Ben C. Davis

Software Engineer

Reading

Like everyone over the age of 30, I’ve embarked on a heroic quest to consume less and read more. Here’s a list of what I’ve read, some of which have a poorly written collection of notes alongside them.


This page was shamelessly inspired by the far more inspirational reading list of Susan Rigetti.

2024

  1. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - Notes

  2. Filterworld by Kyle Chayka - Notes

  3. God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens - Notes

  4. Implementing Domain-Driven Design by Vaughn Vernon - Notes

  5. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee - Notes

  6. Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey

  7. The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee - Notes

  8. The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion by Sean Carroll - Notes

  9. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

  10. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes

  11. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - Notes

  12. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

  13. A Diamond Guitar by Truman Capote

  14. House of Flowers by Truman Capote

  15. On Writing by Stephen King

2023

  1. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

  2. Making Movies by Sidney Lumet - Notes

  3. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

  4. On the Road by Jack Kerouac - Notes

  5. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

  6. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tokien

  7. The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tokien

  8. Excession by Iain M. Banks

  9. Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman - Notes

  10. A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - Notes

  11. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

  12. Atomic Habits by James Clear - Notes

  13. The Great Mental Models by Rhiannon Beaubien and Shane Parrish - Notes

  14. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

  15. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Notes

  16. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

  17. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin - Notes

  18. A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

2022

  1. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tokien

  2. Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland

  3. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

  4. How to Be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci - Notes

  5. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

  6. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

  7. The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena - Notes

2021

  1. Computer Systems - A Programmer's Perspective by Randal Bryant - Notes

  2. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman - Notes

  3. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

  4. Liftoff by Eric Berger

2020

  1. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

  2. The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger

  3. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

  4. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

  5. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

  6. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

  7. Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke

  8. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

  9. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

2019

  1. All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor

  2. For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor

  3. We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1 by Dennis E. Taylor

  4. Death's End by Cixin Liu, Ken Liu - translator

  5. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

  6. Thanks for the Feedback by Sheila Heen, Douglas Stone

  7. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker - Notes

2018

  1. Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

  2. Grit by Angela Duckworth

  3. Waking Up by Sam Harris

  4. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator

  5. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

  6. Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary

  7. Thrawn (Star Wars) by Timothy Zahn

  8. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

  9. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

  10. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

  11. The Everything Store by Brad Stone

  12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

2017

  1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

  2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

  3. Ringworld by Larry Niven

  4. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

  5. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson

  6. Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender, Rick Tetzeli

  7. Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford

  8. Economics, 3rd Edition by Timothy Taylor - Notes

  9. The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene - Notes

  10. Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom

  11. Economics, 3rd Edition by Timothy Taylor, The Great Courses

  12. In the Plex by Steven Levy

  13. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

2016

  1. Creativity, Inc by Amy Wallace and Edwin Catmull - Notes

  2. Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

  3. Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

  4. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

  5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

  6. More Fool Me by Stephen Fry

  7. Persian Fire by Tom Holland

  8. The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson