Ashish Uppala

Technology & Design
Chicago, Illinois

Bookshelf

A few books I've read and come back to every now and then; hopefully you find something useful to you!


Photo & Art

American Geography Matt Black

The Lines of my Hand Robert Frank

Disfarmer: Heber Spring Portraits, 1939 - 1946 Julia Scully

À Propos de Paris Henri Cartier-Bresson

Fiction

Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami

Lolita Vladimir Nabokov

The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

French is probably best, but if you are stuck with English like me, I liked the earlier translation by Katherine Woods.

The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin

The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas

The definition of a page turner.

The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas

The new Lawrence Ellsworth translation is superb!

The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy

My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante

Modern classic, just about as good as it can get. The HBO show was very enjoyable too.

The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Solaris Stanislaw Lem

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami

Murakami's journey as he substituted a chain smoking addiction with running like a madman. And found some inspiration along the way. Great book. Way better than the runner propaganda you might be expecting. "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional" is a great line.

Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov

Okay, the play itself was okay to read but I need to be in the right mood. Then I watched Andrew Scott do a live solo-performance with all the characters and now it has a special place on this list.

Non-Fiction

The Rise and Fall of American Growth Robert Gordon

Deschooling Society Ivan Illich

Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital Carlota Perez

On Photography Susan Sontag

A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway

Gertrude Stein had some weird (and hysterical) things to say, but it's crazy to have this account of what Paris was like back then. What a great read.

The Logic of Scientific Discovery Karl Popper

Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City Jorge Almazán + Studio Lab

Science of Science Albert-László Barabási and Dashun Wang

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making Tony Fadell

Kissa by Kissa Craig Mod

Things Become Other Things Craig Mod