Three tiers, loosely. A handful of books that I have reread enough that they have earned a permanent shelf. Books I am in the middle of this quarter. Things I plan to pick up when the current pile thins.
Perennial
- Claude Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Still the clearest writing I have encountered on any hard topic. I reread it when I catch myself writing in jargon.
- Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language. The best book about software architecture that never mentions software once.
- Andy Grove, High Output Management. Reread it the week before every quarterly planning meeting.
- Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive. On the small set of decisions that actually matter, and how to know which they are.
- Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn. Architecture as a living system. I think about it every time a customer asks whether to rebuild or renovate.
Current
- Tyler Cowen, GOAT, on Mokyr. Slowly. Nights only.
- Will Larson, The Engineering Executive’s Primer. Re-reading for the second time. Denser than it looks.
- Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin. For the prose as much as the subject.
Next
- William Strunk Jr., The Elements of Style. Due for a fifteenth reread.
- Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence. The first 200 pages, three more times.
- Primo Levi, The Periodic Table. Because I have been recommending it for years without having read it in seven.
Why three tiers
A good reading list tells you what the author thinks is worth forgetting. If I have not reread a book in five years, it did not stay. The perennials are a small shelf on purpose.
A reading list that only shows what is current looks like taste. A reading list that only shows favorites looks like a wall. Both are true at the same time; showing both is the only honest way.