
Great books
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read
Fiction
- Dune: I haven’t read a better science fiction since Dune.
- Catcher in the Rye
- Sh*t My Dad Says: One of the funniest books I’ve read. See tweets by @shitmydadsays to get a taste
- Sum: Tales from the afterlives: This book tells us forty brilliantly imagined possibilities for life after death through short essays.
- The Martian
- The Remains of the Day: I learned about this book from another book — “The Everything Store”. You will marvel at the level of attention to detail of the protagonist, an English butler.
- Buddha (manga): Osamu Tezuka classic.
- Ayako (manga)
- Stories of Your Life and Others: science fiction novellas. Brilliant.
Non-Fiction
- Thinking, Fast and Slow: It’s a dense read and takes a lot of effort. As you work through the book, you will start seeing the intricacies of how we think and judge.
- Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character: A delight to read. It’s impossible not to notice the wonderful curiosity Feynman had! Curiosity about everything, however small. For example, can an ant find out which direction it is walking? Say, you pick up an ant on a piece of paper, turn it around and around and put it back on the original trail. The same trail it was walking before you picked it up. Would the ant figure out if it is going in the correct direction or the opposite? This book will make you love science.
- Hackers and Painters
- The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement: It’s a novel about how Alex Rogo, manager of a dying manufacturing plant, tries to save it. The plant has become unreliable and unprofitable. He has three months to turn it around. It’s an engrossing novel about a manufacturing plant. Also learned about Socratic Method — an excellent tactic for fostering critical thinking.
- Rework
- Remote
- The Design of Everyday Things: This book talks about how humans behave when interacting with “ everyday things”. You will start appreciating the thinking that has gone on making a product delightful.
- The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
- When Breath Becomes Air
- Reinventing Organizations: You should watch the author talking about the theme of the book here.
- The Mind Illuminated — A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence
- The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business: Habit is “cue, routine, reward” in a loop. Fourth ingredient is “belief”. Discusses creating new habits, replacing old ones, persisting through stressful situations.
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
- The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
- How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics
- Calculus Made Easy
- Man’s Search for Meaning
- Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution
- The Elements of Style
Computer Programming
- The Little Schemer: The Little Schemer is my fallback pass-time for coding amusement. I started liking Lisp even more after reading this book.
- Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming: Peter Seibel interviewed 15 highly accomplished programmers. Legendary programmers interviewed by a programmer himself. Read the review by Jeff Atwood here. Full of nuggets of wisdom about the craft.
- Code Complete 2: Recommended by Joel Spolsky here. If you are in the business of writing code, please read it.
- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: Recommended on Amazon by Paul Graham and Peter Norvig. SICP is a book on Computer Science, based on Lisp.
Wishlist
- Godel, Escher, Bach
- Life: a User’s Manual. Donald Knuth recommends.
- Artificial Intelligence: a modern approach
- Sapiens
- The Upside of Stress
- The One World School House
- Flow
- The Element
- High Output Management
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Nonviolent Communication
- Anathem
- The Stand
Reading-Lists I follow
- A Guide to Intelligent Reading — By Shane Parrish of the Farnam Street
- Books I’ve finished recently — By Derek Sivers
- My Top 100 Programming, Computer and Science Books: Part One, Two, Three, Four — By Peteris Krumins
- Recommended Reading for Developers — By Jeff Atwood
- Recommended Books — by Donald Knuth
