My Favorite Reads of 2025
This year I read 31 books. I finally got to read books that have been on my bookshelves for over 10 years. This was my most productive year in terms of reading. I delved into subjects like sociology, photography, history, science, technology, and philosophy.
Like last year, here is the list of my favorite reads for 2025, starting with my favorites.
The Dream Machine
It’s the story of the genesis of personal computers and Internet. It’s a book about the people and organisations that created modern computing; after reading it feels like it was a miracle it all happened — it took a lot of brilliance, luck, and hard work to make personal computers and Internet a reality. ARPA & PARC were exceptional organisations; without them it’s unclear if any of the computing revolution would have occurred. The book centers on JCR Licklider, the first ARPA director, a visionary that was instrumental in fostering a culture of innovation and risk taking.
This book reignited my love of technology. Check my in-depth review.
The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop
Discourses
Epictetus was a former slave and Stoic philosopher from antiquity. The Discourses is a transcript of his teachings from his student Arrian. It is an ancient text, but it is eerily modern and relevant today. Despite its somewhat archaic style, it is by far the best Stoic text I have read.
This passage particularly struck me and got me to work on getting my anger under control:
So if you don’t want to be cantankerous, don’t feed your temper, or multiply incidents of anger. Suppress the first impulse to be angry, then begin to count the days on which you don’t get mad. ‘I used to be angry every day, then only every other day, then every third…’ If you resist it a whole month, offer God a sacrifice, because the vice begins to weaken from day one, until it is wiped out altogether. ‘I didn’t lose my temper this day, or the next, and not for two, then three months in succession.’ If you can say that, you are now in excellent health, believe me.
The Discourses is a classic work of wisdom.
On Writing
Stephen King —the most commercially successful contemporary writer— talks about the craft of written storytelling. It’s a mix of autobiography and self-development for writers. It’s a fun and illuminating read.
Before reading this book I was self-conscious about my own writing; now I am more relaxed, my writing is looser, and my production is more fluid and fun.
Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
Tom Holland’s masterpiece recounts the development of Christianity over the ages. It’s a fascinating tale; I never realized how Christianity went through many transformations since its inception. Tom Holland demonstrates how the modern world is imbued with Christian values and concepts. Most of the moral code of the secular West is derived from Christianity.
One of the best history books I had the pleasure to read, it blew my mind and changed how I look at the world.
Dominion : how the Christian revolution remade the world by Tom Holland
Antifragile
Another great book from Nassim Taleb. Antifragile is about systems that get better under stress. He discusses concepts like via negativa (solution by subtraction rather than addition), optionality (cheap experiments with high upside), barbell strategy (combine 90% low risk with 10% high risk to escape the mediocre middle), and skin in the game (only trust people exposed to downsides, avoid people with nothing to lose).
It’s another sharp critique of the modern world and thought-provoking read. It changed the way I invested my money and made me more confident about the future.
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Laws of Human Nature
Last year I included Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power in my favorite reads. I liked it so much I read three more books from Greene: The 33 Strategies of War, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature, all good reads.
The Laws of Human Nature is Greene at his best and my second favorite book of his after The 48 Laws. It’s a great read to understand people and social interactions. Greene uses history, politics, and fiction to illustrate and comment on our behavior. He explores the good and the bad sides of human nature, and makes it clear that we are emotional creatures subject to narcissism, grandiosity, irrationality, and envy. He explains how to navigate the darker sides of the human condition.
It’s a thick volume, but I flew through it in less than 2 weeks. Educational and entertaining.
The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
We Have Never Been Woke
One of the best books about contemporary events that I’ve read. Musa al-Gharbi explains what he calls the “awokening” with lucidity. He covers this thorny subject dispassionately with abundant data and facts.
Al-Gharbi’s theory is that the current awokening is not really about social justice, but about intra-elite competition. There’s a fierce rivalry among the elites and aspirant elites; they are trying to outdo each other by presenting themselves as virtuous. This phenomenon is driven primarily by the over-production of aspiring elites. The book focuses mainly on the USA, but is equally applicable to other western countries.
It made me see today’s events more clearly, and I don’t get caught up in the culture wars narratives. A great read to understand our turbulent times.
We Have Never Been Woke by Musa al-Gharbi
Onto 2026
Hopefully one of these books ends up on your reading list; I think they are well worth your time.
For this new year my plan is to read 32 books. I want to learn more about mathematics, engineering, history, art, and business.