Books Recommended by Paul Graham

If you want to learn what people want, read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.

If you read books, read William Finnegan's Barbarian Days. It's one of those rare books that divide your life into two parts: before you read it, and after.

Hard Drive, about Microsoft, is good.

White's Medieval Technology and Social Change is the most fabulous book.

If you could only read one book on medieval history, R. H. C. Davis's History of Medieval Europe might be the best choice. Used copies are much cheaper, and probably better printed too, so I recommend buying it used.

Rereading Hardy's _Mathematician's Apology_, slowly to make it last. Among the most inspiring books I know.

Anjelica Huston's Story Lately Told is wonderful

Trollope's Autobiography is a wonderfully candid and inspiring one

I've just been reading Nicholas Christakis's book about the coronavirus, Apollo's Arrow, and it's a rare combination of broad historical panorama and all-too-topical bestseller. There are interesting insights on every page.

And if you read only one book about art history, Civilisation is the one I'd recommend.

I also recommend Clocks and Culture.

Flying Start is a wonderful book.

From its title and the fact that it's part of series, Rupert Hall's _From Galileo to Newton_ sounds like it would be a boring survey, but actually it's one of the best books I've read on the history of science.

Other highly recommended books: What is Mathematics?, by Courant and Robbins; Geometry and the Imagination by Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen.

Re-reading Cipolla's amazing Guns, Sails and Empires. An indictment of publishing that it's out of print.

A few months ago, as I was reading Constance Reid's excellent biography of Hilbert, I figured out if not the answer to this question, at least something that made me feel better about it.

Freeman Dyson's Maker of Patterns is a wonderful book. Books of letters aren't usually very good, but this is as good as an autobiography, if not better. And of a very interesting man.

Fletcher's _Moorish Spain_ is a great book.

Hugh Popham's _Sea Flight_ is a wonderful book. I'm looking at the few pages left and wishing there were more.

Peter Connolly's The Ancient City is one of the best books I've found for explaining history to kids.

I'm reading Bovill's excellent Battle of Alcazar

Reading The Fry Chronicles. As perfect as Wodehouse.

His style is deceptively casual, but there is more in his books than in a library of art monographs. Reading The Nude is like a ride in a Ferrari.

Other highly recommended books: What is Mathematics?, by Courant and Robbins; Geometry and the Imagination by Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen.