Books

Here is a list of all books that I read since the start of 2026. I might extend this list to 2025 and/or earlier some time in the future.

2026

• Dragon Ball 4 (JP); Toriyama Akira: The classic manga, in Japanese, from 1984. I (almost! missing just one) have the complete manga that starts with kid Goku and ends with the Buu saga. But nothing beats that 80s manga (and anime).
• Dragon Ball 5 (JP); Toriyama Akira: The above, continued. I didn't pick up number 6 yet. I should, though.
• Warbreaker; Brandon Sanderson: A single novel which is part of the larger Cosmere fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson. Great read, but a couple of loose ends made me wish this was a duology.
• Tress of the Emerald Sea; Brandon Sanderson: Another novel from the Cosmere. I liked this one much more, since it also added a lot of comedy, which I hadn't read yet in a fantasy book.
• Onomatope: The Fantastic World of Japanese Symbolic Words; Masahiro Ono: Unless you're really interested in the Japanese language, this one's not for you. Teaches you words such as perapera (speaking a language fluently), pikapika (shiny), jinjin (the kind of pain you get when you hit your shin against the table).
• The Way of Kings; Brandon Sanderson: I was a bit afraid to start with this series, since it now consists of 5 books and is still ongoing, with the thickest book counting over 6400 pages and over 2.2 million words. HOWEVER, the sheer size of this story allows for an extensive worldbuilding, many POVs, fleshed out characters, and a story so good it feels like however I felt watching the first seasons of Game of Thrones.
• The Alloy of Law; Brandon Sanderson: This book is part of the second era of the Mistborn series, which is part of the Cosmere. For some reason I didn't like this one as much. I think it's because of the time setting which felt a lot like the early 1900s irl.
• The Valley where Time Stood Still; Lin Carter (did not finish): Holy shit what a shit book. I was a bit mentally prepared since this is a pulp fiction from the 1970s, but the racism and sexism was too overt, and the writing style too mediocre.
• The Mountain in the Sea; Ray Nayler: I picked up this book in the library, purely based on the way the cover looked (and the scifi genre). This was a very good story slash thought exercise. It takes on topics like (interspecies) communication, consciousness, empathy, (artificial) intelligence, and the troubles that may arise from new technologies.
• The AI Con: The Hype, the Myth and the Power Grab of the Century; Emily Bender & Alex Hanna: A good write up on the problems regarding the hype they call "AI".
• The Fellowship of The Ring; J.R.R. Tolkien: A masterpiece, a slow burn, a true bromantasy. Some of its writing does not age well, but all in all I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first book of Lord of The Rings.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; Philip K. Dick: A scifi from the 60s. It has recurring themes regarding "fakeness" (fake emotions, fake animals, androids...). An interesting read.
• The Nature Delusion: Why We Can’t Fix the World Without Fixing Ourselves; Tom Oliver: Humanity is trending to a more individualistic society, being more xenophobic, losing touch with each other and as a result, losing touch with nature. The Nature Delusion is the idea that we as a human species are separate from earth and other species, and this book services to break you free from this delusion. Read it in 2 days, and felt like it made me more grounded and re-set my priorities.