Beachside Loft

Leseliste 05/2025

Here you’ll find a wide-ranging collection of books—perfect for discovering something new, peering “beyond your own horizon,” or simply unwinding with a good read. The order of the groups and titles is not meant to signal any ranking or value judgment.

Pressed for time? My personal top \(n+1\) picks are highlighted in bold (no easy task). :books: denotes a series of multiple books. Feedback is appreciated.

Science, Technology & Software Craft

  • Donald E. Knuth: The Art of Computer Programming :books:
  • Donald E. Knuth: Literate Programming
  • Robert C. Martin: Clean Code
  • Steve Maguire: Writing Solid Code
  • Steve McConnell: Code Complete
  • Andrew Hunt; David Thomas: The Pragmatic Programmer
  • Erich Gamma; Richard Helm; Ralph E. Johnson: Design Patterns – The Elements of Reusable Software
  • Jon Bentley: Programming Pearls
  • Alistair Cockburn: Agile Software Development
  • Dennis E. Shasha; Cathy A. Lazere: Out of their Minds – The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great Computer Scientists
  • Henry S. Warren: Hacker’s Delight
  • Gayle Laakmann McDowell: Cracking the Coding Interview
  • David Kushner: Masters of Doom – How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
  • Florian Schiel: Bastard Assistant from Hell :books:
  • Randall Munroe: What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
  • Yuval Noah Harari: Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind
  • David Deutsch: The Beginning of Infinity – Explanations that Transform the World (:de: Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit – Erklärungen, die die Welt verwandeln)
  • David Deutsch: The Fabric of Reality – Towards a Theory of Everything

Methodology, Productivity & Learning Science

  • David Allen: Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
  • Stephen R. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
  • Darrel Huff: How to Lie with Statistics
  • George Pòlya: How to Solve It
  • Cal Newport: Deep Work – Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
  • Jocko Willink: Discipline Equals Freedom – Field Manual
  • James Clear: Atomic Habits – An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
  • Carlo M. Cipolla: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
  • Dominic O’Brien: How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week – 50 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills
  • Jocko Willink; Dave Berke; Sarah Armstrong: The Code. The Evaluation. The Protocols – Striving to Become an Eminently Qualified Human
  • Peter Bevelin: Seeking Wisdom – From Darwin to Munger
  • Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time – From Big Bang to Black Holes
  • Jane McGonigal: Reality is Broken – Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
  • Joshua Foer: Moonwalking with Einstein – The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
  • Jocko Willink: Way of the Warrior Kid
  • Scott Adams: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big – Kind of the Story of My Life
  • Tim Ferriss: Tools of Titans – The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
  • Scott Adams: Loserthink – How Untrained Brains Are Ruining (America, the World)
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger: Be Useful – Seven Tools for Life

Philosophy, Ethics & Strategy

  • Viktor E. Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning (:de: …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager)
  • Seneca: On the Shortness of Life (:de: Von der Kürze des Lebens)
  • Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
  • Taira Shigesuke: Code of the Samurai (:jp: Bushidô Shoshinshu)
  • Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince (:it: Il Principe)
  • Miyamoto Musashi: A Book of Five Rings
  • Inazô Nitobe: Bushidô – Die Seele Japans (:jp: Go Rin NoSho)
  • Sunzi / Sun Tzu: The Art of War
  • Seneca: Letters from a Stoic
  • Jordan B. Peterson: 12 Rules for Life – An Antidote to Chaos
  • Jordan B. Peterson: Beyond Order – 12 More Rules for Life
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Antifragile – Things That Gain from Disorder
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Skin in the Game – Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Bed of Procrustes – Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
  • Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
  • Reinhold Messner: Everest Solo – Der gläserne Horizont
  • Peter Bevelin: Seeking Wisdom – From Darwin to Munger (especially the chapter on “Prescriptions for Guaranteed Misery in Life”)
  • Randy Pausch; Jeffrey Zaslow: The Last Lecture
  • Richard P. Feynman: “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” (Adventures of a Curious Character)
  • Mario Puzo: Las Vegas – Bekenntnisse eines Spielers
  • Gunter Dueck: Omnisophie – Supramanie – Topothesie

Darkness :skull:

  • Christopher Browning: Ordinary Men – Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (:de: Ganz normale Männer – Das Reserve-Polizeibataillon 101 und die “Endlösung” in Polen)
  • Alexander Solschenizyn: The Gulag Archipelago (:de: Der Archipel Gulag)
  • Alexander Solschenizyn: Ein Tag im Leben des Iwan Denissowitsch
  • Nicolas Werth: Cannibal Island – Death in a Siberian Gulag
  • Hubertus Knabe: Die Täter sind unter uns
  • Eugen Kogon: Der SS-Staat
  • Primo Levi: Die Untergegangenen und die Geretteten
  • Primo Levi: Ist das ein Mensch?
  • Eli Wiesel: Die Nacht – Erinnerung und Zeugnis
  • Ingo Müller: Furchtbare Juristen – Die unbewältigte Vergangenheit unserer Justiz
  • Hal Gold: Japan’s Infamous Unit 731
  • Mohamedou Ould Slahi: Guantanamo Diary – The Fully Restored Text
  • Hannah Arendt: Eichmann in Jerusalem – Ein Bericht von der Banalität des Bösen
  • Haing Ngor: Survival in the Killing Fields

Business, Leadership & Risk

  • Frederick P. Brooks Jr.: The Mythical Man-Month
  • Tom DeMarco: The Deadline – A Novel about Project Management
  • Tom DeMarco; Timothy Lister: Peopleware – Productive Projects and Teams
  • Tom DeMarco: Slack – Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
  • Jack Welch; John A. Byrne: Jack – Straight from the Gut
  • Peter Modler: Das Arroganz-Prinzip – So haben Frauen mehr Erfolg im Beruf
  • Jocko Willink; Leif Babin: Extreme Ownership – How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
  • Jocko Willink: Leadership Strategy and Tactics – Field Manual
  • David H. Hackworth: About Face – The Odyssey of an American Warrior
  • Robert Greene: Power
  • Robert Greene: Mastery
  • Bruce C. Clarke: Guidelines for the Leader and the Commander
  • Steven D. Levitt; Stephen J. Dubner: Freakonomics – A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan – The Impact of the Highly Improbable
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Fooled by Randomness – The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
  • Gunter Dueck: Lean Brain Management – Erfolg und Effizienzsteigerung durch Null-Hirn
  • Geraint Anderson: Cityboy – Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile
  • John Rolfe; Peter Troob: Monkey Business
  • Peter Thiel; Blake Masters: Zero to One – Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future
  • Scott Adams: Dilbert – The Joy of Work
  • Scott Adams: The Dilbert Future
  • Scott Adams: The Dilbert Principle
  • Scott Adams: The Way of the Weasel
  • Benoît B. Mandelbrot: The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets – A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence
  • Reed Hastings: No Rules Rules
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger: Total Recall – My Unbelievably True Life Story
  • Bernhard Roetzel: Der Gentleman – Handbuch der klassischen Herrenmode

Security, Privacy & Politics

  • Ross J. Anderson: Security Engineering – A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems
  • Bruce Schneier: Beyond Fear – Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World
  • Bruce Schneier: Secrets and Lies – Digital Security in a Networked World
  • Bruce Schneier: Liers and Outliers
  • Bruce Schneier: Data and Goliath – The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World
  • Robert Shea; Robert Anton Wilson: The Illuminatus! Trilogy :wink:
  • Glenn Greenwald: No Place to Hide – Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
  • Glenn Greenwald: With Liberty and Justice for Some – How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
  • Edward Snowden: Permanent Record
  • Gad Saad: The Parasitic Mind – How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
  • Titania McGrath: Woke – A Guide to Social Justice
  • Robert Cowley (Hrsg.): What If? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been
  • Thomas Sowell: The Vision of the Anointed – Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

Communication, Negotiation & Persuasion

  • Robert B. Cialdini: Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion
  • Robert B. Cialdini: Pre-Suasion – A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
  • Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow
  • Rüdiger von Nietzsch: Entscheidungslehre – Wie Menschen entscheiden und wie sie entscheiden sollten
  • Anthony Robbins: Unlimited Power – The New Science of Personal Achievement
  • Gustave Le Bon: Psychologie der Massen
  • Neil Strauss: The Game – Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
  • Scott Adams: Win Bigly – Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter
  • Carmen Simon: Impossible to Ignore
  • Roger Fisher; William Ury: Getting to Yes – Negotiating an Agreement without Giving In
  • William Ury: Getting Past No – Negotiating in Difficult Situations
  • Donald J. Trump; Tony Schwartz: The Art of the Deal
  • Matthias Schranner: Das Schranner-Konzept – Die neuen Prinzipien für die Verhandlungen der Zukunft
  • Kerry Patterson; et al.: Crucial Accountability – Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior
  • Jim Camp: Start with No
  • Chris Voss; Tahl Raz: Never Split the Difference
  • Peter D. Kaufman; Charles T. Munger; Warren E. Buffett: Poor Charlie’s Almanack – The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger (especially the chapter on “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment”)
  • Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death (Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)
  • Scott Adams: Reframe Your Brain – The User Interface for Happiness and Success
  • Mattias Desmet: The Psychology of Totalitarianism
  • Gene Zelazny: Say It With Charts – The Executives’s Guide to Visual Communication
  • Barbara Minto: The Pyramid Principle – Logic in Writing and Thinking
  • Edward R. Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
  • Robert Bringhurst: The Elements of Typographic Style
  • William Strunk; E. B. White: The Elements of Style
  • Sterling Johnson: English as a Second F***ing Language
  • Robert McKee: Story – Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting

Health & Well-being

  • Pavel Tsatsouline: Kettlebell Simple & Sinister (Revised and Updated, 2nd Edition)
  • Pavel Tsatsouline: The Quick and the Dead – Total Training for the Advanced Minimalist
  • Johannes Kwella: Die Kraft der Kettlebell 2.0 – Übungsausführung. Fehlerbehebung. Trainingsplanung.
  • Guru Anaerobic: Gang Fit – Freedom & Strength
  • Bessel van der Kolk: The Body Keeps the Score – Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
  • Wim Hof: The Wim Hof Method – Activate Your Potential, Transcend Your Limits
  • Dan John: Attempts – Essays on Fitness, Health, Longevity and Easy Strength

Fiction

  • Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West
  • Cixin Liu: The Three-Body Problem :books:
  • Stephen King: The Dark Tower :books:
  • Andreas Eschbach: Ein König für Deutschland
  • Marc Elsberg: BLACKOUT
  • Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five
  • George Orwell: Animal Farm
  • George Orwell: 1984
  • Dino Buzzati: Die Tatarenwüste
  • Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
  • Erich Maria Remarque: Im Westen nichts Neues
  • Mika Toimi Waltari: Sinuhe der Ägypter
  • Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
  • Umberto Eco: Der Name der Rose
  • Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha
  • Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy :books:
  • Heinrich Mann: Der Untertan
  • James Clavell: Tai-Pan
  • Alexandre Dumas: Der Graf von Monte Christo
  • Steven Pressfield: Gates of Fire
  • Kōji Suzuki: Ring :books:
  • Morton Rhue: Die Welle
  • Richard Bach: Illusions – The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
  • Stephen King: It
  • Ken Grimwood: Replay
  • Robert Harris: Fatherland
  • Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes :books:
  • Mario Puzo: Fools Die
  • Max Brooks: World War Z – An Oral History of the Zombie War
  • Chuck Palahniuk: Survivor
  • Matthew Reilly: Jack West Jr. :books:
  • James Jones: From Here to Eternity
  • Neil Stephenson: Snow Crash
  • Andy Weir: Der Astronaut
  • René Goscinny; Jean-Jacques Sempé: Der kleine Nick :books:
  • Harry Turtledove: The Man with the Iron Heart
  • Art Spiegelman: MAUS (Graphic Novel)
  • Alan Moore; Dave Gibbons: Watchmen (Graphic Novel)
  • Cormac McCarthy: No Country for Old Men
  • Herman Melville: Moby-Dick or The Whale
  • Isaac Asimov: Foundation :books:
  • Frank Herbert: Dune :books:
  • Pelham G. Wodehouse: Jeeves and Wooster :books:
  • Kurt Vonnegut: Harrison Bergeron (Short Story)
  • Orson Scott Card: Ender’s Game
  • Luo Guanzhong: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (:de: Die Geschichte der Drei Reiche)

leseliste ErrantScience / CC BY-NC