Books

I read things, including: textbooks, novels, comic books, etc. Below is an incomplete list of things I have read, and things I am currently reading (*), in reverse chronological order.

• (*) Worm — John C. McCrae
  I will likely never get around to finishing this, but serves as excellent “idle” reading.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey — Arthur C. Clarke
  A good science-fiction novel. I highly recommend pairing with the actual movie, the combined experience is certainly greater than the parts. Arthur C. Clarke shines in poetic bits of writing, but admittedly the ideas aren’t quite as engaging as modern sci-fi novels. Considering when it was written, however, excellent stuff.
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality — Eliezer Yudkowsky
  Remarkably entertaining & inventive fiction. This easily takes the spot of my favourite piece of fiction I’ve read (so far). (Notably, I was surprised at how interesting and, even, informative it could be without a scientifically accurate universe: that “good decision-making” can exist regardless.)
• Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir
  Great ideas, and surprisingly readable. Definitely “science-fiction” but most concepts are logically justified/grounded.
• “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” — Richard P. Feynman
  Quite entertaining, and a surprisingly easy read. Recommended to anyone. (Although, if you expected much actual physics, you would be disappointed.)
• The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution — Gregory Zuckerman
  Great, though a tad too much politics in the latter half for my taste.
• The Soul of a New Machine — Tracy Kidder
  Quaint, but nonetheless excellent. A hidden gem of computing culture. High recommendation for a specific kind of reader; if you liked Masters of Doom, possibly you.
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns — Miller, Janson, and Varley
  Aged impressively well.
• Flash Boys — Michael Lewis
  Great, if interested in the subject of HFT.
• Stories of your Life — Ted Chiang
  Good, and may be a great choice for a sci-fi novice, considering the bite-sized stories.
• Masters of Doom — David Kushner
  Absolutely brilliant. In my opinion, faultless. If I could only recommend a single book from this list, it’d be this one.
• Watchmen — Moore and Gibbons
  Unexpectedly excellent.
• Cryptonomicon — Neal Stephenson
  Great hacker fiction.
• Gödel, Escher, Bach — Douglas Hofstadter
  Great accompaniment to a Computer Science education, dispels any confusion to what “Computer Science” is, as opposed to “Software Engineering”.

Books I want to read

• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution — Steven Levy
• Childhood’s End — Arthur C. Clarke
• Thinking Physics — Lewis Carroll Epstein, Paul G. Hewitt