Books

Master Book List

Table of Contents

List Description and Purpose
Priority and Choice
Philosophy
1. Ethics
2. Metaphysics
3. Logic
4. Epistemology
5. Linguistics
6. Religion
Economics
1. Behavioral Economics
2. Finance
Political Science/Government/Foreign Policy
History
Psychology/Mind, Brain, Behavior
Sociology
Statistics
Mathematics
Sciences
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Environment
Computer Science
Literature
Poetry
Plays
Comedy
Non-Fiction
Fiction
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Personal Growth
Athletics
Personal Skills
Relationships
Business
Startups

List Description and Purpose

I want a comprehensive categorization of my idea-space. I would like it to generalize to human idea-space, but I doubt that a ‘complete’ list – categorizing all relevant books in a field, and having every category of book – would be practical or efficient. This list should make my book choices more aware of opportunity costs and allow me to consider a wider set of options. I should also be able to see holes in my knowledge space.

Priority and Choice

Whenever possible, I’ll read books that will be readily applicable to the next month of my life. I’ll pay attention to them while reading because I’m anticipating their application, and then in applying them I will encode more of the material into memory.

Philosophy

Plato. Symposium. Russell. Sceptical Essays. Russell. The Scientific Outlook. Popper. The Poverty of Historicism.

Lakoff. Metaphors we live by. Lakoff. Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Ari Heljakka. Model Zero.

Ethics Spinoza. The Ethics. Seneca. Letters From a Stoic. Aurelius. Meditations. Joyce. The Myth of Morality. Joyce. The Evolution of Morality.

Metaphysics Kant. Critique of Pure Reason. Schopenhauer. The World as Will and Representation.

Logic Goldfarb. Deductive Logic.

Epistemology Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature. Yudkowski. Less Wrong series on Epistemology. Yudkowski. The Sequences.

Linguistics

Religion

Economics

Piketty. Capital. Mullainathan. Scarcity. Banerjee. Poor Economics. Smith. Wealth of Nations. Hayek. Road to Serfdom. Kaynes. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Stephen Marglin. The Dismal Science - Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community.

Game Theory Schelling. The Strategy of Conflict. Axelrod. The Evolution of Cooperation. Dixit. The Art of Strategy.

Behavioral Economics Ariley. Predictably Irrational. Thaler, Sunstein. Nudge. Khaneman. Thinking Fast and Slow. Mackay. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Schiller. Irrational Exuberance. Thaler. The Winner’s Curse. Thaler. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics.

Finance Michael Lewis. The Big Short. Looking at the credit and housing crisis, and those who bet against the market. Lewis. Flash Boys. (High frequency trading) Buffett. The Essays of Warren Buffett. Bevelin. Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger. Munger. Poor Charlie’s Almanac.

Political Science / Government / Foreign Policy

Perkins. Confessions of an Economic Hitman. William Blum. Killing Hope. US and CIA anti-intervention. Foreign Affairs Magazine Marx. The Communist Manifesto. Hobbes. Leviathan. Machiavelli. The Prince. Elster. Explaining Social Behavior: More Knuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences Chomsky. Understanding Power. Power: Why some people have it - and others don’t. Robinson. Why Nations Fail. Mesquita. The Dictator’s Handbook. Why bad behavior is almost always good politics. Tetlock. Expert Political Judgement. Tetlock. Superforcasting.

History / Military

Nietzsche. The Use and Abuse of History. Loewen. Lies my Teacher Told Me. Zinn. A People’s History of the United States. Diamond. Guns, Germs and Steel. Freedman. Strategy. Durant. Lessons of History. Harari. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Naylor. Relentless Strike. The Secret History of the Joint Special Operations Command.

Psychology/Mind, Body, Behavior

Hofstadter. Godel, Escher, Bach. Klein. Sources of Power. Susan Cain. Quiet. The power of introverts. Edward de Bono. Six Thinking Hats. Parallel thinking and structuring thinking. Watts. Everything is Obvious. Once you know the answer, how common sense fails us. Simon. In Sheep’s Clothing. Manipulative People. Ariely. The Honest Truth about Dishonesty. Ariely. The Upside of Irrationality. McGonigal. Willpower. Gladwell. Blink. The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Dennett. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. Stanovich. How to think straight about psychology. Stanovich. Rationality and a Reflective Mind. Baron. Thinking and Deciding. Hastle. Rational Choice in an Uncertain World. Partnoy. Wait: The Art and Science of Delay. Neill. Art of Contrary Thinking. Brafman. Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. Drescher. Good and Real. Johnson-Laird. How we Reason. Pinker. The Blank Slate Gawande. The Checklist Manifesto. Enderson. Pebbles of Perception. Pinker. Words and Rules. Pinker. Stuff of Thought. Language as a Window into Human Nature. Syed. Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success Rao. Tempo. Kahneman. Heuristics and Biases. Ridley. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature.

Sociology

Bruce. A Very Short introduction to Sociology. Vincent recommended. Merton. Masters of Sociological Thoughts. Vincent recommended. Nesbitt. Intelligence and How to Get It. Why schools and cultures count. Griffin. Black Like Me. Levitt. Think Like a Freak. Gladwell. The Tipping Point. Foucault. Power/Knowledge. Foucault. Discipline and Punish. Wozniak. The Art of Deception. Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. Weber. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Weber. Economy and Society. Burt. Structural holes : the social structure of competition Christakis. Connected : the surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives Snow. A primer on social movements Deresiewicz. Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite. Murray. The Bell Curve. Domhoff. Who Rules America? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich.` Mills. The Power Elite. Hoffer. The True Believer. Thoughts on the nature of mass movements. Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death Sowell. Intellectuals and Society. Girard. The Girard Reader. Girard. The Scapegoat. Girard. Violence and The Sacred. Ridley. Evolution of Everything. Ridley. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. Ridley. The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation Heinrich. The Secrets of our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution.

Statistics

Mandelbrot. The (Mis)behavior of Markets. A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence. Taleb. The Black Swan. Taleb. Fooled by Randomness. Taleb. Antifragile Taleb. The Bed of Procrustes. Silver. The Signal and the Noise Huff. How to Lie With Statistics. McGrayne. The Theory That Would not Die. Bayes rule history. Mlodinow. The Drunkard’s Walk : How Randomness Rules our Lives.

Mathematics

Strogatz. Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos.

Optimization Nesterov. Convex Optimization. 11. Sciences

Bryson. A Short History of Nearly Everything. Hamming. The Art of Doing Science and Engineering. Wolfram. A New Kind of Science.

Physics Feynman. The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Feynman. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Biology Dawkins. The Extended Phenotype. Dawkins. The Selfish Gene. Dawkins. The Blind Watchmaker.

Chemistry

Environment

Pop Science Hawking. A Brief History of Time. Hawking. The Grand Design. Examines scientific knowledge about the universe as an alternative to intelligent design. Gleick. Chaos: Making a New Science.

Innovation Gertner. The Idea Factory. Diamandis. Bold. Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Bostrom. Superintelligence. AI, past, present and future. Kurzweil. The Singularity is Near.

Computer Science

Seibel. Coders at Work. Street. Dissecting The Hack. O’Reilly. Python for Data Analysis. O’Reilly. Machine Learning for Hackers Rudder. Dataclysm. Who we are when no one’s looking. Friedmen. The Little Schemer. How to think recursively.

Machine Learning Kuhn, Johnson. Applied Predictive Modeling. Hastie, Tibshirani, Friedman. The Elements of Statistical Learning. Murphy. Machine Learning - A Probabilistic Approach.

Artificial Intelligence

Information Theory Gleick. The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. Baeyer. Information: The New Language of Science

Literature

Forester. Aspects of the Novel.

Poetry Plath. Mad Girl’s Love Song. Rexroth. Vitamins and Roughage Keats Wordsworth Larkin.

Plays Shakespeare. King Lear. Shakespeare. Julius Caesar.

Comedy Kaufman. You can’t take it with you. Bloomingdale. I Should’ve Seen it Coming when the Rabbit Died.

Non-fiction Hillenbrand. Unbroken. Story of WWII survival and redemption.

Biography Seifer. The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla - Biography of a Genius. Issacson. Steve Jobs. Isaacson. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Andrew Hodges. The Enigma: Alan Turing. Vance. Elon Musk Wall. Andrew Carnagie Chernow. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sam Walton. Made in America.

Fiction David Foster Wallace. Infinite Jest. Quinn. Ishmael. Marquez. 100 years of solitude Caldwell. The Rule of Four. Heller. Catch 22 Coelho. The Alchemist Hesse. Siddhartha. He who has found his meaning, attained his goals. Buddhist. Murukami. 1q84. Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray Saavedra. Don Quixote Chbosky. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Kundera. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Dumas. The Three Musketeers. Dumas. The Counte of Monte Cristo. Unabridged Version. Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises. Patterson. Alex Cross Series. Brooks. World War Z. Rand. The Fountainhead. Bradley. The Mists of Avalon. Legends from female perspectives. Zusak. The Book Thief.

Science Fiction Mitchell. Cloud Atlas. Post-apocalyptic story interweaving six stories. Gibson. Neuromancer. Computer hacking. Asimov. Foundation Series. Mathematical prediction of society. Dick. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Orson Scott Card. Ender’s Game Series. Anderson. Feed. Corporate power, consumerism, data and IT. Yudkowsky. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. L’Engle. A Wrinkle in Time. Adams. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.` Heinlein. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Ted Chiang. Stories of Your Life and Others (Ben + Velina + HN) Ann Leckie. Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword. Herbert. Dune. Sanderson. Mistborn. Watts. Blindsight. Egan. Permutation City. Stephenson. The Diamond Age. Nanotechnology. Haldeman. The Forever War. Cixin. The Three Body Problem.

Fantasy Martins. Game of Thrones Series Rigney. Wheel of Time Series White. The Once and Future King. Patrick Rothfus.The Name of the Wind.

Personal Growth

Athletics Goldberg. Playing Out of Your Mind. Goldberg. Sports Slump Busting. Jackson. Sacred Hoops. McDougall. Born to Run. Wooden. A lifetime of Observations and Reflections. Lemov. Practice Perfect.

Personal Skills Morgan. Warrior Mind. Martial arts strategy and philosophy Kotler. The Rise of Superman Cabane. The Charisma Myth. Alder. How to Read a Book. Greene. Mastery. Loori. The Eight Gates of Zen. Zen Buddhism. Suzuki. Manual of Zen Buddhism. Pollan. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Tolle. The Power of Now. Loehr. The Power of Full Engagement Waitzkin. The Art of Learning. Inner journey to optimal performance. Ferris. 4 Hour Workweek. Ferris. 4 Hour Body. Didon. The Year of Magical Thinking. Godin. Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck? And Other Provocations. Goidin. The Dip. On quitting. Becker. Simplify. Minimalist living. Jeffers. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway Ferrazzi. Never Eat Alone. Success through personal relationships. Stanovich. What intelligence tests miss. Bias in the highly intelligent. Heath. Decisive. How to make better decisions in life and work. Bradberry. Emotional Intelligence 2.0. Rubin. The Happiness Project. Heath. How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Dreek. It’s Not All About Me. Building rapport with others. Hoffman. The Startup of You. Cialdini. Influence (Should Reread) Neffinger. Compelling people : The hidden qualities that make us influential Zimbardo. The Lucifer Effect : Understanding how good people turn evil Moldovianu. Diaminds : Decoding the Mental Habits of Successful Thinkers. Hess. Learn or Die. Best book Shane Parrish has read on learning. Johnstone. Impro - Improvisation and Theater. Papert. Mindstorm. On learning and computers Self Disciplines of Buckminster Fuller Walsh. The Score Takes Care of Itself.

Relationships Delis. The Passion Trap. Comfort. The Joy of Sex. Ryan. Sex at Dawn. Greene. The Art of Seduction. Navarro. What Every Body is Saying. Starky. Cupid’s Code. Psychology of Relationships.

Business

Senge. The Fifth Discipline. Systems thinking, converting companies into learning organizations. Ury. Positive No. Chamine. Positive Intelligence. Achieving true potential for teams and individuals. HBR’s 10 must-reads On Strategy. Siegel. Predictive Analytics. The power to predict. Kaufman. The Personal MBA. Master the art of business. Christensen. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Perex. Technological Revolutions. Drucker. The Effective Executive. True expert on business management. Fried. Rework. Rethinking simple incorrect assumptions. Collins. Good to Great. Sandberg. Lean In. Collins. Built to Last. Brooks. Business Adventures. Lafley. Playing to Win. Rumelt. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. Grove. High Output Management. Grove. Only the Paranoid Survive.

Startups Reis. The Lean Startup. Wasserman. The Founder’s Dilemmas. Pink. To Sell is Human. Bly. The Copywriter’s Handbook. A guide to writing. Thiel. Zero to One. Christensen. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Christensen. The Innovator's Solution Horowitz. The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Livingston. Founders at Work.

Source: Original Google Doc