Reading 101

How to read more and change your life with books

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Why Read?

I read for three reasons: the act of reading improves your brain (and life), I gain knowledge from the content of books, and fun!

Those are three great reasons to me! But don’t listen to me:

What to Read?

Read anything. Seriously. It doesn’t matter.

Pick up a book, open it, start reading.

Don’t like it? Put it down.

Open another book.

Start reading.

Feeling “meh” about a book and want to read it later? 

Put it down.

Pick up another book.

Read that.

What genre?

Who cares?

What do you want to read? What do you want to read?

Read that.

The muscle will build, and you’ll keep reading and keep reading.

Carry a book with you everywhere.

In the grocery store, at doctor’s appointments, in the subway.

Instead of picking up your phone, pick up the book.

You’ll feel better, trust me.

Buy the physical book. Build a library. Reread your books.

Share your books. Talk about your books. Enjoy the books.

Still not sure what to read? Walk into a bookstore.

Yes a real bookstore.

Look around, what excites you? Pick that one up, feel it in your hands.

Open to a random page, do you like what you see?

If no, put it down. If yes, buy it.

Congratulations. You’ve just built one of the best habits ever.

How to Read

See above.

My Favorite Books

Here are my 97 favorite books.

My Reading List

I want to read a lot of books…

 

  1. The Beginning of Infinity – David Deutsch

  2. The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel

  3. The Second World War – Antony Beevor

  4. The Second World War – John Keegan

  5. The Lessons of History – Will & Ariel Durant

  6. Democracy in America – Alexis de Tocqueville

  7. Basic Economics – Thomas Sowell

  8. The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham

  9. Seeking Wisdom – Peter Bevelin

  10. The Tao of Charlie Munger – David Clark

  11. Economic Facts and Fallacies – Thomas Sowell

  12. Undaunted Courage – Stephen Ambrose

  13. The Principia – Isaac Newton

  14. Introduction to Probability – Bertsekas & Tsitsiklis

  15. Thinking Physics – Lewis Carroll Epstein

  16. Euclid’s Elements

  17. Civilisation: A Personal View – Kenneth Clark

  18. Medieval Technology and Social Change – Lynn White Jr.

  19. The Penguin Atlas of Ancient & Medieval History – R. McEvedy

  20. The World We Have Lost – Peter Laslett

  21. The Extension of Man – J. D. Bernal

  22. Life in the English Country House – Mark Girouard

  23. Mohammed and Charlemagne – Henri Pirenne

  24. The Fall of Constantinople – Steven Runciman

  25. Guns, Sails and Empires – Carlo M. Cipolla

  26. A History of Rome – Moses Hadas

  27. The Art of War in the Middle Ages – Charles Oman

  28. Lives of the Artists – Giorgio Vasari

  29. The Golden Trade of the Moors – E. W. Bovill

  30. The Gallic War – Julius Caesar

  31. The Copernican Revolution – Thomas S. Kuhn

  32. The Road to Serfdom – Friedrich Hayek

  33. The Denial of Death – Ernest Becker

  34. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow – Yuval Noah Harari

  35. The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton M. Christensen

  36. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions – Thomas Kuhn

  37. Capital in the Twenty-First Century – Thomas Piketty

  38. The Origins of Political Order – Francis Fukuyama

  39. The Better Angels of Our Nature – Steven Pinker

  40. Debt: The First 5,000 Years – David Graeber

  41. The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  42. Fooled by Randomness – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  43. The Wisdom of Crowds – James Surowiecki

  44. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed – James C. Scott

  45. The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art – James David Lewis-Williams

  46. Crowds and Power – Elias Canetti

  47. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century, Vol. 2: The Wheels of Commerce – Fernand Braudel

  48. Keeping Together in Time – William H. McNeill

  49. Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy – Barbara Ehrenreich

  50. Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made – Eugene D. Genovese

  51. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction – Christopher W. Alexander

  52. The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme – John Keegan

  53. A History of the World in 100 Objects – Neil MacGregor

  54. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity – Richard Rorty

  55. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Vol. 1 – Leonardo da Vinci

  56. The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis – David Runciman

  57. The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself – Daniel J. Boorstin

  58. Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species – Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

  59. The Cambridge World History of Food (2-Part Set) – Kenneth F. Kiple (ed.)

  60. The Illustrated Flora of Britain and Northern Europe – Marjorie Blamey

  61. Printing and the Mind of Man – John Carter

  62. Peter the Great: His Life and World – Robert K. Massie

  63. A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art: The Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets – Christopher W. Alexander

  64. The Bridge on the Drina (Bosnian Trilogy #1) – Ivo Andrić

  65. Jihad vs. McWorld – Benjamin R. Barber

  66. The Artful Universe Expanded – John D. Barrow

  67. Brain of the Firm – Stafford Beer

  68. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt

  69. The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination – Daniel J. Boorstin

  70. The Courtier and the Heretic – Matthew Stewart

  71. Astounding: John W. Campbell, the Golden Age of Science Fiction – Alec Nevala-Lee

  72. Mooncop – Tom Gauld

  73. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century – Barbara W. Tuchman

  74. The Starship and the Canoe – Kenneth Brower

  75. The Human Condition – Hannah Arendt

  76. Schismatrix Plus – Bruce Sterling

  77. The Origins of Political Order – Francis Fukuyama

  78. Political Order and Political Decay – Francis Fukuyama

  79. Time Travel: A History – James Gleick

  80. Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe – George Dyson

  81. Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery – B. A. Botkin (ed.)

  82. How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built – Stewart Brand

  83. The Structures of Everyday Life, Vol 1 – Fernand Braudel

  84. The Transformation of War – Martin van Creveld

  85. The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art – Arthur C. Danto

  86. River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life – Richard Dawkins

  87. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life – Daniel C. Dennett

  88. Defense Policy Making: A Comparative Analysis – G. M. Dillon (ed.)

  89. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

  90. Trust: The Social Virtue and the Creation of Prosperity – Francis Fukuyama

  91. Women En Large – Laurie Toby Edison

  92. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier – Joel Garreau

  93. Ecce Homo – George Grosz

  94. Beyond Culture – Edward T. Hall

  95. Managing the Commons – Garrett Hardin

  96. Going Bugs – James Hillman

  97. Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America – Robert Hughes

  98. The Waning of the Middle Ages – Johan Huizinga

  99. The State We’re In: Why Britain Is in Crisis and How to Overcome It – Will Hutton

  100. Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-biological Civilization – Kevin Kelly

  101. Fetish Girls – Eric Kroll

  102. The Leopard – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

  103. Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology – Steven Levy

  104. Planetary Overload: Global Environmental Change and the Health of the Human Species – Anthony J. McMichael

  105. Being Digital – Nicholas Negroponte

  106. Erotica Universalis: From Pompeii to Picasso – Gilles Néret

  107. Living Without a Goal – James Ogilvy

  108. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid – Michael Ondaatje

  109. Evolution of Consciousness: The Origins of the Way We Think – Robert Ornstein

  110. Art and Pornography: An Experiment in Explanation – Morse Peckham

  111. Man’s Rage for Chaos: Biology, Behavior and the Arts – Morse Peckham

  112. Works and Texts – Tom Phillips

  113. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language – Steven Pinker

  114. In Search of a Better World – Karl Popper

  115. Prisoner’s Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb – William Poundstone

  116. Postcards – Annie Proulx

  117. Consequences of Pragmatism: Essays 1972–1980 – Richard Rorty

  118. The Moor’s Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie

  119. England’s Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond – Jon Savage

  120. Lords of the Rim – Sterling Seagrave

  121. Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light – Leonard Shlain

  122. I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj – Nisargadatta Maharaj

  123. Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas – Robert Farris Thompson

  124. Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy – Robert Farris Thompson

  125. Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds – David Toop

  126. The Seven Cultures of Capitalism: Value Systems for Creating Wealth – Alfons Trompenaars

  127. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon – Rebecca West

  128. Art and Anarchy – Edgar Wind

  1. Exhalation – Ted Chiang

  2. Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir

  3. The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss

  4. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

  5. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

  6. Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

  7. Fairy Tale – Stephen King

  8. A Memory Called Empire – Arkady Martine

  9. The Overstory – Richard Powers

  10. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

  11. The Shipping News – Annie Proulx

  12. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

  13. The Sword of Kaigen – M.L. Wang

  14. Hyperion – Dan Simmons

  15. Neuromancer – William Gibson

  16. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin

  17. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

  18. American Gods – Neil Gaiman

  19. The Road – Cormac McCarthy

  20. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

  21. Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov

  22. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

  23. The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch

  24. Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke

  25. Solaris – Stanisław Lem

  26. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

  27. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World – Haruki Murakami

  28. Friday, or, The Other Island – Michel Tournier

  29. The Four Wise Men – Michel Tournier

  30. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez

  31. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez

  32. News of a Kidnapping – Gabriel García Márquez

  33. Living to Tell the Tale – Gabriel García Márquez

  34. The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

  35. The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer

  36. Oswald’s Tale – Norman Mailer

  37. Of a Fire on the Moon – Norman Mailer

  38. Breathing Lessons – Anne Tyler

  39. Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner

  40. The Savage Detectives – Roberto Bolaño

  41. Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood

  42. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

  43. The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

  44. Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd

  45. The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1 – Neil Gaiman 

  46. Lucifer Omnibus Vol. 1 – Mike Carey 

  47. Uzumaki, Vol. 1 – Junji Ito 

  48. The Invisibles Omnibus – Grant Morrison 

  49. The Filth – Grant Morrison

  50. The Magus – John Fowles

  51. Autobiography – Anthony Burgess

  52. The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing

  53. Lanark – Alasdair Gray

  54. Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg

  55. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – Patrick Süskind

  56. Life: A User’s Manual – Georges Perec

  57. The Baron in the Trees – Italo Calvino

  58. Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino

  59. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

  60. A Bend in the River – V.S. Naipaul

  61. A Turn in the South – V.S. Naipaul

  62. Among the Believers – V.S. Naipaul

  63. The Bone People – Keri Hulme

  64. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

  65. Waiting for the Barbarians – J.M. Coetzee

  66. Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee

  67. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter – Mario Vargas Llosa

  68. The War of the End of the World – Mario Vargas Llosa

  69. Black Dogs – Ian McEwan

  70. Atonement – Ian McEwan

  71. The Quincunx – Charles Palliser

  72. Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy

  73. Waiting – Ha Jin

  74. Last and First Men – Olaf Stapledon

  75. Star Maker – Olaf Stapledon

  76. Solaris – Stanisław Lem

  77. Eon – Greg Bear

  78. Hyperion – Dan Simmons

  79. The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula K. Le Guin

  80. Speaker for the Dead – Orson Scott Card

  81. Xenocide – Orson Scott Card

  82. Children of the Mind – Orson Scott Card

  83. Dune Messiah – Frank Herbert

  84. Children of Dune – Frank Herbert

  85. Pedro Páramo – Juan Rulfo

  86. The Poems of Emily Dickinson – Emily Dickinson

  87. The Midnight Library – Matt Haig

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