---
template: template/page.mako
title: Reading
---

Here I keep track of what I'm reading and what I'm planning to read. There's more info on my [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/80006269-bob-rubbens), though starting January 2026 I'm not updating it anymore.

*Last updated: June 6th, 2026. [Previous version](./reading.2026-05-16.html).*

# Currently reading

## Audiobooks

Still listening to Shift by Hugh Howey.

## E-books

Still reading The Castle by Kafka on my phone, The Comfort Crisis on my tablet.

On my e-reader I've been making progress on Frege Explained by Joan Weiner. The more I read it the more I get the idea that early work on logic was more about untangling logic from natural language than it was really about logic.

## Dead-tree copies

Beren op de Weg, Spinsels in je Hoofd. Not sure why I haven't finished this one yet, I think there are only 10 pages or so remaining. I think after I finish writing this I'll grab it and finish it!

I'm also reading "A New Tale". The first half was pretty good, looking forward to the second.

# Plans

These books are already in my (electronic) bookcase, and I'm actively considering to read them next. While it might take me a few years to get to them, it's extremely rare for books to get kicked off this list.

If I have told you I am going to read a certain book, and it's not on this list, I owe you a hot or cold beverage of your choice 😉.

In no particular order:

- The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (dead-tree copy)
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (dead-tree copy)
- De Foundation en het Imperium (dead-tree copy)
- Prince of Milk (probably e-book?)
- The Chosen by Chaim Potok (dead-tree copy)
- What We Can Know (dead-tree copy)
- Lessons (dead-tree copy)
- Openbaring (dead-tree copy)
- Isles of Emberdark. I accidentally got the fancy hardcover edition. What a treat!
- The Whispering Dark (dead-tree copy)
- Blood of the Chosen (Burningblade & Silvereye, book 2, probably e-book)
- Babel by R.F. Kuang (dead-tree copy)
- Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (dead-tree copy)
- Infinity Gate

# Reading-related blog posts

- [Books of 2025](/post/books-of-2025)

# Log

### 2026

- 2026-05-09: *In Onze Tijd* by Tim Fransen <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2026-04-29: *An Echo of Things to Come (Licanius, #2)* by James Islington (narrated by Michael Kramer) <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2026-02-12: *Wool* by Hugh Howey (narrated by Edoardo Ballerini) <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2026-01-17: *The Shadow of What Was Lost (Licanius, #1)* by James Islington <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2026-01-04: *De vreemdeling* by Albert Camus <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2026-01-02: *Ashes of the Sun (Burningblade & Silvereye, #1)* by Django Wexler <!-- rating: 4 stars -->

### 2025

- 2025-12-07: *The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying* by Jonah Fishel and Tristan Fishel <!-- rating: 0 stars -->
- 2025-10-31: *The Fifth Science* by Exurb1a <!-- rating: 5 stars -->
- 2025-10-05: *Foundation* by Isaac Asimov <!-- rating: 0 stars -->
- 2025-08-30: *Shampoo* by Bert Moerman <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2025-08-28: *Tales from the Cafe: Before the Coffee Gets Cold* by Toshikazu Kawaguchi <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2025-02-15: *Skyward* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2025-02-01: *Project Hail Mary* by Andy Weir <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2025-01-12: *The Final Girl Support Group* by Grady Hendrix <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2025-01-09: *Wind and Truth* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2025-01-05: *White Sand* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->

### 2024

- 2024-11-01: *Gardens of the Moon* by Steven Erikson <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2024-10-30: *The Pale Dreamer* by Samantha Shannon <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2024-10-03: *Blood Over Bright Haven* by M.L. Wang <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2024-09-03: *The Sunlit Man* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2024-08-04: *Sixth of the Dusk* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2024-08-03: *Snapshot* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2024-07-29: *The Emperor's Soul* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2024-07-25: *Assassin's Quest* by Robin Hobb <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2024-05-20: *Storm Front* by Jim  Butcher <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2024-05-10: *Yumi and the Nightmare Painter* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2024-05-10: *Royal Assassin* by Robin Hobb <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2024-04-20: *The Book That Wouldn’t Burn* by Mark  Lawrence <!-- rating: 3 stars -->

### 2023

- 2023-12-16: *Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth* by Apostolos Doxiadis <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-12-07: *Meesters in het hier en nu* by Frank Meester and Maarten Meester <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-12-07: *Pages to Fill* by Travis Baldree <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-12-06: *Legends & Lattes* by Travis Baldree <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-11-20: *Assassin's Apprentice* by Robin Hobb <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-09-17: *The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-09-11: *Dit zijn de namen* by Tommy Wieringa <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-09-07: *Tress of the Emerald Sea* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-08-09: *Small Gods* by Terry Pratchett <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-08-05: *Het aapje dat geluk pakt* by Arnon Grunberg <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-08-03: *The Midnight Library* by Matt Haig <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-07-31: *Girl, Woman, Other* by Bernardine Evaristo <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-07-28: *Hex* by Thomas Olde Heuvelt <!-- rating: 0 stars -->
- 2023-07-03: *How to Live on 24 Hours a Day* by Arnold Bennett <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-06-30: *DRIVE: Train je stoïcijnse mindset* by Mark Tuitert <!-- rating: 0 stars -->
- 2023-06-20: *Vriend & vijand* by Arnon Grunberg <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-06-13: *Magnus* by Arjen Lubach <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-05-20: *A Short History of Nearly Everything* by Bill Bryson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-05-03: *The Rithmatist* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-04-09: *Wat is ruimte waard* by Marjolijn van Heemstra <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-03-26: *Socrates op sneakers* by Elke Wiss <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-03-25: *The Lost Metal* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2023-02-09: *Elantris* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2023-02-09: *The Hope of Elantris* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->

### 2022

- 2022-12-27: *The Other Hand* by Chris Cleave <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-12-10: *Dit kan niet waar zijn* by Joris Luyendijk <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-12-07: *Wetenschap als nieuwe religie* by Ronald Meester <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-10-24: *De belofte van Pisa* by Mano Bouzamour <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-10-12: *Grip* by Rick Pastoor <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-10-10: *Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life* by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2022-10-05: *As a Man Thinketh* by James Allen <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-09-27: *A Human History of Emotion* by Richard Firth-Godbehere <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2022-09-19: *De stenen goden* by Jeroen Windmeijer <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-09-05: *De zeven vinkjes* by Joris Luyendijk <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-08-23: *Lies of the Beholder* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-08-17: *Skin Deep* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-08-14: *Legion* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-08-11: *The Original* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-08-10: *The Bands of Mourning* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-08-05: *Stephen Leeds: Death and Faxes* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-08-03: *Guards! Guards!* by Terry Pratchett <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-07-30: *Shadows of Self* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-07-17: *The Alloy of Law* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-06-16: *A Man of Shadows* by Jeff Noon <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-05-12: *Blondjes beleggen beter* by Janneke Willemse <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-05-10: *De bekentenissen van Petrus* by Jeroen Windmeijer <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2022-04-12: *Rhythm of War* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2022-03-27: *The Brooklyn Follies* by Paul Auster <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-03-14: *Meneer Ibrahim en de bloemen van de koran* by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-03-10: *The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F\*ck* by Mark Manson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2022-01-08: *Dawnshard* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->

### 2021

- 2021-12-23: *Voorwaardelijke liefde* by Thierry Baudet <!-- rating: 0 stars -->
- 2021-11-14: *Met angst en beven* by Amélie Nothomb <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2021-11-11: *Vacuüm* by Oscar Spaans <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2021-11-07: *Oathbringer* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2021-10-03: *What I Talk About When I Talk About Running* by Haruki Murakami <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2021-09-27: *Edgedancer* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2021-09-24: *Words of Radiance* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2021-08-25: *The Way of Kings* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2021-07-28: *Last Argument of Kings* by Joe Abercrombie <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2021-07-18: *De goede zoon* by Rob van Essen <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2021-07-08: *Sum: Forty tales from the afterlives* by David Eagleman <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2021-07-06: *Het Pilgrim Fathers complot* by Jeroen Windmeijer <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2021-05-15: *Before They Are Hanged* by Joe Abercrombie <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2021-03-22: *The Blade Itself* by Joe Abercrombie <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2021-02-28: *Bird by Bird* by Anne Lamott <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2021-01-19: *The Inner Game of Tennis* by W. Timothy Gallwey <!-- rating: 4 stars -->

### 2020

- 2020-12-08: *Vreemdeling in het paradijs* by Isaac Asimov <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-10-20: *Secret History* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 0 stars -->
- 2020-10-06: *The Hero of Ages* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-09-22: *In het water* by Paula Hawkins <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2020-09-10: *The Well of Ascension* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-06-23: *Zwarte schuur* by Oek de Jong <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-05-04: *When Eight Bells Toll* by Alistair MacLean <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2020-04-08: *How to Take Smart Notes* by Sönke Ahrens <!-- rating: 5 stars -->
- 2020-03-21: *Verknocht* by Lisette Jonkman <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2020-03-18: *Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-03-02: *Warbreaker* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-01-31: *Calamity* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-01-22: *Mitosis* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-01-21: *Firefight* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-01-11: *Steelheart* by Brandon Sanderson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2020-01-10: *Verslingerd* by Lisette Jonkman <!-- rating: 3 stars -->

### 2019

- 2019-12-13: *Reisverslag van een kat* by Hiro Arikawa <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-10-06: *Het talent uit Twente* by Claus Brockhaus <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2019-09-24: *Digitale Dementie* by Manfred Spitzer <!-- rating: 0 stars -->
- 2019-09-14: *Outliers* by Malcolm Gladwell <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-08-24: *Nightfall Two* by Isaac Asimov <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-08-10: *Who Moved My Cheese?* by Spencer Johnson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2019-08-08: *Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism* by Fumio Sasaki <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-08-06: *Norwegian Wood* by Haruki Murakami <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-07-31: *"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"* by Richard P. Feynman <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2019-07-26: *A Column of Fire* by Ken Follett <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-06-11: *De Kathedraal* by Ken Follett <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-04-21: *Jas van belofte* by Jan Siebelink <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2019-04-21: *Pawn* by Timothy Zahn <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2019-04-15: *Nightfall One* by Isaac Asimov <!-- rating: 5 stars -->
- 2019-04-03: *Welcome to Night Vale* by Joseph Fink <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2019-03-05: *The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.* by Neal Stephenson <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2019-01-22: *Haaienkoorts* by Morten A. Strøksnes <!-- rating: 3 stars -->

### 2018

- 2018-12-03: *Plussen en minnen: wiskunde en de wereld om ons heen* by Stefan Buijsman <!-- rating: 2 stars -->
- 2018-12-03: *Spelunky* by Derek Yu <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2018-10-16: *The Long War* by Terry Pratchett <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2018-09-15: *Bright Lights, Big City* by Jay McInerney <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2018-09-08: *Jungle* by Joost Vandecasteele <!-- rating: 4 stars -->
- 2018-08-29: *Sleep Smarter* by Shawn Stevenson <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2018-08-15: *Sapiens* by Yuval Noah Harari <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2018-08-06: *Superintelligence* by Nick Bostrom <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2018-07-02: *The Best of Sherlock Holmes* by Arthur Conan Doyle <!-- rating: 3 stars -->
- 2018-04-30: *Het Pauluslabyrint* by Jeroen Windmeijer <!-- rating: 3 stars -->

# Low-key to-read list

This is basically the list I look through for birthday present ideas ☺️ Many books have been on this list for years, and I've long forgotten the context of why I put them on the list. So please don't draw too many conclusions from a particular book being on this list.

- 80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good
- A Closed and Common Orbit 
- A Deadly Education 
- A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
- A Little Hatred 
- Adem
- Alarmfase rood
- Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
- Alkibiades
- An Infinite Descent into Pure Mathematics
- Anathema 
- And Then There Were None
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
- Caffeine Blues: Wake Up to the Hidden Dangers of America's #1 Drug
- Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds
- Computation, Proof, Machine: Mathematics Enters a New Age
- Dark Theory 
- De boekbinder
- De depressie-epidemie
- De glazen stolp
- De herontdekking van het lichaam: over de burn-out
- De kracht van familieopstellingen: Leuker leven door inzicht in onbewuste patronen (Dutch Edition)
- De ontdekking van de hemel
- Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
- Domweg gelukkig, in de Dapperstraat: De bekendste gedichten uit de Nederlandse literatuur
- Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
- Dungeon Crawler Carl
- Echopraxia 
- En ze filosofeerden nog lang en gelukkig
- Enchiridion
- Engineering a Compiler
- Flesh (Booker prize winner)
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
- Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Natural Selection (Complex Adaptive Systems)
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
- Gravity’s Rainbow
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
- Hell Yeah or No: What's Worth Doing
- Het groene vuur (Taragon Trilogie, #1)
- Het psalmenoproer
- Homage to Catalonia
- House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt, #1)
- How To Judge Architecture
- How to Listen to Music: Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art
- How to look at pictures.
- In de ban van burn-out
- In the Beginning...Was the Command Line
- Investigations of a Dog
- Katabasis
- Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House, #1)
- Kings of the Wyld (The Band, #1)
- Klara and the Sun
- La Horde du Contrevent
- Laziness Does Not Exist
- Lentz: de man achter het persoonsbewijs
- Leuk!: Pleidooi voor plezier 
- Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley
- Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
- Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
- Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)
- Meditations
- Meesters in de filosofie
- Mevrouw mijn moeder
- Normal People
- Ontwikkel je talenten (Maven Lifehacks) 
- Oracle (Robert Grim #2)
- Paradise Lost
- Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant, #1)
- Practical Foundations for Programming Languages
- Practical Zen: Meditation and Beyond
- Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation
- Project Oberon: The Design of an Operating System and Compiler (Acm Press Books)
- Real-Time Strategy Game Programming Using MS DIRECTX 6.0 (Wordware Game Developer's Library)
- Reamde
- Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)
- Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders, #1)
- So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
- So You Want To Be A Game Master: Everything You Need to Start Your Tabletop Adventure for Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and Other
- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
- Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
- Surreal Numbers
- Tales of the Dying Earth
- The Archive In Between Compendium - Volume 1 
- The Aztlanian (Rithmatist, #2)
- The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
- The Gambler
- The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters
- The Great Gatsby
- The Hollow (Hercule Poirot, #26)
- The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science
- The Light of Other Days
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
- The Magic Mountain
- The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
- The March North (Commonweal #1)
- The Mask of Mirrors (Rook & Rose, #1)
- The Metamorphosis
- The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life: Before 8AM
- The Mote in God's Eye (Moties, #1)
- The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
- The Parade
- The Ph.D. Grind: A Ph.D. Student Memoir
- The Soul of a New Machine
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- The Unwritten Rules of Ph.D. Research
- Theft of Fire (Orbital Space #1)
- Things Not Seen (Things, #1)
- Unsouled (Cradle, #1)
- Untitled (Elantris, #2)
- Untitled (Elantris, #3)
- Version Control with Git
- Wabi-sabi (Dutch Edition)
- What You Are Looking for Is in the Library
- Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
- Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
- World Without End (Kingsbridge, #2)
- Zo hadden we het niet bedoeld: De tragedie achter de toeslagenaffaire