Reading List | Honza Pokorný

The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything Fast!

Josh Kaufman

Finished on September 4, 2026

Lots of words about not much. The stories and examples were less than helpful. I liked the comparison of the expert's 10,000 hours vs the just-good-enough requirement.

Emacs Lisp Elements

Protesilaos Stavrou

Finished on September 4, 2026 and filed under programming

Super short and easy to read but I hoped it would cover more of the APIs.

The Simple Path to Wealth

J.L. Collins

Finished on June 6, 2026

Beautiful Girlhood

Mabel Hale

Finished on May 19, 2026

Taming the Fingers: Heavenly Wisdom for Social Media

Jeff Johnson

Finished on March 23, 2026 and filed under theology

Watchfulness: Recovering a Lost Spiritual Discipline

Brian G. Hedges

Finished on March 2, 2026 and filed under theology

Rules for Walking in Fellowship

John Owen

Finished on February 27, 2026 and filed under theology

The Redeemed Man

Joel Beeke (ed)

Finished on February 22, 2026 and filed under theology

The Software Engineer's Guidebook

Gergely Orosz

Finished on January 3, 2026

East of Eden

John Steinbeck

Finished on November 22, 2025 and filed under audiobook

Great narrator, boring novel

God's Ambassadors

Chad Van Dixhoorn

Finished on November 21, 2025 and filed under theology and history

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

Finished on October 27, 2025 and filed under abandoned

I gave up after 35%.

The Courage To Be Disliked

Ichiro Kishim, Fumitake Koga

Finished on August 28, 2025

God's Hymnbook for the Christian Church

Malcolm H. Watts

Finished on August 7, 2025

What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?

Kevin DeYoung

Finished on June 3, 2025

No More Mr Nice Guy

Robert Glover

Finished on May 27, 2025

A strange odyssey

Carlos Martínez Aguirre

Finished on May 24, 2025

How to lead your family

Joel Beeke

Finished on May 20, 2025

How to memorize Scripture for life

Andrew M. Davis

Finished on May 20, 2025

Stolen Focus

Johann Hari

Finished on May 15, 2025

The Case for Classical Christian Education

Douglas Wilson

Finished on May 5, 2025

Double Entry

Jane Gleeson-White

Finished on May 1, 2025

The Wells of Salvation Opened

William Spurstowe

Finished on April 28, 2025

The Chamber

Will Dean

Finished on April 16, 2025

The Spy who Came in from the Cold

John le Carré

Finished on March 15, 2025

The Chip

T.R. Reid

Finished on February 13, 2025

The Rise of the Ultrarunners

Adharanand Finn

Finished on January 8, 2025

The Empire of Silence

Christopher Ruocchio

Finished on December 30, 2024 and filed under fiction and sci-fi

I was expecting an amazing philosophical sci-fi and it didn't deliver. Abrupt ending because we need to turn everything into series. The writing is really bad, I'm sorry. The prose is boring and inconsistent. He loves to show the reader that he is smart and it's so cringy.

How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information

Jillian M. Hess

Finished on November 14, 2024

The $100 startup

Chris Guillebeau

Finished on August 17, 2024 and filed under business

The Comfort Crisis

Michael Easter

Finished on June 27, 2024 and filed under audiobook and fitness

The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing

Philip Maffetone

Finished on June 6, 2024 and filed under fitness

I knew a lot of this stuff from blog posts and YouTube videos but it was nice to hear the man himself. The thing that was new to me and interesting was the time-shrinking concept for long events.

Triathlon Swimming Foundations

Taren Gessel

Finished on May 28, 2024 and filed under fitness

Mind blown at the idea of not holding your breath while swimming. I'm the target demographic so there was a lot of appeal.

Finding ultra

Rich Roll

Finished on May 28, 2024 and filed under fitness

Inspiring story but I skipped a lot of the personal details parts (like his fake wedding).

80/20 running

Matt Fitzgerald

Finished on May 28, 2024 and filed under fitness

I liked the part about running form being self-optimizing. Otherwise, it seemed like not as much time was dedicated to the "20" part.

Born to run 2

Christopher McDougall

Finished on May 20, 2024 and filed under fitness

Nothing like the first book

Writing a compiler in Go

Thorsten Ball

Finished on May 11, 2024 and filed under programming

Piranesi

Susanna Clarke

Finished on April 11, 2024 and filed under fiction and philosophy

The Lord's Supper

Thomas Watson

Finished on April 10, 2024 and filed under theology

The Abolition of Man

C.S. Lewis

Finished on April 6, 2024 and filed under philosophy

The Reformed Pastor

Richard Baxter

Finished on April 1, 2024 and filed under theology

The first section was heavy in the most perfect way.

Indistractable

Nir Eyal

Finished on April 1, 2024 and filed under self-improvement

Enjoyable, practical; I liked the smoking example, getting kids to own their rules, the story about Slack, the idea of never reading articles in the browser

Slow Productivity

Cal Newport

Finished on March 30, 2024 and filed under self-improvement

A typical Newport book. It got me really motivated about improving myself as a software engineer.

A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord's Supper

Theodore Beza

Finished on March 26, 2024 and filed under theology

This book is hard and technical. Not sure if it's simple. The translation is modern but can be awkward in places: as it attempts to be accurate, the English style can suffer. Tons of language-related footnotes. Beza absolutely destroys the Lutherans, it's amazing. The system of doctrine in the appendix is helpful. This isn't casual reading but great if you want to understand the details of the debate.

The War of Art

Stever Pressfield

Finished on March 25, 2024 and filed under self-improvement

The beginning was amazing. The first "book" was 5/5. But then it got weirder and weirder, and some parts were gross.

What He Must Be: ...If He Wants to Marry My Daughter

Voddie Baucham Jr.

Finished on March 19, 2024 and filed under theology

Christ and His Threefold Office

John Flavel

Finished on March 11, 2024 and filed under theology

Excellent book. Really.

Teach them to work

Mary Beeke

Finished on February 16, 2024 and filed under theology

Very awkward style, bland; lots of stories about her famous husband

Gnomon

Nick Harkaway

Finished on February 3, 2024 and filed under fiction

Amazing breadth and pure imagination; but the conclusion was anticlimactic. Also, much too long.

Preparing for the Lord's supper

William Bradshaw

Finished on January 27, 2024 and filed under theology

The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Finished on January 16, 2024 and filed under fiction

168 Hours

Laura Vanderkam

Finished on January 9, 2024 and filed under self-improvement

Outlive

Peter Attia

Finished on December 28, 2023 and filed under self-improvement

This book has had a profound impact on my life. As a relatively young person, there is so much you can do to improve the quality of your life later on. I especially enjoyed the chapters related to exercise: he explains the outsize impact a simple exercise regimen can have on your life. I wish the diet chapter had been better but I was neverthless thankful for the strong renouncement of the Standard American Diet.

Building a Godly Home Vol 1

William Gouge

Finished on December 28, 2023 and filed under theology

The Practice of Piety

Lewis Bayly

Finished on December 2, 2023 and filed under theology

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

Finished on December 1, 2023 and filed under fantasy

Recommended by Jared Henderson

The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook

Claire Maxted

Finished on October 18, 2023 and filed under fitness

Very basic; a good introduction to the sport, but perhaps a little patronizing

Training for the Uphill Athlete: A Manual for Mountain Runners and Ski Mountaineers

Steve House, Scott Johnston, Killian Jornet

Finished on October 16, 2023 and filed under fitness

Such a good, and practical book. Sometimes you get caught up in reading random internet articles about running, diving into Reddit threads, and after a while you don't even know what you should be doing to improve you endurance. It's nice to be able to gain some clarity from athletes with decades of experience; advice that isn't formulaic, and that doesn't skip over the reasoning behind it. There are many strong statements in this book, and I love that. Reading this book was especially helpful to me as a beginner to the sport of ultra trail running. My notebook is full charts, tables, and notes. Highly recommended.

Recommended by James Day

Today's Christian & the Church's Bible: A Time to Return to the Authorized Version

Theodore P. Letis

Finished on October 14, 2023 and filed under theology

A wonderful meditation on the state of the English bible, and a compelling case for the retention of the AV in the 21st century

Ego is the enemy

Ryan Holiday

Finished on October 12, 2023

The first half of the book was great: lots of provoking thoughts. But then it got wearisome with all of the stories. Each chapter is really short, and starts with some random story from history. It gets repetetive, and it was a bit of a slog to get throught the latter part.

On Bullshit

Harry G. Frankfurt

Finished on September 26, 2023

Call the Sabbath a Delight

Walter J. Chantry

Finished on August 7, 2023 and filed under theology

An accessible introduction to the concept of Sabbath-keeping from a Reformed point of view

It Ends With Us

Colleen Hoover

Finished on June 21, 2023 and filed under fiction

This is my once-a-year, what-everyone-is-reading novel. Currently, it has over 270,000 ratings on Amazon. It was a mindless, easy read. The pacing felt right apart from the cringy diary entries. The story was boring, the characters flat, the ending abrupt, and cheap.

Terms of Service

Chris Martin

Finished on June 5, 2023

Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport

Finished on May 22, 2023

Having read Deep Work, I expected much of the same but it wasn't like that. Very relevant, and practical.

The Staff Engineer's Path

Tanya Reilly

Finished on May 17, 2023

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Alfred Lansing

Finished on May 16, 2023

The Cure for Unjust Anger

John Downame

Finished on April 12, 2023 and filed under theology and puritan

Faith seeking assurance

Anthony Burgess

Finished on March 11, 2023 and filed under theology and puritan

Penetrating, and terrifying; highly recommended

Digital zettelkasten

David Kadavy

Finished on December 5, 2022

Bullet Journal

Ryder Carroll

Finished on December 3, 2022

This was not good. Boring, inflated writing full of Asian philosophy, and weird pseudo-psycho lingo. Just no. I thought it would provide an in-depth description of the system but it's straw. The original video had all the information presented in such a neat way. This is the opposite.

Building a Second Brain

Tiago Forte

Finished on December 2, 2022

The first half was very motivating, and exciting. I liked that it was general, and not specific to any tool (hello Notion fanbois). But the description of the implementation felt too vague. It tries to be a middle ground between a zettelkasten, and a GTD system, and I'm not sure that works.

Make Time

Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky

Finished on November 30, 2022

Great read; easy, and friendly; doesn't try to be a pseudo science book; a ton of neat bite-sized ideas

Dopamine Detox

Thibaut Meurisse

Finished on November 29, 2022

Short, and to the point

How to master the English bible

James Gray

Finished on October 11, 2022

Short, and sweet; very practical

The Ecclesiastical Text

Theodore P. Letis

Finished on October 1, 2022 and filed under theology

Authorized

Mark Ward

Finished on September 24, 2022

This book is just so silly. It could have been a blog post. His argumentation is emotinal, inconsistent, and childish. There might at times be some hint of a good argument but his rhetoric makes you not want to even care. I read this book against my better judgment.

Notes on Psalmody

James A. Grier

Finished on September 19, 2022

Heaven taken by strom

Thomas Watson

Finished on September 16, 2022 and filed under theology and puritan

A classic work on personal piety; highly recommended

Why I preach from the received text

Jeff Riddle, Christian McShaffrey

Finished on August 30, 2022 and filed under theology

An excellent collection of essays; many personal stories, and many different reasons for rejecting the modern critical text. Each essay is short, and thus it prevents the author from delving into too much technical detail (I think this is wise decision on the part of the editors). Highly recommended as a gentle introduction into the topic.

Ostře sledované vlaky

Bohumil Hrabal

Finished on August 11, 2022 and filed under classics and fiction and czech

The Art of Bible Translation

Robert Alter

Finished on August 2, 2022

12 rules for life

Jordan Peterson

Finished on June 13, 2022

Theoretical-Practical Theology Volume 1

Petrus van Mastricht

Finished on April 20, 2022 and filed under theology

Absolutely phenomenal. I love how he takes a topic and moves through the four aspects: exegesis, doctrine, elenctics, and practice. Prolegomena is usually dry but this was exhilarating. It's also very easy to read. No lofty language. Every statement is punctuated by Scripture references. I'm really eager to start the next volume.

Common LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation

David S. Touretzky

Finished on March 7, 2022 and filed under programming

Puritan Evangelism

Joel Beeke

Finished on March 2, 2022 and filed under theology

Calvin and the Biblical Languages

John D. Currid

Finished on February 12, 2022 and filed under theology and languages

A great little read; meaningful encouragement for the language learner; curious insight into the language teaching method of the day

The Original Ending of Mark: A New Case for the Authenticity of Mark 16:9-20

Nicholas P. Lunn

Finished on January 22, 2022 and filed under theology and textual-criticism

Your Money or Your Life

Vicki Robin

Finished on January 21, 2022 and filed under finance

The Bitcoin Standard

Saifedean Ammous

Finished on January 11, 2022 and filed under finance

This was a good read. Most of the book outlines the history of money, from seashells to modern day government money. While written by an academic, the tone was popular, and sometimes mocking and highly critical which left a slightly bad taste in my mouth. Present your arguments and let them speak for themselves.

I think it's a successful, and reasonable critique of the idea that inflation is a good tool; however, I'm not convinced that Bitcoin is the solution. The author admits himself that a new layer would have to be created on top of Bitcoin to serve as an exchange of value while Bitcoin can only really serve as a store of value.