I am a huge book fan, but I somehow stopped reading a few years ago and picked it up again only recently. So here are more or less the books I have read since 2021. I will try to update this list and write a short review and if I can recommend the book or series.
I’m using Literal to keep track of my reading and collect books I want to read in the future. You can check my shelves over there on my profile.
2024
March
The Martian by Andy Weir
January
Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
2023
November
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
October
UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Brian W. Kernighan
August
What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard P. Feynman and Ralph Leighton
July
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
May
iWoz by Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith
Nemesis by Isaac Asimov
April
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard P. Feynman
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
February
Das Café der Existenzialisten: Freiheit, Sein und Aprikosencocktails by Sarah Bakewell, Rita Seuß (Translator)
Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel by Stephen Budiansky
Excellent book to read after the biography of von Neumann to grasp the zeitgeist of the era (at least in the mathematics world). At first, I thought for a biography the author is going way too far outside Gödel’s life, by describing the current environment in Vienna at the time, but now I think this was excellent to get a more deep understanding of the times, the Vienna circle and a lot of other related people. I can highly recommend this book, it is an excellent read on surely worth your time!
January
“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
2022
December
The Man from the Future: The Visionary Ideas of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya
Good book if you are interested in the work of von Neumann and his surroundings. Bhattacharya provides good examples on concepts developed by von Neumann and somehow keeps the overall influence always in sight, while doing a deep dive in e.g. game theory. Additionally, Bhattacharya transports a good feeling of the academic world at the time von Neumann was most active.
November
Four Thousend Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Der Triumph der Zwerge by Markus Heitz
October
Die Vermessung der Welt by Daniel Kehlmann
Das einzige Buch, das Du über Finanzen lesen solltest by Thomas Kehl and Mona Linke
August
June
May
Perry Rhodan Neo: Die zweite Insel
Über dem Orinoco scheint der Mond by Harald Lesch and Klaus Kamphausen
Firmament: The Hidden Science of Weather, Climate Change and the Air That Surrounds Us by Simon Clark
April
Sprunginnovation by Rafael Laguna de la Vera and Thomas Ramge
March
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
Mastery by Robert Greene
I really enjoyed reading this book as it is very inspiring to get up and do things. The switches between biographies and getting some message out of them was refreshing. It is a rather long book (about 400 pages), but it is a good one to read while eating or simply chill out somewhere nice.
February
Perry Rhodan Neo: Meister der Sonne
January
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
After watching the TV-Series I was motivated to read the book it’s based on. Actually this is a re-read, but the first one was about 10 years ago, so I couldn’t recall much of it. Unlike many other readers, I found it enjoyable that the focus was on the overall story and not on individuals. But if you like the book rather don’t watch the TV-Series. I really don’t get why they changed so much and removed the Asimov style from it.
2021
December
Writing an Interpreter in Go by Thorsten Ball
This is by far the best technology book I’ve read so far. Thorsten does an excellent job in explaining complex details of an interpreter. Also the quality of the produced code is pretty good! I can highly recommend reading this if you have an interest in the deeper workings of programming languages! Besides that the writing style of Thorsten is highly motivating and it felt like we are working together on this project.
November
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
Jäger, Hirten, Kritiker: Eine Utopie für die digitale Gesellschaft by Richard David Precht
October
Wer bin ich – und wenn ja, wie viele? by Richard David Precht
Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut by Samantha Cristoforetti
After reading ‘Endurance’ from Scott Kelly I was hooked to read more about the life of an astronaut. In my opinion Samantha did a better job providing inside into the needed training to become an astronaut and the general lifestyle (constantly travelling between training sides). But I can highly recommend both books!
September
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Can highly recommend this book as it gives an short but interesting overview about the history of humans. Especially the last chapters give a very philosophical outlook on the near future of mankind. I’m pretty sure I’m going to read the two successors of this book.
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
This is the first book from an astronaut I’ve read so far, and it was very inspiring. Scott gave a very personal insight into his life aboard the ISS and also how he got there. I highly recommend this book if you have any interested in human space exploration!
Denkt mit! by Harald Lesch and Klaus Kamphausen
August
The design of everyday things by Don Norman
This is the first book about design I’ve read so far and I really enjoyed it. It also primed me to notice bad design in things I use all the time.
July
Perry Rhodan Neo 100 by Frank Borsch
I’m a huge SciFi-Fan and really love Perry Rhodan. A few years ago I switched from the original Perry Rhodan series to Perry Rhodan Neo which has more or less the same characters but a completely different story. So far I have read the first 100 books and I enjoyed most of them. If you enjoy Sci-fi with a huge universe I can recommend it! (I am not sure if it is available in other languages than german)
Practical Monitoring by Mike Julian
I have read this book because it was on the reading list of a class on cloud computing I took this semester. It is pretty short but has some interesting facts about monitoring and patterns to follow. Overall I would recommend it if you are interested in monitoring in general.
June
Urknall, Weltall und das Leben: Vom Nichts bis heute Morgen by Harald Lesch, Josef Gaßner (German)
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
May
Software Engineering at Google by Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, Hyrum Wright
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin
April
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie