Reading list

Everything I've read since I started keeping track, newest first, pulled from my Goodreads shelf. A ⭐ marks a five-star book.

2026 · 21 books

• The AGI Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence (Kevin Roose) ⭐
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Robert A. Heinlein) ⭐
• The Wandering Earth (Liu Cixin)
• The Way of Shadows (Night Angel, #1) (Brent Weeks)
• Angel Down (Daniel Kraus)
• The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (Ursula K. Le Guin)
• Stoner (John Williams)
• On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas) (Seneca)
• Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity (Peter Attia)
• Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) ⭐
• A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles)
• Blindsight (Firefall, #1) (Peter Watts)
• Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata)
• Yesteryear (Caro Claire Burke)
• The Second Mountain (David Brooks)
• There Is No Antimemetics Division (qntm)
• The Call of Cthulhu (H.P. Lovecraft)
• City of Thieves (David Benioff) ⭐
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
• Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (The Siege, #1) (K.J. Parker)
• The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) (Patrick Rothfuss) ⭐

2025 · 17 books

• Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang) ⭐
• Never Enough: From Barista to Billionaire (Andrew Wilkinson)
• The Running Man (Richard Bachman)
• The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games, #1) (Jennifer Lynn Barnes)
• The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work (Simone Stolzoff)
• Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again (Johann Hari) ⭐
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2) (Becky Chambers)
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1) (Becky Chambers) ⭐
• The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security (Scott Galloway)
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Elizabeth Gilbert)
• The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1) (Ken Follett) ⭐
• The Long Walk (Richard Bachman)
• The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead)
• Tai-Pan (Asian Saga, #2) (James Clavell)
• Lightbringer (Red Rising, 6) (Pierce Brown) ⭐
• Dark Age (Red Rising Saga, #5) (Pierce Brown)
• The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)

2024 · 21 books

• Contact (Carl Sagan) ⭐
• Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts (Oliver Burkeman) ⭐
• The Stranger (Albert Camus)
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (Claire North) ⭐
• The Lincoln Lawyer (The Lincoln Lawyer, #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #16) (Michael Connelly)
• The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now (Meg Jay) ⭐
• The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World (Chris Guillebeau)
• One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein)
• The Midnight Library (The Midnight World, #1) (Matt Haig) ⭐
• Piranesi (Susanna Clarke)
• The Watchers (The Watchers, #1) (A.M. Shine)
• Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
• The Candy House (Jennifer Egan)
• The 6:20 Man (The 6:20 Man, #1) (David Baldacci)
• The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (Ben Macintyre)
• Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
• American Gods (American Gods, #1) (Neil Gaiman)
• Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver) ⭐
• Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) (Rebecca Yarros)
• Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) (Rebecca Yarros)

2023 · 25 books

• Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4) (Martha Wells)
• The Player of Games (Culture, #2) (Iain M. Banks)
• Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing) ⭐
• The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life (The Pathless Path Collection Book 1) (Paul Millerd) ⭐
• Under the Whispering Door (T.J. Klune)
• Finding Me (Viola Davis) ⭐
• Foundation (Foundation, #1) (Isaac Asimov) ⭐
• Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) (Hugh Howey)
• The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2) (Dan Simmons) ⭐
• Hunt the Stars (Starlight's Shadow, #1) (Jessie Mihalik)
• Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (Stephen King) ⭐
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Cheryl Strayed)
• Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) (Dan Simmons) ⭐
• Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse)
• Siddharth (Hindi) (Hindi Edition) (Hermann Hesse)
• Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic (Esther Perel) ⭐
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (Jon Krakauer) ⭐
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1) (Heather Morris) ⭐
• Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3) (Martha Wells)
• This Time Tomorrow (Emma Straub)
• The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus)
• The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Daniel James Brown)
• Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life (Bill Perkins)
• Why Not Me? (Mindy Kaling)
• Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir)

2022 · 17 books

• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (Susan Cain) ⭐
• Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear (Carl L. Hart)
• Redshirts (John Scalzi)
• The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
• The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga)
• The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) (J.R.R. Tolkien)
• Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts)
• Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2) (Martha Wells)
• Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries (Safi Bahcall)
• All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) (Martha Wells)
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (Oliver Burkeman) ⭐
• Dark Matter (Blake Crouch)
• American Dirt (Jeanine Cummins)
• Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice (Bill Browder) ⭐
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (David Grann)
• Anxious People (Fredrik Backman)
• Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer)

2021 · 7 books

• The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company (Robert Iger)
• How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics (Michael Pollan)
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (Matthew Walker) ⭐
• 1984 (George Orwell) ⭐
• The Happy Puppy Handbook: Your Definitive Guide to Puppy Care and Early Training (Pippa Mattinson)
• Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut Jr.)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1) (Patrick Ness)

2020 · 10 books

• Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) (Leigh Bardugo)
• Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1) (John Scalzi)
• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (Lori Gottlieb) ⭐
• Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3) (Liu Cixin) ⭐
• The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2) (Liu Cixin) ⭐
• The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1) (Scott Lynch)
• King Rat (Asian Saga, #4) (James Clavell)
• Kitchens of the Great Midwest (J. Ryan Stradal)
• Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1) (James Clavell) ⭐
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4) (J.K. Rowling) ⭐

2019 · 30 books

• Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life (Radha Agrawal)
• Acceptance (Southern Reach, #3) (Jeff Vandermeer)
• Leviathan Wakes (James S.A. Corey)
• Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1) (Kevin Kwan)
• High-Rise (J.G. Ballard)
• The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (David Simon) ⭐
• The Fifth Risk (Michael Lewis)
• Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1) (Brandon Sanderson)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) (J.K. Rowling) ⭐
• War (Sebastian Junger)
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Trevor Noah) ⭐
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) (J.K. Rowling) ⭐
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) (J.K. Rowling)
• The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) ⭐
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Ashlee Vance)
• Educated (Tara Westover) ⭐
• The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1) (Liu Cixin)
• Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble (Dan Lyons)
• The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown (Catherine Burns) ⭐
• Dune Messiah (Dune, #2) (Frank Herbert)
• Is It Utopia Yet?: An Insider's View of Twin Oaks Community in Its Twenty-Sixth Year (Kat Kinkade)
• Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups—Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000 (Jason Calacanis)
• The Skull (Philip K. Dick)
• Authority (Southern Reach, #2) (Jeff Vandermeer)
• Self-Knowledge (The School of Life) ⭐
• Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity (Kim Malone Scott)
• A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) (George R.R. Martin) ⭐
• Legend (Legend, #1) (Marie Lu)
• Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou) ⭐
• Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives (David Eagleman)

2018 · 29 books

• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel)
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship (Ben Horowitz)
• The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture (Scott Belsky)
• The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results (Gary Keller)
• How Should We Live?: Great Ideas from the Past for Everyday Life (Roman Krznaric)
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Matthew Desmond)
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
• Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World (Stanley McChrystal)
• Retirementology: Rethinking the American Dream in a New Economy: Rethinking the American Dream in a New Economy (Gregory Salsbury)
• Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life (John C. Bogle)
• Dune (Dune, #1) (Frank Herbert) ⭐
• Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)
• It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work: A Practical Guide to Sustainable Productivity Through Calm Company Culture and Effective Leadership (Jason Fried) ⭐
• Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3) (Brandon Sanderson)
• Open (Andre Agassi)
• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (Anthony Bourdain) ⭐
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel García Márquez)
• Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2) (Brandon Sanderson) ⭐
• Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (Sebastian Junger)
• The Martian (Andy Weir)
• Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West (Blaine Harden)
• Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success (Shane Snow)
• The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1) (Brandon Sanderson) ⭐
• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Max Brooks)
• Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success (Phil Jackson)
• The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing (Taylor Larimore) ⭐
• Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4) (Pierce Brown)
• Status Anxiety (Alain de Botton)
• The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2) (Patrick Rothfuss) ⭐

2017 · 24 books

• Speaker for the Dead (Ender's Saga, #2) (Orson Scott Card)
• The Revenant (Michael Punke)
• American Assassin (Mitch Rapp, #1) (Vince Flynn)
• An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find Your Voice, and Help Solve the Climate Crisis (Al Gore)
• Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1) (Jeff Vandermeer) ⭐
• How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street: Golden Rules Any Investor Can Learn (Allan S. Roth) ⭐
• I Will Teach You to Be Rich (Ramit Sethi)
• Shadow of the Hegemon (The Shadow Series, #2) (Orson Scott Card)
• The Elements of Investing (Burton G. Malkiel)
• Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1) (Orson Scott Card) ⭐
• The Cartel (Power of the Dog, #2) (Don Winslow)
• The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy (Thomas J. Stanley) ⭐
• The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Neal Stephenson) ⭐
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (Mark Manson)
• Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3) (Pierce Brown) ⭐
• Banksy: You Are an Acceptable Level of Threat and if You Were Not You Would Know About It (Patrick Potter)
• Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1) (Pierce Brown) ⭐
• Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2) (Pierce Brown) ⭐
• The Einstein Prophecy (Robert Masello)
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (J.D. Vance) ⭐
• Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Charles Duhigg)
• The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (Brad Stone)
• When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi) ⭐

2016 · 12 books

• Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) (Ernest Cline) ⭐
• Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1) (Orson Scott Card) ⭐
• Shoe Dog (Phil Knight) ⭐
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid)
• The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson)
• The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Michael Lewis) ⭐
• On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
• Portrait of a Spy (Gabriel Allon, #11) (Daniel Silva)
• 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) (Haruki Murakami)
• Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind (Biz Stone)
• Bossypants (Tina Fey)
• Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson (Mitch Albom) ⭐

Earlier · 31 books, read before I kept dates

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1) (Robert M. Pirsig)
• American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company (Bryce G. Hoffman) ⭐
• The Circle (The Circle, #1) (Dave Eggers)
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Malcolm X)
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Richard H. Thaler) ⭐
• Anything You Want (Derek Sivers) ⭐
• Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers (Seth Godin)
• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (Don Tapscott) ⭐
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Chip Heath)
• A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Daniel H. Pink) ⭐
• The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement (David Brooks)
• Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time (Keith Ferrazzi)
• What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures (Malcolm Gladwell)
• The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business (Clayton M. Christensen) ⭐
• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (Tony Hsieh)
• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More (Chris Anderson) ⭐
• The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (Thomas L. Friedman)
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Chip Heath)
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (Joshua Foer)
• The E-myth Revisited (Michael E. Gerber)
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Malcolm Gladwell)
• Rework (Jason Fried)
• Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (Stephen R. Covey) ⭐
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven D. Levitt)
• How to Win Friends & Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert B. Cialdini) ⭐
• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (Dan Ariely) ⭐
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Malcolm Gladwell)
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't (Jim Collins)
• Revenge (aka The Stars’ Tennis Balls) (Stephen Fry)

Updated October 2026 from Goodreads. 244 books.