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Best and Worst Books, 2025

I read another 50+ books in 2025, and these are the ones that stood out--both the good and the terrible. Each link below will take you to my review and discussion notes.

If you'd like to support my work here, please feel free to use this Amazon link to do your shopping. I'll be paid a modest affiliate fee at no extra cost to you.

Thank you for reading, and all the best for 2026!

See also!

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Best (5/5 stars or close):
Deep Response by Tyler Disney
Before the Dawn by Shimazaki Toson
Broken Money by Lyn Alden
The Collapse of British Power by Correlli Barnett
Uncommon Therapy by Jay Haley
The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai
The Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner
Perpetuity by Kevin Joseph
Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius


Worst (1/5 stars or close):
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
By All Means Available by Michael Vickers
Empire Incorporated by Philip J. Stern
The Best of S.J. Perelman by S.J. Perelman
Breaking Twitter by Ben Mezrich
Number Go Up by Zeke Faux

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Good Thinking: The Foundations of Probability and its Applications by Irving J. Good

This collection of scientific papers is a challenging but useful discussion on statistical methods, probability, randomness, logic and decision-making. Much of the book centers around Bayesian statistical methods and when and why to use them, as well as "philosophy of science"-type discussions on when a scientist should--or sometimes must--apply subjective judgments to scientific problems. It will help enormously if you've had a semester or two of statistics to really get at the meat of this book. If not, scroll down a few paragraphs for a short list of layperson-friendly books that address many of these subjects more accessibly. [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those readers who would like to support my work here: if you purchase your Amazon products via any affiliate link from this site, or from my sister site  Casual Kitchen , I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!] Author Irving Good worked with Alan Turing at ...

Deep Response: An Emergency Education in Post-Consumer Praxis by Tyler Disney

Tremendously useful. This is a book about meta-preparation: about what it really means to be prepared when you don't know the future. It teaches readers how to think about skill development, optionality and flexibility--and by virtue of these meta-tools, how to earn true individual self-sovereignty. Deep Response is a sophisticated strategy-level discussion hidden in a simple story: a thirty-something man goes back in time to offer guidance to his twenty-something younger self. Their discussions are engrossing on many, many levels, as the two characters--with radically different perspectives, despite being the same person--work out various life problems. The older character wants to warn the younger man that all of his strivings will eventually cause him to achieve nearly the exact opposite of what he seeks, and worse, if he doesn't adjust, his life will soon lack enough flexibility to do anything about it. The reader is the lucky beneficiary, getting exposure to a wide-rangi...

Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius

Read this book and you'll never complain, ever, about anything. Imagine being trapped in a vegetative body but with full cognition and awareness. You can hear, see and understand everything, but you can't move or do anything. Everyone around you--your family, your caregivers, everyone--thinks you're a literal vegetable. And some of those around you will act like it, having insulting conversations about you while you're right there. Some caregivers--not all of them, mercifully--will handle you like a slab of meat. Occasionally you'll be rolled over to a performative "activity" in which a caregiver drags your fingerpainted hand across a paper, so your care facility can show your family you aren't spending all day staring at the wall. But yet you do spend most of your time staring at the wall, or worse, watching Barney . You will come to hate Barney with all your soul. Imagine living like this. For years . Until one caregiver really looks at you, really...