My Library
This is more than a bookshelf. It’s reference, inspiration, and a reflection of how I think and create. From cookery and combat manuals to political theory and folklore, I collect with purpose — and I return to these books often.
I've still a bunch to add into this page. Turns out this is a bigger task that I though!
🍽 Gastronomy & Culinary Technique
- Institut Paul Bocuse Gastronomique
- Larousse Gastronomique (x2: General & Pâtisserie)
- Robuchon: The Complete Guide
- Le Répertoire de la Cuisine
- Eleven Madison Park: The Next Chapter
- The Ritz London: The Cookbook
- Sous-Vide at Home
- Leiths: How to Cook
- Pride and Pudding – Regula Ysewijn
- Primrose Bakery Everyday
- Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat – Samin Nosrat
- Binging with Babish – Andrew Rea
- Bread Baking for Beginners – Ohara
- Imad’s Syrian Kitchen
🎲 Tabletop RPGs & System Design
- Dungeons & Dragons – Core + Expansions
- The One Ring – Core + Ruins of the Lost Realm
- Mutants & Masterminds – Full set
- Doctor Who RPG – Cubicle 7
- Vaesen – Mythic Britain, Nordic Horror
- Mörk Borg + expansions
- Index Card RPG
- Old-School Essentials – Referee's Tome & Player's Tome
- GURPS – Basic Set, Low-Tech, Martial Arts, Fantasy
- Star Trek Adventures
- Mouse Guard, Monster of the Week, Death in Space, Mothership
- FATE Core + Toolkit
- Basic Fantasy RPG – Several anthologies
- Rules Cyclopedia
- HârnWorld, Columbia Games modules
- Fabled Lands (Gamebook)
📖 Strategy, Doctrine & Systems Thinking
- Marine Corps Doctrinal Publications (MCDP)
- Marine Corps Warfighting Publications (MCWP)
- Structured Analytic Techniques – Pherson & Heuer
- Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction
- Economics: A Very Short Introduction
- Globalisation: A Very Short Introduction
- Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction
- The Typewriter Revolution
- Live to Tell the Tale – Keith Ammann
- The Keep of the Lich Lord
📘 History & Political Thought
- The Silk Roads – Peter Frankopan
- A New History of the World
- Trotsky – History of the Russian Revolution
- Zizek – In Defense of Lost Causes
- What You Should Know About Politics But Don’t – Jessamyn Conrad
- International Relations: A Very Short Introduction
🧠 Psychology & Human Behavior
- What Everybody Is Saying – Joe Navarro
- Without Conscience – Dr. Robert D. Hare
- People Watching – Desmond Morris
- How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
- The 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene
📚 Fiction, Myth & Folklore
- Good Omens – Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
- The Odyssey – Homer (Folio Edition)
- Shadows – Laird Barron
- Lucifer Ascending – Bill Ellis
- The Necronomicon
🗺 Creative Tools & Worldbuilding
- Fantasy Art & RPG Maps
- Step-by-Step Cartography
- Keith Ammann – The Monsters Know (All 3 volumes)
About My Library
My library isn’t built for display. It’s built for use. These books are tools, companions, study guides, and sometimes puzzles. I collect across disciplines, not out of indecision, but because I believe everything connects—politics to game systems, recipes to rituals, and psychology to worldbuilding.
A large part of my shelf is culinary. Titles like Larousse Gastronomique, Robuchon, and Eleven Madison Park aren’t just cookbooks. They’re history, precision, and cultural memory wrapped in technique. I learn through doing, and food is one of the most tactile ways to understand a system.
I read doctrine too. Military field manuals, analytic frameworks, strategic handbooks—MCDPs, Structured Analytic Techniques, and even short academic primers on geopolitics and economics. I’m drawn to structure and to the question of how ideas scale—from individual decisions to institutions. Some of these end up informing the games I run. Some inform how I think about power and design.
My RPG shelf is dense. Systems like Vaesen, GURPS, Mörk Borg, and Old-School Essentials speak to my love of mechanics and improvisation living side by side. I don’t just play—I build. I create maps, draw from folklore, and use real-world logistics to shape in-game logic.
I read about people too. Body language, psychopathy, manipulation, connection—books like What Everybody Is Saying and The 48 Laws of Power sit alongside Dale Carnegie. It’s all part of trying to understand behavior from multiple angles. Useful for life. Essential for storytelling.
And then there’s fiction. Myth, horror, satire. Good Omens, The Odyssey, Lucifer Ascending. Some books are in the collection because they remind me that not everything has to be useful to be meaningful. Some just stay with me.
I don’t read in order. I cross-reference, annotate, leave things half-finished and return years later. I think a library should grow with the person who’s building it. Mine is a slow, deliberate project—and one I’ll probably never finish.