The list below is organised according to my interests, rather than a more
technical categorization. Some books may have overlapping categories, but I
have put it in the most appropriate one.
Items marked with a * are recommended highly.
Use the shortcut links below to access each individual category:
Fiction – Indian Subcontinent Related
Science Fiction
I would love to read more science fiction (not a
big fan of fantasy though), but I don’t like a lot of SF out there. Some of
my views about current science fiction are nicely put forward by Judith Berman.
Other Fiction
Computers, Software, Technology and Design
- C# in Depth by Jon Skeet *
- Java Concurrency in Practice by Brian Goetz *
- Coders at Work by Peter Seibel *
- Programming Clojure by Stuart Halloway
- In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace by David Post
- Pro ADO.NET 2.0 (Expert's Voice) by Sahil Malik
- Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C# by Matthew MacDonald
- Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition by Thomas H. Cormen,Charles E. Leiserson,Ronald L. Rivest and Clifford Stein *
- Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents by Ellen Ullman
- Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Addison-Wesley Signature Series) by Martin Fowler
- Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition) by Alfred V. Aho,Monica S. Lam,Ravi Sethi and Jeffrey D. Ullman
- JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford *
- The Rails Way (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series) by Obie Fernandez
- Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition (Windows.Net) by Andrew Troelsen
- Code Generation in Action by Jack Herrington
- Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture by Jon Stokes
- Design Patterns in Ruby (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series) by Russ Olsen
- Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky *
- Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug and Roger Black
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series) by Erich Gamma,Richard Helm,Ralph Johnson and John M. Vlissides
- Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series) by Martin Fowler,Kent Beck,John Brant,William Opdyke and Don Roberts
- Digital Typography (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes) by Donald E. Knuth
- The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst *
- The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams
- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston *
- Learning Cocoa with Objective-C, 2nd Edition by James Duncan Davidson and Inc. Apple Computer
- Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software by Scott Rosenberg *
- Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager by Michael Lopp *
- The Ruby Way, Second Edition: Solutions and Techniques in Ruby Programming (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series) by Hal Fulton
- Ruby for Rails: Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers by David Black
- C Programming Language (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software) by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie
- JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan
- Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson
History, Culture, Politics & Travel
This list should ideally be divided into two, India-related books go into one and the rest into the other.
Economics, Business & Personal MBA
I have been a big fan of the Personal MBA, since
its inception around 2004. My first books in this category were taken from
the original list. Since then, I have developed a more specific interest in
Economics and Game Theory.
- Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World by Tyler Cowen *
- The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates by Peter T. Leeson *
- Why Economists Disagree: An Introduction to the Alternative Schools of Thought by David L. Prychitko
- India's Global Powerhouses: How They Are Taking on the World by Nirmalya Kumar, Pradipta K. Mohapatra, Suj Chandrasekhar
- Science: A Four Thousand Year History by by Patricia Fara
- Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior by Geoffrey Miller *
- The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Financial Life by Karen Blumenthal
- Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
- Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism *
- The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff *
- The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin
- The Mystery of Banking by Murray N. Rothbard *
- Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson *
- The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow *
- Butterfly Economics: A New General Theory of Social and Economic Behavior by Paul Ormerod
- The Lazy Way to Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything by Fred Gratzon
- Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh
- Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semler *
- All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World by Seth Godin
- The Art of Project Management (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) by Scott Berkun *
- Unstuck: A Tool for Yourself, Your Team, and Your World by Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro
- Game Theory at Work: How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition by James Miller
- The Monk and the Riddle : The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur by Randy Komisar and Kent L. Lineback
- The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James Surowiecki
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
- The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- Getting Past No: Negotiating with Difficult People by William Ury
- The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley,Jonathan Littman and Tom Peters
- Winning by Jack Welch and Suzy Welch
- The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual by Christopher Locke,Rick Levine,Doc Searls and David Weinberger *
- The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America by Warren E. Buffett and Lawrence A. Cunningham
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) by Benjamin Graham,Jason Zweig and Warren E. Buffett *
- Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love by Barbara Sher
- The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
- The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb *
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely *
- Principles of Economics, 4th Edition (Student Edition) by N. Gregory Mankiw *
- The Bootstrapper's Bible: How to Start and Build a Business With a Great Idea and (Almost) No Money by Seth Godin
- Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard *
- Guide to Financial Markets, Fourth Edition (Economist Books) by Marc Levinson
- What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism (Lionel Robbins Lectures) by Alan B. Krueger
- Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by John McMillan
- The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz *
- The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World by Tim Harford
Photography
Other Non-fiction
- Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World by David D. Friedman
- How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories: Evolutionary Enigmas by Professor David P Barash and Judith Eve Lipton
- The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen
- Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt *
- Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design by Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl
- A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams by Michael Pollan
- Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire – Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa *
- The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending
- What to Eat by Marion Nestle
- Quick Breads by Linda Collister and Kate Whitaker
- The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters by Rose George *
- The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
- Darwin Among The Machines: The Evolution Of Global Intelligence (Helix Books) by George B. Dyson *
- Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan by Lisa Katayama and Joel Holland
- The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications by David Deutsch *
- Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (Great Discoveries) by Rebecca Goldstein
- Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling
- Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson
- Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (Great Discoveries) by Rebecca Goldstein
- The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond
- If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! The Pilgrimage of Psychotherapy Patients by Sheldon Kopp *
- The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal by Desmond Morris
- The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert Wright
- Uncommon Wisdom by Fritjof Capra
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
- Unpopular Essays by Bertrand Russell
- The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor by William Langewiesche *
- Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto by Anneli Rufus
- Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer
- The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
- On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt
- In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed (Plus) by Carl Honore
- If the Buddha Got Stuck: A Handbook for Change on a Spiritual Path by Charlotte Kasl
- Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
- The Idea Factory: Learning to Think at MIT by Pepper White
- The Invention of Pornography, 1500-1800: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity by Lynn Hunt
- In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan *
- The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan *
- Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science by David Lindley
- The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner