Library

270 books — 100 curated classics plus 170 titles from reading lists — across 12 fields, on one map of understanding.

This is not a bestseller list. Every book was selected by one test: does it explain an underlying pattern, and will it still be worth rereading in ten years?

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The following titles come from the reading lists of the channels AZM and XMS. They are included as lightweight entries without long-form commentary.

The Intelligent Investor 《聪明的投资者》 Benjamin Graham Graham separates investing from speculating, sets out defensive and enterprising frameworks built on… Investment Classic Index 97

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 《国富论》 Adam Smith Smith examines the sources of national wealth and argues that it comes from the division of labour and… Economics Classic Index 97

The Republic 《理想国》 Plato In this dialogue, Socrates and others ask what justice is, and end up constructing an ideal city, a theory… Philosophy Classic Index 97

Tao Te Ching 《道德经》 Laozi A short, aphoristic text in eighty-one sections, it presents a way of life and of governance based on wu wei… Philosophy Classic Index 97

The Analects 《论语》 Confucius A collection of brief records of Confucius’ sayings and exchanges with disciples, centered on… Philosophy Classic Index 97

Artificial Intelligence 《人工智能》 Stuart Russell The book divides artificial intelligence into two traditions — thinking, built on logic and search, and… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 96

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money 《就业、利息和货币通论》 John Maynard Keynes Keynes argues that output and employment are determined by effective demand rather than tending… Economics Classic Index 96

Meditations 《沉思录》 Marcus Aurelius These are the private notes of a Roman emperor, written to himself and never intended for publication… Philosophy Classic Index 96

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 《科学革命的结构》 Thomas Kuhn Kuhn argues that science does not accumulate linearly but cycles between “normal science” and revolution: a… Technology & Science Classic Index 95

The Black Swan 《黑天鹅》 Nassim Nicholas Taleb Taleb argues that history and markets are shaped mainly by a very small number of extreme events — precisely… Finance Classic Index 95

Security Analysis 《证券分析》 Benjamin Graham Graham and Dodd turned security valuation from a matter of personal judgment into a testable method… Investment Classic Index 95

History of the Peloponnesian War 《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》 Thucydides Thucydides’ account of the war between Athens and Sparta was written by a participant who aimed to record… World History Classic Index 95

Competitive Strategy 《竞争战略》 Michael Porter Porter builds a systematic framework for analyzing industry structure and competitive position, centered on… Business Classic Index 95

Nicomachean Ethics 《尼各马可伦理学》 Aristotle Aristotle inquires into what makes a human life go well, developing the idea of happiness as activity in… Philosophy Classic Index 95

Thinking, Fast and Slow 《思考，快与慢》 Daniel Kahneman Kahneman organizes decades of judgment-and-decision research as a dialogue between two cognitive systems… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 95

Superintelligence 《超级智能》 Nick Bostrom Writing before superintelligence existed, Bostrom systematically asked how much leverage humanity would… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 94

Gödel, Escher, Bach 《哥德尔、艾舍尔、巴赫》 Douglas Hofstadter Hofstadter weaves formal systems, recursion, self-reference, and isomorphism around a single thread: how… Technology & Science Classic Index 94

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 《罗马帝国衰亡史》 Edward Gibbon Gibbon’s multivolume history runs from the height of Rome to the fall of Constantinople, famous for its… World History Classic Index 94

The Innovator's Dilemma 《创新者的窘境》 Clayton Christensen Christensen explains why well-managed, customer-responsive companies routinely lose to disruptive… Business Classic Index 94

Thus Spoke Zarathustra 《查拉图斯特拉如是说》 Friedrich Nietzsche This is a philosophical poem in which Zarathustra announces that God is dead, teaches the overman and the… Philosophy Classic Index 94

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 《新教伦理与资本主义精神》 Max Weber Weber examines a historical coincidence: the organizational forms of modern capitalism developed… Society & Civilization Classic Index 94

Leviathan 《利维坦》 Thomas Hobbes Starting from the thought experiment of a state of nature, Hobbes argues that without a common power, human… Society & Civilization Classic Index 94

Deep Learning 《深度学习》 Ian Goodfellow A textbook by three founders of deep learning that begins with linear algebra, probability, and numerical… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 93

Chip War 《芯片战争》 Chris Miller Miller braids the history of the semiconductor industry with geopolitics: from the invention of the… Technology & Science Classic Index 93

Antifragile 《反脆弱》 Nassim Nicholas Taleb Taleb proposes a third category beyond robust and fragile: antifragile, meaning systems that not only… Finance Classic Index 93

Capital 《资本论》 Karl Marx Marx builds on the labour theory of value to develop concepts such as surplus value, capital accumulation… Economics Classic Index 93

Guns, Germs, and Steel 《枪炮、病菌与钢铁》 Jared Diamond Diamond sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: why did Eurasian societies conquer the rest of the… World History Classic Index 93

On Liberty 《论自由》 John Stuart Mill Mill tries to draw a line: how far society may legitimately interfere with the individual. His harm… Society & Civilization Classic Index 93

Poor Charlie's Almanack 《穷查理宝典》 Charlie Munger A collection of Munger’s speeches organized around a latticework of mental models: borrow reliable tools… Investment Classic Index 92

A Random Walk Down Wall Street 《漫步华尔街》 Burton Malkiel Malkiel uses the efficient-market hypothesis and random-walk theory to argue that most active managers… Investment Classic Index 92

The Road to Serfdom 《通往奴役之路》 Friedrich Hayek Written during the Second World War, Hayek argues that once central planning becomes the primary means of… Economics Classic Index 92

Sapiens 《人类简史》 Yuval Noah Harari Harari narrates the whole arc of Homo sapiens, from foraging bands to global empires, around a single claim… World History Classic Index 92

The Effective Executive 《卓有成效的管理者》 Peter Drucker Drucker argues that effectiveness is a discipline that can be learned, and lays out practices: managing… Business Classic Index 92

The Myth of Sisyphus 《西西弗神话》 Albert Camus Camus begins with a question that admits no evasion: whether life is worth living is the first problem… Philosophy Classic Index 92

Influence 《影响力》 Robert Cialdini Cialdini distills the research on persuasion into six principles: reciprocity, commitment and consistency… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 92

Fooled by Randomness 《随机漫步的傻瓜》 Nassim Nicholas Taleb Taleb writes from a trader's perspective to show how we explain luck as skill and treat survivors as… Finance Classic Index 91

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order 《文明的冲突与世界秩序的重建》 Samuel Huntington Huntington advances a predictive thesis: with the Cold War over, the main fault lines of global conflict… World History Classic Index 91

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich 《第三帝国的兴亡》 William Shirer Shirer, a journalist turned historian, narrates Nazi Germany from its origins to its collapse, drawing… World History Classic Index 91

1587, A Year of No Significance 《万历十五年》 Ray Huang Huang examines a single unremarkable year in the Ming dynasty to show how the empire’s institutional… World History Classic Index 91

Letters from a Stoic 《道德书简》 Seneca Written as letters to his friend Lucilius, the essays of Seneca take up time, fear, wealth, death, and… Philosophy Classic Index 91

Reinforcement Learning 《强化学习导论》 Richard Sutton This book distills “learning how to act” into a single problem: an agent improves its policy from a reward… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 90

Human Compatible 《AI 新生》 Stuart Russell Russell proposes a solution that looks like a concession but is in fact demanding: do not give machines… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 90

Understanding Media 《理解媒介》 Marshall McLuhan McLuhan advances a counterintuitive claim: the real effect of a medium lies not in the content it carries… Technology & Science Classic Index 90

Against the Gods 《与天为敌》 Peter Bernstein Bernstein tells how humans learned to live with risk: from gambling and the mathematics of probability to… Finance Classic Index 90

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits 《怎样选择成长股》 Philip Fisher Fisher argues for gathering information through “scuttlebutt” — talking to customers, suppliers, and… Investment Classic Index 90

The Great Transformation 《大转型》 Karl Polanyi Polanyi argues that the self-regulating market was not a natural evolution but a nineteenth-century… Economics Classic Index 90

The Guns of August 《八月炮火》 Barbara Tuchman Tuchman narrates the first month of World War I, tracing how mobilization timetables, alliance commitments… World History Classic Index 90

Postwar 《战后欧洲史》 Tony Judt Judt synthesizes European history from 1945 to the early 2000s: reconstruction, Cold War division, welfare… World History Classic Index 90

The Design of Everyday Things 《设计心理学》 Don Norman Norman explains why everyday objects confuse us, arguing that the blame usually belongs to design rather… Business Classic Index 90

Crossing the Chasm 《跨越鸿沟》 Geoffrey Moore Moore argues that there is a dangerous gap between early adopters and the mainstream market for high-tech… Business Classic Index 90

Amusing Ourselves to Death 《娱乐至死》 Neil Postman Postman contrasts the warnings of Orwell and Huxley and argues that Huxley came closer: culture is not… Society & Civilization Classic Index 90

The Information 《信息简史》 James Gleick Gleick tells the story of information along three threads: the history from African talking drums to the… Technology & Science Classic Index 89

Manias, Panics, and Crashes 《疯狂、惊恐和崩溃》 Charles Kindleberger Kindleberger breaks financial crises into a recognizable sequence: a new opportunity appears, credit… Finance Classic Index 89

The Most Important Thing 《投资最重要的事》 Howard Marks Marks sets out, in short memo-like chapters, what he calls second-level thinking: do not ask whether a… Investment Classic Index 89

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator 《股票作手回忆录》 Edwin Lefèvre A narrative based on Jesse Livermore, tracing a speculator’s rise and ruin in early twentieth-century… Investment Classic Index 89

Why Nations Fail 《国家为什么会失败》 Daron Acemoglu Acemoglu and Robinson argue that the gap between rich and poor nations lies in institutions: inclusive… Economics Classic Index 89

The End of History and the Last Man 《历史的终结与最后的人》 Francis Fukuyama Fukuyama argues that with the collapse of the Soviet bloc, liberal democracy had emerged as the only… World History Classic Index 89

Only the Paranoid Survive 《只有偏执狂才能生存》 Andy Grove Grove describes strategic inflection points — moments when a fundamental change in the environment can… Business Classic Index 89

Thinking in Systems 《系统之美》 Donella Meadows Meadows introduces the basic vocabulary of systems thinking in plain language: stocks and flows, feedback… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 89

The Crowd 《乌合之众》 Gustave Le Bon Le Bon argues that once individuals merge into a crowd, their judgment and conduct change qualitatively… Society & Civilization Classic Index 89

Life 3.0 《生命 3.0》 Max Tegmark Tegmark organizes a very broad question — from near-term automation and unemployment to a cosmos-scale… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 88

Margin of Safety 《安全边际》 Seth Klarman Klarman starts from the priority of avoiding loss over pursuing gain, argues that value investing is the… Investment Classic Index 88

Irrational Exuberance 《非理性繁荣》 Robert Shiller Shiller uses valuation data, survey evidence, and psychological research to explain how asset bubbles form… Investment Classic Index 88

Free to Choose 《自由选择》 Milton Friedman The Friedmans argue in accessible terms, using policy cases and historical examples, that economic freedom… Economics Classic Index 88

Capital in the Twenty-First Century 《21 世纪资本论》 Thomas Piketty Piketty uses tax and inheritance records going back to the eighteenth century to argue that when the return… Economics Classic Index 88

This Time Is Different 《这次不一样》 Carmen Reinhart Reinhart and Rogoff assemble eight centuries of debt and crisis data across dozens of countries to show that… Economics Classic Index 88

The Worldly Philosophers 《世俗哲学家》 Robert Heilbroner Heilbroner combines biography and intellectual history to present the central preoccupations of economists… Economics Classic Index 88

World Order 《世界秩序》 Henry Kissinger Kissinger traces the history of international order from the Peace of Westphalia to the present, contrasting… World History Classic Index 88

Flow 《心流》 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Drawing on long interviews with artists, athletes, surgeons, and ordinary people, Csikszentmihalyi isolates… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 88

The Alignment Problem 《人机对齐》 Brian Christian Christian splits alignment into three layers: the objectives a model learns may not be the ones we intend… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 87

The Innovators 《创新者》 Walter Isaacson Isaacson rejects the lone-genius narrative and argues that the digital revolution was above all… Technology & Science Classic Index 87

The Ascent of Money 《货币崛起》 Niall Ferguson Ferguson strings world history on a few financial innovations — bonds, equities, insurance, mortgages, and… Finance Classic Index 87

One Up on Wall Street 《彼得·林奇的成功投资》 Peter Lynch Lynch argues that amateur investors hold an information advantage over institutions in industries and… Investment Classic Index 87

The Outsiders 《商界局外人》 William Thorndike Thorndike compares eight CEOs with outstanding long-run records and finds that what they share is not… US Stock Investment Classic Index 87

Zero to One 《从 0 到 1》 Peter Thiel Thiel argues that genuinely valuable companies create something new — going from zero to one — rather than… Business Classic Index 87

Good to Great 《从优秀到卓越》 Jim Collins Collins and his research team compare companies that made a sustained leap in performance with similar… Business Classic Index 87

Superforecasting 《超预测》 Philip Tetlock Based on a government-funded forecasting tournament, Tetlock compares the long-run accuracy of experts… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 87

AI Superpowers 《AI·未来》 Kai-Fu Lee Lee contrasts two Chinas — one of ubiquitous mobile payment and data scale, one of Silicon Valley's research… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 86

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds 《大癫狂》 Charles Mackay Writing in the nineteenth century, Mackay compiled a dossier of collective illusions: tulip mania, the South… Finance Classic Index 86

When Genius Failed 《赌金者》 Roger Lowenstein Long-Term Capital Management gathered two Nobel laureates and some of Wall Street’s best traders, then… Finance Classic Index 86

Noise 《噪声》 Daniel Kahneman The three authors separate two kinds of error in judgment: bias, a systematic tilt shared across cases, and… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 86

The Master Algorithm 《终极算法》 Pedro Domingos Domingos sorts machine learning into five schools — symbolists, connectionists, evolutionaries, Bayesians… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 85

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! 《别闹了，费曼先生》 Richard Feynman This oral autobiography follows Feynman picking locks, playing bongos, teaching physics, and investigating a… Technology & Science Classic Index 85

The Big Short 《大空头》 Michael Lewis Lewis follows a handful of small funds and traders who noticed that US mortgage securities were… Finance Classic Index 85

Poor Economics 《贫穷的本质》 Abhijit Banerjee Banerjee and Duflo use randomized controlled trials to study how poor people actually decide — why their… Economics Classic Index 85

Misbehaving 《“错误”的行为》 Richard Thaler Thaler recounts, largely autobiographically, how behavioral economics grew from heresy into a mainstream… Economics Classic Index 85

The Silk Roads 《丝绸之路》 Peter Frankopan Frankopan retells world history from the lands between the Mediterranean and China, arguing that for most of… World History Classic Index 85

The Age of AI 《人工智能时代与人类未来》 Henry Kissinger Kissinger, Schmidt, and Huttenlocher argue that AI is not merely an efficiency tool but a new epistemology… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 84

The Second Machine Age 《第二次机器革命》 Erik Brynjolfsson Brynjolfsson and McAfee argue that digital technology now lets machines substitute for cognitive as well as… Technology & Science Classic Index 84

The Hard Thing About Hard Things 《创业维艰》 Ben Horowitz Horowitz writes about the problems management literature usually omits — layoffs, near-bankruptcy, demoting… Business Classic Index 84

What Are You Doing with Your Life? 《人生中不可不想的事》 Jiddu Krishnamurti Krishnamurti circles back to the links among education, ambition, fear, and freedom, arguing that real… Philosophy Classic Index 84

Predictably Irrational 《怪诞行为学》 Dan Ariely Through a series of cleverly designed experiments, Ariely shows that human irrationality is not random but… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 84

Mindset 《终身成长》 Carol Dweck Dweck distinguishes a fixed mindset, which treats ability as a given trait, from a growth mindset, which… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 83

AI 2041 《AI 2041》 Kai-Fu Lee Lee and science-fiction writer Chen Qiufan pair ten short stories with ten technical commentaries, each… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 82

Structures 《结构》 J. E. Gordon Gordon uses bridges, cathedrals, bones, and eggshells to explain structural mechanics: why materials break… Technology & Science Classic Index 82

The Psychology of Money 《金钱心理学》 Morgan Housel Housel uses short essays to argue that financial outcomes depend more on behavior than on knowledge… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 82

The Battle for Investment Survival 《投资生存之战》 Gerald Loeb Loeb’s practical handbook from the 1930s argues that the first task of investing is to protect capital… US Stock Investment Classic Index 81

Genius Makers 《天才制造者》 Cade Metz Metz reports on how deep learning moved from academic margin to industrial center around 2012: a… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 80

The Little Book That Beats the Market 《股市稳赚》 Joel Greenblatt Greenblatt lays out the “magic formula” in deliberately simple terms: rank companies by return on capital… US Stock Investment Classic Index 80

100 Baggers 《百倍股》 Christopher Mayer Mayer studies stocks that returned a hundredfold and abstracts their common traits: high returns on capital… US Stock Investment Classic Index 79

The Order of Things 《词与物》 Michel Foucault An archaeology of knowledge: each epoch has its unspoken episteme that determines what can be seen, named… Philosophy Daily Pick

The Interpretation of Cultures 《作为文化的解释》 Clifford Geertz Culture is not a hidden entity in the mind but a public web of meaning — understanding another culture means… Psychology & Cognitive Science Daily Pick

The Sleepwalkers 《梦游者》 Christopher Clark No one truly wanted the war, yet Europe walked into it: Clark asks not who was guilty but how it happened World History Daily Pick

Artificial Intelligence 《AI 3.0》 Melanie Mitchell What AI can and cannot do: a cognitive scientist's sober inventory of the limits of artificial intelligence Artificial Intelligence Daily Pick

Ethics 《伦理学》 Baruch Spinoza There is only one substance: how Spinoza used geometry to show that God is Nature and freedom lies in… Philosophy Daily Pick

Stuff Matters 《迷人的材料》 Mark Miodownik How matter shapes civilisation: a materials-science tour from steel and glass to graphite and aerogel Technology & Science Daily Pick

Philosophical Investigations 《哲学研究》 Ludwig Wittgenstein Meaning lives in use, not in the head: how Wittgenstein's language games dissolved philosophy's most… Philosophy Daily Pick

How Emotions Are Made 《情绪》 Lisa Feldman Barrett Emotions are not triggered reactions but predictions the brain constructs: a neuroscience revolution that… Psychology & Cognitive Science Daily Pick

Cybernetics 《控制论》 Norbert Wiener Life and machine under one framework of feedback: how cybernetics became a common root of AI and cognitive… Artificial Intelligence Daily Pick

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers 《大国的兴衰》 Paul Kennedy Where national power comes from and how it drains away: the long contest between economic base and strategic… World History Daily Pick

The Idea Factory 《贝尔实验室与美国革新大时代》 Jon Gertner Innovation is not the lucky flash of genius but a product designed out of funding structures, physical… Technology & Science Daily Pick

The Language Instinct 《语言本能》 Steven Pinker Language is not a cultural habit we are taught but a biological instinct shaped in the human brain by… Psychology & Cognitive Science Daily Pick

De Anima (On the Soul) 《论灵魂》 Aristotle The soul is not a passenger inside the body but the very activity of being alive in an organ-bearing body Philosophy Daily Pick

Consciousness Explained 《意识的解释》 Daniel C. Dennett Consciousness is not a screen or a center in the brain but what emerges when many parallel processes compete… Psychology & Cognitive Science Daily Pick

1177 B.C. 《文明的崩塌》 Eric H. Cline The Late Bronze Age Mediterranean did not fall to a single invasion but to a systemic collapse produced by… World History Daily Pick

The Man Behind the Microchip 《硅谷之父》 Leslie Berlin A technical breakthrough persists as an industry only when paired with institutions that let engineers share… Technology & Science Daily Pick

Meditations on First Philosophy 《第一哲学沉思集》 René Descartes Using universal doubt as a method to find an indubitable foundation for knowledge Philosophy Daily Pick

Descartes' Error 《笛卡尔的错误》 António Damásio Emotion is not the opposite of reason but a necessary part of rational decision-making Psychology & Cognitive Science Daily Pick

The Human Condition 《人的境况》 Hannah Arendt Human beings build their world through labor, work, and action Philosophy Daily Pick

The Society of Mind 《心智社会》 Marvin Minsky Intelligence emerges from a society of mindless agents Psychology & Cognitive Science Daily Pick

Crystal Fire 《晶体之火》 Michael Riordan & Lillian Hoddeson How a slab of germanium became the foundation of the information age Technology & Science Daily Pick

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales 《错把妻子当帽子》 Oliver Sacks What remains of a person when one module of the brain fails Psychology & Cognitive Science Daily Pick

Liberalism 《自由与繁荣的国度》 Ludwig von Mises Classical economics, and the case that central planning cannot work. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Feast of the Goat 《公羊的节日》 Mario Vargas Llosa The grotesque spectacle and collapse of a dictator's rule. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Bad Beliefs 《坏信念》 Neil Levy Extreme falsehoods, a polluted information environment, and bad beliefs. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Treason of the Intellectuals 《知识分子的背叛》 Julien Benda Intellectuals who abandon truth and surrender to political extremes. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Goodness Paradox 《人性悖论》 Richard Wrangham Human self-domestication and the machinery of state violence. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Dictator's Handbook 《独裁者手册》 Bruce Bueno de Mesquita How rulers stay in power by rewarding a winning coalition rather than the public. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Collapse of Complex Societies 《复杂社会的崩溃》 Joseph Tainter Diminishing returns and the unraveling of complex societies. Society & Civilization AZM's list

A Luminous Republic 《光明共和国》 Andrés Barba The order of white civilization and the fear of what lies outside it. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Palliative Society 《妥协社会》 Byung-Chul Han A society that yields to institutional coercion and cannot reform itself. Society & Civilization AZM's list

21 Lessons for the 21st Century 《今日简史》 Yuval Noah Harari The collapse of the liberal story and the challenges of the 21st century. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Nexus 《智人之上》 Yuval Noah Harari How information networks evolved, and how they enable digital surveillance. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Homo Deus 《未来简史》 Yuval Noah Harari Techno-humanism, immortality projects, and a society split by class. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Civilized to Death 《文明至死》 Christopher Ryan Reconsidering the agricultural revolution and the discontents of modern life. Society & Civilization AZM's list

How Groups Encourage Misbehavior 《害马之群》 Kevin R. Murphy How groups lose control and push their members toward wrongdoing. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Envy 《嫉妒与社会》 Helmut Schoeck How envy distorts social behaviour and political allegiance. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Right Nation 《右派国家》 John Micklethwait The conservative current running beneath American politics. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Conformist 《同流者》 Alberto Moravia An ordinary man drifts into complicity with tyranny. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

How Change Happens 《变革如何发生》 Duncan Green The mechanics of social change and the resistance of institutions. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Against Elections 《反对选举》 David Van Reybrouck The flaws of representative elections and the crisis of faith in democracy. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Propaganda Technique in the World War 《世界大战中的宣传技巧》 Harold D. Lasswell Wartime state propaganda and the psychological manipulation of the masses. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy 《资本主义、社会主义与民主》 Joseph Schumpeter Creative destruction, and Marxism turned into a secular religion. Society & Civilization AZM's list

是我的错吗？《是我的错吗？》 wu-zandao Collective violence and the crushing weight of the state. Society & Civilization AZM's list

BAD 《恶俗》 Paul Fussell Fakery and vulgarity in American mass culture. Society & Civilization AZM's list

被判处死刑之后《被判处死刑之后》 unknown-bei-panchu Life inside detention, the ecology of the prison, and human desire. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Helen of Troy 《特洛伊的海伦》 Bettany Hughes Beauty culture, the goddess as symbol, and the making of power. World History AZM's list

Animal Farm 《动物农场》 George Orwell A political fable, and a critique of central planning. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Runaway 《逃离》 Alice Munro Nobel-winning stories about women who run away and the predicaments they face. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Chance 《机缘》 Alice Munro A woman scholar, femininity, and the paradox of reason. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Beneath the Wheel 《在轮下》 Hermann Hesse A repressive school system and the souls it tames. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Demian 《德米安（彷徨少年时）》 Hermann Hesse Spiritual awakening, self-awareness, and learning to think for oneself. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Kiss to the Leper 《给麻风病人的吻》 François Mauriac The misery of a traditional marriage, and a portrait of human nature. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Desert of Love 《爱的荒漠》 François Mauriac A Nobel laureate's study of a broken family and the scarcity of love. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Genitrix 《母亲大人》 François Mauriac Victims of patriarchy and a twisted bond between mother and son. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Thérèse Desqueyroux 《苔蕾丝·德斯盖鲁》 François Mauriac A French classic about a wife who poisons her husband, and the mind behind it. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Never Let Me Go 《莫失莫忘（别让我走）》 Kazuo Ishiguro A dystopia about clones making peace with a society that harvests them. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Wall 《隐墙》 Marlen Haushofer Solitude behind an invisible wall, and the psychology of the Cold War. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Moon and Sixpence 《月亮与六便士》 W. Somerset Maugham Ideals against reality, and the line between genius and ordinary life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Accidental Death of an Anarchist 《一个无政府主义者的意外死亡》 Dario Fo A political farce aimed at the machinery of the state and its power. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Giovanni's Room 《乔瓦尼的房间》 James Baldwin Marginal life and sexual repression among gay men in Paris. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Greek Lessons 《失语者》 Han Kang A Nobel laureate's novel of lost language and inward searching. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

A Happy Death 《快乐的死》 Albert Camus Camus's first novel on the void of existence and the impulse to rebel. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Ward No. 6 《第六病室》 Anton Chekhov Intellectuals under despotism, caught between resistance and resignation. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Tartar Steppe 《鞑靼人沙漠》 Dino Buzzati Political melancholy, rumour, and the slow drain of an empty daily life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Fear 《恐惧》 Stefan Zweig A psychological thriller of adultery and manipulative control. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Simple Passion 《简单的激情》 Annie Ernaux A Nobel laureate's autofiction of desire and personal memory. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Persian Boy 《波斯少年》 Mary Renault Alexander the Great's campaigns seen through the eyes of a Persian eunuch. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

A Whole Life 《大雪将至（完整的一生）》 Robert Seethaler One ordinary man's quiet, complete life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Bloodchild 《血孩子》 Octavia E. Butler An award-winning sci-fi tale of submission and parasitic power. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Lost Daughter 《暗处的女儿》 Elena Ferrante Deconstructing motherhood, and a woman's loss of her own self. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

By Night in Chile 《智利之夜》 Roberto Bolaño An intellectual's cowardice, evasion, and complicity with a regime. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Tokyo Refugees 《一个贫穷的年轻人》 Tetsuzo Fukuzawa Youth poverty and the psychological damage it leaves behind. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

老妓抄《老妓抄》 Kanoko Okamoto Taisho-era Japanese aesthetics and a woman's point of view. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

The Hunger Angel 《呼吸秋千》 Herta Müller A Nobel laureate's account of survival in a wartime labour camp. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Digenis Akritas 《狄吉尼斯·阿克里特》 anonymous A Byzantine frontier epic of the clash between Christianity and Islam. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Slaughterhouse-Five 《五号屠场》 Kurt Vonnegut The Dresden bombing and a blackly comic stand against war. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

A Canticle for Leibowitz 《莱博维兹的赞歌》 Walter M. Miller Jr. Post-apocalyptic sci-fi on the cycle of civilization and forgotten history. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Oresteia 《俄瑞斯忒亚三部曲》 Aeschylus A classic mythic tragedy of civic law and ethical conflict. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Divan of Hafez 《设拉子夜莺》 Hafez Persian lyric poetry and the expression of the inner life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

外面是夏天《外面是夏天》 Kim Ae-ran Realist fiction about ordinary lives in contemporary Korea. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

梨子小姐与自己相处《梨子小姐与自己相处》 bai-lu Refusing mental burnout, and learning to live at peace with oneself. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Assemblywomen 《公民大会妇女》 Aristophanes A classical comedy imagining Athens without private property. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

Democratic Ideals and Reality 《陆权论》 Halford Mackinder Geopolitics and the contest between sea power and land power. World History AZM's list

共塑：西方文化精神的演变《共塑》 zhao-lin How Christian faith and humanist reason together shaped the West. World History AZM's list

古罗马帝国的辉煌《古罗马帝国的辉煌》 zhao-lin Rome's rise and fall and the expansion of an autocratic empire. World History AZM's list

Russia Under the Old Regime 《旧制度下的俄国》 Richard Pipes The history of tsarist rule and the making of totalitarian institutions. World History AZM's list

Aftermath 《狼性时代》 Harald Jähner Rebuilding everyday psychology in Germany after the war, 1945 to 1955. World History AZM's list

文明大趋势《文明大趋势》 su-san The logic of geographic diffusion and the fate of Chinese civilization. World History AZM's list

作家城堡《作家城堡》 Uwe Neumahr The Nuremberg trials as seen by journalists from every side. World History AZM's list

Rise and Kill First 《先发制人》 Ronen Bergman The history of Mossad assassinations and the Middle East they shaped. World History AZM's list

February 1933 《文学之冬》 Uwe Wittstock Artists exiled and silenced after the Nazis came to power. World History AZM's list

Why Don't We Learn from History? 《战争的底层逻辑》 B. H. Liddell Hart A strategist's last work on the folly of rulers and history's lessons. World History AZM's list

诸王的欧洲《诸王的欧洲》 Leonhard Horowski Court politics and the collapse of the old order in 17th and 18th century Europe. World History AZM's list

自由的文化：古希腊与... 《自由的文化》 Christian Meier The conditions of freedom in the Greek polis and the origins of Europe. World History AZM's list

活着回来的男人《活着回来的男人》 Eiji Oguma An ordinary Japanese soldier's life story, and how people become raw material. World History AZM's list

Culture Matters 《文化的重要作用》 Samuel Huntington How values shape the progress of nations and civilizations. World History AZM's list

The Coming of the Third Reich 《第三帝国的到来》 Richard J. Evans The collapse of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi seizure of power. World History AZM's list

Heart of Darkness 《黑暗的心》 Joseph Conrad Colonial plunder and the shattering of a grand narrative. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

有所不为的反叛者《有所不为的反叛者》 luo-xin Essays on history that question how we know the past. World History AZM's list

Religion Without God 《没有上帝的宗教》 Ronald Dworkin A religious sensibility without God, and the case for objective value. Philosophy AZM's list

The God Delusion 《上帝的错觉》 Richard Dawkins Militant atheism and a full dismantling of traditional religion. Philosophy AZM's list

Mind and Cosmos 《心灵和宇宙》 Thomas Nagel Doubts about materialism and reductionism, and a case for studying mind. Philosophy AZM's list

The Wisdom of Insecurity 《心安》 Alan Watts Zen and Western metaphysics as ways out of anxiety. Philosophy AZM's list

The Stillborn God 《夭折的上帝》 Mark Lilla Political theology, the Enlightenment, and the modern West. Philosophy AZM's list

Just Babies 《善恶之源》 Paul Bloom What infants reveal about morality and the making of universal values. Philosophy AZM's list

Memorabilia 《回忆苏格拉底》 Xenophon Recollections of Socrates' character and conversations. Philosophy AZM's list

The Hemlock Cup 《毒堇之杯》 Bettany Hughes Reconstructing Socrates' Athens and the crowd's readiness to condemn. Philosophy AZM's list

一个悲观主义者的积极思考《一个悲观主义者的积极思考》 Arthur Schopenhauer Pessimist philosophy as practical wisdom for everyday life. Philosophy AZM's list

On the Laws 《论法律》 Cicero Unjust law, natural law, and what justice actually is. Philosophy AZM's list

The Story of Mankind 《人类的故事》 Hendrik Willem van Loon A humanist telling of civilization as one shared human story. Philosophy AZM's list

阅读是安静的自我觉醒《阅读是安静的自我觉醒》 Hermann Hesse Active reading, sustained attention, and the nourishment of the mind. Philosophy AZM's list

Starry Messenger 《星际信使》 Neil deGrasse Tyson The big picture, seen from a cosmologist's perspective. Technology & Science AZM's list

这个宇宙和我有什么关系《这个宇宙和我有什么关系》 Harald Lesch Physics, and finding meaning in an indifferent universe. Technology & Science AZM's list

Until the End of Time 《直到时间尽头》 Brian Greene String theory, entropy, and the end of everything. Technology & Science AZM's list

算法与预言《算法与预言》 Alessandro Vespignani Big data, prediction, algorithms, and how society changes. Technology & Science AZM's list

Visions of Technological Transcendence 《人类未来进化史》 James A. Herrick Technological immortality, rhetoric, and the future of human evolution. Technology & Science AZM's list

Extraterrestrial 《外星人》 Avi Loeb A Harvard astronomer on alien civilizations and the scientific spirit. Technology & Science AZM's list

The Passions and the Interests 《欲望与利益》 Albert O. Hirschman How the pursuit of gain was made respectable before capitalism won. Economics AZM's list

Our Symphony with Animals 《伴生》 Aysha Akhtar Animal ethics and the foundations of a civilized social order. Technology & Science AZM's list

The Selfish Gene 《自私的基因》 Richard Dawkins Gene-centred evolution and its anti-humanist implications. Technology & Science AZM's list

The Naked Ape 《裸猿》 Desmond Morris The human being examined as just another animal. Technology & Science AZM's list

The Meaning of Human Existence 《人类存在的意义》 Edward O. Wilson Evolution and humanism seen through sociobiology. Technology & Science AZM's list

You Bet Your Life 《赌命》 Paul A. Offit Medical risk, vaccine development, and the case for scientific reasoning. Technology & Science AZM's list

Letter to a Child Never Born 《给一个未能出生的孩子的信》 Oriana Fallaci The nature of motherhood, existentialism, and an argument for life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list

始于极限《始于极限》 Chizuko Ueno Twelve letters on women's issues, and why downward freedom is no freedom. Society & Civilization AZM's list

在熟悉的家中向世界道别《在熟悉的家中向世界道别》 Chizuko Ueno Facing old age, and the dignity of living alone at the end of life. Society & Civilization AZM's list

厌女《厌女》 Chizuko Ueno Social misogyny and the misogyny women turn on themselves. Society & Civilization AZM's list

无缘社会《无缘社会》 NHK Special Reporting Team Japan's solitary deaths and the unraveling of traditional marriage. Society & Civilization AZM's list

她厌男，她是我女友《她厌男，她是我女友》 Min Jihyoung An ordinary Korean man and a feminist: the gap between their worlds. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Not Just for the Boys 《一直在场》 Athene Donald Hidden sexism in science and the women it drives away. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Gender Knot 《性别打结》 Allan G. Johnson A classic feminist introduction to how patriarchy actually works. Society & Civilization AZM's list

李银河说爱情《李银河说爱情》 li-yinhe The sociology of single life, sex, and love. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Heading Home 《回归家庭》 Shani Orgad Structural violence and why women step back from their careers. Society & Civilization AZM's list

A Room of One's Own 《一间自己的屋子》 Virginia Woolf The money and private space a woman needs in order to write. Society & Civilization AZM's list

少年发声《少年发声》 chen-yu Sixteen Chinese teenagers on family upbringing and the feeling of suffocation. Society & Civilization AZM's list

The Politics of Social Solidarity 《福利大博弈》 Peter Baldwin The origins of Europe's welfare states and the politics of solidarity. Economics AZM's list

Coffeeland 《咖啡帝国》 Augustine Sedgewick Global plunder and the expansion of capitalism, told through coffee. Economics AZM's list

Relationships 5.0 《关系5.0》 Elyakim Kislev Robots, AI, and the coming revolution in human-machine intimacy. Society & Civilization AZM's list

社会为什么对年轻人冷酷无情《社会为什么对年轻人冷酷无情》 Masahiro Yamada Downward mobility and the harsh predicament of young people in East Asia. Economics AZM's list

Complexity 《生命大趋势》 unknown-complexity Biodiversity and the large-scale trends of human society. Technology & Science AZM's list

We Have Never Been Middle Class 《我们从未中产过》 Hadas Weiss The fragility of the middle class and how people slide back down. Economics AZM's list

The Fuzzy and the Techie 《文艺呆与科技宅》 Scott Hartley Against Silicon Valley's disdain for the humanities. Economics AZM's list

三十不立《三十不立》 NHK Special Reporting Team Generational poverty among the young after the bubble burst. Economics AZM's list

00年代的想象力《00年代的想象力》 Tsunehiro Uno Pop culture, social psychology, and the disillusion of a generation. Society & Civilization AZM's list

Soulstealers 《叫魂》 Philip A. Kuhn A Qianlong-era sorcery panic reveals how autocratic power and bureaucracy work. Society & Civilization XMS's list

The Book of Lord Shang 《商君书》 Shang Yang The Legalist art of weakening, impoverishing, and dulling the people to rule them. Society & Civilization XMS's list

NHK特别取材组纪实丛书《NHK特别取材组纪实丛书》 NHK Special Reporting Team Documenting ageing, solitary deaths, and Japan's disconnected society up close. Society & Civilization XMS's list

最小阻力路径相关社会学著作《最小阻力路径相关社会学著作》 Allan G. Johnson How institutions pave a path of least resistance that makes conformity automatic. Society & Civilization XMS's list

The World as Will and Representation 《作为意志和表象的世界》 Arthur Schopenhauer The visible world is mere representation; reality itself is blind will. Philosophy XMS's list

Critique of Pure Reason 《纯粹理性批判》 Immanuel Kant How our cognitive structure bounds reason, dividing appearance from things in themselves. Philosophy XMS's list

Symposium 《会饮篇》 Plato Banquet speeches on the nature of Eros and the ascent of the soul. Philosophy XMS's list

A Treatise of Human Nature 《人性论》 David Hume Challenging causal necessity: causation as nothing but a habit of the mind. Philosophy XMS's list

Iliad & Odyssey 《荷马史诗（伊利亚特奥德赛）》 Homer The wrath of Achilles and Odysseus's long voyage, the source of Western literature. Literature & Fiction XMS's list

Aeneid 《埃涅阿斯纪》 Virgil An epic of duty, as Aeneas carries a divine command to found a nation. Literature & Fiction XMS's list

Ars Amatoria 《爱经（爱的艺术）》 Ovid A Roman poem on courtship and love, once banned for its candour. Literature & Fiction XMS's list

Satyricon 《萨蒂利孔》 Petronius A picaresque satire of excess and luxury in Nero's Rome. Literature & Fiction XMS's list

The Decameron 《十日谈》 Giovanni Boccaccio Plague-time tales that mock a corrupt Church and celebrate human wit. Literature & Fiction XMS's list

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 《恰尔德·哈罗尔德游记》 Lord Byron A Byronic wanderer's travels and his longing for liberty and revolt. Literature & Fiction XMS's list

The Psychopath Inside 《天生变态狂》 James Fallon A neuroscientist's self-dissection after finding he has a psychopath's brain. Psychology & Cognitive Science XMS's list

重塑与情绪修复脑科学《重塑与情绪修复脑科学》 Catherine M. Pittman The amygdala, the cortex, and brain-based ways to rewire anxiety. Psychology & Cognitive Science XMS's list

Testosterone 《睾酮》 Carole Hooven What testosterone does to male strength, aggression, and competitive drive. Psychology & Cognitive Science XMS's list

Dirty Genes 《脏基因》 Ben Lynch Epigenetics: tuning gene expression through diet and lifestyle. Psychology & Cognitive Science XMS's list

费米悖论的75种解释《费米悖论的75种解释》 Stephen Webb A systematic survey of the Zoo, Great Filter, Rare Earth and other hypotheses. Technology & Science XMS's list

Biocentrism 《生物中心主义三部曲》 Robert Lanza The universe does not stand alone: life and consciousness define it. Technology & Science XMS's list

幸福经济学相关著作《幸福经济学相关著作》 Richard Easterlin The Easterlin paradox: more income does not reliably buy more happiness. Economics XMS's list

The Cafe on the Edge of the World 《世界尽头的咖啡馆系列》 John Strelecky Asking what life is for, and shedding society's ready-made answers. Economics XMS's list

A Travel Guide to Heaven 《天堂之旅》 Anthony DeStefano What Christian texts say about heaven's landscape, bodies, and daily life. Economics XMS's list

The Philosophy of Art 《艺术哲学》 Hippolyte Taine Art as imitation, and how race, milieu, and era determine style. Society & Civilization XMS's list

天才的盛会：文艺复兴艺术300年《天才的盛会》 jiang-zhulang Three centuries of the Renaissance, traced through Florence's cathedral dome. Society & Civilization XMS's list