I’m trying to keep track of the books that I read here. I started this list in 2024, and didn’t track my reading previously—the books listed here are reconstructed based on clippings and highlights from my Kindle.
You might notice that a bunch of these are about urban planning. Several books that I have read about urban planning—particularly transportation planning—have significantly changed the way I think about cities, social interactions, and the world in general. I have recognized that the overuse of cars in our cities and towns creates barriers for humans, stifles social interactions, drowns our ears in noise, and kills thousands of people ever year in the US. These books highlight new externalities of car dependency that I had not previously considered and propose policy-based solutions to minimize car dependence where it matters most. Unfortunately, none have made a compelling case for the role that technology improvements play in fixing the American transportation story. But I would love to have evidence to the contrary, so if you have some or know of a book that does, please let me know!
Up next, I have a ton of books I want to read: I started Confessions of a Recovering Engineer by Charles Marohn, and ever since college I’ve been meaning to read The Power Broker by Robert Caro and The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
Everything on this page is a work in progress; I’m just getting started with tracking these books.
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Confessions of a Recovering Engineer ★★★★ -
Order Without Design ★★★★★ -
The Omnivore's Dilemma ★★ -
Song of Solomon ★★★★ -
Chaos: Making a New Science ★★★ -
Strong Towns ★★★★★ -
Walkable City ★★★ -
Project Hail Mary ★★★★★ -
Happy City ★★★★★ -
Born to Run ★★★★★ -
Gulp ★★★★ -
Into Thin Air ★★★★ -
Packing for Mars ★★★★ -
This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends ★★★ -
Evicted ★★★★ -
Resisting Garbage ★★★★ -
Other Minds ★★★★ -
This Is Your Mind on Plants ★★★ -
Remember ★★★ -
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster ★★★ -
The Last Traverse ★★★★ -
Why We Sleep ★★★★ -
Death of a Salesman ★★★★ -
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ★★★★ -
The Sirens of Titan ★★★★ -
Breakfast of Campions: Or, Goodbye Blue Monday! ★★ -
The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide ★★★★ -
The High Cost of Free Parking ★★★★★ -
The Handmaid's Tale ★★★★ -
Bad Blood ★★★★ -
Cat's Cradle ★★★★ -
Deep Survival ★★★★ -
The Color of Law ★★★★★ -
Bonk ★★★★ -
An Abundance of Katherines ★★★ -
Looking For Alaska ★★★ -
Slaughterhouse Five ★★★★★ -
Ready Player One ★★★ -
Frankenstein ★★★ -
Brave New World ★★★★