Fiction
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
A short fable about following the work you were meant to do. I came to it late and was surprised by how much it earned its reputation.
Jun 2026
Reading
Book reviews
Notes on books that intersect programming, craft, and ideas worth returning to alongside the main blog.
Reading shelf
Notes from books that stay with you
Practical lessons, personal reflections, and honest reactions from self-help, novels, and meaningful reads.
📚
Self-help
🧠
Mindset
✍️
Novels
Cover view
Fiction
Non-fiction
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
A young neurosurgeon writes about dying while still trying to figure out how to live. Quiet, exact, devastating.
Jun 2026
Non-fiction
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
A short, sharp book that argues meaning is the thing worth organising your life around. Forged in the worst conditions imaginable, written with the gentleness of a clinician.
Jun 2026
Non-fiction
The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
A pair of Japanese writers translate Adlerian psychology into a long, patient dialogue. The most quietly liberating book I read this year.
May 2026
Non-fiction
Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins
A loud, raw, sometimes uncomfortable memoir about pain as a tool. I needed to read it. I do not need to reread it.
May 2026
Non-fiction
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
A short, dense distillation of Naval's thinking on wealth, happiness, and judgement. The kind of book you keep within arm's reach.
May 2026
Non-fiction
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Old-fashioned personal finance wrapped in ancient Babylonian parables. Dated in tone, evergreen in substance. Still the simplest money book I would hand to a teenager.
May 2026
Non-fiction
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy's short book on prioritisation and beating procrastination. Some of it has not aged well, but the ABCDE method and the core metaphor still earn a place on the productivity shelf.
May 2026
Non-fiction
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel's essay collection on how behaviour, not math, decides your financial life. The best book on money I have read in years, and the one I wish I had found first.
May 2026
Non-fiction
The Art of Being Alone by Renuka Gavrani
A book I picked up half-defensively and ended up genuinely grateful for. Reframed solitude as a skill, not a symptom.
May 2026
