These are some of the books I’ve read throughout my life and found insightful, one way or another. Perhaps you, dear reader, find something meaningful in them that matters to you, that will help you on your journey.
Before you buy a new book though, ask yourself if you really need it, and if so, if you can buy it second-hand or at a discount. Perhaps you can also borrow it from someone you know, or somewhere, like a library. Easier on your wallet and the environment, and you might just make some real human friends on the way. ๐
Speaking of which, if you and I are friends, you can also ask if you can borrow it from me. Books (mostly) exist to be read, otherwise they just gather too much dust on bookshelves.
๐ฎ Play, Games & Game Development
- Ask Iwata, edited by Hobonichi
- ๐ A Theory of Fun for Game Design (2004), by Raph Koster
- The Art of Game Design, by Jesse Schell
- โ Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (1938), by Johan Huizinga
- ๐ง The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design (2017), by Celia Hodent
- ๐ข Streitpunkt Games (2024), by Harald Koberg
- ๐ฎ Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (2011), by Jane McGonigal
- ๐ Spelunky (2016), by Derek Yu
- A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles behind Good Game Design (2014), by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark
- ๐ฒ Board Games in 100 Moves (2019), by Ian Livingstone and James Wallis
- ๐ป Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made (2017), by Jason Schreier
- ๐ฆ Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry (2021), by Jason Schreier
- ๐ช Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment (2024), by Jason Schreier
๐บ Art, Design & Media
- โฏ Design for the Real World (Third Edition, 2019, orig. 1971), by Victor J. Papanek (I’ve read it in 2024 for the first time [pictured further below])
- Understanding Comics (1993), by Scott McCloud
- Making Comics (2006), by Scott McCloud
- Design is Storytelling (2017), by Ellen Lupton
- โฟ The Politics of Design: A (Not So) Global Design Manual (2016), by Ruben Pater
- ๐ The Medium is the Massage (1967), by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore
- ๐ฏ The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition (2013, orig. 1988), by Donald A. Norman
- ๐ฐ CAPS LOCK: How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and how to escape from it (2021), by Ruben Pater
- ๐ค Emotional Design (2003), by Donald A. Norman
- ๐ The Green Imperative (1995), by Victor J. Papanek
- ๐ธ Design Justice (2020), by Sasha Costanza-Chock
- Weltentwerfen (2016), by Friedrich von Borries
- ๐จ How to Think when you Draw, series by Lorenzo Etherington
- ๐ Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (2014), by Edwin E. Catmull and Amy Wallace
- ๐ Ways of Seeing (1972), by John Berger
- The Beauty of Everyday Things, by Yanagi Sลetsu
- User Friendly (2019), by Cliff Kuang with Robert Fabricant
- ๐ญ Design as Art (1966), by Bruno Munari
- Making Comics (2006), by Scott McCloud
- ๐ Design for a Better World (2023), by Donald A. Norman
- ๐ฅ The Net Delusion (2011), by Evgeny Morozov
- ๐งฌ The Creative Gene, by Hideo Kojima
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products (2013), by Nir Eyal
- ๐จ Art Matters (2018), by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
- ๐ Nachhaltiges Grafik Design, by Pia Weiรenfeld
- ๐ A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (1977), by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
- Universal Principles of Design (Updated and Expanded Third Edition, 2023), by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler
PS: I’m currently reading “analog und digital”, by Otl Aicher (not pictured below)
๐บ Feminism โ
- ๐บ Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (2019), by Caroline Criado Perez
- We Should All be Feminists (2014), by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Die Letzten Tage des Patriarchats (2018), by Margarete Stokowski
- Untenrum Frei (2016), by Margarete Stokowski
- all about love (1999), by bell hooks
๐ฌ Science
- ๐ค Why We Sleep (2017), by Matthew Walker
- ๐ธ The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (2014), by Elizabeth Kolbert
- ๐ Die kleinste gemeinsame Wirklichkeit (March 2021), by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim
- ๐ฉโ๐ฌ Komisch, alles chemisch! (2019), by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim
- ๐ฌ (Fast) alles einfach erklรคrt (2022), by Niklas Kolorz
- ๐ฆ The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
๐ฐ History & Anthropology
- ๐ The LGBTQ+ History Book (2023), published by Dorling Kindersley
- ๐ฃ The World War II Book (2022), published by Dorling Kindersley
- ๐ฅ The Dawn of Everything (2021), by David Graeber and David Wengrow
- ๐ฟ Humankind: A Hopeful History (2019), by Rutger Bregman
- ๐ฝ The History Book (2016), published by Dorling Kindersley
- ๐ฏ Fake History: 101 things that never happened (2023), by Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse, aka. The Fake History Hunter
- ๐ซ The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (2015), by Peter Frankopan
- ๐ The New Silk Roads (2018), by Peter Frankopan
- ๐ฆ SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2015), by Mary Beard
- ๐ The Library: A Fragile History (2021), by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur de Weduwen
- ๐ข The Year 1000 (2020), by Valerie Hansen
- ๐ฟ The Darkening Age (2017), by Catherine Nixey
- ๐ Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011), by Yuval Noah Harari
- ๐ Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (2024), by Yuval Noah Harari
- ๐ซ Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), by Jared Diamond
- ๐ฟ Collapse (2004), by Jared Diamond
- ๐น Historische Waffen und Rรผstungen: Ritter und Landsknechte vom 8. bis 16. Jahrhundert (2018), by Liliane and Fred Funcken
- Geschichte des Designs (2022), by Melanie Kurz and Thilo Schwer
- รsterreichische Geschichte (2019), by Karl Vocelka
๐ฒ Mythology & Folklore
- Mythos (2017), by Stephen Fry
- Heroes (2019), by Stephen Fry
- ๐ Troy (2020), by Stephen Fry
- ๐จ Norse Mythology (2017), by Neil Gaiman
- ๐ฑ Norse Gods (2019), by Johan Egerkrans
- ๐ช Vaesen (2017), by Johan Egerkrans
- ๐บ The Undead (2019), by Johan Egerkrans
- ๐ฒ Drachen (2022), by Johan Egerkrans
- ๐ Beneath the Moon: Fairy Tales, Myths, and Divine Stories from Around the World (2020), by Yoshi Yoshitani
- ๐ Myth Atlas (2018), by Thiago de Moraes
- The Atlas of Monsters (2017), by Stuart Hill & Sandra Lawrence
- The Atlas of Heroes (2018), by Sandra Lawrence & Stuart Hill
- Die Nibelungen, illustrated by Burkhard Neie
- ๐โโ๏ธ Women Who Run with the Wolves (1989), by Clarissa Pinkola Estรฉs
- ๐ Breverton’s Phantasmagoria: A Compendium of Monsters, Myths and Legends, (2011), by Terry Breverton
๐ฆ Dinosaurs & Paleontology
- ๐ฆ Dinosaurier und andere Wesen der Urzeit (2020), by Johan Egerkrans
- ๐ฑโ๐ Herrscher der Urzeit: Die Geschichte der Tyrannosaurier und Ceratopsier (2021), by Johan Egerkrans
๐ญ Philosophy
- ๐ญ The Philosophy Book (2011), published by Dorling Kindersley
- ๐ Other Minds (2016), by Peter Godfrey-Smith
- ๐ Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1969), by R. Buckminster Fuller
- The True Believer (1951), by Eric Hoffer
- ๐ต Du musst nicht von allen gemocht werden: Vom Mut, sich nicht zu verbiegen (2018), written by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, translated by Renate Graรtat
- ๐ Du bist genug: Vom Mut, glรผcklich zu sein (2019), written by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, translated by Renate Graรtat
- ๐ญ Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
- โฏ Tao Te Ching, by Laozi
- โ The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
๐ง Psychology
- ๐ง The Psychology Book (2011), published by Dorling Kindersley
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990), by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- ๐ Thinking Fast and Slow (2011), by Daniel Kahneman
- The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention (2020), by Simon Baron-Cohen
- ๐ก Think Again (2021), by Adam Grant
- ๐จ Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (2012), by Susan Cain
- unmasked (2023), by Ellie Middleton
- ๐ The Ethical Slut, by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy
- Polysecure, by Jessica Fern
- Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous, collected by Gillian Anderson
๐คผ Sociology
- ๐ The McDonaldization of Society, by George Ritzer
- The Sociology Book, published by Dorling Kindersley
๐ฃ Politics & Economics ๐
- ๐ Prisoners of Geography (2015), by Tim Marshall
- Radikalisierter Konservatismus (2021), by Natascha Strobl
- Why Nations Fail (2012), by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson
๐ Memoirs & Biographies
- Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
- ๐ Educated (2018), by Tara Westover
- Born a Crime (2016), by Trevor Noah
- ๐ A Life on Our Planet (2020), by David Attenborough
- Uncomfortable Labels (2019), by Laura Kate Dale
- Untypical (2023), by Pete Wharmby
- ๐ On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), by Stephen King
๐ฌ Comics & Graphic Novels
This list also includes digital and webcomics, that haven’t necessarily ever been released in a physical bound “book” format.
- ๐ญ Maus (1991), by Art Spiegelman
- ๐ฉธ Watchmen (1986-1987), by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- ๐ค Sunstone, series by Stjepan ล ejiฤ
- https://xkcd.com/
- https://sarahcandersen.com/
- https://phdcomics.com/
I’ve also read lots of Asterix, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comics, comics from Warcraft and League of Legends, as well as a couple Manga (Digimon, Pokรฉmon, The Legend of Zelda), but can’t quite remember right now which ones exactly.
๐ Others
- The Hobbit (1937), by J.R.R. Tolkien (I’ve read a German edition, gifted to me by my mother, when I was very young)
- The Lord of the Rings (1937-1949), by J.R.R Tolkien (here too, I’ve read German editions, gifted to me by my older brother, when I was a teenager)
- The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood
Big Brother is watching you
- 1984 (1949), by George Orwell
He who controls the past controls the future.
He who controls the present controls the past.
- ๐ท Animal Farm (1945), by George Orwell
- Brave New World (1932), by Aldous Huxley
- What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (2014), by Randall Munroe
- Novacene (2019), by James Lovelock and Bryan Appleyard
- ๐ The Climate Book (2022), by Greta Thunberg et al.
- โต The Wizard of Earthsea (1985), by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Im Westen nichts Neues (1928), by Erich Maria Remarque
One of the dark places of the earth
- Heart of Darkness (1899), by Joseph Conrad
“The horror! The horror!”
- ๐ The Invincible (1964), by Stanislav Lem
- Cat’s Cradle (1963), by Kurt Vonnegut
- ๐ฆ This Is How You Lose the Time War (2019), by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
- ๐ Factfulness (2018), by Hans, Ola & Anna Rosling Rรถnnlund
- ๐งจ The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2002), by Malcolm Gladwell
- Sum, by David Eagleman
- Einstein’s Dreams, by Alan Lightman
- Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
- Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott
- ๐ค Es geht auch anders (2023), by Elke Kahr and Silvia Jelincic
- The Anthropocene Reviewed (2021), by John Green
- ๐ Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle, 2002-2011), by Christopher Paolini (gifted to me by my mother, when I was a teenager)
- How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci (1998), by Michael J. Gelb (gifted to me by my friend and colleague, Johanna Pirker)
- Big Ideas Simply Explained, series published by Dorling Kindersley