1. Luke Thorburn
  2. Index
  3. CV
  4. Reading Log

  1. 2021
  2. 2020
  3. 2019
  4. 2018
  5. 2017
  6. 2016
  7. 2015

Reading Log

Stateliving

Books I've read, in reverse chronological. Rereads are marked ; incomplete but thorough perusals . Titles denoted  were either (a) particularly well-written or (b) responsible for inducing some degree of metanoia, and I commend them to you. (You can probably the rest.) For those I next intend to consume, please see my reading list.

Bodies of Light Jennifer Down Friday 18 November
Far Out Encounters With Extremists Charlotte McDonald-Gibson Saturday 15 October
The Cabinet of Calm Paul Anthony Jones Monday 29 August
Descartes' Bones A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason Russell Shorto Tuesday 9 August
Wild Words Kate Hodges Friday 5 August
Breaking the Social Media Prism How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing Chris Bail Tuesday 26 July
The Man from The Future The Visionary Life of John Von Neumann Ananyo Bhattacharya Saturday 9 July
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power Shoshana Zuboff Tuesday 24 May
The Empathy Diaries A Memoir Sherry Turkle Tuesday 10 May
The Big Switch Australia's electric future Saul Griffith Sunday 1 May
The Information A History, a Theory, a Flood James Gleick Monday 14 March
The Mind is Flat The Illusion of Mental Depth and The Improvised Mind Nick Chater Saturday 22 January
New Dark Age Technology and the End of the Future James Bridle Thursday 6 January
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Simon Armitage Saturday 1 January

2021

The Lean PhD Radically Improve the Efficiency, Quality and Impact of Your Research Julian Kirchherr Saturday 11 December
Uncanny Valley A Memoir Anna Wiener Wednesday 24 November
How to Live 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion Derek Sivers Thursday 11 November
The Scout Mindset Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t Julia Galef Friday 5 November
Strangers Drowning Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help Larissa MacFarquhar Thursday 14 October
How Algorithms Create and Prevent Fake News Exploring the Impacts of Social Media, Deepfakes, GPT-3, and More Noah Giansiracusa Wednesday 6 October
Deep Learning Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio and Aaron Courville Wednesday 15 September
Power Play Breaking through bias, barriers & boys' clubs Julia Banks Monday 13 September
Ready Player Two Ernest Cline Sunday 29 August
Ready Player One Ernest Cline Wednesday 25 August
Weapons of Math Destruction How big data increases inequality and threatons democracy Cathy O'Neil Thursday 19 August
Technics and Civilisation Lewis Mumford Friday 13 August
Square Haunting Five Women, Freedom and London between the Wars Francesca Wade Wednesday 28 July
A Human's Guide to the Future Jordan Nguyen Monday 19 July
The Precipice Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity Toby Ord Monday 5 July
Crowds and Power Elias Canetti Sunday 27 June
Why We're Polarized Ezra Klein Sunday 20 June
Human Compatible AI and the Problem of Control Stuart Russell Tuesday 15 June
The Alignment Problem How Can Machines Learn Human Values? Brian Christian Friday 4 June
The Image A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America Daniel Boorstin Tuesday 25 May
The Tyranny of Merit What's Become of the Common Good? Michael J. Sandel Monday 17 May
The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men A Cultural History Paolo Zellini Monday 26 April
Bees and Their Keepers Lotte Möller Sunday 18 April
Dune Frank Herbert Sunday 4 April
How to Read a Book Mortimer J. Adler, Charles van Doren Thursday 4 March
Call of the Reed Warbler A new agriculture, a new earth Charles Massy Wednesday 17 February
Teg's 1994 Robert Theobald, J. M. Scott Sunday 17 January
Einstein His Life and Universe Walter Isaacson Sunday 10 January

2020

How to Have Impossible Conversations A Very Practical Guide Peter Boghossian, James Lindsay Thursday 31 December
Going Dark The Secret Social Lives of Extremists Julia Ebner Friday 30 October
The NeuroGeneration The New Era in Brain Enhancement That Is Revolutionizing the Way We Think, Work, and Heal Tan Le Sunday 11 October
The Sciences of the Artificial Herbert Simon Friday 18 September
Stop Being Reasonable Eleanor Gordon-Smith Tuesday 25 August
Monash The Outsider Who Won a War Roland Perry Tuesday 11 August
On Mathematics and Mathematicians (Memorabilia Mathematica) Robert Edouard Moritz Saturday 25 July
Losing Eden Why Our Minds Need the Wild Lucy Jones Saturday 25 July
Are Filter Bubbles Real? Axel Bruns Saturday 4 July
Plato at the Googleplex Philosophy Won't Go Away Rebecca Newberger Goldstein Wednesday 1 July
Rusted Off Why country Australia is fed up Gabrielle Chan Tuesday 19 May
The Ph.D. Grind A Ph.D. Student Memoir Philip Guo Friday 24 April
Breaking News The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now Alan Rusbridger Saturday 18 April
The Beginning of Infinity Explanations that Transform the World David Deutsch Saturday 28 March
How to Do Nothing Resisting the Attention Economy Jenny Odell Thursday 5 March
The Myth of the Rational Voter Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies Bryan Caplan Wednesday 12 February
Love Your Enemies How decent people can save America from the culture of contempt Arthur Brooks Monday 3 February
Crystallography Christian Bök Wednesday 29 January
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell 1872-1914 Bertrand Russell Friday 24 January
Democracy in a Divided Australia Matthew Lesh Monday 20 January
Stray Arts (and Other Inventions) Anthony Etherin Friday 17 January
Post Truth The new war on truth and how to fight back Matthew d'Ancona Friday 17 January
Urban and Regional Planning Peter Hall, Mark Tewdwr-Jones Tuesday 14 January
Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders Tuesday 14 January
Weaponized Lies How to think critically in the post-truth era Daniel Levitin Friday 10 January
Detection Theory A user's guide Neil A. Macmillan, C. Douglas Creelman Friday 10 January
City Life The new urban Australia Seamus O'Hanlon Thursday 9 January
The Hate Race Maxine Beneba Clarke Saturday 4 January

2019

The Reputation Society How online opinions are reshaping the offline world Hassan Masum, Mark Tover (editors) Tuesday 31 December
Cellar Anthony Etherin Tuesday 31 December
The Lifespan of a Fact John D'Agata, Jim Fingal Monday 30 December
Building Web Reputation Systems Ratings, reviews & karma to keep your community healthy Randy Farmer, Bryce Glass Saturday 28 December
The Human Condition Hannah Arendt Saturday 28 December
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs Thursday 26 December
Alex through the Looking-Glass How life reflects numbers and numbers reflect life Alex Bellos Saturday 14 December
Brief Answers to the Big Questions Stephen Hawking Monday 2 December
Information disorder Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making Claire Wardle, Hossein Derakhshan Wednesday 27 November
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky Sunday 24 November
Metaphors We Live By George Lakoff, Mark Johnson Monday 11 November
Clickbait, Bias, and Propaganda in Information Networks Barbara Fister, Rachel Flynn, et al. Tuesday 5 November
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible Adventures in modern Russia Peter Pomerantsev Wednesday 23 October
Troll Hunting Inside the world of online hate and its human fallout Ginger Gorman Friday 4 October
This is Not Propaganda Adventures in the War Against Reality Peter Pomerantsev Thursday 26 September
Radicalized Cory Doctorow Wednesday 18 September
Infinite Detail Tim Maughan Friday 13 September
The Last Whole Earth Catalog Access to tools Stewart Brand Tuesday 3 September
Figuring Maria Popova Sunday 25 August
Eichmann in Jerusalem A Report on the Banality of Evil Hannah Arendt Tuesday 30 July
The Secret Life Three True Stories Andrew O'Hagan Tuesday 23 July
Radical Markets Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society Eric Posner, Glen Weyl Friday 19 July
Snow Crash Neal Stephenson Sunday 30 June
Dark Emu Aboriginal Australia and the birth of agriculture Bruce Pascoe Sunday 30 June
How to Measure Anything Finding the value of intangibles in business Douglas Hubbard Sunday 26 May
Why Shrink-Wrap a Cucumber? The Complete Guide to Environmental Packaging Stephen Aldridge, Laurel Miller Saturday 20 April
In Praise of Intransigence The Perils of Flexibility Richard H. Weisberg Friday 5 April
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing Hank Green Monday 1 April
Why Nations Fail The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson Thursday 28 March
How We Got to Now Six Innovations That Made the Modern World Steven Johnson Thursday 14 March
Second Foundation Isaac Asimov Sunday 10 February
Alsos Samuel Goudsmit Sunday 3 February
Victims of Groupthink A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes Irving L. Janis Thursday 24 January
Beaumaris Modern Modernist Homes in Beaumaris Fiona Austin Sunday 20 January
The Worldly Philosophers The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers Robert Heilbroner Thursday 17 January

2018

Life of Galileo Bertolt Brecht Sunday 23 December
What is populism? Jan-Werner Müller Friday 7 December
The Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Naomi Klein Wednesday 5 December
Radioactive Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout Lauren Redniss Saturday 10 November
The First Casualty A Memoir from the Front Lines of the Global War on Journalism Peter Greste Friday 26 October
No Logo Naomi Klein Thursday 18 October
Tales from the Inner City Shaun Tan Friday 5 October
Cybernetics Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine Norbert Wiener Tuesday 25 September
An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language Stephen Wolfram Sunday 2 September
Ginkgo The Tree That Time Forgot Peter Crane Tuesday 28 August
Reinventing Discovery The New Era of Networked Science Michael Nielsen Thursday 9 August
Cicada Shaun Tan Thursday 2 August
What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell Erwin Schrödinger Tuesday 31 July
The News A User's Manual Alain de Botton Saturday 28 July
Global Catastrophic Risks Nick Bostrom, Milan Ćirković Tuesday 24 July
Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis J. D. Vance Thursday 5 July
A Little History of the World Ernst Gombrich Thursday 28 June
The Fractal Geometry of Nature Benoit Mandelbrot Thursday 7 June
Factfulness Ten Reasons We're Wrong about the World - and Why Things are Better than You Think Hans Rosling Wednesday 30 May
I am a Mathematician The Later Life of a Prodigy Norbert Wiener Wednesday 23 May
Ex-Prodigy My Childhood and Youth Norbert Wiener Tuesday 15 May
The Fractalist Memoir of a Scientific Maverick Benoit Mandelbrot Friday 4 May
A Radical Approach to Lebesgue's Theory of Integration David Bressoud Friday 20 April
Paradoxes in Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics Gábor Székely Tuesday 10 April
The Ethical Brain The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas Michael Gazzaniga Saturday 31 March
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate Ted Chiang Saturday 31 March
Foundation and Empire Isaac Asimov Tuesday 27 March
Randomnicity Rules and Randomness in the Realm of the Infinite Anastasios Tsonis Friday 23 March
Maverick Genius The Pioneering Odyssey of Freeman Dyson Phillip Schewe Wednesday 21 March
Enigmas of Chance An Autobiography Mark Kac Monday 12 March
The Righteous Mind Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathon Heidt Wednesday 7 March
Superforecasting The art and science of prediction Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner Wednesday 28 February
The Master Algorithm How the quest for the ultimate learning machine will remake our world Pedro Domingos Thursday 22 February
Thunder & Lightning Weather past, present, future Lauren Redniss Sunday 18 February
Three Score Years and Twenty Walter C. Balmford Thursday 15 February
Inadequate Equilibria Where and how civilizations get stuck Eliezer Yudkowsky Tuesday 6 February
Who owns the future? Jaron Lanier Monday 5 February
Surfing Uncertainty Prediction, action and the embodied mind Andy Clark Tuesday 23 January
Arcadia Tom Stoppard Friday 19 January
Finite and Infinite Games A vision of life as play and possibility James P. Carse Wednesday 10 January

2017

The Island of Knowledge The limits of science and the search for meaning Marcelo Gleiser Sunday 31 December
The Age of Em Work, love and life when robots rule the earth Robin Hanson Wednesday 27 December
Stubborn Attachments A vision for a society of free, prosperous and responsible individuals Tyler Cowen Tuesday 26 December
Foundation Isaac Asimov Sunday 17 December
The Tipping Point How little things can make a big difference Malcolm Gladwell Thursday 14 December
A Mathematical Theory of Communication Claude Shannon & Warren Weaver Tuesday 12 December
How to Solve It A new aspect of mathematical method George Pólya Friday 8 December
Slade House David Mitchell Sunday 3 December
Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco Saturday 25 November
Stoner John Williams Wednesday 18 October
Chronicles On our troubled times Thomas Piketty Thursday 5 October
The Shallows How the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember Nicholas Carr Monday 2 October
In Search of the Miraculous Fragments of an unknown teaching P.D. Ouspensky Saturday 23 September
Frank Lloyd Wright America's master architect Kathryn Smith Wednesday 20 September
Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Robin Sloan Thursday 14 September
Code Breakers Inside the shadow world of signals intelligence in Australia's two Bletchley Parks Craig Collie Tuesday 15 August
Anki Essentials The complete guide to remembering anything with Anki Alex Vermeer Friday 4 August
Sapiens A brief history of humankind Yuval Noah Harari Saturday 29 July
A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell Saturday 22 July
Unforbidden Pleasures Adam Phillips Wednesday 12 July
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Pronged ants, horned humans, mice on toast, and other marvels of Jurassic technology Lawrence Weschler Wednesday 5 July
Graphic Discovery A trout in the milk and other visual adventures Howard Wainer Wednesday 24 May
Leibniz Ruth Lydia Saw Thursday 18 May
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll Douglas R. Hofstadter Thursday 27 April
Breaking Smart Seeking serendipity through technology Venkatesh Rao Sunday 9 April
The Kybalion Three Initiates Friday 31 March
Brave New World Aldous Huxley Tuesday 28 March
The Better Angels of Our Nature Why violence has declined Steven Pinker Sunday 26 March
Interactive Data Visualization for the Web An introduction to designing with d3 Scott Murray Saturday 25 March
Silent Spring Rachel Carson Thursday 23 March
The Dot & the Line A romance in lower mathematics Norton Juster Wednesday 22 March
The Last Messiah Peter Wessel Zapffe Wednesday 22 March
The New Case for Gold James Rickards Wednesday 15 March
The Prince Niccolò Machiavelli Sunday 12 March
Faster The acceleration of just about everything James Gleick Wednesday 8 March
The Economics of Inequality Thomas Piketty Saturday 4 March
The Omnivore's Dilemma A natural history of four meals Michael Pollan Wednesday 1 March
80,000 Hours Find a fulfilling career that does good Benjamin Todd Saturday 25 February
H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald Tuesday 14 February
Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh Wednesday 8 February
On Bullshit Harry Frankfurt Thursday 2 February
On the Shortness of Life Life is long if you know how to use it Seneca Thursday 2 February
This Is Water Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life David Foster Wallace Thursday 5 January

2016

Death of the Liberal Class Chris Hedges Thursday 15 December
The Golden Ticket P, NP, and the search for the impossible Lance Fortnow Monday 5 December
The Four Legendary Kingdoms Matthew Reilly Monday 21 November
The Boy Who Played with Fusion Extreme science, extreme parenting, and how to make a star Tom Clynes Friday 28 October
Making the Modern World Materials and dematerialization Vaclav Smil Saturday 22 October
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn Thursday 29 September
1001 Ideas That changed the way we think Robert Arp (editor) Saturday 3 September
Superintelligence Paths, dangers, strategies Nick Bostrom Friday 19 August
The Shape of Space Jeffrey Weeks Wednesday 10 August
The Ascent of Man Jacob Bronowski Friday 5 August
The Decline of the West, Vol. I Form and actuality Oswald Spengler Saturday 30 July
The Art of Asking or, How I learned to stop worrying and let people help Amanda Palmer Friday 8 July
The Singing Bones Shaun Tan Tuesday 5 July
Big World, Small Planet Abundance within planetary boundaries Johan Rockström, Mattias Klum Friday 1 July
You Are Not A Gadget A manifesto Jaron Lanier Tuesday 28 June
Neural Networks and Deep Learning Michael A. Nielsen Monday 27 June
The Principles of Uncertainty Maira Kalman Saturday 25 June
Chaos Making a new science James Gleick Tuesday 31 May
The Mind's Eye Oliver Sacks Sunday 22 May
Facts from Figures A layman's introduction to statistics M. J. Moroney Wednesday 18 May
Science and the Common Understanding Julius Robert Oppenheimer Friday 13 May
ggplot2 Elegant graphics for data analysis Hadley Wickham Thursday 12 May
In Cold Blood Truman Capote Thursday 5 May
The Island of Knowledge The limits of science and the search for meaning Marcelo Gleiser Wednesday 27 April
The Grammar of Graphics Leland Wilkinson Wednesday 20 April
How to Prove It A structured approach Daniel Velleman Thursday 7 April
The Container Principle How a box changes the way we think Alexander Klose Friday 26 February
The Sense of Style The thinking person's guide to writing in the 21st century Steven Pinker Monday 22 February
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance An inquiry into values Robert Maynard Pirsig Wednesday 17 February
An ABZ of Love Inge & Sten Hegeler Sunday 14 February
The Life You Can Save Acting now to end world poverty Peter Singer Saturday 13 February
The Bed of Procrustes Philosophical and practical aphorisms Nassim Nicholas Taleb Wednesday 10 February
The Black Swan The impact of the highly improbable Nassim Nicholas Taleb Monday 8 February
Fooled by Randomness The hidden role of chance in life and in the markets Nassim Nicholas Taleb Tuesday 2 February
Why Information Grows The evolution of order, from atoms to economies César Hidalgo Wednesday 27 January
Storms of My Grandchildren The truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity James Hansen Monday 25 January
Making Sense of Japanese What the textbooks don't tell you Jay Rubin Saturday 23 January
Shogun James Clavell Thursday 21 January
The Elements of Style William Strunk, Elwyn Brooks White Thursday 7 January
Paula Isabel Allende Sunday 3 January

2015

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows Tuesday 22 December
Antifragile Things that gain from disorder Nassim Nicholas Taleb Friday 18 December
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a curious character Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton Sunday 6 December
Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman Friday 4 December
Being Mortal Medicine and what matters in the end Atul Gawande Saturday 28 November
The Reason I Jump The inner voice of a thirteen-year-old boy with autism Naoki Higashida Wednesday 18 November
Our Choice A plan to solve the climate crisis Al Gore Wednesday 18 November
An Inconvenient Truth The planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it Al Gore Thursday 12 November
僕らの時代の本 Craig Mod Friday 30 October
Cycles of Life Civilization and the biosphere Vaclav Smil Saturday 24 October
The Opposite of Loneliness Essays and stories Marina Keegan Friday 2 October
The Art of Data Science A guide for anyone who works with data Roger Peng, Elizabeth Matsui Tuesday 29 September
The Sixth Extinction An unnatural history Elizabeth Kolbert Tuesday 29 September
Catch-22 Joseph Heller Friday 25 September
The Signal and the Noise Why so many predictions fail—but some don't Nate Silver Tuesday 8 September
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Eliezer Yudkowsky Friday 4 September
The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman Friday 7 August
Don't Go Back to School A handbook for learning anything Kio Stark Monday 3 August
Nudge Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein Friday 31 July
The Quantum Universe Everything that can happen does happen Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw Saturday 25 July
Paleoclimate Michael Bender Saturday 18 July
How to Lie with Statistics Darrell Huff Wednesday 15 July
M is for Magic Neil Gaiman Friday 10 July
Envisioning Information Edward Tufte Sunday 28 June
Beautiful Evidence Edward Tufte Friday 26 June
Visual Explanations Edward Tufte Thursday 25 June
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Edward Tufte Sunday 21 June

Prior Notables

Waking Up A guide to spirituality without religion Sam Harris 2015
The Rational Optimist How prosperity evolves Matt Ridley 2014
The Zero Marginal Cost Society The internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism Jeremy Rifkin 2014
Should We Eat Meat? Evolution and consequences of modern carnivory Vaclav Smil 2013
The Conundrum How scientific innovation, increased efficiency, and good intentions can make our energy and climate problems worse David Owen 2012
Tales from Outer Suburbia Shaun Tan 2008
Luke Thorburn