I was going over the books that I managed to read in 2021 and realized that this year was a bit special compared to my experience in the past years. This year, I was very quick to put away books that I picked up but did not enjoy reading, or did not find valuable for the given point of time. This gave me a chance to reflect a bit on my past readings and I thought to compile a short list of all time favorites.

Note: I am updating the list from time to time, although it was written in 2021. Last Updated: 2022-06

Regardless of the genre, they provoked thoughts and gave perspective which I was lacking before, they challenged me, my beliefs and shaped me as a person.

Initially I was thinking to provide some details about why a certain book appears in the list below, however I realized I want to keep it short without any explanation, so please go ahead and explore the content.

Technology and engineering

• Understanding Distributed Systems, by Roberto Vitillo
• Software Engineering at Google, by Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, Hyrum Wright
• Bit Data: Principles and best practices of scalable realtime data systems, by Nathan Marz, James Warren
• Functional Programming in Scala, by Runar Bjarnson
• Designing Data-Intensive Applications, by Martin Kleppmann
• Database Internals, by Alex Petrov
• Reactive Design Patterns, by Roland Kuhn, Jamie Allen
• Algorithms, by Robert Sedgewick

Management and leadership

• Thinking in systems: A primer, by Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz
• Radical Candor, by Kim Malone Scott
• The Making of a Manager, by Julie Zhuo
• Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track, by Will Larson
• Making Work Visible, by Dominica Degrandis
• Accelerate: Building and Scaling High-Performing Technology Organizations, by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim
• Team Topologies, by Matthew Skelton
• High Output Management, by Andrew S. Grove
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath, Dan Heath

Self help / Science / Psychology

• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
• The Art of Thinking Clearly: Better Thinking, Better Decisions, by Imnet Ernest
• The Courage to Be Disliked, Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga
• Range: Why Generalist Triumph In a Specialized World, by David Epstein
• Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
• Thinking fast and slow, by Daniel Kahneman

Fiction and fantasy

• Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
• Circe, by Madeline Miller
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
• All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
• The Accursed Kings Series, by Maurice Druon
• Stoicism and the Art of Happiness, by Donald J. Roertson
• The Stormlight Archive Series, by Brandon Sanderson
• The First Law Series, by Joe Abercrombie

Last but not least, I wich everyone read the How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.