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700 books · one curated library

Every book here was checked twice.

700 books across sixteen shelves. Every record resolved against independent sources before it was allowed in, and every summary written here rather than scraped from somewhere else.

700
Volumes
16
Shelves
504
Two-source verified
700
Devmark summaries

A cross-section of the library — a few from every shelf. Browse all 700 →

Sixteen shelves

Organised by argument, not by bookshop category.

01Business & StrategyHow companies choose where to play, and why most of them choose badly.3802Money & EconomicsRisk, incentives and the stories people tell themselves about wealth.3403Mind & BehaviourWhat the evidence says about judgement, attention and why we act.4704Habits & CraftThe unglamorous mechanics of doing the work, repeatedly.4005Leadership & TeamsOrganisations are made of people who cannot read each other's minds.2606Technology & AISystems that compute, and the arguments about what they should compute.3207Design & CreativityMaking things legible, usable and worth looking at twice.3008Communication & InfluenceGetting an idea out of one head and into another, intact.2609Philosophy & IdeasOld questions that refuse to become obsolete.3710Science & NatureThe physical world, described carefully by people who checked.3511History & LivesHow we got here, told through events and through the people inside them.4312Fiction & ClassicsInvented people, doing the work of argument better than arguments do.5213Mystery & SuspenseCrime, gothic and the particular dread of a narrator you cannot trust.3014Love & RelationshipsRomance as a literary form, and the research on how attachment actually works.3015Thriller & SuspenseEspionage, hardboiled crime and the modern psychological thriller — books built to be read faster than you meant to.10016Anime & MangaManga as a literary form, and the criticism, history and production writing around Japanese animation.100

Reading paths

Collections that cut across the shelves.

Where to start

First Principles

Twelve books that install the mental furniture everything else sits on. Read in any order; each one stands alone.

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Good Strategy Bad StrategyRichard RumeltGood Strategy Bad StrategyRichard RumeltThe Personal MBAJosh KaufmanThe Personal MBAJosh KaufmanAgainst the GodsPeter L. BernsteinAgainst the GodsPeter L. BernsteinFooled by RandomnessNassim Nicholas TalebFooled by RandomnessNassim Nicholas TalebNaked EconomicsCharles WheelanNaked EconomicsCharles WheelanPoor Charlie's AlmanackCharles T. MungerPoor Charlie's AlmanackCharles T. MungerPrinciplesRay DalioPrinciplesRay DalioThe Black SwanNassim Nicholas TalebThe Black SwanNassim Nicholas Taleb

Show your working

The Evidence Shelf

Books whose arguments rest on published research rather than on the author's own certainty.

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Cult of PersonalityAnnie Murphy PaulCult of PersonalityAnnie Murphy PaulGood to GreatJim CollinsGood to GreatJim CollinsThe Founder's DilemmasNoam WassermanThe Founder's DilemmasNoam WassermanMisbehavingRichard H. ThalerMisbehavingRichard H. ThalerNarrative EconomicsRobert J. ShillerNarrative EconomicsRobert J. ShillerPoor EconomicsAbhijit V. BanerjeePoor EconomicsAbhijit V. BanerjeeThe Millionaire Next DoorThomas J. StanleyThe Millionaire Next DoorThomas J. StanleyAnxious GenerationJonathan HaidtAnxious GenerationJonathan Haidt

Company-building

Built in Public

First-hand accounts of making an organisation, including the parts that did not work.

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Amp It UpFrank SlootmanAmp It UpFrank SlootmanBad BloodJohn CarreyrouBad BloodJohn CarreyrouBuildTony FadellBuildTony FadellBuilt to LastJim CollinsBuilt to LastJim CollinsHigh Growth HandbookElad GilHigh Growth HandbookElad GilReworkJason FriedReworkJason FriedScaling UpVerne HarnishScaling UpVerne HarnishShoe DogPhil KnightShoe DogPhil Knight

Centuries, not quarters

The Long View

Works that take the widest possible frame — deep time, deep history, and the arguments that outlast their authors.

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Bad BloodJohn CarreyrouBad BloodJohn CarreyrouChip WarChris MillerChip WarChris MillerCompetitive StrategyMichael E. PorterCompetitive StrategyMichael E. PorterAgainst the GodsPeter L. BernsteinAgainst the GodsPeter L. BernsteinAntifragileNassim Nicholas TalebAntifragileNassim Nicholas TalebCapital in the Twenty-First CenturyThomas PikettyCapital in the Twenty-First CenturyThomas PikettyDebt: The First 5000 YearsDavid GraeberDebt: The First 5000 YearsDavid GraeberThe Intelligent InvestorBenjamin GrahamThe Intelligent InvestorBenjamin Graham

Craft

Making Things

For anyone whose job is to produce work: writing, designing, shipping, and the resistance that precedes all three.

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BuildTony FadellBuildTony FadellHow to Take Smart NotesSönke AhrensHow to Take Smart NotesSönke AhrensKeep GoingAustin KleonKeep GoingAustin KleonMasteryRobert GreeneMasteryRobert GreeneSo Good They Can't Ignore YouCal NewportSo Good They Can't Ignore YouCal NewportSolitudeAnthony StorrSolitudeAnthony StorrThe Artist's WayJulia CameronThe Artist's WayJulia CameronThe PracticeSeth GodinThe PracticeSeth Godin

A cross-cut

Women, Writing, Lives

Books about women's experience, ambition, interior life and the arguments made about them — fiction, memoir, research and reporting, drawn from every shelf in the library.

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The Handmaid's TaleMargaret AtwoodThe Handmaid's TaleMargaret AtwoodThe Bell JarSylvia PlathThe Bell JarSylvia PlathTheir Eyes Were Watching GodZora Neale HurstonTheir Eyes Were Watching GodZora Neale HurstonThe Color PurpleAlice WalkerThe Color PurpleAlice WalkerHalf of a Yellow SunChimamanda Ngozi AdichieHalf of a Yellow SunChimamanda Ngozi AdichieAmericanahChimamanda Ngozi AdichieAmericanahChimamanda Ngozi AdichieCirceMadeline MillerCirceMadeline MillerA Thousand Splendid SunsKhaled HosseiniA Thousand Splendid SunsKhaled Hosseini

Under 250 pages

One Sitting

Short books that do not pad. Each is complete at the length it is, and can be finished in an evening.

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Amp It UpFrank SlootmanAmp It UpFrank SlootmanCrossing the ChasmGeoffrey A. MooreCrossing the ChasmGeoffrey A. MooreObviously AwesomeApril DunfordObviously AwesomeApril DunfordOnly the Paranoid SurviveAndrew S. GroveOnly the Paranoid SurviveAndrew S. GroveThe Art of the StartGuy KawasakiThe Art of the StartGuy KawasakiThe Hard Thing About Hard ThingsBen HorowitzThe Hard Thing About Hard ThingsBen HorowitzThe Lean StartupEric RiesThe Lean StartupEric RiesThe Mom TestRob FitzpatrickThe Mom TestRob Fitzpatrick

The method

How a book gets in.

Read the method
  1. 01

    Curated, not scraped

    A person decides the book belongs and which shelf it sits on. No ranking API chooses the catalogue.

  2. 02

    Resolved against three sources

    Open Library for identity and cover, Wikidata for the work as distinct from its editions, Wikipedia as a third opinion.

  3. 03

    Disagreements are kept

    Where sources conflict the record says so on its own page. Nothing is quietly rounded into a single confident number.

  4. 04

    Summaries written, not generated from the blurb

    Original explanatory writing. No copied passages, no invented quotations, no fabricated statistics.

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