My Favorite Movies, TV Shows, Books, Podcasts, Music, Videogames

created: 2018-12-15; modified: 2019-03-28

This is a list of my favorite movies, TV shows, books, podcasts, music, and videogames

Movies

Climax (2018), The Square (2017), Hardcore Henry (2016), Manifesto (2016), The Neon Demon (2016), Macbeth (2015), Ex Machina (2014), Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice) (1971), Духless 2 (2015), Kis Uykusu (Winter Sleep) (2014), Across the Universe (2007), Hercules (2014), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Departed (2006), Inglourious Basterds (2009), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Mr. Nobody (2009), Equilibrium (2002), V for Vendetta (2006), Annie Hall (1977), Pi (1997), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Project X (2012), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Духless (2011), Gladiator (2000), Pulp Fiction (1994), To Rome with Love (2012), Crank (2006), Crank: High Voltage (2009)

TV shows

True Detective (2014-), Generation Kill (2008), Breaking Bad (2008-2013), Skins (2007-2013), American Dad (2005-), House M.D. (2004-2012), Scrubs (2001-2010), Daria (1997 – 2001), My So-Called Life (1994-1995)

Books

Books that most accurately describe my worldview (alternatively titled, favorite self-help):

Scott Adams’ How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
- I invest all the trust that I’ve gained, since you, my reader, landed on this site, and I tell you: put this book at the very top of your to read list or better still start reading it right now
William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s Extreme Ownership
Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
- Ok, I guess we need to have a discussion here. Everything you’ve heard about this book is wrong — please read it if you want to have an opinion about it; or at least read Scott Alexander’s review of it; JP might have a controversial persona attached to him, but the book is very light on politics and very heavy on timeless advice and great patterns of thought

Autobiographies / Memoirs:

Freeman Dyson’s From Eros to Gaia (this book actually affected a few of my major life decisions)
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried
Steve Friedman’s Lost on The Treasure Island
Воспоминания бывшего секретаря Сталина Бориса Бажанова
И возвращается ветер Владимира Буковского
Nikolai Ostrovsky’s How the Steel Was Tempered (Как закалялась сталь)

Fiction:

Richard Aldington’s Death of a Hero
Milan Kundera’s The Joke
Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov (Братья Карамазовы) & Demons (Бесы)
Theodore Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire: The Financier, The Titan, The Stoic
Abbe Prevost’s Manon Lescaut

Non-fiction:

Robert Caro’s The Power Broker
Michael Soussan’s Backstabbing for Beginners
Занимательная Греция Михаила Гаспарова
Michael Lewis’s The Big Short
Ryan Holiday’s Conspiracy
John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood
James Gleick’s The Information
Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things
Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind
Ryan Holiday’s Trust Me, I’m Lying

Podcasts

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History

Best episodes: 01 - Alexander versus Hitler, 03 - The Organization of Peace, 05 - Meandering Through The Cold War, 09 - Darkness Buries the Bronze Age, 12 - Steppe Stories, 13 - Bubonic Nukes, 17 - Judgment at Nineveh, 19 - Apache Tears, 20 - (Blitz) History Under The Influence, 21-23 Punic Nightmares, 26 - (BLITZ) Addicted to Bondage, 33 - (Blitz) Old School Toughness, 34-39 Death Throes of the Republic, 50-55 - Blueprint for Armageddon, 61 - (BLITZ) Painfotainment

All of the episodes I listed are extremely important and I very strongly recommend listening to all of them (or probably, simply all episodes of Hardcore History). If you want to determine whether my recommendations are bs or not, listen to episode 61.

Miscellaneous podcast episodes:

Rationally Speaking 212 - Ed Boyden
Rationally Speaking 216 - Diana Fleischman
Tim Ferriss - Eric Weinstein
Exponent 149 — Zillow
Waking Up Podcast #91 - Robert Sapolsky
80,000 Hours - Spencer Greenberg
2018-08-28 80,000 Hours #42: David Roodman
Indie Hackers - Austen Allred

Music

A few of my most favorite songs ever:

English

Aimee Mann
Atmosphere
Avril Lavigne
Be Your Own Pet
The Beatles
The Cardigans
Eminem
Florence + The Machine
Garbage
Gossip
Ida Maria
Jack Wood
Justin Bieber
La Roux
Lana Del Rey
Lenka
Lera Lynn
Maleidoscope
Marina and The Diamonds
Meg Myers
MS MR
The Neighbourhood
Paramore
PJ Harvey
Tessa Violet
Two Door Cinema Club
The Pretty Reckless
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Russian

CENTR
Noize MC
Oxxxymiron
Андрей Макаревич
Владимир Высоцкий
Звери
Земфира

Videogames

Battlefield 2
Battlefield 3
Mount and Blade: Warband
Starcraft 2
Europa Universalis 4
Civilization 5