Reading List

My education has cultivated a habit of reading broadly and voraciously. I enjoy public-facing science writing, am catching up on classic twentieth-century literature, and seek out funny novels.

I tend to keep multiple volumes in rotation, spanning a diverse array of subjects. This habit creates an environment conducive to cross-fertilization of thought, and often results in a reading list as long as the set I have finished that year. I’m always happy to exchange thoughts on any of these books!

Currently Reading

• The Brain from Inside Out - György Buzsáki
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas R. Hofstadter (Ch. 6, The Propositional Calculus)
• The Sense of Style - Steven Pinker (Ch. 5, Arcs of Coherence)
• An Immense World - Ed Yong (Ch. 7, Surface Vibrations)
• The Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus (Ch. 1.3, Philosophical Suicide)

2026

• Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky [a classic for a reason]
• Stoner - John Williams [a solemn and romantic tribute to the life of an academic]
• Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut [what Martyr! was trying to be, i think]
• Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar [i felt like i was observing a piece in the MoMA that i just don’t get]
• East of Eden - John Steinbeck [easily my favorite book]
• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak [gently devastating]
• The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro [a masterfully written warning]
• Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro [haunting in its reflection of meekness and acceptance]
• When We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamin Labatut [weird and whimsical; a penumbral line between reality and fiction]
• The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown [recommended by a friend, didn’t enjoy it]
• All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr [poignant and gripping]
• Artemis - Andy Weir [a silly story]
• Shadow Cell - Andrew and Jihi Bustamante [an indulgent autobiography written by undercover CIA agents]

2025

• Mona’s Eyes - Thomas Schlesser
• Bad Blood - John Carreyrou
• The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
• The Secret History - Donna Tartt
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua
• Determined: The Science of Life without Free Will - Robert Sapolsky
• A Primate’s Memoir - Robert Sapolsky
• Yellowface - R.F. Kuang

Shelved - To Be Read!

• The Odyssey - Homer
• A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
• Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
• Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist - Kate Raworth
• Projections - Karl Deisseroth
• The Stranger - Albert Camus