I really enjoyed the format of Corin Wagen’s book review lists, so I’m going to make it a yearly tradition to summarize my reading for the year in a similar manner. I’ll list the completed books in chronological order below. For books that were notable (whether notably bad, notably good, or containing some notable idea), I’ll include a short blurb with my thoughts and my major takeaways.
#1. Sean McMeekin, Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II
A history of World War II that starts by asking the following questions:
Which leaders (if any) were in power pre-, during, and post-war in order to really influence the course of events (the build-up, the actual fighting, and the treaty negotiations afterward)?
Which leaders (if any) benefited the most from the war?
Which leaders (if any) had a vested interest in the European powers going to war?
Which leaders (if any) successfully bent the leaders of the other powers to their will?
McMeekin asserts that, when we stop to consider these questions, there is only one leader who satisfies all four: Joseph Stalin.
Starting from this point, the book outlines a contrarian history of the war, centering on Stalin's role in instigating the war between Germany and the Western Powers, attempting to contain Germany through resource constraints, and, finally, manipulating the Western Powers to achieve his war aims as cheaply as possible.
I’m not enough of an expert on WWII history to refute or support McMeekin’s claims, but it certainly made for one of the most interesting history reads I’ve ever had.
#2. Nicolas Cole, The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention
#3. Amaury De Riencourt, The Coming Caesars
Published in 1957, this book outlines the progression of American government from its original, firmly aristocratic character (we didn’t even vote for president in the beginning of the Republic!) to its then-new mass democratic flavor. De Riencourt draws parallels between this progression and the progression of the Greco-Roman world leading up to the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. He uses this parallel to analyze the trajectory of the US and predict the arrival of an eventual American Caesar.
Unfortunately, this book has become extremely relevant in recent years.
#4. Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War: Explaining World War I
Another contrarian historical perspective, this time blaming the United Kingdom for the outbreak of World War I. It argues that had the UK decisively demonstrated its willingness to enter the war before its outbreak, or had instead committed to staying out of it, the total devastation for everyone would have been significantly reduced.
Given the death and destruction wrought by World War I, as well as the knock-on consequences of the war (the Spanish Flu pandemic, the Great Depression, & finally World War II), it’s hard to argue that the UK’s decision to support France was optimal in the long run. All of the European powers would likely have been better off if the UK had left France to fend for itself and it had lost to Germany more swiftly. It hardly seems like the counterfactual could be any worse than what Europe endured from 1914 to 1945. However, I’m not sure that I’m totally convinced that the war was England’s fault in the sense that Ferguson asserts. As with McMeekin’s book, I’ll need to do more reading on the WWI period to really evaluate these claims.
#5. Samo Burja, Great Founder Theory
Some books aim to inform, diving into great detail on a specific concept or event, analyzing all of its minutiae from every angle. Other books aim to enlighten, expounding a big idea that attempts to fundamentally shift your worldview.
This book is one that aims to enlighten.
Burja’s big idea is a sort of re-skinning of the Great Man of History ideal — except, this time, it incorporates institutional design as its centerpiece.
His theory basically goes as follows: we can measure an individual's “greatness” by the effect they have on shaping the world. Any shaping that is limited to the individual’s lifetime is inherently highly constrained, and thus, they cannot be considered a Great Founder. (Note that, in Burja’s view, this means that Napoleon is not a Great Founder for his military campaigns, but he is a Great Founder for things like standardizing units of measurement, creating conditions that led to growing nationalism throughout Europe, and reorganizing the French military structure to support the first foray into total war). In order to ensure that the individual continues shaping the world long after their death, they must create some mechanism by which to transfer their worldview down through the generations. These are our institutions, and their founders are those who have made the world we live in today.
The remainder of the book examines the implications of this theory from various angles.
#6. Amaury De Riencourt, The American Empire
#7. Peter Attia, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity
#8. Alonso Cueto, La Hora Azul
#9. Chris Miller, Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology
I was late in reading this one, but it remains just as relevant (if not more so) today.
I wish I had read it earlier because it quite clearly lays out the case for investing in Intel as the fab of the future in the US.
#10. William L. Hamilton, Graph Representation Learning
#11. Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company
One of the best business books I’ve ever read. It treats the history of Apple as a history of its manufacturing division, centering on its ability to churn out massive volumes of some of the most advanced devices in the world. By centering the manufacturing story, China is inevitably centered as well — at first as an apprentice, later as a partner, and finally as an uneasy frenemy of sorts.
This book will teach you so much about Apple, about manufacturing, and about China. I cannot recommend it enough.
#12. Jeff Pepper, Mulan, Woman Warrior: An Easy-to-Read Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin, 240 Word Vocabulary
I started learning a bit of Mandarin in 2025, and so far it’s been great fun! I typically like to learn languages through reading (I’ve used this technique before in Spanish and, to a lesser extent, in French). So, to get started on my journey, I looked for some simple yet enjoyable books I could work my way through.
This led me to discover Jeff Pepper, who has simplified many culturally relevant Chinese texts to make them accessible to beginner and intermediate audiences. These include The Journey to the West, various Chinese folktales, a biography of Confucius, and more. Mulan, Woman Warrior is one of the easier of his published books (and tells the same story as my favorite childhood movie!), and so I found it extremely enjoyable to read. I’m very much looking forward to working through The Journey to the West this year.
#13. Dan Brown, The Secret of Secrets
Gemini defines “narrative thrust” as follows:
Narrative thrust is the compelling force that drives a story forward, creating momentum that pulls the reader from one scene to the next, keeping them engaged and eager to discover what happens next
Narrative thrust covers a multitude of sins. Dan Brown, for all his faults, knows how to tell a story with thrust. The Secret of Secrets is no different.
#14. Fyodor Dostoevsky (translated by Michael R. Katz), Crime and Punishment
This is a book that I very much did not enjoy reading, but cannot stop thinking about now that I have read it.
For those who have read Dostoevsky, I’m sure the reasons why I didn’t enjoy the experience of reading the book are obvious — the stilted prose, the confined narrative arc, and the oppressive, suffocating atmosphere that permeates every scene. But for those same readers, the reasons I can’t stop thinking about it must be equally as obvious — the psychological drama, the probing questions into the nature of morality, and the battle between logical rationality and subconscious thought.
Two themes really struck me throughout this book.
The first is Raskolnikov’s ability to reason himself into positions that his subconscious refuses to comply with. To him and other characters in the book, his reasoning is flawless when he expounds on his life philosophy (which, to summarize, is that he is a Napoleonic figure, an example of a higher man, and, as such, is unbound by the constraints of standard morality). In particular, when he is alone and able to ruminate, he frequently finds himself reinforcing this idea in his head. However, whenever confronted with real human connection throughout the story, his Ubermensch idealization breaks down and gives way to a more Christian morality. In addition, there are moments, even when Raskolnikov is alone and avoiding human connection, where thoughts bubble up from his subconscious, questioning his crime. This dichotomy between what he wants to be (the Ubermensch) and what he subconsciously knows he is (the Christian) tears him apart internally throughout the novel.
The second theme concerns the book's ending. After admitting to his crimes, Raskolnikov is imprisoned in Siberia. At the beginning of his imprisonment, he continues his oscillation between feeling himself an Ubermensch and hating himself for it. Only after a year of isolation, during which Sonya Marmeladova, the daughter of a man Raskolnikov helped earlier in the novel, fell ill and could no longer visit him, did Raskolnikov repent and release himself from his delusions. In a sense, the imprisonment in Siberia acted as a death & resurrection for him, after which he had shed the sins of his past life and resurrected as a moral, human agent rather than an aspiring Ubermensch.
Both themes capture the centrality of human connection & emotion in our cognition — Raskolnikov can’t maintain the behavior implied by his reasoning when he comes into contact with others, and he only fully gives up his delusions when he experiences the pain of briefly losing his last human connection, Sonya, during her illness. This tension between self-overcoming and human connection is worth keeping in mind, particularly for those of us who do aspire to more and, in doing so, shed a bit of our natural humanity.
There is another theme I’d like to explore, but I’ll refrain from going on too much of a tangent here. I’ll just say that there are also really interesting parallels between the second theme I mentioned, the life of Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo, and the life of Napoleon. I hope to explore these parallels in-depth in a future article.
#15. Tae Kim, The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant
A really fun history of today’s most important company. Lots of great insights into how Jensen works.
#16. Harry M. Schey, Div, Grad, Curl, and All That: An Informal Text on Vector Calculus
This book builds up the machinery of multivariable calculus through the lens of electromagnetism and physics applications. I’ve been trying to go back and review some math (e.g., calculus, linear algebra, etc.) from a more physics- and geometry-forward perspective so that I can improve my intuitions for the machinery of those topics. Div, Grad, Curl, and All That was great for that purpose.
#17. Michio Kaku, Quantum Supremacy
Yes, I’m aware that many of Kaku’s books devolve into quackery. Yes, I’m aware that Scott Aaronson called this “the worst book about quantum computing… that I’ve ever encountered”. And yes, it does live up to that illustrious billing.
And yet, I still find myself feeling invigorated to learn more and explore new areas every time I read one of Kaku’s books. I’m not sure what this says about me, but here we are.
#18. Richard P. Feynman, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character
Surprisingly, Feynman’s autobiography focuses quite little on his actual work in physics. Instead, we get to peer into the creative and whimsical mind at play of one of the titans of 20th-century physics. Expect lots of stories of mischief and side quests, like lockpicking at Los Alamos or learning to play the drums to join a band during Carnival in Brazil.
#19. Dwarkesh Patel, The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025
This book cuts up many of Dwarkesh’s interviews and groups them together in chapters organized by theme (e.g., “Chapter 1: Scaling”, “Chapter 2: Evals”, etc).
Even if you’ve listened to all of these podcasts previously (as I have), the book still provides a lot of value through its theme-based organization and the extensive footnotes/marginalia that Dwarkesh has included to clarify topics and provide additional detail.
Overall, a nice book to quickly assess where we are and where we’re going in AI.
#20. Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross, Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World
Finding above-average (or even great) employees is not too difficult — we broadly know how to conduct interviews to find people who are competent in their role and conscientious in their execution.
But how do you find people who are truly exceptional?
In Talent, Cowen and Gross aim to answer this question by covering interesting, non-standard interview techniques to help quickly assess whether someone is an outlier among outliers. Very useful if you are a venture capitalist, startup founder, or anyone else aiming to find people who are truly at the tails of the distribution.
Overall, this was a bit of a lighter year of reading than I usually have. In 2026, I’m aiming to increase both the volume and the complexity of the reading I’m doing — hopefully, there will be many more math, physics, and deep learning books in next year’s list than were in this year’s.
In addition, I really like learning history (both political and business) through biographies, and I got away from that a bit in 2025. I’m going to work on incorporating many more of those in 2026.
Lastly, my reading over the last few years has slanted heavily towards non-fiction, but, like Raskolnikov, I’ve been missing the human connection and insights that great fiction can bring. My goal for 2026 is to explore many more of the great books, particularly the seminal novels of the 19th century.
Hey ! can I ask how you've been learning Mandarin ? I've been willing to but don't know how to start : )
Thanks !