November 2025
Four Futures: Life after Capitalism - Peter Frase
Cracking little book. Explores four possible directions society might take on an Abundance/Scarcity x Equality/Hierarchy matrix. Published in 2016 and a lot has happened in the intervening years, so it does read a little dated in part, but the headline message from Frase is to imagine possible futures and fight for the one we want - which is something I wholly support.
Vita Contemplativa - Byung-Chul Han
Han argues that the current crisis in society could be solved if we were to make more space for inactivity. Stillness, contemplation, even boredom, are essential for a full life and these are denied to us by the business of modern life, and the capitalist compulsion to consume and produce. A short, but challenging book. More abstract than Burnout Society, which I took more from.
Lost in the Taiga - Vasily Peskov
The amazing true story of a family living alone in the Siberian mountains for 50 years. After fleeing religious persecution in 1930s Russia, the Lycov family flee into the mountains where they remain totally alone until a team of geologists discover them in the 1970s. Written by a journalist who visited them regularly, the book tells the story of their isolation, survival and cautious introduction to the modern world.
October 2025
The Horse The Wheel And Language - David W. Anthony
Anthony provides thorough and comprehensive evidence for the easter European steppe being the homeland of proto-indo-european (the root of most languages spoken today). In the first section he lays out the tools and techniques of linguists who reconstruct lost languages. In the second, lengthier, section he takes us slowly through several millennia of social change in the region, showing how language evolved alongside culture and technology. For an archaeology nerd like me this is a real joy to read. Anthony brings alive these lost communities wonderfully.
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Read on a whim after watching the movie. Totally engrossing. Read it in a day.
The Martian - Andy Weir
A book that had been on my to read pile for a while. Very fast paced, the plot never seems to draw a breath, which is technically impressive. Thoroughly enjoyable. Read it in a day.
September 2025
The Lord of the Rings: Part 1 - J.R.R Tolkien
I last attempted to read this in my teens, after having read The Hobbit, back then it defeated me. Now, I found it beautiful.
End Times - Peter Turchin
Societal collapse is almost always preceded by an over production of elites. This is the central thesis of cliodynamics, which models social stability. In this accessible book Turchin explains this thesis and it’s implications for our world today.
August 2025
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
Humanity learns how to “step” into parallel Earths, unoccupied by fellow people. We follow a man, woman and AI airship on their journey between the infinite worlds. This is a brilliantly entertaining story. An easygoing quick read – I got through it in a day.
Contact - Carl Sagan
Loved it. I regret not reading this sooner. I’m aware of Sagan’s reputation as a writer and broadcaster, but I’m not especially familiar with his work. Having read Contact I can see why he’s so highly regarded a science communicator. He expertly blends science fact with fiction to evoke a sense of magic and wonderment that is truly delightful.
Goliath’s Curse - Luke Kemp
Very timely. Kemp argues that the collapse of past civilisations is preceded by inequality rising to the point of instability. What he calls “Goliaths” (social hierarchies of control) are distinct from “civilisations”, a term which is incorrectly bias towards states. In later chapters he highlights several tipping points in our society (climate change, nuclear weapons etc). He concludes that, like past societies, strong social bonds and community ties are our best insurance against the collapse of our “Goliath”.
July 2025
The Mushroom at the End of the World - Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Part 1 is slow but picks up in part 2. I found this book a bit of a struggle. Tsing tells a parable of global capitalism through the trade in rare mushrooms. I think she’s saying that while capitalism is a system for converting natural resources and human labour into capital assets, it also leaves space for non-capitalist livelihoods on the fringes. I think there’s more to her argument than I appreciate. Perhaps I need to come back to this in the future.
Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher
Published in 2009, this short book succinctly articulates the sense of despondency that was prevalent following the financial crisis. Credited with popularising the expression “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”, the book explains how capitalism benefits from the absence of competing ideas and why this belief came about. It is interesting to contrast this with contemporary opinions. Some ideas persist, while others have since evolved.
Revolutionary Spring - Christopher Clark
An enigmatic investigation into the causes and context of the 1848/9 revolutions which affected most of Europe. Clarke puts us in the lives of people driven by a hunger for change, but cautious about the consequences of action. This is a time when many of our modern institutions (capitalism, democracy, nation states) were in early genesis and people often lacked the language to express and understand these ideas - a lot of relevance for today. This is a big book (870 pages) which demands to be read slowly. I’m only a quarter through, I expect this will keep me busy for some time.
June 2025
Moral Ambition - Rutger Bregman
A much shorter book than the page count suggests. Calling upon us to act, not deliberate. It’s a fine book, with plenty of examples of heroic personalities, but not as good as his others.
Say Hello to Metamodernism - Greg Dember
This book is useful as an up-to-date reference of Metamodernism in media (film, music, TV, literature). While Greg adopts a more limited definition of Metamodernism than Dempsey, his introduction to the subject is more accessible.
Metamodernism - Brendan Graham Dempsey
Dempsey provides a thorough overview of Metamodernism today. Acknowledging the field is still in its early days, he looks for common features across the major publications and build upon this with his own analysis. This book stands as a comprehensive introduction to the subject as it stands today.
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is rightly recognised as a talented writer, her prose is delightful, but I found this story a little dull. There’s something about reading a “classic” which set a high expectation the book may struggle to meet. I felt like I was waiting for some big revelation to come all the way through, which by the end left me underwhelmed.
May 2025
Vulture Capitalism - Grace Blakeley
Moving the debate on from capitalism vs socialism, grace argues that the struggles of modern life are not capitalism malfunctioning, but it working as planned. The state vs markets debate is redundant, as both are systems of capitalist planned economy. The book ends with well evidenced call for grassroots community action, and an invitation to imagine a new society.
Consider Phlebas- Iain M Banks
Hard work, but eventually worth it. I find space operas a bit exhausting, preferring my sci-fi to connect more closely with reality. I really loved the post-scarcity Culture, but most of this story is spent far away from this permitting us just a few glimpses. I will continue with the series, from what I understand others explore this more deeply.
April 2025
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity - David Graeber & David Wengrow
Re-reading this gem of a book takes me a while as it's dense with fascinating ideas. The authors being by asking "what is the origin of inequality" before swifty dismissing it in favour of a more interesting questions - "how might people have lived in the past?" and "why do we find it so difficult to imagine a society different from our own?". Hard-going, but so very worth it.
March 2025
Solaris - Stanisław Lem
Masterful.
February 2025
On Writing - Stephen King
A first-class book on the craft of writing from a first-class writer.
Technofeudalism - Yanis Varoufakis
Varoufakis argues that capitalism is dead and has been replaced by a new feudal-like system built by big tech and finance, which he calls technofeudalism. The book is touchingly written in dialogue with his late father, and compellingly recasts a problem we all recognise in a new light. These are ideas that stick with you.
Read Platform Capitalism by Nick Srnicek as a companion.
Living Better - Alastair Campbell
A candid personal account of Alastair's struggle with depression. He shares practical advice for sufferers and their families. While this is certainly an interesting insight into the life and mind of the public figure, I do wish the book had gone further into the current medical understanding of depression, relying less on personal perspective.
January 2025
Hyperion
Brilliant. A group of travellers share their stories while taking a pilgrimage through an alien world. This is my favourite type of science fiction, blending complex politics with far-future technology and strong social commentary. The stories told by the travellers provide multiple genres-within-a-genre, building a compelling mythology which promises a resolution through the sequels.
Fall of Civilisations
Providing near-identical content to the podcast of the same name, the book explores the history of lost cultures and the reasons for their collapse. Including supporting maps and photographs does give the book an edge over the podcasts, though overall, Paul’s enthusiasm and imagery is presented best in the podcast.
The Bright Side
I really enjoyed this. Drawing upon scientific research and classical history, this is a meticulous dissection of optimism. The book makes the case for why, with infinite potential futures ahead, an optimistic outlook is a successful strategy for achieving the “best of all possible worlds”.
December 2024
The Burnout Society
A short but profound book. Diagnosing the societal cause of mental health issues like burnout, anxiety and depression. Han’s thesis is that freedom under capitalism forces us to self-police ourselves as agents in the free market. Such that we compel ourselves to produce ever more at the expense of our own health. That we exploit ourselves to the point of burnout. We are both “perpetrator and victim, master and slave”. As an aside, this diagnosis is an example of meta-modern thinking, which I feel is a necessary to develop solutions to the problem.
The Elements of Eloquence
A fun little book. A light-hearted run around the linguistic block covering a rarely discussed corner of rhetoric. Describing, with examples, 39 different turns of phrase. Explains what makes them special and why they’re so effective. Enjoyable to read, insightful as reference. The book is let down only by the near-unpronounceable titles.
November 2024
Orbital
Struggled with this one. While the descriptions of a day in the life aboard the ISS were evocative, something in the writing style pushed me away rather than drew me in. I found I had to work quite hard to hold my attention in the story. Perhaps it was the mix of third and second person, or the stream-of-consciousness like prose, that I found challenging. I’m a little disappointed. Wanted to enjoy this more than I did.
Micky 7
A colourful sci-fi romp. Great setup with a crew of characters terraforming a frozen alien world. Between the accidental double-cloning of the main character and encounters with a native species, the book probes questions of sentience and identity in a funny, camping adventure. Really enjoyable.
Against the Grain
An up-to-date account of early human civilisations. Challenging conventional understanding of the earliest states with contemporary science, while painting vivid imagery of the lives of people who lives in those times. Common assumptions about agriculture, states and complex societies being mutually dependent are not supported by the evidence. A real eye-opener about the variety of ways humans lived millennia ago.
The Mountain Under the Sea
A beautiful book. Exploring the nature of consciousness through a cast of characters in a future world of big corporations, AI slave ships, robots and the discovery of an octopus society. Two unconnected stories follow divergent paths as we explore this world until they collide together in a satisfying finale. Top-class sci-fi.
October 2024
Ball Lighting
The less well known quasi-prequel to the three-body problem series. A good, if a little over-fanciful, hard-sci-fi setup raising questions about the nature of the universe. With familiar character types and backgrounds from his other work, Liu plays pleasurably in fictional science.
1Q84
An enticing mystery that deliberately fails to answer all the questions it poses. Assassins, blackmail, cult leaders and hitmen compete in a world that may, or may not, be ours. While at times the writing is repetitive, and there are problems with the writing of female characters, the book is fast paced and exciting throughout. Enjoyable, if flawed.
Older Reads
These are books I've read at some point before I began keeping this list. I've included them here because when people ask me for book recommendations these are usually the ones I'd suggest, as they've had the greatest influence on my own thinking. I'll add notes to this list as-and-when I get around to it.
1984 - George Orwell
Not only is this the archetypal dystopian thriller but also a stunningly prescient forecast of surveillance society. You know that this book is a cultural touchstone, because you've already heard of it.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
"I want to learn about science, but don't know here to start", you ask. I answer with this. Bryson takes us on a comprehensive, but accessible, tour of modern scientific thinking. While now a little out of date, it's still a fantastic springboard into a vast range of topics. Start here and follow your curiosity.
After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000–5000 BC - Steven Mithen
What were human lives like between the end of the last ice age (yes I know technically we're still in an ice age but shush) and the start of recorded history. This is a fascinating and detailed account of a period of human history that we still know very little about.
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Orwell again. If you read 1984 and thought this bloke is good, go here next. Sharp, funny and biting, this satire of communism is a relevant today as ever. Read alongside The Communist Manifesto.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century - Thomas Piketty
Hard going, but if you want to understand inequality under capitalism, this is the place to start. Hugely influential, both in and out of established economics, this book brings rigour and evidence to the problem.
Debt, The First 5000 Years - David Graeber
This is one of my top desert-island books. Graeber takes an anthropologists eye to the history of money and debt, showing that our common beliefs about the nature of both are wrong. More than any other, I credit this book with giving me an understanding that our world can take (and may have taken) forms far more varied than we give ourselves permission to imagine. Masterful.
Dune - Frank Herbert
In my view, this is the bible of space opera. All others came from Dune. Not only is the world building beautiful, the character dynamics complex and the politics thrilling, but the ending is cataclysmic. You may have seen the films, do yourself a favour and visit Arrakis properly in the books
Factfulness - Hans Rosling
Humans live much better today than at any time in our history. This is the message Rosling brings to us. With evidence and data he enthusiastically shows us that the world is a much better place than we may fear. He sadly died before the book was published, but see him in action in his many TED talks. Our World in Data is the spiritual successor to his work
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas R. Hofstadter
Hofstadter's thesis is that self-awareness is a product of the mind's self-referential capability, what he calls "a strange loop". But this is no academic text book. The complex topic is explored with a series of allegories, building from first principles into a quasi-fantastical explanation of the human mind.
The World Without Us - Alan Wiseman
If all us humans disappeared in an instant, what would we leave behind? And what would happen to the world? A fascinating read in it's own right, but also a valuable reference point for anyone who enjoys reading or writing (especially writing) post-apocalyptic fiction.