What I read in 2025

Every year since 2016 I've published a list of what I've read that year.

I've created a virtual bookshelf that aggregates it all in one place - you can get your own access link here. These lists become a journal of what I was thinking about over time.

Here is what I read and what I was thinking in 2025 in rough order of preference colored by recency bias.

The Road, Cormac McCarthy - This is a hard book. A remarkable book. A book you have to steal yourself to begin, like entering a freezing pool. It is an incredible book.

The Devils, Joe Abercrombie - Delightful. Abercrombie kicks off another trilogy with a totally new cast of characters forced to work together on a quest with some twists, romance, gore, and hilarity along the way. I'd put this one above the Age of Madness trilogy in the rankings for those keeping score. I could see myself enjoying this one again. If you are an Abercrombie fan, this one turns down the grimness and turns up the fantasy and humor. If you aren't an Abercrombie adept, this actually might be the best place to start. It's great fantasy. The writing is tight, ironic, and funny.

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck - A breathtaking novella by John Steinbeck. This was so memorable from middle school, but Steinbeck is wasted on the youth. This hits so hard for anyone with dependents, for anyone struggling to get ahead, for anyone who wants to do the right thing. It is a masterpiece.

Wind and Truth: The Stormlight Archive #5, Brandon Sanderson - I wrote a spoiler free reaction to Wind and Truth. What follows are my contemporaneous, unorganized notes. This is the conclusion of the first Stormlight Archive set. I'm like 4000+ pages deep and almost 10 years into this series. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it at this point. I loved the first two books. The third and fourth books were not great. So here is Sanderson's chance for redemption! The book is divided up into nine days (spoiler warning from now on). Day 1 was not great. I was honestly feeling a lot of dread at this point. The book is so long and the first day was so bad. There was a scene with Kaladin and his family that was really cringy. Just so flat and cheesy like a 90s sitcom in the worst ways. The Shadesmar plot line continuing from book 4 is truly awful. Shadesmar has surreal Looney Tunes vibes and I do not care for it at all. Sword Nimi is also very off. Conceptually, a demonic deity infused sword should be very cool, but the implementation by Sanderson is so bad. I want this object to be like The Ring. It should give its wielder terrible migraines and nausea. Instead it's just cheesy comic relief. There was also a horrible shower scene with Shallon and Adolin. I find Sanderson's romance unconvincing. Day 2 is an improvement on Day 1. Again the milage varies significantly by plot line. I'm very interested at this point in Adolin, Szeth, Dalinar, and Taravangian. I'm less interested in Renarin, Rlain, Shallon, and most of the other characters that probably have their own novels in the Sanderson Cosmere. Day 3 was quite strong. It was dedicated to Adolin, Szeth, Kaladin, and Dalinar. Boom, stick with your hits, Sanderson. Sanderson is great on plot and world building. Characters, humor, and romance are not his strengths. When you are 4000+ pages into an epic fantasy series, the plot is going to slow and the character arks become really important. The world is mostly built out. So it makes sense that given what I like about Sanderson's writing, books 3 & 4 were not my favorites. Checking back in on Day 7. Renarin, Rlain and Shallon continue to be very annoying. Venli and the Parshendi are also boring. But, everything else is really good. And the ending is magnificent.

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson - It seems cliche to recommend, but the book is really a masterpiece of biography. There are lessons about product, design, technology, business, and leadership from Steve Jobs’ well known successes. But there are just as many lessons in these areas from his missteps, personal failings, and weaknesses that appear as anti-patterns and failure modes to be avoided at all costs. Here’s to the crazy ones.

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams - Enthralling. I could not put this one down. Wow as bad an opinion I had of Facebook before, if even 1% of this book is true, it is completely damning. The author characterizes the leadership of Facebook as being careless and self absorbed and provides plenty of personal experience to back it up. If you like tech and corporate gossip, like Kara Swisher's Burn Book, this is a must.

Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, Edward Fishman - An awesome book on the recent history of economic warfare. Fishman makes the argument that using so-called chokepoints in the economy can help prevent wars and let the US project its power without the need for military action. He reveals the inside story of the various economic sanction regimes starting in the 1990s with Iraq, and then charting the history through Iran, North Korea, Russia and China. This is absolutely fascinating and has more than enough technical depth for a finance nerd, but written in an engaging tone that makes the reader think they are in the middle of a global thriller instead of an economics textbook. Disclaimer, I work closely with the Author's spouse.

How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors that Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything in Between, Dan Gardner, Bent Flyvbjerg - Drawing on data that suggests that big projects tend to under deliver, exceed costs, and go past deadlines, the authors make a compelling case for planning. They use interesting case studies - from Pixar, to Robert Carro - to make their arguments entertaining and persuasive. My takeaways for my work in software are that while planning might not feel productive, it is. I like the idea of experience counting for a lot and that projects are not unique. It's possible to look at other projects to make better estimates and plans. This book talked a bit about Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Both books find bugs in thinking that result in negative outcomes, but Gardner and Flyvbjerg emphasize the role of politics in bad decision making, whereas Kahneman focuses on psychology. I also like that the more you read, the more you come across the same case studies, anecdotes, and people, but from new vantage points.

Number go up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall, Zeke Faux - I love a good crypto scheme book. This is part gonzo journalism and part true crime. Strongly recommend this book.

Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World, Dan Davies - I love this book. Davies provides a taxonomy of frauds and famous historical examples of each category. I re-read this to kick off 2025 even though I had just read it at the close of 2024. Overall, the argument is that by studying fraud, we can learn more about how the economy works. It covers famous frauds like Ponzi, Enron, Holmes, and Madoff.

Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery, Theodore Schwartz - A long but fascinating history of Neurosurgery. This book recounts the cutting edge of neurosurgery for each generation of its practitioners as well as the author's life story, how he came to the field and how he views himself in the history of the field. There is something deeply satisfying about exploring rigorous endeavors and practicing neurosurgery is definitely that. I enjoyed learning about various types of brain surgeries, the tools and methods of modern neurosurgery, and the author's process for becoming a neurosurgeon. The surgeries described are quite graphic and it's shocking how much can be done through various small entry points. The section on lobotomies was tough, just because it is completely horrifying, but I understand why Schwartz included it. The end of the book talks about the theory of mind, free will, and brain computer interfaces and ocular implants. This one is worth the effort.

The Everything War: Amazon's Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power, Dana Mattioli - Very solid write up by WSJ journalist on the history Amazon. A few points that were interesting to me are 1. Amazon uses congressional district level job data to pressure legislators. 2. Amazon uses data on third party sellers to directly grow the Amazon basics brand. 3. Amazon has tempted founders with the promise of acquisition in order to steal intellectual property.

While Amazon has created X million jobs in America, what is the median quality of these jobs? How does the total number of jobs created compare to the jobs destroyed through closing retailers? How does the median quality of job created compare with median quality of job destroyed?

Then finally there was the chilling story of an Amazon engineer who attempted suicide by jumping off the twelfth story of one of the Seattle offices after getting put on performance improvement plan.

The Origins of Efficiency, Brian Potter - A fascinating exploration of how processes become more efficient over time through improving production methods, increasing output rates, lowering input costs, removing unnecessary steps, and reducing variability. The author draws from historical examples such as the mass production of the Model-T, paper, and light bulbs. He argues that essentially human progress is the result of efficiency gains. He closes by exploring why certain domains (housing, education, medical care, hiring a string quartet) remain expensive and asserts that it is because these areas have factors that prevent the application of the efficiency improvements documented in the book.

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, John Vaillant - What if Jaws was about a Tiger and instead of the Ocean it was the Russian Tiaga? This book rules. One saying from the Tiaga that will stick with me is that, optimists learn English. Pessimists learn Mandarin. Pragmatists learn the Kalashnikov.

Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, Dan Wang - I love the juxtaposition of the lawyer society vs. the engineering society. I went in expecting the author to mostly extoll China's infrastructure, but in fact, the author used his experience living in both the US and China to elucidate their similarities and what each society gets wrong. This was a great read in part because it was more memoir than social science text.

Furious Minds: The Making of the Maga New Right, Laura K. Field - A comprehensive dive into the intellectual currents of MAGA. This is a great compendium to the Know Your Enemy Podcast. And now I can impress friends at cocktail parties by discussing the differences between Strausians, Paleo-Conservatives, Catholic Integralists, Alt Right, Groypers, and Christian Nationalists.

The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, Osita Nwanevu - I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. Simply stated, Nwanevu argues that Democracy is good and we should get more of it. I enjoyed the second to last chapter on how we might turn up the democracy level in various parts of our government. Ideas included getting rid of the electoral college, getting rid of the Senate, Increasing the number of representatives, ending lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, and other ideas.

The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025, Dwarkesh Patel - This is a series of excerpts from interviews Dwarkesh conducted and grouped by theme. Overall I enjoyed it. I'd say something that interests Dwarkesh across the various domains he explores on his podcast is the idea of macro trends. It's like focusing on the macro game in Starcraft. Rather than talking about the algorithms used in AI, he focuses more on things like datacenter size and power. It's all pretty fascinating. Some points that stood out were serious people talking about throwing an entire state's worth of power at a single datacenter. Also the idea of nuking a datacenter or using nukes to deter interference in a state's datacenter.

Money for Couples: No More Stress. No More Fights. Just a 10-Step Plan to Create your Rich Life Toether, Ramit Sethi - I like this personal finance book because it is mostly about how to talk about money as a couple. I like the idea that just as there are love languages, there are also different archetypes for how we deal with and feel about money - dreamer, avoider, worrier, and optimizer. Depending on the archetype pairing, conversations need to be handled in a particular way. I'm looking forward to actualizing my rich life with my wife.

Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond, Gene Kranz - Incredibly detailed review of Gene Kranz's experience in the US space program. The engineering discussions and practices are great. But, when I say detailed, I mean every single mission is thoroughly documented. There are lots of pages on training simulations. It's a long one. Kranz calls for a increased emphasis on new ambitious space programs.

Y2k: How the 2000s Became Everything: Essays on the Future that Never Was, Colette Shade - A series of essays rooted in the experience of millennial youth but each with a broader social, economic or political commentary. The idea is that the mid to late 90s were a time of promise, but the future millennials were promised never happened. Essays cover topics such as the rise of multinational corporations, environmentalism, sexuality, the mortgage crisis, and 9/11. I enjoyed the nostalgia of many of the pop culture references. But, it's worth a look for millennials looking to understand where things went off the rails or non-millennial interested in the experience of millennial youth.

The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain, Brock L. Eide, Fernette F. Eide - A helpful introduction to dyslexia. The authors introduce a MIND acronym to capture the cognitive strengths associated with dyslexia. Material reasoning is thinking about the physical world in 3d. Interconnected reasoning is the ability to make connections between concepts. Narrative reasoning is the ability to think in stories and understand sequence. Dynamic reasoning is about predicting and understanding change. These all represent potential strengths that people with dyslexia may possess. The book includes anecdotes about the many successful scientists, writers, entrepreneurs, and designers with significant strengths in these areas.

Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News, Alec Karakatsanis - Describes the ubiquity of pro-cop discourse, the effect of such discourse, and what we can do about it.

Validation: How the Skill Set That Revolutionized Psychology Will Transform Your Relationships, Increase Your Influence, and Change Your Life, Caroline Fleck, PhD - My key insights from this book are:

1. Reading anything your spouse recommends is a superpower.
2. People's core behaviors rarely change through direct intervention. "You should try doing X" almost always fails.
3. True validation comes from genuine empathy - understanding someone's perspective without judgement and before responding. This skill requires practice, adaptation, and learning from mistakes when your initial approach does not resonate. Oprah does this in realtime in her various interviews.
4. Validation pro tip: "What you are experiencing is hard / frustrating etc AND you are handling better than most people would!"
5. If you validate, you actually can change people's behavior.

The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, Seth Harp - Books that document crazy behaviors and vices coming out of closed "inner ring" groups with no accountability are always fascinating. I wonder how much of this is true. And the cost of the response to 9/11 continues to boggle my mind. How much treasure. How many lives ruined. So stupid.

Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War, Ben Macintyre - A history of the British SAS, an early version of special forces in WWII. Lots of commando raids. I'm glad I'm not a commando. Also, it looks like Guy Richie's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a touch understated.

Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, Safi Bahcall - An interesting look at how organizations and incentives can promote or hinder step change style innovation.

Co-Intellience: Living and Working with AI, Ethan Mollick - An academic's take on using LLM's as partners. I found this interesting as I'm deep into the world of AI Coding tools and have been using LLMs everyday. Some of this confirmed my intuitions and work style, but others made me rethink some of my usage. One thing that stood out, the LLMs we use right now are the worst ones we'll ever use.

The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life, Sahil Bloom - This book should be a series of LLM-fueled discussion prompts. The book will be mind blowing if you've never read a self help book before. But, if you've read any of the top 100 self help books of the last few decades, there will not be a ton of new content here. As such, some of the common pitfalls of the self-help genre are ever present in this one. The author tells us to not worry about money, but also spends an entire section of the book on summarizing personal finance self help. According to the author, the five types of wealth are time wealth (20 year olds are time billionaires!), social wealth (who will be in the front row of your funeral?), mental wealth (don't be dumb or incurious?), Physical wealth (get swol bruh), financial wealth (get rich so you can do the other wealths). I think the social wealth, time wealth, and designing your dream life sections are worth loading into an LLM for discussion and reflection. But should you read this book? Probably not. Go to some of the sources that are just better.

The Haves and the Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the ultrarich, Evan Osnos - This book was kind of all over the place. I think it would have been better as more of a voyeuristic look into the lives of the extremely wealthy. Just getting to glimpse that should be enough of an argument about the state of wealth inequality. But he really only did that for the yacht chapter. He moved into tax avoidance, white collar crime, and reformed white collar criminals. I wanted more about what happens on the yachts.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives: Book 1, Hisashi Kashiwai - A cozy episodic tale where people enlist the Kamogawa Food Detectives to recreate meaningful dishes from their past with scant information. If you like reading menus and cozy vibes you can do worse than this short novel.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe - I love Patrick Radden Keefe, but this was not my favorite of his works. It was pretty good though. I did not know much about 20th Century Irish history, and this felt like a good place to start.

Elephants in my Backyard: A Memoir, Rajiv Surendra - Rajiv is an interesting guy. His drunk dad sounds awful. I'm sorry he didn't get the Life of Pi role. I'm glad he learned to swim. I'm glad he had a nice time in Munich. And it sounds like he is really good with white chalk. This book is fine.

Abundance, Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson - Abundance is just neoliberalism with millennial vibes. While nearly everyone will likely find the future of a more abundant society painted in the prologue appealing, the meat of this book is pasting together metascience (how do we speed up discovery?), removing regulation, and creating incentives with government. It really is just neoliberalism. This book is overrated and if it is the best idea the Democrats have at this point, then they are cooked.

Overcoming Dyslexia Second Edition, Completely Revised and Updated, Sally E. Shaywitz - This was more technical than The Dyslexic Advantage. I'm glad I paired both of these because the Dyslexic Advantage is more vibes and the positive skills that are often represented in people with dyslexia. Overcoming Dyslexia is more of a handbook for parents of kids with dyslexia and covers diagnosis, reading benchmarks, the history of dyslexia. The book also covers what to look for in a school for a child with dyslexia, the college admissions process, and collegiate experience. Some of the discussion of technology tools felt dated.

A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos, Geraint F. Lewis - The last chapter of this book low key ruined the rest of an otherwise lovely book for me. The premise of the book is to investigate various aspects of physics and understand the degree to which they are "fine-tuned" to support our reality and existence. For example, what if electrons had slightly more negative charge? What if stars could be a little bit bigger? What if Gravity was just a touch stronger or weaker, etc. What the authors find is that the universe is exceptionally finely tuned across many parameters to support our existence. Even small tweaks would result in a vastly different and less inhabitable universe. The final chapter explores why that might be and was less convincing to me.

How to be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to live a Modern Life, Massimo Pigliucci - Nice primer on Stoicism.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald - Revisiting this one for the first time since middle school or high school and 100 years after its publication. It's fine. Short, great language, takes place on Long Island, not too far from where I grew up. Not my favorite.

When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamin Labatut - A fiction where the lead physicists of the early 20th century are the main characters. I like this less the further I got into it, but it started out really strong.

Slow Gods, Claire North - I enjoyed the sci-fi hyper capitalist dystopian space opera, but the interplanetary romance did not hold my attention and I sort of lost the thread midway through the book.

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, Julie Zhuo - I felt like this was kind of unhinged. Some good advice, but to me the vibes were off. It could be because this contrasts with my impression of Facebook from Careless People. It could be that the domain is design, so didn't land, or it could be that the author is a corporate NPC.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters, Richard Rumelt - A bit of a dated slog.

Once A Runner: A novel, John L. Parker, Jr - A fun story about a collegiate competitive runner with raunchiness, humor, and good descriptions of some of the pain and glory of running.

Abandoned Books

Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do About It, Erin L. Kelly - A discussion of the ways the professional managerial class feels overloaded. I did not get to the solutions part. The book felt dated.