In The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker presents a well thought-out framework for thinking about stories, it took him 35 years to write and it shows. If you’re interested in myths, fairy tales and stories more broadly, this is a must-read text, as long as you’re willing to put up with a healthy serving of misogyny and bad politics throughout.

I love food and I love reading. This book is an encyclopedia about food. I like it.

Robert Graves’s The Greek Myths is more of an encyclopedia about everything related to the Greek myths rather than a pure retelling of the myths themselves. It’s not meant to entertain, it’s meant to inform. Although, if learning everything there is to know about Greek myths sounds entertaining to you then this is the book for you.

Are you an experienced programmer and want to learn some video game specific design patterns to help you make games? Well, this is the book for you.

I don’t work in the video game industry anymore but sometimes I make small games for fun. When I do, I skim through this book before I get started.

One of the few physical books I bought in uni.

I don’t whip this out often these days because in the real world software engineering work rarely involves algorithms or math.

If you can bang your head against a wall effectively without sustaining too much permanent brain damage, congratulations, you too can become a software engineer.