A list of all the books I have read since April 2019. Shamelessly copied from both Patrick Collison and Sam Ringer, I have marked great books in blue and exceptional books in green. Of course these designations only reflect how I viewed them when I read them, and may not constitute a recommendation in perpetuity.
Between Two FiresFebruary 2026
Christopher Buehlman
The Blacktongue ThiefJanuary 2026
Christopher Buehlman
The Mosquito CoastDecember 2025
Paul Theroux
The Rose FieldNovember 2025
Phillip Pullman
Rise of EndymionNovember 2025
Dan Simmons
EndymionOctober 2025
Dan Simmons
Alien ClaySeptember 2025
Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Diamond AgeSeptember 2025
Neal Stephenson
The Fall of HyperionSeptember 2025
Dan Simmons
HyperionAugust 2025
Dan Simmons
BlindsightAugust 2025
Peter Watts
MorphotrophicAugust 2025
Greg Egan
The Lions of Al-RassanJuly 2025
Guy Gavriel Kay
Network Effect (Murderbot diaries 5)July 2025
Martha Wells
The Mercy of the GodsJuly 2025
James S. A. Corey
The Ministry of the FutureJune 2025
Kim Stanley Robinson
The Notebook; A History of Thinking on PaperMay 2025
Roland Allen
Barbarians at the GateMay 2025
Bryan Burrough & John Heylar
ByzantiumApril 2025
Judith Herrin
The LighthouseApril 2025
Virgina Woolf
A Brief History of ChronomancyApril 2025
Andrew Rowe
The Lies of Locke Lamora: The Gentleman Bastards 1March 2025
Scott Lynch
Red Seas Under Red SkiesMarch 2025
Scott Lynch
The Republic of ThievesMarch 2025
Scott Lynch
The Adventures of Amina Al-SirafiFebruary 2025
Shannon Chakraborty
Translation StateFebruary 2025
Ann Leckie
The MagiciansJanuary 2025
Lev Grossman
The Magician KingJanuary 2025
Lev Grossman
The Magician's LandJanuary 2025
Lev Grossman
The Tainted CupJanuary 2025
Robert Jackson Bennett
The Ministry of TimeDecember 2024
Kaliane Bradley
Stealing SorceryNovember 2024
Andrew Rowe
Defying DestinyNovember 2024
Andrew Rowe
The Last SamuraiNovember 2024
Helen DeWitt
The Anarchy; The Relentless Rise of the East India CompanyNovember 2024
William Dalrymple
The Museum of InnocenceOctober 2024
Orhan Pamuk
The Dragons BankerOctober 2024
Scott Warren
Sufficiently Advanced MagicOctober 2024
Andrew Rowe
On The Shoulders of TitansOctober 2024
Andrew Rowe
The Torch that Ignites the StarsOctober 2024
Andrew Rowe
The Silence of Unworthy GodsOctober 2024
Andrew Rowe
When Wizards Follow FoolsOctober 2024
Andrew Rowe
Six Sacred SwordsOctober 2024
Andrew Rowe
Forging DivinityOctober 2024
Andrew Rowe
Le Seigneur des Anneaux; Le Retour du RoiSeptember 2024
J R R Tolkien
AnathemAugust 2024
Neal Stevenson
The Dark VineyardJuly 2024
Martin Walker
La Seigneur des Anneaux; Les Deux ToursJuly 2024
J R R Tolkien
Le Seigneur des Anneaux; La Fraternité de l'AnneauJune 2024
J R R Tolkien
Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-MêléMay 2024
J K Rowling
Harry Potter et les Reliques de la MortMay 2024
J K Rowling
The Book That Wouldn't BurnApril 2024
Mark Lawrence
Clear Waters RisingApril 2024
Nicholas Crane
Harry Potter et l'Ordre du PhénixApril 2024
J K Rowling
A Day of Fallen NightMarch 2024
Samantha Shannon
The Master and MargaritaMarch 2024
Mikhail Bulgakov
When We Cease To Understand The WorldMarch 2024
Benjamin Labatut
Jade WarFebruary 2024
Fonda Lee
Jade LegacyFebruary 2024
Fonda Lee
SevenevesJanuary 2024
Neal Stevenson
The Windup GirlJanuary 2024
Paolo Bacigalupi
The Water KnifeJanuary 2024
Paolo Bacigalupi
A Master of DjinnJanuary 2024
Djeli Clark
Jade CityJanuary 2024
Fonda Lee
Deep SouthDecember 2023
Paul Theroux
The SympathizerDecember 2023
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through ChinaSeptember 2023
Paul Theroux
Nazi Billionaires; The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest DynastiesAugust 2023
David De Jong
The Robber BrideJuly 2023
Margaret Atwood
The Great Railway BazaarJuly 2023
Paul Theroux
The Pillars of Hercules; A Grand Tour of the MediterraneanMay 2023
Paul Theroux
The Black Swan; The Impact of the Highly ImprobableApril 2023
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Butler to the WorldApril 2023
Oliver Bullough
The Doors of EdenMarch 2023
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Babel; An Arcane HistoryMarch 2023
R. F. Kuang
The Lord of the RingsFebruary 2023
J. R. R. Tolkien
Spinning SilverJanuary 2023
Naomi Novik
The Invention of Nature; The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt, The Lost Hero of ScienceDecember 2022
Andrea Wulf
The Beauty and the Terror; An Alternative History of the Italian RenaissanceNovember 2022
Catherine Fletcher
A Canticle For LeibowitzNovember 2022
Walter M. Miller Jr
Hidden Hands; The Lives of Manuscripts and their MakersNovember 2022
Mary Wellesley
Nona The NinthOctober 2022
Tamsyn Muir
Klara and the SunOctober 2022
Kazuo Ishiguro
Masters of DoomOctober 2022
David Kushner
Blitzed; Drugs in Nazi GermanySeptember 2022
Norman Ohler
The Rings of SaturnSeptember 2022
W. G. Sebald
TheftAugust 2022
Peter Carey
The Emperor of All MaladiesJuly 2022
Siddartha Mukherjee
Lessons in ChemistryJuly 2022
Bonnie Gramus
Doing JusticeJuly 2022
Preet Bahara
The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi EconomyJune 2022
Adam Tooze
An Inventory of LossesMay 2022
Judith Schalansky
The Internet Is Not What You Think It IsMay 2022
Justin E. H. Smith
The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist RulersMay 2022
Richard McGregor
Amongst Our WeaponsMay 2022
Ben Aaronovitch
Terciel & ElinorApril 2022
Garth Nix
Ayoade On TopApril 2022
Richard Ayoade
LiraelApril 2022
Garth Nix
AbhorsenApril 2022
Garth Nix
SabrielApril 2022
Garth Nix
GoldenhandApril 2022
Garth Nix
The Arrow of TimeApril 2022
Greg Egan
SilenceApril 2022
Shusaku Endo
The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of DisruptionMarch 2022
Sebastian Mallaby
SemiosisMarch 2022
Sue Burke
Schilds LadderMarch 2022
Greg Egan
The Extended Mind; The Power of Thinking Outside the BrainFebruary 2022
Annie Murphy Paul
The Eternal FlameFebruary 2022
Greg Egan
TeranesiaFebruary 2022
Greg Egan
Sick Money; The Truth About the Global Pharmaceutical IndustryJanuary 2022
Billy Kenber
Speed BoatJanuary 2022
Renata Adler
How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final ChapterJanuary 2022
Sherwin B. Nuland
Ender's GameJanuary 2022
Orson Scott Card
Second FoundationDecember 2021
Isaac Asimov
The Wires of War; Technology and the Global Struggle for PowerDecember 2021
Jacob Helberg
Deaths EndDecember 2021
Cixin Liu
The Book of Form and EmptinessDecember 2021
Ruth Ozeki
Critical Race TheoryNovember 2021
Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic
Lost JapanNovember 2021
Alex Kerr
What Abigail Did That SummerNovember 2021
Ben Aaronovitch
The Secret BarristerNovember 2021
Anonymous
Silent SpringOctober 2021
Rachael Carson
The Bedlam StacksOctober 2021
Natasha Pulley
Africa SoloOctober 2021
Mark Beaumont
How to Kill Your FamilyOctober 2021
Bella Mackie
Beautiful World, Where Are YouOctober 2021
Sally Rooney
The Book of Laughter and ForgettingOctober 2021
Milan Kundera
Foundation and EmpireOctober 2021
Isaac Asimov
Goodbye, Things; on minimalist livingOctober 2021
Fumio Sasaki
The Gulag ArchipelagoSeptember 2021
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Wild LaughterSeptember 2021
Caoilinn Hughes
The Colossus of MaroussiSeptember 2021
Henry Miller
Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate ManagersSeptember 2021
Robert Jackall
The Hundred Thousand KingdomsSeptember 2021
N. K. Jemsin
Tokyo ReduxAugust 2021
David Peace
A Tale for the Time BeingAugust 2021
Ruth Ozeki
Shards of EarthAugust 2021
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Cage of SoulsJuly 2021
Adrian Tchaikovsky
FoundationJuly 2021
Isaac Asimov
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceJuly 2021
Robert M. Pirsig
Colorless Tzukuru Tazaki and his Years of PilgrimageJuly 2021
Haruki Murakami
The Dark ForestJuly 2021
Cixin Liu
Home StretchJuly 2021
Graham Norton
NeuromancerJuly 2021
William Gibson
Seeing Like a StateJuly 2021
James C. Scott
The Revolt of the PublicJune 2021
Martin Gurri
Out of Mao's ShadowJune 2021
Philip Pan
Age of AmbitionJune 2021
Evan Osnos
The Making of KaratekaJune 2021
Jordan Mechner
ZendegiJune 2021
Greg Egan
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceXJune 2021
Eric Berger
Project Hail MaryJune 2021
Andy Weir
I am a Strange LoopJune 2021
Douglas Hofstadter
The Dream MachineMay 2021
M. Mitchell Waldrop
HarkMay 2021
Sam Lipsyte
The Clockwork RocketMay 2021
Greg Egan
Kafka on the ShoreMay 2021
Haruki Murakami
The Buried GiantMay 2021
Kazuo Ishiguro
When Genius FailedMay 2021
Roger Lowenstein
The Everything StoreApril 2021
Brad Stone
The Spider NetworkApril 2021
David Enrich
Digital Gold: The Untold Story of BitcoinApril 2021
Nathaniel Popper
Made in AmericaApril 2021
Sam Walton
When Breath Becomes AirApril 2021
Paul Kalanithi
The Ride of a LifetimeApril 2021
Robert Iger
The Making of Prince of PersiaApril 2021
Jordan Mechner
The Mirror and the LightMarch 2021
Hilary Mantel
The Galaxy, and the Ground WithinMarch 2021
Becky Chambers
Oil on WaterMarch 2021
Helen Habila
The PrecipiceMarch 2021
Toby Ord
The Unbearable Lightness of BeingMarch 2021
Milan Kundera
A Desolation Called PeaceMarch 2021
Arkady Martine
This is HappinessFebruary 2021
Niall Williams
The Unwomanly Face of WarFebruary 2021
Svetlana Alexievich
ArtemisFebruary 2021
Andy Weir
South of the Border, West of the SunFebruary 2021
Haruki Murakami
The Bone SeasonFebruary 2021
Samantha Shannon
The Collapsing EmpireFebruary 2021
John Scalzi
WitherwardFebruary 2021
Hannah Mathewson
White TeethJanuary 2021
Zadie Smith
Peoples Republic of WalmartJanuary 2021
Leigh Phillip's & Michael Rozworski
SummerwaterJanuary 2021
Sarah Moss
Entangled LifeJanuary 2021
Merlin Sheldrake
IntimationsJanuary 2021
Zadie Smith
Children of RuinJanuary 2021
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Being a BeastDecember 2020
Charles Foster
The Bell JarDecember 2020
Silvia Plath
Ready Player 2December 2020
Ernest Cline
Ancillary JusticeDecember 2020
Ann Leckie
Pale FireDecember 2020
Vladimir Nabokov
The City We BecameDecember 2020
N. K. Jemsin
My Face for the World to SeeDecember 2020
Alfred Hayes
Super Pumped: The Battle for UberDecember 2020
Mike Isaac
Against the Double BlackmailDecember 2020
Slavoj Žižek
HamnetDecember 2020
Maggie O'Farrell
QueenieDecember 2020
Candice Carty-Williams
The Lonely CityDecember 2020
Olivia Laing
Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and BelongingNovember 2020
Afua Hirsch
DistressNovember 2020
Greg Egan
A Wild Sheep ChaseNovember 2020
Haruki Murakami
The Satanic VersesNovember 2020
Salman Rushdie
RecursionNovember 2020
Blake Crouch
Why Nations Fail; The Origins of Power, Prosperity and PovertyNovember 2020
Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson
The Elephant VanishesNovember 2020
Haruki Murakami
Chaos Monkeys; Mayhem and Mania Inside the Silicon Valley Money MachineNovember 2020
Antonio Garcia Martinez
The Stone SkyOctober 2020
N. K. Jemisin
Before the coffee gets cold; Tales from the CafeOctober 2020
Toshikazu Kawaguchi
How Democracy EndsOctober 2020
David Runciman
Harrow The NinthOctober 2020
Tamsyn Muir
DublinersOctober 2020
James Joyce
QuarantineOctober 2020
Greg Egan
Inadequate EquilibriumOctober 2020
Elizer Yudkowsky
Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISISOctober 2020
Azadeh Moaveni
After DarkOctober 2020
Haruki Murakami
The Murders of Molly SouthbourneOctober 2020
Tade Thompson
The Three Body ProblemOctober 2020
Cixin Liu
To Sleep in a Sea of StarsOctober 2020
Christopher Paolini
The Weil Conjectures: On Maths and the Pursuit of the UnknownOctober 2020
Karen Olsson
Gods of Jade and ShadowSeptember 2020
Silvio Moreno-Garcia
Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical Way to Make a DifferenceSeptember 2020
William MacAskill
The Poppy WarSeptember 2020
R. F. Kuang
Shoe DogSeptember 2020
Phil Knight
The Ten Thousand Doors of JanuarySeptember 2020
Alix E. Harrow
The InstituteSeptember 2020
Stephen King
The Obelisk GateSeptember 2020
N. K. Jesimin
Dogs of WarAugust 2020
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Under PressureAugust 2020
Faruk Šehić
The Tower of Living and DyingAugust 2020
Anna Smith Spark
The Fifth SeasonAugust 2020
N. K. Jemisin
Facebook: The Inside StoryAugust 2020
Steven Levy
A Memory Called EmpireAugust 2020
Arkady Martine
Dance Dance DanceAugust 2020
Haruki Murakami
Gideon the NinthAugust 2020
Tamsyn Muir
Making WolfJuly 2020
Tade Thompson
The Empire of GoldJuly 2020
S. A. Chakraborty
A Short History of ProgressJuly 2020
Ronald Wright
DevolutionJuly 2020
Max Brooks
A Closed and Common OrbitJuly 2020
Becky Chambers
The Priory of the Orange TreeJuly 2020
Samantha Shannon
Death By Video GameJune 2020
Simon Parkin
Gathering EvidenceJune 2020
Martin MacInnes
The Poison SongJune 2020
Jen Williams
What I Talk About When I Talk About RunningJune 2020
Haruki Murakami
A Thousand Splendid SunsJune 2020
Khaled Hosseini
Prisoner of GeographyJune 2020
Tim Marshall
QuietJune 2020
Susan Cain
This Changes EverythingJune 2020
Naomi Klein
Sex and RageJune 2020
Eve Babitz
Lady Sings the BluesJune 2020
Billie Holiday
The Age of Surveilance Capatilism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of PowerMay 2020
Shoshana Zuboff
Stupid White Men (and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation)May 2020
Michael Moore
ColumbineMay 2020
Dave Cullen
Superforcasting: The Art and Science of PredictionMay 2020
Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardener
SkunkworksMay 2020
Ben R. Rich & Leo Janos
Zero to One; Notes on Startups, or How to Build the FutureMay 2020
Peter Thiel
The InnovatorsMay 2020
Walter Isaacson
Down to the Sea in ShipsMay 2020
Horatio Clare
Around the World in 80 DaysMay 2020
Mark Beaumont
The Bitter TwinsMay 2020
Jen Williams
Springtime in a Broken MirrorApril 2020
Mario Benedetti
We Have Been Harmonised: Life in China's Surveillance StateApril 2020
Kai Strittmatter
LibraApril 2020
Don Delillo
The Man Who Cycled the WorldMarch 2020
Mark Beaumont
QualityLandMarch 2020
Marc-Uwe Kling
Men Without WomenMarch 2020
Haruki Murakami
SalvadorMarch 2020
John Didion
Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of ViolenceMarch 2020
Christian Parenti
The Man Who Saw EverythingMarch 2020
Deborah Levy
The State of the ArtMarch 2020
Iain M Banks
The Sense of StyleFebruary 2020
Steven Pinker
KitchenFebruary 2020
Banana Yoshimoto
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldFebruary 2020
Haruki Murakami
Normal PeopleFebruary 2020
Sally Rooney
False ValueFebruary 2020
Ben Aaronovitch
To Be Taught If FortunateFebruary 2020
Becky Chambers
Capital CityJanuary 2020
Samuel Stein
Always NorthJanuary 2020
Vicki Jarrett
SpeakJanuary 2020
Louisa Hall
Conversations With FriendsJanuary 2020
Sally Rooney
A Line Made By WalkingJanuary 2020
Sara Baume
The White Road; A Journey Into ObsessionJanuary 2020
Edmund De Waal
Use of WeaponsDecember 2019
Iain M Banks
Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became ScapegoatsDecember 2019
Maya Goodfellow
UndergroundDecember 2019
Haruki Murakami
Twas the Nightshift Before ChristmasDecember 2019
Adam Kay
1Q84 Book ThreeDecember 2019
Haruki Murakami
East West StreetDecember 2019
Philippe Sands
Turning Darkness Into LightNovember 2019
Marie Brennan
The Rosewater InsurrectionNovember 2019
Tade Thompson
The Player of GamesNovember 2019
Iain M Banks
ExcessionNovember 2019
Iain M Banks
The MartianNovember 2019
Andy Weir
Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of PainNovember 2019
Fintan O'Toole
The Rosewater RedemptionNovember 2019
Tade Thompson
CryptonomiconOctober 2019
Neal Stephenson
The Book of DustOctober 2019
Philip Pullman
ChernobylSeptember 2019
Serhii Plokhy
SalvationSeptember 2019
Peter Hamilton
DaemonSeptember 2019
Daniel Suarez
You can't read this bookSeptember 2019
Nick Cohen
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley StartupAugust 2019
John Carreyrou
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior DoctorAugust 2019
Adam Kay
Snow CrashAugust 2019
Neal Stephenson
Burial RitesAugust 2019
Hannah Kent
Record of a Spaceborn FewAugust 2019
Becky Chambers
1Q84 Books One and TwoAugust 2019
Haruki Murahami
RosewaterAugust 2019
Tade Thompson
SunfallJuly 2019
Jim Al-Khalli
The Wandering EarthJuly 2019
Cixin Liu
KJuly 2019
Bernardo Kucinski
Seven Days in the Art WorldJuly 2019
Sarah Thornton
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for MenJuly 2019
Caroline Criado Perez
Metro 2033July 2019
Dmitry Glukhovsky
Bilbo le HobbitJune 2019
J. R. R. Tolkien
The History of the FutureJune 2019
Blake J. Harris
MythosJune 2019
Stephen Fry
Names for the SeaJune 2019
Sarah Moss
The Wind-up Bird ChronicleJune 2019
Murakami
The Girl Who Can Move Sh*t With Her MindJune 2019
Jackson Ford
Hope for the BestMay 2019
Jodi Taylor
Season of StormsMay 2019
Andrzej Sapkowski
Norwegian WoodMay 2019
Haruki Murakami
Kingdom of CopperMay 2019
S.A. Chakraborty
The Long Way to a Small Angry PlanetMay 2019
Becky Chambers
The Name of the WindApril 2019
Patrick Rothfuss
The Wise Man's FearApril 2019
Patrick Rothfuss
I Love DickApril 2019
Chris Kraus
DiasporaApril 2019
Greg Egan