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 too, 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 or somewhere, like a library. Easier on your wallet and the environment, and you might just make some friends on the way.
๐ฎ Games & Play
- Ask Iwata, edited by Hobonichi
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design, by Raph Koster
- The Art of Game Design, by Jesse Schell
- Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Human Culture (1938), by Johan Huizinga
- The Gamer’s Brain (2017), by Celia Hodent
- Reality is Broken (2011), by Jane McGonigal
- Spelunky, by Derek Yu
- Board Games in 100 Moves (2019), by Ian Livingstone and James Wallis
- Blood, Sweat, and Pixels (2017), by Jason Schreier
- Press Reset (2021), by Jason Schreier
- Play Nice (2024), by Jason Schreier
๐บ Art, Design & Media
- Design for the Real World (1971), by Victor J. Papanek
- Understanding Comics (1993), by Scott McCloud
- Design is Storytelling (2017), by Ellen Lupton
- โฟ The Politics of Design (2016), by Ruben Pater
- The Medium is the Massage, by Marshall McLuhan
- ๐ฏ The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman
- ๐ค Emotional Design (2003), by Donald A. Norman
- ๐ The Green Imperative (1995), by Victor J. Papanek
- ๐ฐ CAPS LOCK (2021), by Ruben Pater
- ๐ธ Design Justice (2020), by Sasha Costanza-Chock
- Weltentwerfen (2016), by Friedrich von Borries
- ๐ Creativity, Inc. (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
- ๐ Design for a Better World (2023), by Donald A. Norman
- ๐จ How to Think when you Draw, series by Lorenzo Etherington
- ๐งฌ The Creative Gene, by Hideo Kojima
- ๐ฅ The Net Delusion (2011), by Evgeny Morozov
- ๐ Nachhaltiges Grafik Design, by Pia Weiรenfeld
- A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein
๐บ Feminism โ
- ๐บ Invisible Women (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 (2014), by Elizabeth Kolbert
- Die kleinste gemeinsame Wirklichkeit, by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim
- ๐ฆ The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
๐ฒ Mythology & Folklore
- Mythos (2017), by Stephen Fry
- Heroes (2019), by Stephen Fry
- ๐ Troy (2020), by Stephen Fry
- 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
- ๐โโ๏ธ Women Who Run with the Wolves (1989), by Clarissa Pinkola Estรฉs
๐ฐ History & Anthropology
- ๐ฅ The Dawn of Everything (2021), by David Graeber and David Wengrow
- ๐ฟ Humankind: A Hopeful History (2019), by Rutger Bregman
- ๐ซ The Silk Roads (2015), 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 (2011), by Yuval Noah Harari
- ๐ซ Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), by Jared Diamond
- ๐ฟ Collapse (2004), by Jared Diamond
๐ญ Philosophy
- 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
- ๐ญ Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
- โฏ Tao Te Ching, by Laozi
- The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
๐ง Psychology
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990), by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Thinking Fast and Slow, 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, 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
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, by Tara Westover
- Born a Crime, 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, by Stephen King
๐ Others
- The Hobbit (1937), by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R Tolkien
- The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood
- 1984, by George Orwell
- Animal Farm (1945), by George Orwell
- Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
- What If?, by Randall Munroe
- Novacene, by James Lovelock
- The Climate Book, by Greta Thunberg et al.
- ๐ญ Maus, by Art Spiegelman
- Watchmen (1986-1987), by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- ๐ค Sunstone, series by Stjepan ล ejiฤ
- The Wizard of Earthsea (1985), by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Im Westen nichts Neues, by Erich Maria Remarque
- Heart of Darkness (1899), by Joseph Conrad
- The Invincible, by Stanislav Lem
- Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
- ๐ฆ How to Loose the Time-War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
- Factfulness (2018), by Hans, Ola & Anna Rosling Rรถnnlund
- 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
- Big Ideas Simply Explained, series published by Dorling Kindersley
- How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci (1998), by Michael J. Gelb