Recommended Reading

A selection of books we've read and enjoyed.

Last modified Mar 10 2024

A Quantum Love Story
by Mike Chen
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin
The Paris Bookseller
by Kerri Maher
The Archivist
by Rex Pickett
Arbitrary Stupid Goal
by Tamara Shopsin
The 22 Murders of Madison May
by Max Barry
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography
by Laurie Woolever
Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey
by Ozge Samanci
Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife
by Pamela Bannos
Cover
by Peter Mendelsund
Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City
by Fang Fang
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Yes, I Would Love Another Glass of Tea
by Katharine Branning
Safe Houses
by Dan Fesperman
The Library Book
by Susan Orlean
Eight Girls Taking Pictures
by Whiteney Otto
The Oracle of Stamboul
by Michael David Lukas
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
The Expats
by Chris Pavone
Pacific Glory
by P. T. Deutermann
Diary of a Company Man
by James S. Kunen
Safe House
by Chris Ewan
The Modular Man
by Roger Macbride Allen
Alif the Unseen
by G. Willow Wilson
Burma Chronicles
by Guy Delisle
Series
The Gun Seller
by Hugh Laurie
Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History
by Penny LeCouteur and Jay Burreson
Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline
Istanbul Passage
by Joseph Kanon
The Janissary Tree
by Jason Goodwin
Series
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
by Sam Kean
Leviathan
by Scott Westerfeld
The Conundrum: How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency, and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse
by David Owen
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
by Oliver Sacks
A Study in Scarlet
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Series
The Keeper of Lost Causes
by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Series
Pattern Recognition
by William Gibson
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
by Atul Gawande
In the Woods
by Tana French
Series
Virals
by Kathy Reichs
Series
A Grain of Sand
by Dr. Gary Greenberg
The Bone Man of Benares
by Terry Tarnoff
A Class Apart
by Alec Klein
The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan
The Cookbook Collector
by Allegra Goodman
iWoz
by Steve Wozniak with Gina Smith
Faceless Killers
by Henning Mankell
Series
Bryan Peterson's Understanding Photography Field Guide: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
by Bryan Peterson
Series
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
Series
Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine
by Tetsu Kariya & Akira Hanasaki
Series
The Complete Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
by Gordon Dahlquist
Corelli's Mandolin
by Louis de Bernieresn
Birds Without Wings
by Louis de Bernieresn
The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam
by Chris Ewan
Series
Framed! (Traces #1)
by Malcolm Rose
Series
Supermarket
by Satoshi Azuchi
The Last Theorem
by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl
Little Brother
by Cory Doctorow
In Defense of Food
by Michael Pollan
Law in America
by Lawrence M Friedman
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
by Paul Theroux
Turquoise: A Chef's Travels in Turkey
by Greg and Lucy Malouf
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri
by David Bajo
At Large and At Small
by Anne Fadiman
A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation
by Robert Bookstaber
The Dark Fields
by Alan Glynn
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
by Mark Kurlansky
Evil Genius
by Catherine Jinks
Series
The Grand Complication
by Allen Kurzweil
Rain Fall
by Barry Eisler
Series
The Turks Today
by Andrew Mango
Extraordinary People
by Peter May
Series
The Yogurt Man Cometh
by Kevin Revolinski
Detective Inspector Huss
by Helene Tursten
Series
A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder--How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place
by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
China Trade
by S. J. Rozan
Series
Leyla: The Black Tulip
by Alev Lytle Croutier
Overclocked
by Cory Doctorow
Lion Eyes
by Claire Berlinski
The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
by William Alexander
Cosm
by Gregory Benford
The Surgeon
by Tess Gerritsen
Series
The Big Over Easy
by Jasper Fforde
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
by Bill Buford
Brainiac
by Ken Jennings
Company
by Max Barry
Ella Minnow Pea
by Mark Dunn
Pashazade (The First Arabesk)
by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Series
Underfoot in Show Business
by Helene Hanff
Tokyo Cancelled
by Rana Dasgupta
Yes Man
by Danny Wallace
Deja Dead
by Kathy Reichs
Series
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
by J. Maarten Troost
Join Me
by Danny Wallace
Are YOU Dave Gorman?
by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace
Syrup
by Maxx Barry
Dave Gorman's Googlewhack! Adventure
by Dave Gorman
The Dragon Man
by Garry Disher
Stiff
by Shane Maloney
Series
Priority
by Iselin C. Hermann
Blue Latitudes
by Tony Horwitz
Burglars Can't Be Choosers
by Lawrence Block
Series
The Bug
by Ellen Ullman
So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading
by Sara Nelson
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
Altered Carbon
by Richard K. Morgan
The Management Secrets of T. John Dick
by Augustus Gump
What Should I Do with My Life?
by Po Bronson
Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence
by Nick Bantock
The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
The Mouse of Amherst
by Elizabeth Spires
The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists
edited by Irene and Alan Taylor
Things Not Seen
by Andrew Clements
The School Story
by Andrew Clements
Frindle
by Andrew Clements
Making a Literary Life
by Carolyn See
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
e
by Matt Beaumont
Kon-Tiki
by Thor Heyerdahl
A Girl from Yamhill
by Beverly Cleary
Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland
by Pramila Jayapal
Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, Volume I)
by Marcel Proust, C.K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin (trans.)
Series
1984
by George Orwell
Software Project Survival Guide
by Steve McConnell
Turkish Tapestry: A Traveller's Portrait of Turkey
by Holly Chase
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
by Seamus Heaney (Translator)
84, Charing Cross Road
by Helene Hanff
The Novel
by James A. Michener
Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales
by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds
by Stephen Kinzer
Bookworms: Great Writers Celebrate Reading
edited by Laura Furman and Elinore Standard
Halide's Gift
by Frances Kazan
In a Sunburned Country
by Bill Bryson
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years
by Bill Bryson
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy
by Frances Mayes
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
A Cool Billion
by Michael C. Perkins and Celia H. Nunez
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
by Anne Fadiman
How Reading Changed My Life
by Anna Quindlen
For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most
by Ronald B. Shwartz
Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
by Kent Beck
Series
Darwin's Radio
by Greg Bear
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy
Flowers for Algernon
by David Keyes
Digital Fortress
by Dan Brown
Syndrome X: Overcoming the Silent Killer That Can Give You a Heart Attack
by Gerald Reaven
The Deep Blue Good-By
by John D. MacDonaldn
Series
Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
The Promise of Sleep
by William C. Dement and Christopher Vaughan
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
by J. K. Rowling
Series
Booked to Die
by John Dunning
Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World
by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore
by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Great Books
by David Denby
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School
by Scott Turow
Post Mortem
by Patricia Cornwell
Series
Knots and Crosses
by Ian Rankin
Series
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
The Pinball Effect
by James Burke
Official Privilege
by P.T. Deutermann
Norm Abram's New House
by Norm Abrams
House
by Tracy Kidder
Couplehood
by Paul Reiser
I, Asimov
by Isaac Asimov
The Simple Book
by Marshall T. Rose
Understanding SNMP MIBs
by David Perkins and Evan McGinnis
Biblioholism
by Tom Raabe
Stacks: Interoperability in Today's Computer Networks
by Carl Malamud
The Making of a Cop
by Harvey Rachlin
MIT Project Athena: A Model for Distributed Campus Computing
by George A. Champine
The Adolescence of P-1
by Thomas J. Ryan
'A' is for Alibi
by Sue Grafton
Series
The Hunt for Red October
by Tom Clancy
The Complete Fawlty Towers
by John Cleese and V. Connie Booth
Liar's Poker
by Michael Lewis
The Double Helix
by James D. Watson
The Cuckoo's Egg
by Clifford Stoll
Tomorrow, The Stars
edited by Robert Heinlein
Emergence
by David Palmer
The First Deadly Sin
by Lawrence Sanders
Casino Royale
by Ian Fleming
The Connection Machine
by W. Daniel Hillis
When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One, Release 2.0
by David Gerrold
Thrice Upon A Time
by James P. Hogan
Internetworking with TCP/IP
by Douglas Comer
Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. II, ANSI C Version: Design, Implementation and Internals
by Douglas Comer and David L. Stevens
Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol. 3: Client-Server Programming and Applications, Linux/Posix Sockets Version
by Douglas Comer and David L. Stevens
The Media Lab
by Stewart Brand
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Series
Godel, Escher, Bach
by Douglas Hofstadter
Hackers
by Steven Levy
In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov 1920-1954
by Isaac Asimov
In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov 1954-1978
by Isaac Asimov
Ishmael
by Barbara Hambly
Coma
by Robin Cook
The Stainless Steel Rat
by Harry Harrison
Series
The Puppet Masters
by Robert Heinlein
Starship Troopers
by Robert Heinlein
Space Cadet
by Robert Heinlein
The Rainbow
by Pearl S. Buck
The Class
by Erich Segal
The Last Convertible
by Anton Myrer
Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators: The Secret of the Crooked Cat
by William Arden
Series
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle
The Phantom Tollbooth
by Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer
Tintin in America
by Herge
Series
My Side of the Mountain
by Jean Craighead George
The Mad Scientists' Club
by Bertrand R. Brinley
Series

 See also my Amazon reviews.


Suggestions and reminders welcome. Send mail to Fuat Baran <fuat@columbia.edu>.


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