Bookshelf
This is a record of books I've read and kept around.
For years, schools tricked us into viewing reading like mandatory chores (aka homework). That changed when I started choosing books based on my personal curiosity at any given time, not obligation enforced by someone else.
Most books here are physical copies from my bookshelf at home, and the list keeps growing as my interests expand over time.
To help you navigate, I've color-coded my recommendations:
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Orange: Personal favorites that drastically changed how I see the world. These books are either unusually dense with insights or contain a single, transformative idea that provides a new model for the world. These are the rare books whose lessons have stuck with me long after reading.
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Green: Strong recommendations that are well worth reading (and re-reading).
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Rest: Everything else I've found interesting.
The book titles are links that take you to Amazon results for that specific book.
I hope you find something below that sparks your interest too!
Shelf Catalog
- On Gravity A. Zee (2013)
- Think Again Adam Grant (2021)
- Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World Adam Grant (2016)
- Alex’s Adventures in Numberland Alex Bellos (2010)
- Fossil Future Alex Epstein (2022)
- How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories Alex Rosenberg (2018)
- The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska (2025)
- The Cold Start Problem Andrew Chen (2021)
- The Hidden Globe Atossa Araxia Abrahamian (2024)
- The Dawn of Modern Cosmology: From Copernicus to Newton Aviva Rothman (ed.) (2024)
- The Intelligent Investor (Rev. ed.) Benjamin Graham (2006)
- Security Analysis (6th ed.) Benjamin Graham & David L. Dodd (2008)
- How Big Things Get Done Bent Flyvbjerg & Dan Gardner (2023)
- Source Code: My Beginnings Bill Gates (2025)
- Pump: A Natural History of the Heart Bill Schutt (2021)
- Becoming Steve Jobs Brent Schlender & Rick Tetzeli (2015)
- How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations Carl Benedikt Frey (2025)
- Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West (2020)
- The Order of Time Carlo Rovelli (2018)
- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli (2016)
- Reality Is Not What It Seems Carlo Rovelli (2017)
- Good Energy Casey Means with Calley Means (2024)
- On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin (2008)
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack Charles T. Munger (2005)
- Read Write Own Chris Dixon (2024)
- Never Split the Difference Chris Voss (2016)
- The Next 500 Years Christopher E. Mason (2021)
- Scaling People Claire Hughes Johnson (2023)
- Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman (2011)
- Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony & Cass R. Sunstein (2021)
- The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power Daniel Yergin (1990)
- Why Nations Fail Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson (2012)
- Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson (2023)
- Longitude Dava Sobel (1995)
- Connect David Bradford & Carole Robin (2021)
- Origin Story David Christian (2018)
- The Beginning of Infinity David Deutsch (2011)
- The Fabric of Reality David Deutsch (1997)
- Unconventional Success David F. Swensen (2005)
- Pioneering Portfolio Management David F. Swensen (2009)
- The Dawn of Everything David Graeber & David Wengrow (2021)
- Introduction to Electrodynamics (4th ed.) David J. Griffiths (2013)
- Probability for the Enthusiastic Beginner David J. Morin (2016)
- Introduction to Classical Mechanics David Morin (2008)
- The Tower and the Bridge David P. Billington (1983)
- Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide DK (2020)
- Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide DK / BirdLife International (2022)
- The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World E. S. Creasy (1851)
- Material World Ed Conway (2023)
- The Clockwork Universe Edward Dolnick (2011)
- Electricity and Magnetism (3rd ed.) Edward M. Purcell & David J. Morin (2013)
- High Growth Handbook Elad Gil (2018)
- Principles of Neural Science (6th ed.) Eric R. Kandel, John H. Schwartz, Thomas M. Jessell, et al. (2021)
- The Second Machine Age Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee (2014)
- Revolution in Miniature (2nd ed.) Ernest Braun & Stuart Macdonald (1982)
- Francis Bacon: The Major Works Francis Bacon (2008)
- European Intellectual History from Rousseau to Nietzsche Frank M. Turner (ed. Richard A. Lofthouse) (2016)
- A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design Frank Wilczek (2015)
- Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality Frank Wilczek (2021)
- Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems Galileo Galilei (2008)
- How to Solve It George Pólya (1945)
- Differential Equations and Linear Algebra Gilbert Strang (2014)
- The Dealmaker Guy Hands (2021)
- How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch Harry Cliff (2021)
- To Engineer Is Human Henry Petroski (1985)
- The Most Important Thing Howard Marks (2011)
- Mastering the Market Cycle Howard Marks (2018)
- How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon Iwan Rhys Morus (2023)
- The New Science of Strong Materials J. E. Gordon (1968)
- Where Is My Flying Car? J. Storrs Hall (2021)
- The Milestones of Science: How We Came to Understand the Universe James D. Stein (2023)
- Invention: A Life James Dyson (2021)
- The Conservative Futurist James Pethokoukis (2023)
- The Mimetic Brain Jean-Michel Oughourlian (2016)
- The Genesis of Desire Jean-Michel Oughourlian (2010)
- The Muscle Ladder Jeff Nippard (2023)
- Totally Random Jeffrey Bub & Tanya Bub (2018)
- A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution Jeremy D. Popkin (2019)
- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days Jessica Livingston (2007)
- How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) Jessica McCabe (2024)
- Physics: A Complete Introduction (Teach Yourself) Jim Breithaupt (2013)
- Proof and the Art of Mathematics Joel David Hamkins (2020)
- Business Adventures John Brooks (2014)
- Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants John D. Clark (2018)
- Measure What Matters John Doerr (2018)
- Quantum Computing: From Colossus to Qubits John Gribbin (2017)
- The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck (1939)
- The Idea Factory Jon Gertner (2012)
- The Well-Tempered City Jonathan F. P. Rose (2016)
- Network Medicine: Complex Systems in Human Disease Joseph Loscalzo, Albert-László Barabási & Edwin K. Silverman (2017)
- On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State Joseph R. Strayer (1970)
- How the World Made the West Josephine Quinn (2024)
- Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens K. C. Cole (2009)
- Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering (3rd ed.) K. F. Riley, M. P. Hobson & S. J. Bence (2006)
- The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi (1944)
- A City on Mars Kelly & Zach Weinersmith (2023)
- The Discrete Charm of the Machine Ken Steiglitz (2019)
- Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective Kenneth O. Stanley & Joel Lehman (2015)
- The Great Divergence Kenneth Pomeranz (2000)
- The Lives of a Cell Lewis Thomas (1974)
- The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal M. Mitchell Waldrop (2002)
- The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger (Updated) Marc Levinson (2016)
- Prefabrication and the Re-Evolution of Construction Marty Corrado (2021)
- The Rational Optimist Matt Ridley (2010)
- How Innovation Works Matt Ridley (2020)
- Why We Sleep Matthew Walker (2017)
- Life 3.0 Max Tegmark (2017)
- Our Mathematical Universe Max Tegmark (2014)
- The Moment of Lift Melinda Gates (2019)
- Spectacular Flops: Game-Changing Technologies That Failed Michael Brian Schiffer (2019)
- Fractal Worlds Michael Frame & Amelia Urry (2016)
- The Big Score Michael S. Malone (1985)
- The Complete Essays Michel de Montaigne (tr. M. A. Screech) (2003)
- Physics of the Future Michio Kaku (2011) 🌟
- How to Read a Book Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren (1972)
- Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field Nancy Forbes & Basil Mahon (2014)
- Antifragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012)
- Skin in the Game Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2018)
- The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2007)
- Fooled by Randomness Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2001)
- Superintelligence Nick Bostrom (2014)
- My Inventions and Other Writings Nikola Tesla (2011)
- Elements of Euclid (Oliver Byrne Edition) Oliver Byrne (2010)
- A Mathematician’s Lament Paul Lockhart (2009)
- What Is Life? Paul Nurse (2020)
- Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity Peter Attia with Bill Gifford (2023)
- Ignorance: A Global History Peter Burke (2023)
- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future Peter Thiel with Blake Masters (2014)
- Shoe Dog Phil Knight (2016)
- The Art of the Personal Essay Phillip Lopate (ed.) (1994)
- Principles: Life and Work Ray Dalio (2017)
- Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order Ray Dalio (2021)
- The Singularity Is Nearer Ray Kurzweil (2024)
- No Rules Rules Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer (2020)
- The Scapegoat René Girard (1989)
- A Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare René Girard (1991)
- All Desire Is a Desire for Being René Girard (2022) 🌟
- Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World René Girard (1987)
- Nudge: The Final Edition Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein (2021)
- A Little History of Religion Richard Holloway (2016)
- The Character of Physical Law Richard P. Feynman (1965)
- Six Easy Pieces Richard P. Feynman (1994)
- Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures Richard P. Feynman & Steven Weinberg (1987)
- The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680–1790 Ritchie Robertson (2020)
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (New & Expanded) Robert B. Cialdini (2021)
- Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire Roger Crowley (2015)
- The Road to Reality Roger Penrose (2004)
- Something Deeply Hidden Sean Carroll (2019)
- Dialogues and Essays Seneca (ed. John Davie) (2007)
- Letters from a Stoic Seneca (tr. Robin Campbell) (1969)
- The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human Siddhartha Mukherjee (2022)
- How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine… for Now Stanislas Dehaene (2020)
- Insanely Great Steven Levy (1994)
- The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future Steven Novella, Bob Novella & Jay Novella (2022)
- To Explain the World Steven Weinberg (2015)
- The Short Story of Art Susie Hodge (2017)
- Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing Thomas G. Wong (2021)
- Capital and Ideology Thomas Piketty (2019)
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas S. Kuhn (1962)
- The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe, 1648–1815 Tim Blanning (2007)
- Your Life Is Manufactured Tim Minshall (2023)
- Too Big for a Single Mind Tobias Hürter (2023)
- Build Tony Fadell (2022)
- Materials and Dematerialization Vaclav Smil (2013)
- How to Feed the World Vaclav Smil (2023)
- Invention and Innovation Vaclav Smil (2023)
- Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century Vaclav Smil (2006)
- Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World Vaclav Smil (2020)
- How the World Really Works Vaclav Smil (2022)
- Pieces of the Action Vannevar Bush (2022)
- Gene Machine Venki Ramakrishnan (2018)
- Why We Die Venki Ramakrishnan (2023)
- The Fabric of Civilization Virginia Postrel (2020)
- The Nature of Technology W. Brian Arthur (2009) 🌟
- Elon Musk Walter Isaacson (2023)
- Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders 1965–2014 Warren E. Buffett (ed. Max Olson) (2015)
- The Lessons of History Will Durant & Ariel Durant (1968)
- A Little History of Science William Bynum (2013)
- Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics William Dunham (1990)
- The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs… William N. Thorndike, Jr. (2012)
- China’s Gilded Age Yuen Yuen Ang (2020)