The library
Bookshelf.
Every book I've read — 218 titles, grouped by how much they shaped me. Where I've written something, you'll see a Notes kicker on the cover.
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★★★★★
Shelf of Firebooks that rewired how I think
9 books
The Federalist Papers
Hamilton, Madison & Jay
★★★★★ 5.0
Superabundance
Marian Tupy & Gale Pooley
★★★★★ 5.0
The Ancient City
Fustel de Coulanges
★★★★★ 5.0
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
★★★★★ 5.0
Doctrine and Covenants / The Pearl of Great Price
LDS Scripture
★★★★★ 5.0
Holy Bible (King James Version)
Various
★★★★★ 5.0
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
★★★★★ 5.0
The Great Divorce
C. S. Lewis
★★★★★ 5.0
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing
★★★★★ 5.0
★★★★½
KeepersI'd re-read, I'd recommend
22 books
A River in Darkness
Masaji Ishikawa
★★★★½ 4.5
A Short Stay in Hell
Steven L. Peck
★★★★½ 4.5
Discourses and Selected Writings
Epictetus
★★★★½ 4.5
Factfulness
Hans Rosling
★★★★½ 4.5
False Alarm
Bjorn Lomborg
★★★★½ 4.5
Fermat's Last Theorem
Simon Singh
★★★★½ 4.5
How Will You Measure Your Life?
Clayton Christensen
★★★★½ 4.5
Infinite in All Directions
Freeman Dyson
★★★★½ 4.5
Jesus the Christ
James E. Talmage
★★★★½ 4.5
Never Split the Difference
Chris Voss
★★★★½ 4.5
Out of the Silence
Eduardo Strauch
★★★★½ 4.5
The Book of Mormon (Godwin's Illustrated Edition)
Godwin
★★★★½ 4.5
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky
★★★★½ 4.5
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
★★★★½ 4.5
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
★★★★½ 4.5
The Machine Stops
E. M. Forster
★★★★½ 4.5
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Robert A. Heinlein
★★★★½ 4.5
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
★★★★½ 4.5
The Road
Cormac McCarthy
★★★★½ 4.5
The Score
C. Thi Nguyen
★★★★½ 4.5
The Wager
David Grann
★★★★½ 4.5
There Is No AntiMemtics Division
Qntm
★★★★½ 4.5
★★★★
RecommendedI'd hand it to a friend
20 books
1929
Andrew Ross Sorkin
★★★★ 4.0
A Conflict of Visions
Thomas Sowell
★★★★ 4.0
A Little History of the World
E. H. Gombrich
★★★★ 4.0
David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
Gregory A. Prince & Wm. Robert Wright
★★★★ 4.0
Deep Survival
Laurence Gonzales
★★★★ 4.0
Gates of Fire
Steven Pressfield
★★★★ 4.0
Morning Star
Pierce Brown
★★★★ 4.0
Not Fade Away
Laurence Shames & Peter Barton
★★★★ 4.0
Nuclear War: A Scenario
Annie Jacobsen
★★★★ 4.0
Prime Numbers and the Riemann Hypothesis
Barry Mazur & William Stein
★★★★ 4.0
Prime Obsession
John Derbyshire
★★★★ 4.0
Saints, Vol. 1: The Standard of Truth
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
★★★★ 4.0
Seven Miracles That Saved America
Chris Stewart & Ted Stewart
★★★★ 4.0
Starship Troopers
Robert A. Heinlein
★★★★ 4.0
The Box
Marc Levinson
★★★★ 4.0
The Case for Nukes
Robert Zubrin
★★★★ 4.0
The Kill Chain
Christian Brose
★★★★ 4.0
The Meaning of It All
Richard Feynman
★★★★ 4.0
The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints
Thomas Wayment
★★★★ 4.0
The Revolt of the Public
Martin Gurri
★★★★ 4.0
★★★½
Worth the timesolid — one good idea or more
20 books
Dark and Magical Places
Christopher Kemp
★★★½ 3.5
Founding Brothers
Joseph J. Ellis
★★★½ 3.5
Freedom's Forge
Arthur Herman
★★★½ 3.5
God Will Prevail
Kerry Muhlestein
★★★½ 3.5
Golden Son
Pierce Brown
★★★½ 3.5
How the World Really Works
Vaclav Smil
★★★½ 3.5
How to Build a Car
Adrian Newey
★★★½ 3.5
Inventing a Nation
Gore Vidal
★★★½ 3.5
Life at the Bottom
Theodore Dalrymple
★★★½ 3.5
Physics from Finance
Jacob Schwichtenberg
★★★½ 3.5
Same as Ever
Morgan Housel
★★★½ 3.5
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
Richard W. Hamming
★★★½ 3.5
The Character of Physical Law
Richard Feynman
★★★½ 3.5
The Gulag Archipelago (Vol. 2)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
★★★½ 3.5
The Origins of Efficiency
Potter
★★★½ 3.5
The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI 2019-2025
Dwarkesh Patel
★★★½ 3.5
The War of Art
Steven Pressfield
★★★½ 3.5
Wanting
Luke Burgis
★★★½ 3.5
Washington: A Life
Ron Chernow
★★★½ 3.5
Zero to One
Peter Thiel
★★★½ 3.5
★★★
Fair readsa chapter or two worth keeping
37 books
Alexander Hamilton
Ron Chernow
★★★ 3.0
An Elegant Puzzle
Will Larson
★★★ 3.0
Boom
Hobart
★★★ 3.0
Chip War
Chris Miller
★★★ 3.0
Choosing Glory
Lili Anderson
★★★ 3.0
Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark
D. Michael Quinn
★★★ 3.0
Elon Musk
Walter Isaacson
★★★ 3.0
Feynman's Tips on Physics
Richard Feynman
★★★ 3.0
In the Hands of the Lord: The Life of Dallin H. Oaks
Richard E. Turley Jr. et al.
★★★ 3.0
Infinite Powers
Steven Strogatz
★★★ 3.0
Iron Gold
Pierce Brown
★★★ 3.0
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Richard Lyman Bushman
★★★ 3.0
Leonardo da Vinci
Walter Isaacson
★★★ 3.0
Mastery
Robert Greene
★★★ 3.0
Material World
Ed Conway
★★★ 3.0
Paths of Glory
Jeffrey Archer
★★★ 3.0
Red Rising
Pierce Brown
★★★ 3.0
Saints, Vol. 2: No Unhallowed Hand
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
★★★ 3.0
Salt: A World History
Mark Kurlansky
★★★ 3.0
Six Easy Pieces
Richard Feynman
★★★ 3.0
Six Not-So-Easy Pieces
Richard Feynman
★★★ 3.0
Stubborn Attachments
Tyler Cowen
★★★ 3.0
The 48 Laws of Power
Robert Greene
★★★ 3.0
The Accidental Superpower
Peter Zeihan
★★★ 3.0
The Art of Seduction
Robert Greene
★★★ 3.0
The Case Against Education
Bryan Caplan
★★★ 3.0
The Closing of the American Mind
Allan Bloom
★★★ 3.0
The Coddling of the American Mind
Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt
★★★ 3.0
The Comfort Crisis
Michael Easter
★★★ 3.0
The Cost of Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
★★★ 3.0
The Demon-Haunted World
Carl Sagan
★★★ 3.0
The Doctrines and the Mysteries
Godwin
★★★ 3.0
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
Peter Zeihan
★★★ 3.0
The Rational Optimist
Matt Ridley
★★★ 3.0
The War on the West
Douglas Murray
★★★ 3.0
The Way Things Work
David Macaulay
★★★ 3.0
Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
★★★ 3.0
½ – ★★½
Read oncethere's always a lesson
106 books
All Things New
Fiona & Terryl Givens
★★½ 2.5
Corsair
Henrik Sorensen
★★½ 2.5
Dark Age
Pierce Brown
★★½ 2.5
Devil Take The Hindmost
Edward Chancellor
★★½ 2.5
Dune
Frank Herbert
★★½ 2.5
Energy and Civilization
Vaclav Smil
★★½ 2.5
Feynman's Lost Lectures
David L. Goodstein & Judith R. Goodstein
★★½ 2.5
Inadequate Equilibria
Eliezer Yudkowsky
★★½ 2.5
Of Boys and Men
Richard V. Reeves
★★½ 2.5
Papillon
Henri Charrière
★★½ 2.5
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charlie Munger (ed. Peter Kaufman)
★★½ 2.5
Saints, Vol. 3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
★★½ 2.5
Saints, Vol. 4: Sounding in Every Ear
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
★★½ 2.5
Sam Walton: Made in America
Sam Walton & John Huey
★★½ 2.5
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
★★½ 2.5
Stolen Focus
Johann Hari
★★½ 2.5
The Big Score
Michael S. Malone
★★½ 2.5
The Body
Bill Bryson
★★½ 2.5
The British Are Coming
Rick Atkinson
★★½ 2.5
The Elegant Universe
Brian Greene
★★½ 2.5
The Everything Store
Brad Stone
★★½ 2.5
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Vols. 1–3)
Richard Feynman
★★½ 2.5
The Infinite Atonement
Tad R. Callister
★★½ 2.5
The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals Vol. 1
LDS Church Historians
★★½ 2.5
The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals Vol. 2
LDS Church Historians
★★½ 2.5
The Shallows
Nicholas Carr
★★½ 2.5
The Temple
Ed J. Pinegar
★★½ 2.5
A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics
David A. Moss
★★ 2.0
A Concise History of Mathematics
Dirk J. Struik
★★ 2.0
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
★★ 2.0
Atomic Habits
James Clear
★★ 2.0
Autocracy, Inc.
Anne Applebaum
★★ 2.0
Battlefield Earth
L. Ron Hubbard
★★ 2.0
Bibi: My Story
Benjamin Netanyahu
★★ 2.0
Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
★★ 2.0
Broken Money
Lyn Alden
★★ 2.0
Hate Inc.
Matt Taibbi
★★ 2.0
How to Actually Change Your Mind
Eliezer Yudkowsky
★★ 2.0
Leadership Is Language
L. David Marquet
★★ 2.0
Map and Territory
Eliezer Yudkowsky
★★ 2.0
On the Edge
Nate Silver
★★ 2.0
Origin
Dan Brown
★★ 2.0
Our Day Star Rising
Jeffrey R. Holland
★★ 2.0
Porter Rockwell: A Biography
Richard Lloyd Dewey
★★ 2.0
Producing Prosperity
Gary Pisano & Willy Shih
★★ 2.0
Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon
★★ 2.0
The 50th Law
50 Cent & Robert Greene
★★ 2.0
The Forgotten Highlander
Alistair Urquhart
★★ 2.0
The Gene
Siddhartha Mukherjee
★★ 2.0
The Hobbit
J. R. R. Tolkien
★★ 2.0
The Idea Factory
Jon Gertner
★★ 2.0
The Machiavellians
James Burnham
★★ 2.0
The Meritocracy Trap
Daniel Markovits
★★ 2.0
The Second Coming of the Lord
Gerald N. Lund
★★ 2.0
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
★★ 2.0
We Spread
Iain Reid
★★ 2.0
Why Fish Don't Exist
Lulu Miller
★★ 2.0
Why We Sleep
Matthew Walker
★★ 2.0
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
Charles Seife
★★ 2.0
Accelerando
Charles Stross
★½ 1.5
Bad Blood
John Carreyrou
★½ 1.5
Good Inside
Becky Kennedy
★½ 1.5
Industrial Megaprojects
Edward Merrow
★½ 1.5
Is God a Mathematician?
Mario Livio
★½ 1.5
Outlive
Peter Attia
★½ 1.5
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
★½ 1.5
Secrets of Sand Hill Road
Scott Kupor
★½ 1.5
Storyworthy
Matthew Dicks
★½ 1.5
The First World War
Hew Strachan
★½ 1.5
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
★½ 1.5
The Managerial Revolution
James Burnham
★½ 1.5
The Miracle of Forgiveness
Spencer W. Kimball
★½ 1.5
The Mosquito
Timothy C. Winegard
★½ 1.5
The Power of Everyday Missionaries
Clayton M. Christensen
★½ 1.5
The World for Sale
Javier Blas & Jack Farchy
★½ 1.5
Turn the Ship Around!
L. David Marquet
★½ 1.5
Unscripted
James B. Stewart & Rachel Abrams
★½ 1.5
A History of Knowledge
Charles Van Doren
★ 1.0
About Face
David H. Hackworth
★ 1.0
Against the Machine
Paul Kingsnorth
★ 1.0
American Spring
Walter Borneman
★ 1.0
Anxious for Nothing
Max Lucado
★ 1.0
Bloodlands
Timothy Snyder
★ 1.0
Blueprint
Nicholas Christakis
★ 1.0
Calming Your Anxious Mind
Jeffrey Brantley
★ 1.0
Cowboy Ethics
James P. Owen
★ 1.0
DisneyWar
James B. Stewart
★ 1.0
Eat That Frog!
Brian Tracy
★ 1.0
Endurance
Scott Kelly
★ 1.0
GPS Declassified
Richard Easton & Eric Frazier
★ 1.0
Hunt, Gather, Parent
Michaeleen Doucleff
★ 1.0
Murder Your Darlings
Roy Peter Clark
★ 1.0
Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities
Ian Stewart
★ 1.0
Purity of Heart
Vaughn J. Featherstone
★ 1.0
Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child
John Gottman
★ 1.0
The Case for Christ
Lee Strobel
★ 1.0
The Divine Gift of Forgiveness
Neil L. Andersen
★ 1.0
The New New Thing
Michael Lewis
★ 1.0
The Stranger
Albert Camus
★ 1.0
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Mark Manson
★ 1.0
The Walk
Richard Paul Evans
★ 1.0
A Higher Loyalty
James Comey
½ 0.5
Can't Hurt Me
David Goggins
½ 0.5
The Last Republicans
Mark K. Updegrove
½ 0.5
The New Silk Roads
Peter Frankopan
½ 0.5
The Talent Code
Daniel Coyle
½ 0.5
—
Still chewingratings forthcoming
4 books
