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Books

This section covers various kinds of books that I think are worth reading.

Note that I’ve read each one as an Audiobook, either from Audible or using other means. If you’re interested in listening to any of them but are unable to (can’t find/purchase it due to Audible being picky about the country you’re from), let me know and I’ll gladly help.

Fantasy

Brandon Sanderson

• The Stormlight Archive [Wikipedia] – by far the most interesting fantasy world I have explored. Every time you think “that’s it”, something new and exciting happens (honestly, I’m still thinking about how he tops the ending of the fourth book). The books are relatively long, but very much worth the read (or listen).
  1. The Way of Kings
  2. Words of Radiance
  3. Oathbringer
  4. The Rhythm of War
• Mistborn [Wikipedia] – another amazing series from Brandon Sanderson with another well thought-out magic system. The first and the second eras vary greatly in their setting (medieval $\times$ industrial revolution), but I would argue that they both work extremely well.
  • The First Era:
    1. The Final Empire
    2. The Well of Ascension
    3. The Hero of Ages
  • The Second Era:
    1. The Alloy of Law
    2. Shadows of Self
    3. The Bands of Mourning
    4. The Lost Metal

• Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection [Wikipedia] – a series of stories about the planetary systems of Sanderson’s (Cosmere) universe in which all of his works are set. I’d refrain from reading this until you’ve gone through his other books, since it mainly adds context and perspective.

• The Rithmatist [Wikipedia] – an excellent young adult fantasy novel. Although the target audience is teenagers (which is reflected mostly in character behavior and development), I still loved discovering yet another unique magic system that Sanderson created.

• Secret Novels [context video]
  1. Tress of the Emerald Sea [Wikipedia] – a fascinating fairtale-like novel from the Cosmere.
  2. The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England – a fun novel about multiverse traveling and… marketing?
• The Reckoners [Wikipedia] – a set of three novels set in a post-apocalyptic world where random people are transformed into superhumans with various kinds of abilities. The atmosphere is great, but the writing is targeted at a younger audience, which is noticeable.
  1. Steelheart
  2. Firefight
  3. Calamity

Leigh Bardugo

• The Six of Crows duology [Wikipedia] – if you think that “Ocean’s Eleven meets Game of Thrones” sounds good, you have to read this. The books are stellarly written and very well narrated (even for Audible standards) and contain a sequel duology and prequel trilogy, both of which I’ll add here once I see that they’re as good as this one.
  1. The Six of Crows
  2. Crooked Kingdom

• King of Scars duology [Wikipedia] – another excellent duology by Leigh Bardugo. It is much more fantasy-ish than the Six of Crows and focuses more heavily on the magical aspect of the world that Leigh is building (so it reads quite differently) but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
  1. King of Scars
  2. Rule of Wolves

Other

• Metro 2033 [Wikipedia] by Dimitry Glukhovsky – a post-apocalyptic novel about people surviving a nuclear world war inside of the Moscow metro. I really appreciated that there was a good balance of action sequences and slower, more thought-provoking ones. Definitely worth the read (which, in my opinion, can’t be said about the other books in the series).

• Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! [Wikipedia] by Ralph Leighton and Richard Feynman – an absolute must-read auto(sort-of)biography about the life of Richard Feynman. I honestly don’t understand how this many interesting things can happen in the life of a single person.

• The Martian [Wikipedia] by Andy Weir – a hilarious novel about an astronaut surviving on Mars, after being left for dead due to an unfortunate series of events. It inspired a movie, which (while not as good as the book) is also quite entertaining.

• Project Hail Mary [Wikipedia] by Andy Weir – another excellent novel by Andy Weir. It has exactly the same feel as the Martian, but I found it to be much more interesting story-wise and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in space sci-fi.