Recommended Nonfiction

by Madeleine Thompson, originally written 2018–04–24, last updated 2025–01-05

math (other than statistics)

• Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis, by Paul Cohen (1966). Possibly my favorite math book.
• Principles of Mathematical Analysis, 3rd ed., by Walter Rudin (1976)
• Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery, by Imre Lakatos (1976)
• Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers, by Stanley Farlow (1993)
• Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms, by David MacKay (2003)
• Elements of Information Theory, 2nd ed., by Cover and Thomas (2006)
• An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications, 3rd ed., by Li and Vitányi (2008)
• Matrix Computations, 4th ed., by Golub and Van Loan (2012)
• Linear Algebra Done Right, 3rd ed., by Sheldon Axler (2015)

probability and statistics

• An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Vol. 1, 3rd ed., by William Feller (1968)
• Statistical Inference, by S. D. Silvey (1975)
• Applied Statistics: Principles and Examples, by Cox and Snell (1981)
• Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, by E. T. Jaynes (2003)
• Time Series Analysis: Univariate and Multivariate Methods, 2nd ed., by William W. S. Wei (2005)
• Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion, by Angrist and Pischke (2009)
• Categorical Data Analysis, 3rd ed., by Alan Agresti (2012)
• Bayesian Data Analysis, 3rd ed., by Gelman, Carlin, Stern, Dunson, Vehtari, and Rubin (2013)
• Statistical Rethinking, 2nd ed., by Richard McElreath (2020).

visualization

• Semiology of Graphics, by Jacques Bertin (1967)
• The Elements of Graphing Data, by William S. Cleveland (1994)
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd ed., by Edward Tufte (2001)

computer programming

• The Mythical Man-Month, by Fred Brooks (1975)
• The Engineering of Numerical Software, by Webb Miller (1984)
• Programming Pearls, by Jon Bentley (1999)
• Effective C++, 3rd ed., by Scott Meyers (2005)
• Effective Java, by Joshua Bloch (2008)
• The Art of Readable Code, by Boswell and Foucher (2011)
• Hacker's Delight, by Henry Warren (2012)
• Effective Modern C++, by Scott Meyers (2014)

physics

• The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Feynman, Leighton, and Sands (1963)
• Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 2nd ed., by David Griffiths (2005). The hardcover from 2005 has the best cover art.
• Introduction to Elementary Particles, 2nd ed., by David Griffiths (2008)

other

• A Random Walk Down Wall Street, by Burton Malkiel (1973)
• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert Caro (1974)
• The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins (1976)
• The Strategy of Conflict, by Thomas Schelling (1981)
• Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies, by Charles Perrow (1984)
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes (1986)
• Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, by James C. Scott (1999)
• Wheelock's Latin, 7th ed., by Frederic Wheelock (2011)
• Rationality: From AI to Zombies, by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2015)