Books

Note that I track all my reading on Literal, including:

Favorite Books

Below is a list of a few favorite books by category.

Non-fiction

  • Why we sleep?: mind-blowing to see all the research about sleep in one book.
  • Born a Crime: Trevor Noah’s memoir is excellent.
  • Stories of the Sahara: San Mao’s essays read like fiction, extremely interesting and filled with twists and turns, highlighting a life filled with adventure and love.
  • Becoming: Michelle Obama’s memoir brought me to tiers.
  • Leonardo da Vinci: Walter Isaacson’s biography really brought da Vinci to life for me.
  • Getting Things Done (related page): I read this book in college and its system and philosophy remain the cornerstones of my approach to productivity.
  • Lords of Finance: An eye-opening look at the great depression and the role of central bankers, with misguided ideas about economic policy, in the ordeal.
  • The Choice: Dr. Eger survived the Auschwitz concentration camps, where she was sent as a 16-year old. She shares a story of self-reinvention and growth, and her personal journey alongside her work with patients as a clinical psychotherapist. Hugely inspiring story.

Fiction

  • El Laberinto de los Espiritus: amazing final book of a historical fiction series based in Spain. I was intrigued by the entire series, but the first and last books were the most memorable.
  • Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: Murakami is one of my all-time favorite authors, but most of his books end up falling a bit short for me. I love the journey, but I’m never quite satisfied. This book, however, remain one of my all time favorites — though you need to be open and suspend disbelief to enjoy it (like most of his books).
  • Ender’s Game (and the entire Ender’s Series): interesting sci-fi with great character development.
  • Harry Potter series: whatever misgivings you may have about the series or its author are valid, but this series is still a masterpiece.
  • The Song of Achilles: I didn’t know that I needed a retelling of the Illiad with a gay romance and a complicated mom-son relationship thrown in, but wow, this hit me hard.

Books List

Full list of books I’ve tracked as finished reading (updated January 16, 2023). These are not organized in any particular order, just whatever order they came out of my books export.

Book TitleNotesReview
The Hebrew Bible (Reading in progress)Notes
The Choice5🌟 Review
Crying in H MartDNF
3🌟 Review
The Ministry for the FutureReferenced in Climate Change4🌟 Review
1984 by George Orwell4🌟 Review
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall3🌟
Drive by Daniel H. Pink3🌟
Atomic Habits by James Clear3🌟 Review
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany2🌟 Review
Tools of Titans by Timothy Ferriss2🌟
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling4🌟
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline5🌟
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs4🌟
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty4🌟
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami4🌟
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt4🌟 Review
The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan HolidayNotes3🌟
The Undefeated Mind by Alex Lickerman3🌟
Factfulness by Ola Rosling, Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund4🌟 Review
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami3🌟
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin5🌟 Review
The Innovators by Walter Isaacson4🌟 Review
INSPIRED by Marty Cagan4🌟
Life Is What You Make It by Peter Buffett2🌟
No-no boy (2014 Edition) by John Okada3🌟
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright4🌟 Review
Mastery by Robert Greene3🌟 Review
Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace4🌟
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman4🌟 Review
The Advantage by Patrick M. LencioniNotes3🌟 Review
Essentialism by Greg McKeown5🌟 Review
Foundation by Isaac Asimov3🌟 Review
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz3🌟
High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove4🌟 Review
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle4🌟
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell4🌟 Review
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport4🌟 Review
Deep Work by Cal Newport4🌟 Review
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield4🌟 Review
It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson3🌟 Review
Sam Walton, Made in America by John Huey, Sam Walton4🌟
Everybody Writes by Ann Handley3🌟
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling5🌟
Flash Boys by Michael Lewis4🌟
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited by Steve Krug3🌟
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries4🌟
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado PerezDiscussion notes4🌟 Review
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson4🌟 Review
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand4🌟 Review
12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson3🌟
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins4🌟
Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki4🌟 Review
Good to Great by Jim Collins4🌟
Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg, Nell Scovell4🌟 Review
Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock3🌟
Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton2🌟 Review
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling4🌟
The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder CarrollGoogle Play Books notes4🌟
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee4🌟 Review
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee4🌟 Review
The Institute by Stephen King4🌟 Review
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell4🌟
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami4🌟
Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl4🌟
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight4🌟 Review
13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do by Amy Morin3🌟
The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz2🌟
Range by David Epstein4🌟 Review
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami5🌟
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert4🌟
The Underground Railroad by Colson WhiteheadNotes (good)4🌟 Review
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott CardNotes4🌟
Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card4🌟 Review
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Bradberry, Travis, Ph.D./ Greaves, Jean, Ph.D./ Lencioni, Patrick (FRW)2🌟
Misbehaving by Richard H. Thaler4🌟 Review
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho4🌟
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro3🌟 Review
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera2.5🌟 Review
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell4🌟 Review
Never Split the Difference by Tahl Raz, Chris Voss3🌟
The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts3🌟 Review
Endurance by Alfred Lansing3.5🌟 Review
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón5🌟 Review
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan4🌟 Review
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston5🌟 Review
The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien4🌟
The One Thing by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan4🌟 Review
Becoming by Michelle Obama5🌟
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan4🌟
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts3🌟 Review
The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer3🌟
Start with why by Simon Sinek3🌟
StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath2🌟
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran4🌟 Review
Radical Candor by Kim ScottNotes3🌟 Review
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Big Short by Michael Lewis4🌟 Review
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson3🌟
Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik4🌟
Cloud Atlas by David MitchellNotes4🌟 Review
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey2.5🌟 Review
Stillness Is the Key by Ryan HolidayNotes4🌟
The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene4🌟
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker5🌟
Multipliers, Revised and Updated by Liz Wiseman3🌟
Indistractable by Nir Eyal3🌟
The Culture Code by Daniel CoyleNotes3🌟 Review
The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt3🌟
Breath by James Nestor3.5🌟 Review
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe3🌟 Review
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis3🌟
What I Talk about when I Talk about Running by Haruki Murakami3🌟 Review
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene3🌟 Review
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari4🌟 Review
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams2🌟 Review
A Promised Land by Barack ObamaNotes4🌟
The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson4🌟 Review
The Virgin Way by Richard Branson4🌟 Review
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper3🌟 Review
Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender, Rick Tetzeli4🌟
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel4🌟 Review
Designing Your Life by David John Evans, William Burnett (Consulting professor of design), Bill Burnett3🌟
Principles by Ray Dalio4🌟 Review
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami5🌟 Review
Scrum by Jeffrey Victor Sutherland, Jeff Sutherland3🌟
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies by J. K. Rowling2🌟
Personal History by Katharine Graham3🌟
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip A. Fisher3🌟
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists by J. K. Rowling2🌟
Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz T. Suzuki
A Hero Born by Jin Yong3🌟 Review
How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, Karen Dillon4🌟
Trillion Dollar Coach by Alan Eagle, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg3🌟
Zero to One by Peter Thiel4🌟 Review
Thinking in Bets by Annie DukeNotes4🌟 Review
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah HarariNotes3🌟 Review
A new earth by Eckhart TolleNotes4🌟
After Dark by Haruki Murakami3🌟 Review
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates3🌟
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell3🌟
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by 5🌟 Review
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins3🌟
Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4) by Orson Scott CardNotes4🌟 Review
Educated by Tara Westover, Julia Whelan5🌟
Einstein by Walter Isaacson3🌟 Review
El laberinto de los espíritus by Carlos Ruiz Zafón5🌟 Review
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance4🌟
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman4🌟
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card5🌟 Review
Evicted by Matthew Desmond5🌟 Review
Getting Things Done by David AllenRelated Article, Notes5🌟
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling5🌟
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling5🌟
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling4🌟
Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal / Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling4🌟
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson5🌟 Review
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela4🌟
Memoirs of a geisha by Arthur Golden3🌟
Quiet by Susan Cain4🌟
Rich dad poor dad by Robert T. KiyosakiNotes4🌟
Speaker for the dead by Orson Scott Card4🌟
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama3🌟
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith4🌟 Review
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown3🌟
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin4🌟
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand4🌟
The Help by Kathryn Stockett5🌟
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot5🌟 Review
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig4🌟
The Martian by Andy Weir4🌟
The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin4🌟 Review
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni4🌟 Review
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett5🌟
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg3🌟 Review
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin3🌟 Review
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer2🌟
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee3🌟 Review
Xenocide (Ender’s Saga, Vol. 3) by Orson Scott Card5🌟 Review
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed4🌟
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami4🌟 Review
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, Robin Miles5🌟 Review
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie4🌟
Paper girls by Brian K. Vaughan2🌟
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer3🌟 Review
The tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell3🌟
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins3🌟 Review
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath, Dan Heath4🌟 Review
Secrets of the millionaire mind by T. Harv Eker4🌟
Winning by Jack Welch, Suzy Welch3🌟
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor4🌟 Review
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki4🌟
Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan, Daniel Goleman, Jon Kabat-ZinnNotes3🌟 Review
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee5🌟
Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink3🌟 Review
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan3🌟 Review
Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan, Halee Fischer-Wright, John King4🌟
The Wisdom of Sundays by Oprah Winfrey2🌟 Review
Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. DubnerNotes4 Review
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller5🌟 Review
Dark Money by Jane Mayer4🌟 Review
If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut2🌟
Alibaba by Duncan Clark3🌟 Review
Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, David MaxfieldNotes3🌟
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson4🌟 Review
Your Brain at Work by David Rock4🌟
Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres4.5🌟 Review
Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg4🌟
First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman4🌟 Review
Talent is Overrated by Geoffrey Colvin3🌟
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell4🌟 Review
Awakening Your Ikigai by Ken Mogi2🌟 Review
How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster3🌟
What the Buddha Taught by Walpola RāhulaNotes3🌟
The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, George Spafford, Kevin BehrNotes4.5🌟 Review
Originals by Adam M. GrantNotes4🌟 Review
The Richest Man In Babylon & The Magic Story by Frederick Van Rensselaer, George S Clason5🌟
The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton AbramsNotes4🌟
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald3🌟
Algorithms to Live By by Tom Griffiths, Brian ChristianQuick note (should re-read)4🌟
Paper Girls Deluxe Edition by Brian K Vaughan, Cliff Chiang2🌟
Nothing Special by Steven A. Smith, Charlotte J. Beck4🌟 Review
Everybody, Always by Bob Goff2🌟 Review
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb4🌟 Review
The Snowball by Alice Schroeder4🌟 Review
Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional’s Guide to Growing a Practice, Fifth Edition by Alan Weiss
Cracking the PM Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro3🌟 Review
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami4🌟 Review
Embracing Defeat by John W. Dower
Bossypants by Tina Fey4🌟
How Google Works by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg3🌟 Review
Brain Rules by John MedinaNotes4🌟
Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez3🌟 Review
El juego del Ángel by Carlos Ruiz Zafón4🌟 Review
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick5🌟 Review
La casa de los espíritus by Isabel Allende
The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam5🌟 Review
The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin5🌟 Review
Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima3🌟 Review
Yes Please by Amy Poehler4🌟 Review
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn3🌟
A Girl Called Rumi by Ari HonarvarNotes3.5🌟 Review
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata4🌟
American Shaolin by Matthew Polly3🌟
The Written by Ben Galley2🌟 Review
The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, Meredith McKinney
You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader by Mark Sanborn1🌟
10% Happier Revised Edition by Dan Harris3🌟
The Social Animal by David Brooks3🌟
The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso, Russ Hudson4🌟 Review
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood3🌟 Review
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou5🌟 Review
Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance4🌟 Review
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson5🌟 Review
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates4🌟
Street Smarts by Bo Burlingham, Norm Brodsky4🌟
The Sacred Enneagram by Christopher L. Heuertz3🌟 Review
Listening is an Act of Love by David Isay2🌟
The Everything Store by Brad Stone4🌟
Calypso by David Sedaris3🌟 Review
When Breath Becomes Air by LeoPard Books4🌟
El Prisionero del Cielo by Carlos Ruiz Zafón2.5🌟 Review
Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie3🌟
Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao5🌟 Review
Inner Engineering by Sadhguru4🌟
The War on Normal People by Andrew Yang3🌟 Review
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh4🌟
A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger4🌟 Review
Rising Strong by Brené Brown3🌟 Review
A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren3🌟 Review
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas4🌟 Review
Wolf Totem by Howard Goldblatt, Jiang Rong4🌟
Good Economics, Bad Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo3🌟
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne2🌟
Death’s End by Liu Cixin5🌟 Review
Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki3🌟
Eat that Frog! by Brian Tracy3🌟
Tell My Dad by Ram Muthiah2.5🌟 Review
We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union3🌟 Review
At the Existentialist Caf by Sarah Bakewell3🌟
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks3🌟
Paper Girls, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan3🌟
Red Poppies by Howard Goldblatt, Alai, Sylvia Li-chun Lin4🌟 Review
The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown3🌟 Review
Pale Kings by Ben Galley3🌟
Dead Stars – Part Two by Ben Galley3🌟
Dead Stars – Part One by Ben Galley3🌟
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett3.5🌟 Review
Selection Day by Aravind Adiga3.5🌟 Review
The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish5🌟 Review
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale CarnegieNotes5🌟
Grit by Angela Duckworth4🌟 Review
Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed5🌟 Review
Una vez fui tú (Once I Was You Spanish Edition) by Maria Hinojosa2🌟
The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team by Patrick Lencioni3🌟
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton2🌟 Review
So, You Want to Start a Business? by Charles F. Goetz, Edward D. Hess2🌟
How the World Sees You by Sally Hogshead2🌟 Review
World Without End by Ken Follett4🌟
This Fight Is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren3🌟 Review
The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell3🌟 Review
How to Stay Motivated by Zig Ziglar3🌟 Review
Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! by Nicholas Carlson3🌟
Extraordinary Leadership by Robin S. Sharma3🌟
Life Will Be the Death of Me by Chelsea Handler3🌟 Review
Millionaire Upgrade by Richard Parkes Cordock2🌟
The Road to Character by David BrooksNotes3🌟 Review
Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D.2🌟
Intellectuals in the Middle Ages by Jacques Le Goff3🌟
Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg3🌟
Bonsai Master Class by Craig Coussins2🌟
Keshiki Bonsai by Kenji Kobayashi2🌟
Radical Markets by E Glen Weyl, Eric A. Posner4🌟 Review
Hit Refresh by Jill Tracie Nichols, Greg Shaw, Satya Nadella3🌟
Peter Thiel by Richard Byrne Reilly0.5🌟 Review
The Cupcake Theory by Clara Lee3🌟 Review
42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role by Pam Fox Rollin3🌟 Review
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen3🌟
Everyday Zen by Charlotte J. Beck4🌟
Options for the Beginner and Beyond by W. Edward Olmstead2🌟
Kick-Ass Creativity by Mary Beth Maziarz3🌟
Zen at War by Daizen Victoria
Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig4🌟 Review
Beach Read by Emily Henry3🌟 Review
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune4🌟 Review
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami4 Review
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe4.5🌟 Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab4.5🌟 Review
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander4🌟 Review
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid5🌟 Review
Dune by Frank Herbert5🌟 Review
No Rules Rules by Reed HastingsNotes4🌟 Review
Book Lovers by Emily Henry2.5🌟 Review
Seveneves by Neal StephensonDNF 2.5🌟 Review
Beyond Order by Jordan B PetersonDNF
3🌟 Review
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan KunderaDNF
1🌟 Review
The Body by Bill BrysonDNF
3🌟 Review
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared DiamondDNF
3🌟
Debt by David GraeberDNF
3🌟
The Power Broker by Robert A. CaroDNF
3🌟 Review

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Last Updated on May 1, 2023 by Omar Eduardo