Best Books

These are the books that I’ve liked most, have significantly influenced my views or made enough of an impact for me to remember to list them here. Italicized titles without descriptions are those I haven’t yet read, but intend to, and suspect will be very good.

• Absolute War (Chris Bellamy) – one of my favorite accounts of the Great Patriotic War. 5/5
• The Ages of Gaia (Lovelock, James) – the seductive theory that the Earth’s biosphere and geosphere are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. 5/5
• All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque, Erich Maria) – a seminal work characterizing the postwar disillusionment, this will certainly convert any reader with a heart into a pacifist, at least for a few weeks anyway. 5*/5
• America Alone (Steyn, Mark) – a classic book on the “Eurabia” theory, I found it rather unconvincing on the whole, mainly because I know that Muslim fertility rates in Europe are rapidly converging to indigenous rates (review). 3/5
• Arslan (MJ Engh)
• The Art of War (Sun Tsu) – a timeless treatise. 5/5
• Beyond Oil (Deffeyes, Kenneth) – one of the best descriptive books about peak oil the coming energy crisis…not a doomer, but far from from optimistic. 4/5
• Братья Карамазовы / The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky, Fedor) – the Grand Inquisitor scene is certainly one of the most powerful in literature. 5*/5
• A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller, Walter) – a nuclear post-apocalyptic “future history” focused on the relations between religion, science, and political power. 5/5
• The Clash of Civilizations (Huntington, Samuel) – the theory that future geopolitical fault-lines will be on the boundaries between faith-defined civilizations. 5*/5
• The Code Book (Singh, Simon) – the importance of cryptography in history, quite fascinating. 4/5
• The Collapse of Complex Societies (Tainter, Joseph) – how all societies are subject to diminishing returns to complexity, which eventually leads to socio-political collapse (notes). 5/5
• The Communist Manifesto (Marx, Karl) – very inspiring and prophetic. 5/5
• Conscience Explained (Dennett, Daniel)
• The Decline of the West (Spengler, Oswald) – one of the first great civilizational histories of the world, this work is a majestic and sublime philosophy with deep insights into the real, artificial nature of the Faustian West. 5/5
• Древняя Русь и Великая степь (Gumilev, Lev)
• Dune (Herbert, Frank)
• Earthsea (Le Guin, Ursula) – an excellent fantasy series.
• The Ecotechnic Future (Greer, John Michael) – another excellent book by Greer on industrial civilization’s destiny, of how its “catabolic collapse” may eventually lead to a cultured and technologically-advanced, but sustainable, civilization.
• Emergency! (Strauss, Neil) – entertaining, useful story about how Neil became a survivalist alpha male.
• The Emperor’s New Clothes (Penrose, Roger)
• Energy at the Crossroads (Smil, Vaclav) – an insightful discussion into the history of energy usage and coverage of key concepts.
• The End of History (Fukuyama, Francis) – many of those who dismiss his book as unrealistically idealistic haven’t actually read it. He says that a) liberal democracy is now held as a universal ideal, NOT that it will be immediately, universally implemented without any authoritarian regressions and b) he acknowledges the possibility that postmodernist nihilists reared in democracy’s bosom will struggle against the system, thus restarting history. 5*/5
• The End of Poverty (Sachs, Jeffrey) – a pretty good exploration of development issues, including the poverty trap. Not enthusiastic about increase aid to Africa because 1) the region lacks the human capital base for sustained indigenous economic development and 2 ) it is cultural imperialism. 3/5
• Frogs into Princes: Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Bandler, Richard & Grinder)
• The Game (Strauss, Neil) – fascinating look into the “player” pick-up community.
• On the Genealogy of Morals (Nietzsche, Friedrich) – the rather banal origins of our understanding of good and evil… 5*/5
• The God Delusion (Dawkins, Richard) – he is preaching to the choir here, but an excellent intro to the atheist outlook on the world; however, works under the delusion that evolution can explain metaphysics. 4/5
• Guns, Germs and Steel (Diamond, Jared) – why civilization only evolved on Eurasia, and many other fascinating things (review). 5/5
• Just Capital: The Liberal Economy (Turner, Adair) – a non-ideological, Krugman-influenced intro asking the right questions about how to treat the economy, including an excellent discussion of the relative merits of the US, European and British models. 4/5
• Kicking Away the Ladder (Chang, Ha-Joon) – the vital and now-denied role protectionism played in the early industrial development of countries that now preach free trade (review). 5/5
• Labyrinths (Borges, Jorge Luis) – it is impossible to explain post-modernism, one can only show you the way… and Borges is perhaps the best guide.
• The Last Oil Shock (Strahan, David) – possibly the best account of peak oil and the vital importance of exergy and average EROEI to the sustainability of industrial civilization. This is the book that convinced me. 5/5
• The Last Question (Asimov, Isaac) – a beautiful short story about meaning and eschatology (here).
• The Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update (Meadows, Donella et al) – a systems-based description of how exponential industrial growth, resource depletion, and pollution overload are resulting in overshoot and threatening a collapse of the industrial system by mid-century. This is easily the most significant book on sustainability issues (review). 5*/5
• Lolita (Nabokov, Lolita)
• The Long Descent (Greer, John Michael) – an original, idiosyncratic view of industrial civilization’s predicament in the face of limits to growth. 5/5
• The Long Emergency (Kunstler, Howard) – rants against suburbia, not new insights about peak oil. 3/5
• The Lord of the Ring (Tolkien, John R.R.) – my second favorite fantasy series after The Wheel of Time.
• The Lucifer Principle (Bloom, Howard) – why fascism is the natural state of human societies. Enlightening, depressing, Nietzschean. 5/5
• Мастер и Маргарита (Bulgakov, Mikhail)
• The Meaning of the Twenty-First Century (Martin, James) – a look at the next few decades incorporating trends in energy, the environment, politics and information technology. Approaches this the correct way, but too fluffy. 3/5
• Mistborn (Sanderson, Brandon) – this fantasy series turns the usual tropes of the genre on their head: the dark lord has won, and the heroine needs to be selfish to successfully contain the world-ending forces of Ruin. 5/5
• The Myth of Sisyphus (Camus, Albert) – why Sisyphus is happy about his absurd existence. 5*/5
• Neuromancer (Gibson, William)
• The Next 100 Years (Friedman, George) – from the guy at my favorite geopolitics analysis center (Stratfor), this is a rather disappointing effort: Poland becoming a major power? Russia and China collapsing? Mexico challenging the US? Too many implausible things, and he is not successful at convincing otherwise (review, analysis). 3/5
• The Party’s Over (Heinberg, Richard) – one of the three best peak oil books, along with Beyond Oil and The Last Oil Shock. 4/5
• Peddling Prosperity (Krugman, Paul) – the centrist manifesto? To a degree I bought it and still do, but far from 100% agreed. 4/5
• The Pentagon’s New Map (Barnett, Thomas)
• The Pity of War (Ferguson, Niall) – an excellent compendium of revisionist views on aspects of World War One. 5/5
• Почему Россия не Америка / Why Russia isn’t America (Parshev, Andrei) – my first intro to the theory that Russia’s severe climatic and geographic disadvantages doom it to being a resource appendage of the rest of the world if it integrates into it; hence the imperative for autarchy and self-sufficient development. Initially liked it, then dismissed it under the influence of Krugman and the halcyon days of the late Bush “boom”, now reconsidering it. 4/5
• Preparing for the 21st Century (Kennedy, Paul) – a comprehensive look at key trends (demography, the environment, technology, corporations, robotics, etc) and the effect they will have on major regions; a promising approach for global futures studies. 5/5
• Преступление и наказание / Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky, Fedor) – the importance of remorse and redemption. 5/5
• On Writing (King, Stephen) – this is THE book to get if you want to know how to write well; better than Strunk’s Elements of Style.
• The Prince (Machiavelli, Niccolò) – the intellectual antecedent of the realist worldview and guide to personal fulfillment. 5*/5
• The Prodigal Superpower: Russia in the 21st Century (Rosefielde, Steven) – recently-read book about how Russia’s economy retains a “dormant structurally militarized potential” that could allow it to re-emerge as a prodigal superpower like the USSR. Not entirely convinced by his argument that the Putin system is a “Muscovite” one doomed to imminent stagnation and long-term decline relative to the other Great Powers (review). 4/5
• The Rise and Decline of Nations (Olson, Mancur)
• The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (Kennedy, Paul) – a tightly-argued tome expounding on the primacy of economic might on international power, this was what first aroused my interest in geopolitics. 5*/5
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (Shirer, William L.) – a classic account of Nazism. 5/5
• Роза Мира (Daniil Andreyev)
• San Manuel Bueno, Mártir (Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo) – a novella about a heroic priest who has lost his faith in immortality, yet says nothing of his doubts to his parishioners, not wanting to disturb their faith, which he recognizes is a necessary support for their lives; perhaps the most powerful and beautiful text I’ve yet come across, this is the ultimate and indeed only valid argument for faith. 5*/5
• The Sea of Fertility (Mishima, Yukio)
• Secular Cycles (Turchin, Peter & Nefedov) – more readable account of cliodynamics (review). 5/5
• Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends (Korotayev, Andrei et al) – the science of cliodynamics, using mathematics to model the past, in particular political-demographic cycles. Very convincingly reproduces Chinese dynastic cycles and produces an excellent macromodel for world population incorporating exponential growth (based on accelerating technological expansion), limits to growth (Malthusian limits and overshoot) and the vagaries of warfare. One major weakness, I believe, is that it does not treat the hydrocarbon energy subsidy acquired after the industrial revolution as a factor of growth in its own right (review). 5*/5
• Simulacres et Simulation (Jean Baudrillard) – not just about postmodern; it is postmodernism, a text about the nihilism of transparency.
• The Singularity is Near (Kurzweil, Ray) – I was very taken in my the idea of a technological singularity and its consequences…that said I am not as optimistic nowadays because of my increasing recognition of the huge energetic and environmental hurdles we’ll face in the years and decades ahead. It’s going to be a race between technological growth and limits to growth. 5*/5
• Six Degrees (Lynas, Mark) – one of the books that really awoke me to the seriousness of global warming (notes). 5/5
• Смерть Ивана Ильича (Tolstoy, Lev) – a powerful novel of mortality and the meaning of life. IMO, Tolstoy’s short stories are far better than his huge tomes. 5/5
• Solaris (Lem, Stanislaw)
• The Stand (King, Stephen) – good post-apocalyptic novel with S. King’s traditional excellency in characterization. 5/5
• The Stranger (Camus, Albert) – Meursault is the literary character with whom I most identify. 5*/5
• Stupid White Men (Moore, Michael) – say what you will about him, but unlike Russian liberasts who only know how to whine, he is hilarious. 5/5
• The Sublime Object of Ideology (Zizek, Slavoj)
• On Thermonuclear War (Kahn, Herman) – on how to fight and survive nuclear wars. 3/5
• The Trial (Kafka, Franz) – remorseless bureaucratic machinery. 4/5
• True Names (Vinge, Vernor) – what it would be like to live close in time to a technological singularity, including great scenes of immersion in cyberspace and how it could be interpreted by the physical senses – as a world of fantasy and magic. 5*/5
• The Turner Diaries (Pierce, William Luther) – quite a shocking book, even as I read it (driven on by morbid fascination) I wondered how such a badly-written and hateful piece of tripe could be so popular. 2/5
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera, Milan) – on the universal tyranny of kitsch, the absence of meaning, and other philosophical reflections. 5*/5
• Unrestricted Warfare (Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui) – who knows? This may become as famous in the future as On War or Panzer Leader (here). 4/5
• Virtual Politics (Wilson, Andrew) – the postmodernist methods by which politics are conducted in eastern Europe; easily one of the best and least ideologized Western political science books on Russia. 5/5
• The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Landes, David) – describes how industry and most importantly an industrial culture is important for assuring long-term prosperity (Brad DeLong has a good review). 5/5
• When the Rivers Run Dry (Pearce, Fred)
• When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (Glantz, David) – perhaps the English-language best book on the operational-military side of the Great Patriotic War. 5/5
• With Speed and Violence (Pearce, Fred) – another good book on AGW (notes). 5/5
• The Wheel of Time (Jordan, Robert) – my favorite fantasy series for which I’ve written a few theories. 5*/5
• Why the Allies Won (Overy, Richard) – a comprehensive examination into the material, organization and spiritual basis for Allied victory in World War Two. 5*/5
• The World Without Us (Weisman, Alan) – what would happen if humans disappeared? Everything would break down and vanish surprisingly quickly, with the sole exception of plastics which will remain intact for as long as millions of years. 5/5
• Zombie Survival Guide (Brooks, Max) – the funniest thing is how he approaches it so seriously. 5/5