Books Recommended by Paul Graham
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The Making of Europe
Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350
Robert Bartlett
Source: "I know I've recommended this book already, but it's so good I have to do it again. [The author] brings history to life by explaining how and why the things happened that other books merely tell you happened." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Albert Einstein
Creator and Rebel
Banesh Hoffmann
Source: "The most exciting [biography of Einstein] I've read. The author is a physicist who is genuinely excited about Einstein's discoveries, and it moves fast instead of trying to leave no detail unpublished." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Double Helix
A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James D. Watson Ph.D.
Source: "The most impressive feature of [this book] is how much [the author] admits he didn't know. He's constantly talking about papers he couldn't understand and important concepts he didn't grasp." - Paul Graham
3 recommenders
Sherlock Holmes (4 books)
Arthur Conan Doyle
Source: "Few thoughts happier than realizing it's been long enough since you last read the Sherlocks Holmes stories that you can read them again." - Paul Graham
2 recommenders
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Harold Abelson
Source: "This is one of the great classics of computer science. I bought my first copy 15 years ago, and I still don't feel I have learned everything the book has to teach." - Paul Graham
3 recommenders
The Power Law
Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
Sebastian Mallaby
Source: "If you want to understand how venture capital works and the effect it has had on the US economy, this is the book to read." - Paul Graham
4 recommenders
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes, Book 18
Bill Watterson
Source: "Watterson is like Wodehouse. Because he works in an unpretentious medium, few realize how timelessly great he is." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Dog Man (10 books)
Dav Pilkey
Source: "Don't be so quick to add it to your reading list. Dog Man is aimed at 5-10 year olds." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
How To Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie
Source: "The one book we encourage startup founders to read. [...] It's critically important for anyone in business." - Paul Graham
How to Be Topp
Ronald Searle
Source: "I read this during dinner and laughed so much that people must have wondered what was wrong with me." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Concorde
The Inside Story
Geoffrey Knight
Source: "[The author] was in charge of BAC's Commercial Aircraft Division, and thus the British side of Concorde development." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Harry Potter (8 books)
J.K. Rowling
Source: Paul Graham mentioned these books on Twitter.
Plagues and Peoples
William McNeill
Source: "I suspect if you'd read 'Guns, Sails, and Empires' and [this book], little in 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' would surprise you." - Paul Graham
3 recommenders
Barbarian Days
A Surfing Life
William Finnegan
Source: "It's one of those rare books that divide your life into two parts: before you read it, and after." - Paul Graham
2 recommenders
The Copernican Revolution
Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought
Thomas S. Kuhn
Source: "Kuhn was surely most influenced by the Copernican Revolution. [This is an] excellent book incidentally." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Lord of the Rings (4 books)
J. R. R. Tolkien
Source: Paul Graham's answer to "any book recommendations for young adults?"
The Old Way
A Story of the First People
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Source: "If you want to learn more about hunter gatherers I strongly recommend [this book]." - Paul Graham
3 recommenders
The Harmless People
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Source: "If you want to learn more about hunter gatherers I strongly recommend [this book]." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Sunset at Blandings
PG Wodehouse
Source: "The writing in the novel Wodehouse left unfinished when he died at 93 is crisp as ever." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Sea Flight
The Wartime Memoirs of a Fleet Air Arm Pilot
Hugh Popham
Source: "A wonderful book. I'm looking at the few pages left and wishing there were more." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Quest for El Cid
Richard Fletcher
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "are there any books on medieval history you can recommend?"
1 recommender
The Complete Novels of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Source: Paul Graham's answer to "examples of books that you reread years later, & found to be much better?"
1 recommender
4 recommenders
Mathematician's Delight
W. Sawyer
Source: "[One of ] the best [books] I can think of [to learn what math is really about]." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Euclid's Elements
Euclid
Source: "[One of ] the best [books] I can think of [to learn what math is really about]." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
Source: Paul Graham used this book as an example that one scientist's "take" can be very convincing.
The German Generals Talk
Basil H. Liddell Hart
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what’s your favorite book that almost nobody else knows or talks about?"
1 recommender
Wing Leader
The Top Scoring Allied Fighter Pilot of WWII
Johnnie Johnson
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what’s your favorite book that almost nobody else knows or talks about?"
1 recommender
Life in the English Country House
A Social and Architectural History
Mark Girouard
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what’s your favorite book that almost nobody else knows or talks about?"
1 recommender
The Collected Works of P. G. Wodehouse
PG Wodehouse
Source: "[The author] is so good that I get distracted by his perfection. Not a word wrong." - Paul Graham
3 recommenders
No Easy Day
The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden
Mark Owen
Source: "Simultaneously reading Rousseau's Confessions and [this book]. Triangulating..." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Very Good, Jeeves!
Jeeves, Book 4
PG Wodehouse
Source: "Wodehouse is so good that I get distracted by his perfection. Not a word wrong." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Founders at Work
Stories of Startups' Early Days
Jessica Livingston
Source: "Probably the single most valuable book a startup founder could read." - Paul Graham
A History of Rome
From its Origins to 529 A.D.
Moses Hadas
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
Civilisation
Kenneth Clark
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
The World We Have Lost
Peter Laslett
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
The Extension of Man
A History of Physics before the Quantum
J.D. Bernal
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
Mohammed and Charlemagne
Henri Pirenne
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
The Lives of the Artists
Giorgio Vasari
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
Fall of Constantinople
Steven Runciman
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
The Confessions
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Source: "Simultaneously reading [this book] and No Easy Day. Triangulating..." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Art of War in the Middle Ages
Charles Oman
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
2 recommenders
The Gallic Wars
Julius Caesar
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
The New Penguin Atlas of Ancient History
Colin McEvedy
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
The Golden Trade of the Moors
West African Kingdoms in the Fourteenth Century
E. W. Bovill
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"
1 recommender
Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople
Geoffrey de Villehardouin
Source: "I've read [this book] at least two times, maybe three." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
An Autobiography of Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Source: "[This] Autobiography is a wonderfully candid and inspiring one." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Ancient City
Life in Classical Athens and Rome
Peter Connolly
Source: "One of the best books I've found for explaining history to kids." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Maisy Mouse Collection
10 Books Set
Lucy Cousins
Source: "My favorite books for bedtime reading to 2 year olds." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
From Galileo to Newton
A. Rupert Hall
Source: "Particularly good at getting into contemporaries' heads." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
A Sense of Where You Are
Bill Bradley at Princeton
John McPhee
Source: Paul Graham's answer to "what’s the most beautiful book you’ve ever read?"
4 recommenders
Guns, Sails, and Empires
Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400- 1700
Carlo M. Cipolla
Source: "[Amazing.] An indictment of publishing that it's out of print." - Paul Graham
2 recommenders
The Soul of A New Machine
Tracy Kidder
Source: One of Paul Graham's answers to "do you know of any good books about startups?"
3 recommenders
Blankie
Leslie Patricelli Board, Book 4
Leslie Patricelli
Source: "Will be deeply pleasing to [its respective audience]." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
Diocletian and the Roman Recovery
Stephen Williams
Source: "One of the best books about the late 3rd century." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Inimitable Jeeves
Jeeves and Wooster Book 2
PG Wodehouse
Source: Paul Graham's answer to "which P. G. Wodehouse book do you recommend?"
1 recommender
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Robert A. Heinlein
Source: "Made me want to work on AI, which led to Lisp." - Paul Graham
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Source: "A great book, probably in my all time top 100." - Paul Graham
Moab Is My Washpot
A Memoir
Stephen Fry
Source: Paul Graham's answer to "which Stephen Fry book do you recommend?"
1 recommender
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
Source: Paul Graham mentioned re-reading this book on Twitter.
My Family and Other Animals
Gerald Durrell
Source: "A wonderful book, though only implicitly about 'parenting.'" - Paul Graham
2 recommenders
Fauna & Family
More Adventures of the Durrell Family of Corfu
Gerald Durrell
Source: "So good I'm reading slow to make it last." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
1 recommender
The Spectator
Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays
Joseph Addison
Source: Paul Graham mentioned reading this book on Twitter.
1 recommender
1 recommender
The Man Who Knew Infinity
A Life of the Genius Ramanujan
Robert Kanigel
Source: "Great biography of Ramanujan." - Paul Graham
3 recommenders
Kelly
More Than My Share of It All
Clarence L. Johnson
Source: "How did I not know about this book til now?" - Paul Graham
1 recommender
1 recommender
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
An Inquiry Into Values
Robert M. Pirsig
Source: Paul Graham mentioned this book on Twitter.
1 recommender
1 recommender
Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy
A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style
Michael Baxandall
Source: Paul Graham mentioned this book on Twitter.
1 recommender
1 recommender
1 recommender
1 recommender
1 recommender
My Forty Years with Ford
Charles E Sorensen
Source: "I particularly liked [this book]." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
The Oxford History of Britain
Volume 1: Roman and Anglo-Saxon Britain
Peter Salway
Source: "Really excellent." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
3 recommenders
1 recommender
1 recommender
3 recommenders
A Story Lately Told
Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York
Anjelica Huston
Source: "Wonderful." - Paul Graham
1 recommender
1 recommender
1 recommender
Hard Drive
Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
James Wallace
Source: "Good." - Paul Graham
3 recommenders
100 books
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