Updated 10/13/2024

I know some people who are always reading a book. I’m not an avid book reader like them.

I enjoy reading, though. When reading, I get attached to the characters and the plot. When I finish a book, I feel melancholy, a mild mourning for my fictional companions.

I try to pick books that will be fun to read while also sticking with me for years to come.

In some ways, I treat TV, movies, and books similarly: I don’t always need to be consuming something and I try to pick meaningful ones. I like to think about what I watched/read for weeks or months before picking up something else.

Here’s a list of some books and short stories I’ve read. I’ll try to update this periodically.



Non-Fiction:

- After Steve by Tripp Mickle

- The Art of Leadership: Small Things Done Well by Michael Lopp

- Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli

- Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

- The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

- Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda

- Creativity, Inc. by Edwin Catmull and Amy Wallace

- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
    - The lessons in this book directly apply to engineering management and leadership. I highly recommend it.

- Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury

- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
    - Useful lessons include: show sincere appreciation for people, take authentic interest, understand their perspective, admit when you're wrong
    - The bad: racist and sexist commentary and advice; a passive aggressive approach to giving feedback. For feedback, I much prefer the advice in Radical Candor. I find that's a more authentic and less manipulative way to interact with others.

- Make Something Wonderful by the Steve Jobs Archive

- Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn

- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
    - This is another great book for leaders and managers.

- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

- Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnemant



Fiction:

- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

- '--All You Zombies--' by Robert A. Heinlein

- American Gods by Neil Gaiman

- Antibodies by Charlie Stross

- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

- The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov

- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

- Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

- Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
    - I like Vonnegut’s writing for its humor, depth, and straightforwardness. He’s one of the few authors with more than one book on my list.

- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

- Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

- The Difference

- Dirk Gently series by Douglas Adams
    - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
    - The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

- Dune series by Frank Herbert
  - Dune
  - Dune Messiah

- The Egg
    - Wonderful short story by Andy Weir

- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

- Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
    - A sort-of-sequel to Ender’s Game. I enjoyed how it layers extra depth onto a story I already loved.

- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

- Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

- Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov
    - Foundation
    - Foundation and Empire
    - Second Foundation

    - Asimov is another author with many books on my list. I think about these stories a lot today (in the year 2020) when things feel out of control.

- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson
    - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    - The Girl Who Played with Fire
    - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest

- The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

- The Graduate by Charles Webb

- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

- Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
    - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
    - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

    - A series core to my childhood and young adulthood. I got the first book as a present from my grandmother for graduating 5th grade.

- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams
    - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
    - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
    - Life, the Universe and Everything
    - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
    - Mostly Harmless
    - Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
    - And Another Thing...

    - Funny and light while still carrying depth. Some of my favorites.

- Hyperion by Dan Simmons
    - Interesting stories though I wish I had known up-front that there would be no ending to tie off loose ends and plot-lines.

- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

- I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility

- The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

- I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin

- John Dies at the End series by David Wong (Jason Pargin)
    - John Dies at the End
    - This Book is Full of Spiders
    - What the Hell Did I Just Read
    - If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe

    - Fun comedy horror from Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), another author with several books on my list.

- The Last Question
    - Wonderful short story by Isaac Asimov

- Learning to Be Me
    - Unsettling and thought-provoking short story by Greg Egan. It could be a Black Mirror episode.

- Lena by qntm
    - Fictional Wikipedia article about the first executable image of a human brain. In the same vein as Greg Egan's work and Black Mirror.

- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

- Lord of the Flies by William Golding

- Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
    - The Hobbit
    - The Fellowship of the Ring
    - The Two Towers
    - The Return of the King

    - Dense fantasy classics. I’m glad I’ve read them but I don’t love them. I tried to read the Silmarillion but that was way too far in the wrong direction for me (even more dense and way less story).

- The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke

- The Peripheral by William Gibson

- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
    - Really resonated with my angsty teenager self

- Permutation City by Greg Egan

- Ra by qntm

- The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

- Replay by Ken Grimwood
    - One of my favorite books: fun, fast, thought-provoking

- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

- The Star by Arthur C. Clarke

- The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer

- They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

- Understand by Ted Chiang

- Wang's Carpets
    - Another short story by Greg Egan

- Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins

- Watership Down by Richard Adams
    - Tales From Watership Down by Richard Adams

- What's expected of us by Ted Chiang

- William and Mary by Roald Dahl

- Zoey Ashe series by Jason Pargin
    - Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
    - Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick
    - Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia