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

While I believe that all of these are worth a read, I also put a star (⭐) next to those that are truly special (i.e. I've read/listened to them 5+ times) and a crown (👑) next to my favorite one.

If you have a good book for me to read, let me know and I'll be happy to check it out!

Fantasy

Brandon Sanderson

{:.book}

  • 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 × 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 -- 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?
    3. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter -- very evocative and narrated by Hoid (who was a coatrack).
    4. The Sunlit Man ⭐ -- a western by Brandon Sanderson? Not quite, but it has similar vibes.

Leigh Bardugo

{:.book}

  • 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

Henry H. Neff

{:.book}

  • The Tapestry [Wikipedia] -- most people have books that they read when they were younger (e.g. Eragon) that aren't necessarily the peak of writing but are a comfort book that they like returning to. Well this series is exactly that for me, so if you think it's bad then you're objectively wrong.
    1. The Hound of Rowan
    2. The Second Siege
    3. The Fiend and the Forge
    4. The Maelstrom ⭐
    5. The Red Winter

Sci-fi

Andy Weir

{:.book}

  • The Martian [Wikipedia] -- 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] ⭐ -- exactly the same vibe as the Martian, but I found it to be much more interesting story-wise and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in "science sci-fi."

Isaac Asimov

{:.book}

  • The Foundation Series [Wikipedia] -- a series of sci-fi novels set in a long-distant future where humanity controls the entire galaxy through the Galactic Empire, but which is predicted to fall through the mathematics of psychohistory. Despite the series being written many decades ago, it holds up well and was truly a joy to read.

Liu Cixin

{:.book}

  • Remembrance of Earth's Past [Wikipedia] -- an insanely well written sci-fi trilogy that manages to be both thought-provoking (creating its own solution to the well-known Fermi paradox) and thrilling at the same time (read all of them in the span of a few days). A must-read for any sci-fi fan.

    1. The Three-Body Problem
    2. The Dark Forest ⭐
    3. Death's End

  • The Cretaceous Past (Of Ants and Dinosaurs) -- a fun novel about an implausible cooperation between ants and dinosaurs (yes, you read it right).

Other

{:.book}

  • 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 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, yet they have and are a joy to read.