Last updated: 09/25/2025
This page is (heavily) inspired by Siver's book recommendations and is a list of books that I've read. Perhaps you'll find some of these books interesting, perhaps not. Just remember that I'm a biased person and not all the books I like you will like and vice versa. Nevertheless, it's always a good day to read a book.
Books are approximately sorted from most good to least good.
(Note to self: I should figure out a way to include book cover images on here so this page is more than just text text text.)
10
How To, What If?, What If? 2 - by Randall Munroe
Date finished/percentage finished: 2024 | 100% x3
Book rating(s): 10/10 x3
How strongly I'd recommend it: 10/10 x3
I love xkcd. I think Munroe is brilliant. And in these three books, he tackles some silly and goofy problems through a scientific lens. Obviously don't read this book if you're looking for answers, but if you wanna have some scientific fun and a nice, lighthearted, heartwarming read, these books are for you. They're also split up into sections that are mutually independent -- in the What If? books, each 'chapter' tackles a different, 'random' problem.
Future Crimes - by Marc Goodman
Date finished/percentage read: 2020 | 100%
Book rating: 10/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 10/10
Although it's now 2025 and this book might be a bit "old" in the sense that its not on the bleeding edge, this book discusses digital privacy and covers the digital landscape (in my opinion) really well from a security perspective. This book, for me at least, is part of the reason I'm so sensitive to digital stuffs, and in some way kind of made me. Due to this large impact, I thus give it a 10/10.
The Anthropocene Reviewed - by John Green
Date finished/percentage read: 11/2024 | 100%
Book rating: 10/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 10/10
John Green goes around and rates different things in life, and puts it in a book. It sounds crazy. I think it's amazing; with these reviews, he paints a reflection of himself and of humans in general. I think those who would enjoy reading this book are those who like relaxing in front of a sunset reflecting on their day.
What Do You Care What Other People Think?, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - by Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton
Date finished/percentage read: 03/2025, 08/2025 | 100% x3
Book rating(s): /10, /10, 8.9/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: /10
These books are just a collection of Feynman's various life events as a physicist. I think they're funny, and I like Feynman, so I like these books. Do be warned that some of the stories he tells are a bit crass.
Resetting The Table - by Robert Paarlberg
Date finished/percentage read: 07/2025 | 100%
Book rating: 9.6/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 9/10
This is a book on crops and farming and technology. I love it. This book gave me a great view of the farming landscape but also challenged lots of traditional ideas -- ideas such as GMOs, the idea of organic food being "better" than imported foods, or the idea that most farms these days are rural small farms. In reading this, I think I've probably shifted my agricultural views a little bit, and I think it's for the better; Paarlberg rights cleanly and densely and I thought a bunch of points are hard hitting. Some parts are definitely slow and a little boring, but overall this book did not come off to me as pop-science or writing a book to write; it felt like an honest and earnest attempt at defining and surveying the landscape that is about the agricultural foods we eat today (Note: Very little about sugar and crackers and those types of things was talked about in this book -- it was all on the greens, the fruits, and the meat).
Recommendation rating is 9/10 since I'm not sure most people want to read about farming all day.
The Case Against Sugar - by Gary Taubes
Date finished/percentage read: 07/2025 | 100%
Book rating: 9.5/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 9.5/10
This is a good read and Taubes gives a detailed analysis on why sugar is bad. I have my own summary and meta-take on the book, and ultimately, if you're not too scientifically inclined and don't like long explanations, just know to cut down on your processed simple sugars -- importantly Sucrose, Fructose, and High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
The Essential Scalia - by Antonin Scalia (who would've guessed), edited by Jeffery Sutton and Edward Whelan
Date finished/percentage read: 02/2025 | 100%
Book rating: 9.5/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 9/10
This book is essentially a collection of Scalia's various thoughts. It's a collection of his rulings during his time on the Supreme Court and speeches about his legal stance, with light editing done by the editors to make the book (hopefully) more accessible to the general public. Now, I don't agree with everything Scalia thinks and writes and says; but the way he weaves his arguments is beautiful, and though I don't find all his writings in this book agreeable, I respect the arguments he makes in light of how well-made they are. My more detailed thoughts on the book are in another blog post.
The Illuminae Files (Series) - by Amie Kaufman
Date finished/percentage read: 2019-2024 | 100% (books 1-3)
Book series rating: 9.4/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 9.4/10
Kaufman has an innovative way of writing this trilogy -- I'll let you piece everything together and figure out what's going on, but I really liked this style of storytelling. Anyways, the series is a sci-fi rom trilogy set in space with wormholes and AIs and with the different contrasting writing styles every few pages, I really like this series.
The Box - by Marc Levinson
Date finished/percentage read: 08/2025 | 100%
Book rating: 9.1/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 7.5/10
Unless you're interested in history, shipping/naval affairs, or industrialization, this book is not going to be that interesting for you. As such, the low recommendation score. With that in mind however, this book is what I would consider an evergreen read on the history of shipping containers and gives a great overview of the history of the thing that has shaped modern economies to be the way they are.
9
The Plague - by Albert Camus
Date finished/percentage finished: 12/2023 | 100%
Book rating: 9/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 6/10
I like Camus's The Plague. It's dense and there's not exactly a plotline, but by following various characters and the town's reaction to a plague as a whole, Camus investigates people's reactions to the absurd -- in his case, WW2, in our case, perhaps life as a whole or when I read it, the Covid-19 pandemic. Anyways, the book itself, as mentioned, is dense -- it took me a lot of thinking after the book to realize what exactly the book is talking about. Still a good read, and for most people, it'll be something out of the ordinary.
A Philosophy of Walking - by Frederic Gros
Date finished/percentage finished: 05/2024 | 100%
Book Rating: 9/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 8/10
I signed up for a book about walking and this is exactly what I got. Literally a book on walking, through retellings of how the famous philosophers walked. Overall good book; really just made me appreciate walking more. Unfortunately, I'm not sure people want to learn about walking (thus 8/10 on recommendation score), and the book does get a bit long after a while.
Switch - by Chip & Dan Heath
Date finished/percentage finished: 09/2025 | 100%
Book Rating: 8.8/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 9/10
This book tackles the problem of switching people's behaviors. In contrast to Richard Thaler's Nudge however, this book gives a more concrete step-by-step plan (in the abstract) on how to accomplish said behavioral changes. As such, I think this book is a nice practical read. It also doesn't hurt that this book is filled with stories.
The Dictator's Handbook - by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith
Date finished/percentage finished: 09/2025 | 100%
Book rating: 8.5/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 8.5/10
This book is an interesting take on politics. Namely, it reasons about politics through the lens of selfish behavior and political survival, and draws conclusions from that framework. As a result, the authors explain a lot of weird behaviors and political happenings that turn out to be kinda sorta reasonable when viewed from the framework put forth by this book. Definitely worth a read if you want to better understand politics.
Foolproof - by Sander van der Linden
Date finished/percentage finished: 02/2024 | 100%
Book rating: 8.5/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 8/10
This book is on misinformation, its spread, symptoms, and how to contain it. I think Linden presents some novel ways to think of misinformation and ultimately demonstrates optimistically possible 'cures' to misinformation. Notably absent from this book however are concrete actions that people can take to stop misinformation actively -- most of the advice given here is on how to treat misinformation 'patients' passively, and while that's definitely not a bad idea, I would've liked to see some more advice on how to actively stop misinformation. I guess that's pretty hard because it comes down to the individual, but yeah this book is overall good and has some good insights.
So Good They Can't Ignore You - by Cal Newport
Date finished/percentage finished: 09/2025 | 100%
Book rating: 8.2/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 8.2/10
A classic book. I didn't find it too mind-blowing or exciting past a few key points Newport made, so it's not exactly a must-read. With that being said, Newport does push at societal norms and shows readers that you can take another approach to life, which I appreciate. Furthermore, the main points he does make in the book (Roughly: Don't look for passion, Be very very good at your work, Control your work, Make your own remarkable mission) are pretty insightful (for me) in what it takes to get good. Thus the rating on the medium-high end.
8
Permanent Record - by Edward Snowden
Date finished/percentage read: 10/2023 | 100%
Book rating: 8/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 7/10
Really, this book is an autobiography of Snowden's life, up until his exile basically. A lot of focus is given to his time right after high school until his eventual exile from the US, and while reading biographies are cool and feeling his experiences is also cool, there wasn't really much that I gleaned from this book. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a story, this is a goodbook; but for most people (me included), if I knew that this book didn't really contain too many insights, I probably wouldn't have read it.
You Have the Right to Remain Innocent - by James Duane
Date finished/percentage finished: 01/2025 | 100%
Book Rating: 8/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 8.5/10
This book gives a fearmongered but truthful overview on why you shouldn't give evidence (talk) to the police under almost every circumstance, the almost being when pulled over for a traffic stop. I thought there was some amount of fluff in the book but ultimately, in my review, I noted that the book is neat and the information important for the average citizen. Ultimately, this book gives a short (and shallow) (and kinda incomplete) overview on citizens' rights.
Eleven Rings - by Phil Jackson, Hugh Delehanty
Date finished/percentage finished: 03/2025 | 100%
Book rating: 8/11
How strongly I'd recommend it: 8.5/10
During this time period, I had watched some Secret Base documentaries and was more or less kind of getting "into" sports. As such, I chose Phil Jackson's book because (a) Phil is a legend (see Chicago Bulls 1990s), (b) there's probably some good management-esque advice in here, and © I just wanted a story. I didn't learn too much from this book in terms of practical things, but just being able to live his coaching career through his eyes was amazing. I like this book.
7
The Future - by Naomi Alderman
Date finished/percentage finished: 12/2023 | 100%
Book rating: 7/10
Recommendation rating: 7/10
Just a light sci-fi book. There's nothing groundbreaking, but I like some of the ideas and interplay that goes on in the book between plots and characters. Also the 'good guys' end up winning so that's nice. Really not much to say about these books.
Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future - by Joi Ito and Jeff Howe
Date finished/percentage finished: 05/2025 | 100%
Book Rating: 6.5/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 6/10
This book is about some principles that (the authors propose) will dictate the future. Despite the book saying MIT on its cover and both Ito and Howe running MIT media lab, this book didn't really give me much insight. I apparently took some notes on the book, but in summary I'd say this book has some great key ideas that are surrounded by some weird examples. The later chapters were also a drag for me.
6
Walkaway - by Cory Doctorow
Date finished/Percentage finished: 04/2024 | 100%
Book Rating: 5.5/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 4/10
I liked Cory Doctorow before reading this book and this book (unfortunately) made me like him less. I wrote about this book in an earlier post, but safe to say this is a weird sci-fi dystopian book where some things make sense, some things don't, and lowkey in my view, there's not much to it :/.
5
Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington - by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
Date finished/Percentage finished: 05/2025 | 100%
Book Rating: 4.5/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 4/10
This book is about the intricacies of language that the political people use. And unfortunately, despite Cathcart and Klein pointing out how absurd political jargon can be at times, it seems they fall into this trap as many things are just lowkey not explained or explained too much. Overall, good overview book for someone who's never known politics but I thought a bunch of insights were kinda obvious and this book didn't really "hit".
4
3-
Misc:
The Brothers Karamazov - by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Date finished/Percentage finished: 06/2025 | ~15%
Book Rating: 6+/10
How strongly I'd recommend it: 4/10
This book is only good if you can get through it. And I couldn't -- this book is long; I got through 15% of it and gave up. Despite that, I think the foreplay/intro part of the book has such good writing and deep connections that it deserves a 6+/10. Reading this book is also taxing on the brain because I'm not familiar with Russian works (this book is translated) and as such the names and qualities of everyone were super confusing for me. Still a good book though.