Books

A running shelf: what I am reading now, what I have finished, and what is next. Short notes, no ratings.

Currently reading4

Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
Meaning, suffering and responsibility — a serious counterweight to modern self-help.
Life & meaning
On Writing Well
William Zinsser
Clear nonfiction: simplicity, clutter, voice, structure and revision. The best starting point for this site.
Writing & storytelling
A Philosophy of Software Design
John Ousterhout
Complexity, deep modules, design judgment — agents write lines fast; you still judge whether they created complexity.
Programming & software design
Computer Networks: A Systems Approach
Larry Peterson, Bruce Davie
Networking from first principles — how the internet actually works, end to end. Free to read online.
Programming & software design

Don't Believe Everything You Feel
Robert L. Leahy
A CBT workbook: thoughts aren't facts — spotting and reframing automatic thinking patterns.
Psychology & cognition
Games People Play
Eric Berne
Transactional analysis and the recurring interpersonal "games" people unconsciously enact.
Behavior & relationships
The Let Them Theory
Mel Robbins
Let people do what they do and focus on your own response — a simple tool for letting go of control.
Behavior & relationships
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Scott Adams
Systems instead of goals, skill stacking and increasing your exposure to luck.
Life & meaning
Stolen Focus
Johann Hari
Why sustained attention is getting harder — technology, sleep, stress and incentives.
Life & meaning
12 Rules for Life
Jordan B. Peterson
An antidote to chaos: twelve practical rules mixing clinical psychology, myth and personal responsibility.
Life & meaning
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Tiny changes compound — the habit-building handbook: cues, environment, identity.
Life & meaning
The Defining Decade
Meg Jay
Why your twenties matter — decisions about work, love and identity compound early.
Life & meaning
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
Dumas' revenge epic — betrayal, patience and reinvention. Long, and worth it.
Fiction

Behave
Robert Sapolsky
The deepest answer to "why does a person actually do this?" — behavior traced from one second back to evolution and culture.
Psychology & cognition
Mindsight
Daniel J. Siegel
Noticing the script that is currently "living you" instead of automatically acting it out.
Psychology & cognition
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)
Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
Cognitive dissonance and self-justification — what people do after a bad decision to protect their self-image.
Psychology & cognition
Influence
Robert Cialdini
Reciprocity, social proof, authority, scarcity — how environments change behavior without coercion.
Psychology & cognition
The Righteous Mind
Jonathan Haidt
Why intelligent people sincerely believe completely different things — moral intuition precedes rational explanation.
Psychology & cognition
The Elephant in the Brain
Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson
Hidden motives behind what people say motivates them: status, signalling, social competition.
Psychology & cognition