Reading List
Each year I set myself a goal to read fifty books (roughly one per week, with a little bit of wiggle room), though I don't always succeed. The lists below combine my efforts across three formats: physical books, e-books (Kindle) and audiobooks (Audible).
Read in 2024
- Prophet Song - Paul Lynch
- Double Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
- Mr Einstein's Secretary - Matthew Reilly
- The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
- The Sword and the Shield - Christopher Andrew & Vasilli Mitrokhin
- Hitch-22 - Christopher Hitchens
- Killing Zone - Harry McCallion
- God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens
- Dexter's Final Cut - Jeff Lindsay
- The End of Faith - Sam Harris
- Solider 'I' - Michael Paul Kennedy, Pete Winner & Andy McNab
- Slow Productivity - Cal Newport
- Weapons Grade - Don Bentley
- The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
- Dexter is Dead - Jeff Lindsay
- Red Metal - Mark Greaney & H. Ripley Rawlings IV
- Excellent Sheep - William Deresiewicz
- The Men Who Stare at Goats - Jon Ronson
- Assault by Fire - H. Ripley Rawlings IV
- The New Rules of War - Sean McFate
- Bravo Two Zero - Andy McNab
- The Hunt - Andy McNab
- The Missionary Position - Christopher Hitchens
- Mortality - Christopher Hitchens
- Stealth War - Robert Spalding
- Finlay Donovan Is Killing It - Elle Cosimano
- Eminent Lives - Michael Korda, Paul Johnson & Christopher Hitchens
- What This Comedian Said Will Shock You - Bill Maher
- The Kill Box - H. Ripley Rawlings IV
- Eragon - Christopher Paolini
- Eldest - Christopher Paolini
- Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
- Inheritance - Christopher Paolini
- Murtagh - Christopher Paolini
- Act of Defiance - Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson
- Shadow State - M. P. Woodward
- Tier One - Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson
- Long Game - Rush Doshi
- War Shadows - Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson
- On the Edge - Nate Silver
- Crusader One - Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson
- The War on Warriors - Pete Hegseth
- Shadow of Doubt - Brad Thor
- The Anxious Generation - Jonathan Haidt
- The Puzzle Palace - James Bamford
Currently Reading
- Henry V - Dan Jones
- Call for the Dead - John le Carré
- Dracula - Bram Stoker
- Pnin - Vladimir Nabokov
// TODO
- Just and Unjust Wars - Michael Walzer
- Napoleon: The Song of Departure - Max Gallo
- Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
- The Social Contract - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- The Cossacks - Leo Tolstoy
- Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
- Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
- The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
- Middlemarch - George Elliot
- Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
- Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
- Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
- War & Peace - Leo Tolstoy
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
- On War - Carl von Clausewitz
- Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn
- Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
- Vanished Kingdoms - Norman Davies
- Strategy: A History - Lawrence Freedman
- The Iliad - Homer
- Emma - Jane Austen
- The Lottery & Other Stories - Shirley Jackson
- The Anatomy of Fascism - Robert O. Paxton
- Wizard - Marc J. Seifer
- The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
- Iran: A Modern History - Abbas Amanat
- Napoleon the Great - Andrew Roberts
- The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
- The Nuremberg Trial - John Tusa & Ann Tusa
- Lost Enlightenment - S. Frederick Starr
- Foundation - Peter Ackroyd
- The Arabs - Eugene Rogan
- Site Reliability Engineering - Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff & Niall Richard Murphy
- One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
Read in 2023
- Leave No Man Behind - Tony Brooks
- We Were One - Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Black Wave - Kim Ghattas
- The Gun - C. J. Chivers
- Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
- Delta Force - Charlie A. Beckwith, Donald Knox
- Black Ops - Ric Prado
- Milk Blood Heat - Dantiel W. Moniz
- Glock - Paul M. Barrett
- So You've Been Publicly Shamed - Jon Ronson
- Executive Orders - Tom Clancy
- Capitalism and Freedom - Milton & Rose Friedman
- The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy
- Gray Work - Jamie Smith
- Hunting the Jackal - Billy Waugh & Tim Keown
- The Art of Intelligence - Henry A. Crumpton
- The Craft of Intelligence - Allen W. Dulles
- The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
- Red Rabbit - Tom Clancy
- War Without Rules - BG Robet Spalding (USAF Ret.)
- The Queen of Spades - Alexander Pushkin
- Red Winter - Tom Clancy
- Psychology of Intelligence Analysis - Richards J Heuer, Jr.
- Without Remorse - Tom Clancy
- Ibn Saud - Michael Darlow & Barbara Bray
- SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam - John L. Plaster
- Woke Racism - John McWhorter
- Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy
- Chip War - Chris Miller
- The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy
- Road to Jonestown - Jeff Guinn
- The Star-Child - Oscar Wilde
- The Future of Strategy - Colin S. Gray
- The Price of Peace - Zachary D. Carter
- Dead or Alive - Tom Clancy & Grant Blackwood
- Under Fire - Grant Blackwood
- Duty and Honor - Grant Blackwood
- Gun Barons - John Bainbridge, Jr.
- Inside Delta Force - CSM Eric L. Haney, USA (Ret.)
- Point of Contact - Mike Maden
- The History of the Medieval World - Susan Wise Bauer
- Line of Sight - Mike Maden
- Martin Luther - Eric Metaxas
- Enemy Contact - Mike Maden
- Nazi Billionaires - David de Jong
- Firing Point - Mike Maden
- The Party - Richard McGregor
- Target Acquired - Don Bentley
- Zero Hour - Don Bentley
- Flash Point - Don Bentley
- A Promised Land - Barack Obama
- Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
- Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
- The Origins of Political Order - Francis Fukuyama
- Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay
- Skunk Works - Ben R. Rich & Leo Janos
- Dexter by Design - Jeff Lindsay
- Spies, Lies, and Algorithms - Amy B. Zegart
- Stealth - Peter Westwick
- Hunter Killer - T. Mark McCurley, Kevin Maurer
- The Madness of Crowds - Douglas Murray
- Inferno - Dante Alighieri
- The Strange Death of Europe - Douglas Murray
- Dexter is Delicious - Jeff Lindsay
- Pipeline to Power - Vicky Ward
- Blackwater - Jeremy Scahill
- Rise and Kill First - Ronen Bergman
- Bloody Sunday - Douglas Murray
- The War That Made the Roman Empire - Barry Strauss
- The Four Horsemen - Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris & Daniel Dennett
Read in 2021
- Taliban - Ahmed Rashid
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling
- The Last Days of Stalin - Joshua Rubenstein
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
- Hannibal - Ernle Bradford
- The Sultans - Noel Barber
- The Accursed Tower - Roger Crowley
- The Age of Entitlement - Christopher Caldwell
- 1453 - Roger Crowley
- Empires of the Sea - Roger Crowley
- City of Fortune - Roger Crowley
- The War of the Three Gods - Peter Crawford
- Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
- Eragon - Christopher Paolini
- Eldest - Christopher Paolini
- In God's Path - Robert G. Hoyland
- Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
- Inheritance - Christopher Paolini
- Medieval Europe - Chris Wickham
- Conquerors - Roger Crowley
- The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
- The Twilight War - David Crist
- Conquistadors - Michael Wood
- Ancient Greece (2nd Edition) - Thomas R. Martin
- Destiny Disrupted - Tamim Ansary
- Troy - Stephen Fry
- The Shia Revival - Vali Nasr
- Babylon - Paul Kriwaczek
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
- Lost Islamic History - Firas Alkhateeb
- The Hundred Years War - Desmond Seward
- Muhammad - Martin Lings
- Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters
- Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
- Area 7 - Matthew Reilly
- Scarecrow - Matthew Reilly
- Digital Minimalism - Cal Newport
- Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves - Matthew Reilly
- The Big Stick - Eliot A. Cohen
- The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
- The Cold War - John Lewis Gaddis
- Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
- Hannibal - Thomas Harris
- Crouching Tiger - Peter Navarro
- Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce
- In The Hand of the Goddess - Tamora Pierce
- The Woman Who Rides Like a Man - Tamora Pierce
- Lioness Rampant - Tamora Pierce
- Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
- Supreme Command - Eliot A. Cohen
- Wolf-Speaker - Tamora Pierce
- Misbehaving - Richard Thaler
- Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce
- Is This Anything? - Jerry Seinfeld
- Realms of the Gods - Tamora Pierce
- Napoleon: A Life - Andrew Roberts
Read in 2020
- Henry V - Ian Mortimer
- The Anarchy - William Dalrymple
- Revolutionary Iran - Michael Axworthy
- A Great & Terrible King - Marc Morris
- Francis I - Leonie Frieda
- The Dictator's Handbook - Alastair Smith & Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
- Agincourt - Bernard Cornwell
- The Ayatollah Begs to Differ - Hooman Majd
- Brotopia - Emily Chang
- A Little History of Economics - Niall Kishtainy
- Whistleblower - Susan Fowler
- Reset - Ellen Pao
- Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
- Facebook: The Inside Story - Steven Levy
- Ten Caesars - Barry Strauss
- Talking to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell
- Five Presidents - Lisa McCubbin & Clint Hill
- Deep Work - Cal Newport
- The Ministry of Guidance Invites You Not to Stay - Hooman Majd
- The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy
- Mr. Putin - Fiona Hill & Clifford G. Gaddy
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J. K. Rowling
- Uncanny Valley - Anna Wiener
- The Cardinal of the Kremlin - Tom Clancy
- Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
- Area 7 - Matthew Reilly
- Scarecrow - Matthew Reilly
- The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite - Duff McDonald
- Contest - Matthew Reilly
- The Economics of Inequality - Thomas Piketty & Arthur Goldhammer
- Temple - Matthew Reilly
- Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly
- Who Says Elephants Can't Dance - Lou Gerstner
- MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammad bin Salman - Ben Hubbard
- The Six Sacred Stones - Matthew Reilly
- The Five Greatest Warriors - Matthew Reilly
- The Four Legendary Kingdoms - Matthew Reilly
- The Three Secret Cities - Matthew Reilly
- Hover Car Racer - Matthew Reilly
- Hell Island - Matthew Reilly
- The Pragmatic Programmer - Andrew Hunt & David Thomas
- October - China Mieville
- The Great Zoo of China - Matthew Reilly
- Troll Mountain - Matthew Reilly
- Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
- Artemis Fowl and the Artic Incident - Eoin Colfer
- Inglorious Empire - Shashi Tharoor
- Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code - Eoin Colfer
- Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer
- The Unicorn Project - Gene Kim
- Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony - Eoin Colfer
- Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox - Eoin Colfer
- The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli
- Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex - Eoin Colfer
- Understanding Iran - William R. Polk
- Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian - Eoin Colfer
- Artificial Intelligence - Melanie Mitchell
- The Tournament - Matthew Reilly
- Prediction Machines - Avi Goldfarb, Ajay Agrawal & Joshua Gans
- Money - Jacob Goldstein
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X & Alex Haley
- Mythos - Stephen Fry
- The Fall of Heaven - Andrew Scott Cooper
- The Deficit Myth - Stephanie Kelton
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Republic of Turkey - Charles River Editors
- The Fall of the Ottomans - Eugene Rogan
- The Two Lost Mountains - Matthew Reilly
- Inside Iran - Medea Benjamin
- Billion Dollar Loser - Reeves Wiedeman
- The House of Kennedy - James Patterson
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J. K. Rowling
- The Great Siege - Ernle Bradford
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
- The French Revolution - Ian Davidson
- The Republic of Pirates - Colin Woodward
- Alexander the Great - Paul Cartledge
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
- Heroes - Stephen Fry
- Caesar's Legion - Stephen Dando-Collins
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling
Read in 2019
- The Three Secret Cities - Matthew Reilly
- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geeks and Geniuses Created the Digital Revolution - Walter Isaacson
- Creativity Inc. - Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace
- Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician - Anthony Everitt
- Conspiracy: Peter Theil, Hulk Hogan, Gawker and the Anatomy of Intrigue - Ryan Holiday
- Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill - Michael Shelden
- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, How to Build the Future - Peter Theil
- Socrates: A Man For Our Times - Paul Johnson
- Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians - Ian Stewart
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It - Chris Voss
- The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors - Dan Jones
- The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors - Dan Jones
- The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday
- Small Fry - Lisa Brennan-Jobs
- The Rise of Athens - Anthony Everitt
- The Virtues of War - Steven Pressfield
- Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield
- Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies & Three Battles - Bernard Cornwell
- The Profession - Steven Pressfield
- Empire of Dragons - Valerio Massimo Manfredi
- Killing Rommel - Steven Pressfield
- The Afghan Campaign - Steven Pressfield
- The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War - Steven Pressfield
- Augustus: First Emperor of Rome - Adrian Goldsworthy
- Tides of War - Steven Pressfield
- Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes - Alan Hirshfeld
- Bitwise: A Life In Code - David Auerbach
- The Fall of Carthage - Adrian Goldsworthy
- The Secret Runners of New York - Matthew Reilly
- Caesar - Adrian Goldsworthy
- Benjamin Franklin: An American Life - Walter Isaacson
- The Plantagenets - Dan Jones
- Last of the Amazons - Steven Pressfield
- Legion Versus Phalanx - Myke Cole
- How to Hide an Empire - Daniel Immerwahr
- Tempests and Slaughter - Tamora Pierce
- Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce
- In The Hand of the Goddess - Tamora Pierce
- The Woman Who Rides Like a Man - Tamora Pierce
- Lioness Rampant - Tamora Pierce
- Desert Fox: The Storied Military Career of Erwin Rommel - Samuel Mitcham
- Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce
- Wolf Speaker - Tamora Pierce
- The Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce
- Realms of the Gods - Tamora Pierce
- First Test - Tamora Pierce
- Page - Tamora Pierce
- Squire - Tamora Pierce
- Lady Knight - Tamora Pierce
- Leonardo da Vinci - Walter Isaacson
- Trickster's Choice - Tamora Pierce
- The Borgias: Power and Fortune - Paul Strathern
- Trickster's Queen - Tamora Pierce
- The Magic in the Weaving - Tamora Pierce
- The Power in the Storm - Tamora Pierce
- The Fire in the Forging - Tamora Pierce
- The Healing in the Vine - Tamora Pierce
- The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance - Paul Strathern
- Magic Steps - Tamora Pierce
- Street Magic - Tamora Pierce
- Cold Fire - Tamora Pierce
- Shatterglass - Tamora Pierce
- The Will of the Empress - Tamora Pierce
- Melting Stones - Tamora Pierce
- Battle Magic - Tamora Pierce
- The Crusades: the Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land - Thomas Asbridge
- Terrier - Tamora Pierce
- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World - Jack Weatherford
- Bloodhound - Tamora Pierce
- The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England - Marc Morris
- Mastiff - Tamora Pierce
- The Storm Before the Storm - Mike Duncan
- Edward III: The Perfect King - Ian Mortimer
Read in 2018
- Women & Power - Mary Beard
- All the President's Men - Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein
- The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
- And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
- Elanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
- We Are Never Meeting in Real Life - Samantha Irby
- Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
- The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
- Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual - John Sonmez
- The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
- The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business - Duff McDonald
- What Happened - Hillary Rodham Clinton
- A Higher Loyalty - James Comey
- Educated: A Memoir - Tara Westover
- Chemistry - Weiki Wang
- Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie
- Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance - Barack Obama
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
- American Prometheus: The Triumph & Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
- Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine Albright
- What Do You Care What Other People Think? - Richard Feynman & Ralph Leighton
- The Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie
- "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of Curious Character - Richard Feynman & Ralph Leighton
- Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
- Poirot Investigates - Agatha Christie
- Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
- The Last Interview - Christopher Hitchens
- My Own Words - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- A Brief History of the Amazons: Women Warriors in Myth and History - Lyn Webster Wilde
- The Big Four - Agatha Christie
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou
- The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
- The Mystery of the Blue Train - Agatha Christie
- Circe - Madeline Miller
- Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
- Peril at End House - Agatha Christie
- Lord Edgware Dies - Agatha Christie
- Einstein: His Life & Universe - Walter Isaacson
- Three Act Tradgedy - Agatha Christie
- The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google - Scott Galloway
- My Oxford Year - Julia Whelan
- Origin - Dan Brown
- Capital in the Twenty-First Century - Thomas Piketty
- The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
- How Google Works - Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg
- HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself - Harvard Business Review
- The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon - Brad Stone
- The Innovator's Dilemma - Clayton M. Christensen
- Reality is Not What It Seems - Carlo Rovelli
- The Order of Time - Carlo Rovelli
- Fear: Trump in the White House - Bob Woodward
- The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionised Time and Reality - Paul Halpern
- The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age - David N. Schwartz
- The Ides of March - Valerio Massimo Manfredi
- Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe - George Dyson
- The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom - Graham Farmelo
- Moonraker - Ian Fleming
- A Mind At Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age - Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman
- The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation - Jon Gertner
- Diamonds Are Forever - Ian Fleming
Read in 2017
- Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves - Matthew Reilly
- The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, George Spafford & Kevin Behr
- Four Legendary Kingdoms - Matthew Reilly
- The One World Schoolhouse - Salman Khan
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
- Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
- A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
- Where are the Customer's Yachts? - Fred Schwed Jr.
- Casino Royale - Ian Fleming
- Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
- SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome - Mary Beard
- Misery - Stephen King
- Of Mice & Men - John Steinbeck
- Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
- Deep Work - Cal Newport
- Live and Let Die - Ian Fleming
- Production Ready Microservices - Susan Fowler Rigetti
- Eichmann in Jerusalem - Hannah Arendt
- The Trial - Franz Kafka
- Superintelligence - Nick Bostrom
- Mr Mercedes - Stephen King
- Let Me Tell You - Shirley Jackson
- The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite - Duff McDonald
- The Secret History - Donna Tartt
- The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick
- Quantum Chance: Nonlocality, Teleportation and Other Quantum Marvels - Nicolas Gisin