Reading List
Table of Contents
Introduction
Being an avid reader myself I always like it when I find trustworthy sources (books, articles, websites) with lists of material to read. I figured that my knack for losing the wonderful reading suggestions in depths of oblivion (my zotero collection :P),and my confidence in that I sometimes find stuff I would like my siblings and friends to read, were good enough reasons for me to create a special page here, just for that:
I have opted against tedious categorization: ctrl+f might be one’s
best tool
Every time I visit this page I can not help but feel a certain kind of sadness, around the suggestions I have not made so far. There are much more books and articles I would like there to be here, many of which perhaps should have been the first to be placed here. The list will never be adequately updated.
Books you have to read
Creating a list like this feels pretentious and nearly impossible. No matter how hard I try, I cannot think of an effective way to avoid omissions…
- Almanack of Naval Ravikant: I’m extremely grateful to Eric Jorgenson for compiling this book. Lots of insights and ideas, beautifully put together.
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack: My fascination regarding Charlie Munger’s character is what prompted me to create this list in the first place, and it is not randomness that is responsible for this book being right after the almanack of Naval… Instead of chain-reaction I should call this one a lollapalooza effect.
- J.R.R. Tolkien’s Books:
- The Children of Húrin: I consider this to be perhaps one of the greatest fiction books I have ever read. Tremendously well crafted.
- The Lord of The Rings trilogy
- The Silmarillion
- The Hobbit
- The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Doumas
- Factfulness, by Hans and Ola Rosling: Mind-boggling book. I would put it next to Harari’s ’Homo Deus’, but much easier. Forces you to reevaluate some ideas.
- Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!,
- Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell… Found myself suggesting that too often to friends to not include it here.
Books I really liked
- Bruce Schneier’s Books:
- Having added his blog in the next section, I realized that I had not properly added his books here (at least the ones I have spent some time studying):
- Applied Cryptography
- Liars and Outliers
- Menn’s Cult Of the Dead Cow: There’s something inspiring there, though there is something in Menn’s writing style that does not resonate so well with me
Podcasts
In general, I am afraid of stating that I like a podcast because most of them produce so much content that you cannot possibly listen to all of it. Aaaaand… if you are a picky listener like me, you only like specific episodes, but you may be criticized for aligning with the whole. I don’t know… we live in strange times indeed :P:
- I have liked and repeatedly go back to some episodes in Modern Wisdom. I think good work’s been done there.
Blogs / Articles
- https://two-wrongs.com/ I really like Chris’ blog, offering a unique look on a plethora of different subjects. Pleasant, yet not always relaxed, reading.
Crypto-Gram: Schneier’s influence can not be overstated, and many of his are exceptionally mindblowing to me, mainly for 2 distinct reasons:
- He either uses a completely different approach than the one I have seen/thought of, allowing for increased understanding through that perspective or
- He states something that one might have come up with themselves but more eloquently also allowing for new insight.
Thus, I can not help, but include it here.
- phrack: Potentially the only http site here but… One should read at least some bits of it.
- Be Someone Who Does Things by Phil Eaton
- https://h0mbre.github.io/: Nice little blog - static for some time.
Courses
- Strang’s Linear Algebra
- This course might in fact have been the reason I started this blog: Being so fascinated, I just kept taking notes in LaTeX and building my workflow so that I could one day proud myself on not only knowing the material covered but …
- Thermodynamics lectures by Prof. David Miller