind — Patrick Rothfuss (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1)

The Lessons of History — Will Durant

The Story of Philosophy — Will Durant

The Innovators — Walter Isaacson

Why Nations Fail — Daron Acemoglu

In Watermelon Sugar — Richard Brautigan

Love is a Dog from Hell — Charles Bukowski

The Big Sleep — Raymond Chandler

Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall — Frank Brady

The Wright Brothers — Samuel Willard Crompton

Skunk Works — Steve Pace

Anathem — Neal Stephenson

Complexity — Mitchell M. Waldrop

Homegoing — Yaa Gyasi

Ants Among Elephants — Sujatha Gidla

Born to Run — Christopher McDougall

Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama

Hyperion — Dan Simmons (Hyperion Cantos #1)

Midnight’s Children — Salman Rushdie

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running — Haruki Murakami

Destiny Disrupted — Tamim Ansary

Sharp Objects — Gillian Flynn

Ender’s Game — Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Saga #1)

A Suitable Boy (A Bridge of Leaves #1) — Vikram Seth

Cloud Atlas — Robert W. Popham

World War Z — Max Brooks

A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz #1) — Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Station Eleven — Emily St. John Mandel

Kafka on the Shore — Haruki Murakami

The Art of Worldly Wisdom — Baltasar Gracian

The Waste Books — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

A Man Called Ove — Fredrik Backman

Eichmann in Jerusalem — Hannah Arendt

The Gay Science — Friedrich Nietzsche

The Man In The High Castle — Philip K. Dick

Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America — Laila Lalami

The Undocumented Americans — Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions — Abdal Hakim Murad

Herman Miller: A Way of Living — Amy Auscherman

The 99% Invisible City — Roman Mars

I Am a Strange Loop — Douglas R. Hofstadter

The Secret Life of Groceries — Benjamin Lorr

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life — Richard Hofstadter

The Dream Machine — M. Mitchell Waldrop

Ready Player One — Ernest Cline

Seeing with Fresh Eyes — Edward Tufte

The God of Small Things — Amitabh Roy

Pachinko — Min Jin Lee

The Difference Engine — Doron Swade

A Secular Age — Charles Taylor

Poor Charlie’s Almanack — Charles T. Munger

Stubborn Attachments — Tyler Cowen

Debt: The First 5000 Years — David Graeber

Seeing Like a State — James C. Scott

Finite and Infinite Games — James Carse

Team Topologies — Matthew Skelton

How We Disappeared — Jing-Jing Lee

Twitter and Tear Gas — Zeynep Tufekci

Disciplined Minds — Jeff Schmidt

Heartburn — Nora Ephron

Ada or Ardor — Vladimir Nabokov

Accelerate — Nicole Forsgren PhD

Fundamentals of Software Architecture — Mark Richards

Building Evolutionary Architectures — Neal Ford

Being Mortal — Atul Gawande

The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire — Edward Gibbon

War and Peace — Leo Tolstoy

The Emperor of All Maladies — Siddhartha Mukherjee

Homeland Elegies — Ayad Akhtar

Beloved — Toni Morrison

Underworld — Don DeLillo

All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr

A Random Walk Down Wall Street — Burton Gordon Malkiel

Benjamin Franklin — Walter Isaacson

Restating Orientalism — Wael B. Hallaq

Let the Lord Sort — Maurice Chammah

Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight — David C. Krakauer

The Information — James Gleick

Isaac Newton — James Gleick

Chaos: Making a New Science — James Gleick

Anna Karenina — Leo Tolstoy

In the Light of What We Know — Zia Haider Rahman

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts — Gabor Maté, MD

The Grid — Gretchen Bakke

The World in a Book — Elias Muhanna

Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street — Karen Ho

After Virtue — Alasdair MacIntyre

Seveneves — Neal Stephenson

Philosophical Investigations — Ludwig Wittgenstein

Consider Phlebas — Iain M. Banks

The Crisis of the Modern World — René Guénon