Here are some of my favorite books. My favorite topics to read about are history, psychology and science. Perhaps my favorite topic inside of science is evolutionary biology.
Note: in the Fiction section I decided not to include the “obvious” classics. For example, I really liked Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn, etc., but it seemed silly to me to list all those. So I only listed fiction books that are a little bit off the beaten path.
I plan to continually update this page as I read more books and acquire more favorites.
Titles in bold are special favorites.
Science
The Demon-Haunted World
Cosmos
How the Mind Works
The Blank Slate
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
The Selfish Gene
Dinosaur Odyssey
Misc. History
Guns, Germs & Steel
The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Path Between the Seas
Midnight in Chernobyl
Anything by David McCullough, Ron Chernow or Walter Isaacson
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
History – Biographies
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Washington: A Life
Alexander Hamilton
Steve Jobs
Einstein: His Life and Universe
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Into the Wild
Psychology
How to Win Friends and Influence People
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Man’s Search for Meaning
The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Programming
Code Complete
Refactoring
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests
Domain-Driven Design
Test-Driven Development: by Example
User Interface Design
Clean Code
Design Patterns
The Phoenix Project
Fiction
Confederacy of Dunces
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Anything by Philip K. Dick
Other
Enlightenment Now
The Lost Art of Finding Our Way
Eat to Live
Oh! The Things I Know
America: The Book
Kitchen Confidential
The Worst Hard Time
Sailing Alone Around the World
Anything by Bill Bryson