The library
Bookshelf.
Every book I've read — 215 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
11 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
The Doctrine and Covenants
LDS Scripture
★★★★★ 5.0
The Pearl of Great Price
LDS Scripture
★★★★★ 5.0
Holy Bible (King James Version)
Various
★★★★★ 5.0
The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints
Thomas Wayment
★★★★★ 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
34 books
A River in Darkness
Masaji Ishikawa
★★★★½ 4.5
Discourses and Selected Writings
Epictetus
★★★★½ 4.5
Notes 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 Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
★★★★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
Notes 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
Notes Gates of Fire
Steven Pressfield
★★★★ 4.0
Morning Star
Pierce Brown
★★★★ 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 Meaning of It All
Richard Feynman
★★★★ 4.0
The Revolt of the Public
Martin Gurri
★★★★ 4.0
★★★★
Worth the timesolid — one good idea or more
56 books
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
Notes 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
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
★★★
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
Notes 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
8 books
Death Be Not Proud
John Gunther
unrated
The Kill Chain
Christian Brose
unrated
The Case for Nukes
Robert Zubrin
unrated
The True Believer
Eric Hoffer
unrated
Dark and Magical Places
Christopher Kemp
unrated
1929
Andrew Ross Sorkin
unrated
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
unrated
The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game
C. Thi Nguyen
unrated