Background and organisation

I made this list because I often get carried away and try to learn too many things at once. In my limited experience, I have noticed that I make better progress when I focus on only a few (read: 1 or 2) things at once. To mitigate endlessly procrastinating on learning, I made this list solely to keep track of whatever I can take on. Materials are organised loosely in terms of the broad category they fit into best.

Most (if not all) of these are (legally) available for free online, if you know where to look. I am open to exchanging any of the non-academic books, if you’re nearby Waterloo or Toronto, and I have the book you desire! For my previous reading lists, check out my old website.

Academic

Some textbooks or cool papers that I am currently reading or plan to spend time reading

Theoretical CS

• Spectral and Algebraic Graph Theory by Daniel A. Spielman
• The Probabilistic Method by Noga Alon and Joel H. Spencer
• Expander Graphs and their Applications by Shlomo Hoori, Nathan Linial, and Avi Wigderson
• Pseudorandomness by Salil Vadhan
• Computational Complexity and Property Testing by Oded Goldreich

All things Quantum

• The Theory of Quantum Information by John Watrous
• Quantum Theory, Groups and Representations: An Introduction by Peter Woit

Maths

• Upper and Lower Bounds for Stochastic Processes by Michel Talagrand
• Combinatorial Theory of (…) Operator-Valued Free Probability Theory by Roland Speicher
• An Introduction to C*-Algebras and the Classification Program by Karen R. Strung
• C* Algebras and Operator Theory by Gerard J. Murphy
• Fundamentals of the Theory of Operator Algebras II by Richard V. Kadison and John R. Ringrose
• Introduction to Smooth Manifolds by John M. Lee (languishing on my list for a particularly long time)

Programming

• Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective by Randal E. Bryant and David R. O’Hallaron
• Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau
• Engineering a Compiler by Keith D. Cooper and Linda Torczon
• CSES Problem Set by Antti Laaksonen (just something I return to frequently)

Cool papers

I stopped maintaining an online list of papers to read, since there’s too many of them and updating it is a hassle. Here’s a brief selection of important (according to my taste) papers that I hope to eventually get around to.

• MIP* = RE
• Strong Convergence
• Constructing Random Unitaries
• LCHS
• Tight Bounds for Zig-Zag

Non-academic

In what remains of my free time, I hope to relax through the following books.

Non-fiction

History and Philosophy of Science

• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter
• Social Issues in Computing by C.C. Gotlieb and Allan Borodin

General History

• The Tale of the Heike, translated by Helen Craig McCullough

Fiction

Historical fiction

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Science fiction

• Contact by Carl Sagan
• A Fisherman of the Inland Sea by Ursula K Le Guin
• Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn