My Favorite Movies, TV Shows, Books, Podcasts, Music, Video games
created: ; modified:This is a list of my favorite movies, TV shows, books, podcasts, music, and video games
Movies
Apollo 11 (2019), Before Sunrise (1995) + Before Sunset (2004) + Before Midnight (2013), Apocalypse Now (1979), 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), 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 S02 (2015), Generation Kill (2008), Breaking Bad (2008-2013), Skins (2007-2013), American Dad (2005-), Scrubs (2001-2010), Daria (1997 – 2001), My So-Called Life (1994-1995)
Other video
Books
Two underappreciated points about books:
- you can drop them
- you can read them multiple times
Some books I read 3-5 times and I come away surprised at how much I notice with every reading. 80%+ of books I start I do not finish. I note the number of times I read a particular book below.
Autobiographies / Memoirs:
- Freeman Dyson’s From Eros to Gaia (this book actually affected a few of my major life decisions) 2x
- Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried 3x
- Steve Friedman’s Lost on The Treasure Island 4x
- Vladimir Bukovsky’s To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter (И возвращается ветер) 3x
- Nikolai Ostrovsky’s How the Steel Was Tempered (Как закалялась сталь) 1x
- James Watson’s The Double Helix 1x
Self-help
- David Goggins' Can’t Hurt Me 5x+
- watch this video: Joe Rogan - Jesse Itzler Tells Hilarious David Goggins Stories
- Scott Adams' How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big 4x
- Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life 1x
- ok, I guess we need to have a discussion here. Everything you’ve heard about this book is wrong — you’re not entitled to an opinion about it, unless you’ve actually read it; 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
Fiction:
- Richard Aldington’s Death of a Hero 2x
- Milan Kundera’s The Joke 1x
- Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov (Братья Карамазовы) & Demons (Бесы) 1x
- Theodore Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire: The Financier, The Titan, The Stoic 1x
- Abbe Prevost’s Manon Lescaut 2x
Non-fiction:
- Andrew Groen’s Empires of Eve 2x
- William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience 1x
- Robert Caro’s The Power Broker <1x
- Michael Soussan’s Backstabbing for Beginners 1x
- Занимательная Греция Михаила Гаспарова 2x
- Ryan Holiday’s Conspiracy 1x
- John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood 1x
- James Gleick’s The Information 1x
- Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things 1x
- Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind 1x
- Ryan Holiday’s Trust Me, I’m Lying 1x
Podcasts
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
Note: after adding this I learned that HH has lots of serious factual errors (a). I still enjoy it a lot but think of it as “inspired by true events” kind of podcast now.
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
- Lex Fridman - Jim Keller
- 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:
- Two Door Cinema Club - Changing Of The Seasons
- Meg Myers - Sorry
- Marina and the Diamonds - Are You Satisfied?
- The Cardigans - And Then You Kissed Me
- The Cardigans - Paralyzed
- Garbage - Stupid Girl
- Atmosphere - The Waitress
- Eminem - The Way I am
- MS MR - Hurricane
- Aimee Mann - You Never Loved Me
- Tessa Violet - On My Own
- Владимир Высоцкий - Вершина
- Oxxxymiron - Башня из слоновой кости
- Noize MC - Когда-нибудь
- Земфира - Искала
English
- Aimee Mann
- Atmosphere
- Avril Lavigne
- The Beatles
- The Cardigans
- Eminem
- Florence + The Machine
- Garbage
- Gossip
- Highly Suspect
- Ida Maria
- Jack Wood
- Justin Bieber
- La Roux
- Lana Del Rey
- Lera Lynn
- Lil Peep
- Maleidoscope
- Marina and The Diamonds
- Meg Myers
- MS MR
- The Neighbourhood
- Paramore
- Parcels
- 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
Video games
- Battlefield 2
- Battlefield 3
- Mount and Blade: Warband
- Starcraft 2
- Europa Universalis 4
- Civilization 5
Appendix
Anirudh Kannan writes about How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big:
You mention that How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big is “probably the most important book [you’ve] ever read.”
I’ve had a similar experience with that book; I downloaded the audiobook in March 2020 and went from suicidal 19 y/o to profoundly optimistic (etc.) at 20. Hard to overstate the impact it’s had on me.
Appendix: my favorite love songs of all time
- Meg Myers - Sorry
- The Cardigans - And Then You Kissed Me
- The Cardigans - And Then You Kissed Me II
- The Cardigans - Paralyzed
- БумБокс - Вахтерам
- Звери - Дожди-пистолеты
- Lana Del Rey - Diet Mountain Dew
- Oxxxymiron - Привет со дна
- Two Door Cinema Club - Changing of the Seasons
- XXXTENTACION - Guardian angel
- Hayley Williams - Teenagers
- You Never Loved Me - Aimee Mann
- Meg Myers - The Morning After
- Звери - Говори
- Beyonce - If I Were a Boy
- Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
- Brick + Mortar - Train
- Звери - Я с тобой
- Garbage - Why Do You Love Me
- Oxxxymiron - Хитиновый покров
- Noize MC - Выдыхай (3 куплета)
- Noize MC - Моё Море
- Земфира - Искала
- Highly Suspect - 16
- Noize MC - Давай Приколемся
- Guf - Ice Baby
- MIKA - Origin of Love
- Halestorm - I miss the Misery
- Keira Knightley - Lost Stars
- Jim Sturgess - All My Loving
- Jim Sturgess - Girl
- Пицца - Романс
- Tessa Violet and Bry - Little Talks
- Avril Lavigne - Why
- Павел Акимкин, Юлия Пересильд - Ты глядел на меня
- MS MR - Hurricane
- Звери - До скорой встречи
- Марк Бернес - Тёмная Ночь
- Highly Suspect - Lydia