Reading list and recommendations
An incomplete list of books I’ve read over the years. Reviews are in italics.
Current
- The Empusium Olga Tokarczuk
- Discourse on thinking Martin Heidegger
2025
- The spy who came in from the cold John le Carré
2024
- Player piano Kurt Vonnegut
- ♥ The devil in the white city Erik Larson
- Against method Paul Feyerabend
- The golden road William Dalrymple
- The hot zone Richard Preston
- ♥ Epictetus A.A. Long
- ♥ The inner citadel Pierre Hadot
- The confessions of an economic hitman John Perkins
- ♥Bird by bird Anne Lamott
- The theory of the leisure class Thorstein Veblen
2023
- ♥The structure of scientific revolutions Thomas Kuhn
- ♥ Putin’s people Catherine Belton
- How to take smart notes Sönke Arhens
- Mythos Stephen Fry
- The ice princess Camilla Låkberg
- ♥ The meaning of science Tim Lewens
- Tales of Norse mythology Helen A. Guerber
- Hanging out Sheila Liming
- The Bezos blueprint Carmine Gallo
- The 4-Hour Workweek Tim Ferriss
- Killers of the flower moon David Grann
2022
- Talking to strangers Malcolm Gladwell
- Skeletonman Tony Hillerman
- Authority and freedom Jed Perl
- Live, work, work, work, die Corey Pein
- The courage to be disliked Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi
2021
- Status Anxiety Alain de Botton
- Hyperfocus Chris Bailey
- Educated Tara Westover
- The Witcher: Sword of destiny Andrzej Sapkowski
- How to avoid a climate disaster Bill Gates
- ♥The psychology of money Morgan Housel
- The Witcher: The last wish Andrzej Sapkowski
2020
- Anthem Ayn Rand
- Money Yuval Noah Harari
- Death in the clouds Agatha Christie
- The Hindu way Shashi Tharoor
- Stop reading the news Rolf Dobelli
- ♥ Man’s search for meaning Viktor Frankl
- ♥ The unbearable lightness of being Milan Kundera
- Siddhartha Herman Hesse
- Unspoken Veronica Rueckert
- The 5 am club Robin Sharma
- Technopoly Neil Postman
2019
- ♥ Atomic habits James Clear
- Indistractable Nir Eyal
- Mental models Peter Hollins
- Tim Cook Leander Kahney
- A monk's guide to a clean house and mind Shoukei Matsumoto
- ♥ Die empty Todd Henry
- ♥ The Ethics Benedict de Spinoza
- ♥ On obligations Cicero
- Sapiens: A brief history of humankind Yuval Noah Harari
- The headspace guide to mindfulness Andy Puddicombe
- Beren and Lúthien J.R.R. Tolkein
Past
Since I began maintaining this list only in 2019, books listed below this point are ordered at random. Also, this list is incomplete.
- ♥ The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tokein
- ♥ The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy
- Dance hall of the dead Tony Hillerman
- Outliers: the story of success Malcolm Gladwell
- War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
- ♥ The Godfather Mario Puzo
- ♥ The Millennium Trilogy Stieg Larson
- Antimatter Frank Close
- The narrow road to the deep north Richard Flanagan
- Six Days of the Condor James Grady
- Le Roman D'Un Jeune Homme Pauvre Octave Feuillet
- ♥ The Firm John Grisham
- ♥ A passage to India E.M. Forster
- To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
- Histoires extraordinaires Edgar Allan Poe
- ♥ A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
- Beauty and the Beast Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
- ♥ The Prophet Kahlil Gibran
- The Time Machine H.G. Wells
- The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings Edgar Allan Poe
- Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space Carl Sagan
- ♥ Great Expectations Charles Dickens
- The Amityville Horror Jay Anson
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum
- Hard Times Charles Dickens
- Grimm's Fairy Tales Jacob Grimm
- Flow: The Psychology of Happiness Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- ♥ Twenty thousand leagues under the sea Jules Verne
- The Time Machine H.G. Wells
- The old man and the sea Ernest Hemmingway
- The Invisible Man H.G. Wells
- Hamlet’s Blackberry William Powers
- Ben-Hur Lew Wallace
- David Copperfield Charles Dickens
- Essays and Poems Ralph Waldo Emerson
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories Washington Irving
- Wisdom Of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety Alan W. Watts
- A criminal defense William L. Myers, Jr
- The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
- The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales Jacob Grimm
- The Three Pigs David Wiesner
- What to Listen for in Music Aaron Copland
- Dead on Target Franklin W. Dixon
- Ulysses James Joyce
- Little Women Louisa May Alcott
- ♥ Digital Fortress Dan Brown
- The Black Echo Michael Connelly
- The Old Curiosity Shop Charles Dickens
- The Flying Circus of Physics Jearl Walker
- King Lear William Shakespeare
- The Winner David Baldacci
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
- ♥ The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
- ♥ Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
- ♥ The Spy Who Came In from the Cold John le Carré
- Dracula Bram Stoker
- Bleak House Charles Dickens
- A Criminal Defense William L. Myers Jr.
- ♥ The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest Stieg Larsson
- The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens
- Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
- Wiseguy Nicholas Pileggi
- Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age William Powers
- The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank
- ♥ Glimpses of World History Jawaharlal Nehru
- The Knowledge Illusion Steven Sloman
- ♥ White Fang Jack London
- This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin
- The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
- ♥ The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
- ♥ Hamlet William Shakespeare
- Aesop's Fables Aesop
- ♥ Meditations Marcus Aurelius
- The 101 Dalmatians Dodie Smith
- The Trouble with Physics Lee Smolin
- The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins
- Catch-22 Joseph Heller
- ♥ Wuthering heights Emily Brontë
- Complete Ghost Stories Charles Dickens
- ♥ The Mystery of the Yellow Room Gaston Leroux
- The Duchess of Malfi John Webster
- Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell
- Parallel Worlds Michio Kaku
- ♥ Letters from a Stoic Seneca
- I, Robot Isaac Asimov
- Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
- Hyperspace Michio Kaku
- Shakespearean Tragedy A.C. Bradley
- ♥ The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux
- A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
- Absolute Power David Baldacci
- Winnie-the-Pooh A.A. Milne
- Deception Point Dan Brown
- The Principia Isaac Newton
- ♥ 1984 George Orwell
- The Widow's Son Robert Anton Wilson
- Middlemarch George Eliot
- Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
- Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
- Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak
- Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
- ♥ Discourses Epictetus
- The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
- The Raven Edgar Allan Poe
- The Case of the Spurious Spinster Erle Stanley Gardner
- Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
- The Mill on the Floss George Eliot
- Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson
- What If? Randall Munroe
- Angels & Demons Dan Brown
- ♥ A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
- The Bourne Supremacy Robert Ludlum
- ♥ A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking
- Nothing to Lose Lee Child
- The Ambler Warning Robert Ludlum
- The Case of the Amorous Aunt Erle Stanley Gardner
- The Eagle Has Landed Jack Higgins
- Relativity: The Special and the General Theory Albert Einstein
- ♥ Arguably: Selected Prose Christopher Hitchens
- Ivanhoe Walter Scott
- ♥ The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
- Pietr the Latvian Georges Simenon
- The Case of the Lame Canary Erle Stanley Gardner
- The Exorcist William Peter Blatty
- Amusements in Mathematics Henry Ernest Dudeney
- ♥ The Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe
- The Lost Symbol Dan Brown
- Without Fail Lee Child
- ♥ Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
- Mystic River Dennis Lehane
- ♥ The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain
- Airframe Michael Crichton
- The Hidden Reality Brian Greene
- Thank You, Jeeves P.G. Wodehouse
- Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne
- The Pelican Brief John Grisham
- Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving
- Last Man Standing David Baldacci
- The Pianist Władysław Szpilman
- 2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke
- The Island of Doctor Moreau H.G. Wells
- ♥ Pride and Prejudice,Jane Austen
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
- Othello William Shakespeare
- Macbeth William Shakespeare
- ♥ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson
- The Mysterious Island Jules Verne
- The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris
- The Unit Ninni Holmqvist
- The Hard Way Lee Child
- ♥ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus: A Trilogy in Four Parts Douglas Adams
- ♥ Cosmos Carl Sagan
- The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
- Far From the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
- The Bourne Legacy Eric Van Lustbader
- ♥ The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
- The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett
- The Omen David Seltzer
- Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
- The Goldfinch Donna Tartt
- Mile 81 Stephen King
- Peter Pan J.M. Barrie
- The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth
- ♥ Our Kind Of Traitor John le Carré
- Barnaby Rudge Charles Dickens
- Where Eagles Dare Alistair MacLean
- Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson
- Rapunzel Paul O. Zelinsky
- Bloodmoney David Ignatius
- One Shot Lee Child
- ♥ The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey
- Physics of the Impossible Michio Kaku
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
- Dr. Faustus Christopher Marlowe
- ♥ 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England W.C. Sellar
- The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
- ♥ Silas Marner George Eliot
- Murder at the Vicarage Agatha Christie
- The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll Erle Stanley Gardner
- Frankenstein Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Man and Superman George Bernard Shaw
- East of Eden John Steinbeck
- ♥ Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard P. Feynman
- ♥ The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
- ♥ The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Animal Farm George Orwell
- ♥ The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
- ♥ Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- ♥ The Man in the Iron Mask Alexandre Dumas
- ♥ Contact Carl Sagan
- Fools Die Mario Puzo
- The Universe in a Nutshell Stephen Hawking
- Somewhere In Time Richard Matheson
- Inferno Dan Brown
- Killing Floor Lee Child
- American Gods Neil Gaiman
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie
- Shutter Island Dennis Lehane
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
- A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare
- The Jungle Books Rudyard Kipling
- ♥ A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
- The Grand Design Stephen Hawking
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood Charles Dickens
- The Dead Secret Wilkie Collins
- The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
- ♥ The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
- Carry on, Jeeves P.G. Wodehouse
- ♥ The Odyssey Homer
- The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
- The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre John William Polidori
- Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Lewis Carroll
- Molesworth Geoffrey Willans
- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Victor Hugo
- We Don't Live Here Anymore Andre Dubus
- The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy
- The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics Leonard Susskind
- Cape Fear John D. MacDonald
- Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
- Mansfield Park Jane Austen
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Patrick Süskind
- ♥ A Room with a View E.M. Forster
- ♥ The Call of the Wild Jack London
- The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Howard Pyle
- The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson
- She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith
- Les Misérables Victor Hugo
- ♥ Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
- And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
- The Code of the Woosters P.G. Wodehouse
- Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
- Echo Burning Lee Child
- ♥ The Iliad Homer
- The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow Mark Latham
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
- A Study in Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle
- ♥ The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson
- A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
- For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
- ♥ Black beauty Anna Sewell