The Boltzbit end-of-year reading list 2025

With the year drawing to a close, we asked the team to share one book they’d recommend heading into 2026. The result is a reading list that’s thoughtful, diverse, and unmistakably Boltzbit. Here’s what made the cut.

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‍Butter

By Asako Yuzuki

'There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.'

‍Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Oscar Wilde

'The horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty'

‍Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succès de scandale. Early readers were shocked by its hints at unspeakable sins, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895.

This definitive edition includes a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novel's immorality, and the introduction to the first Penguin Classics edition by Peter Ackroyd.

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Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

By Matthew Walker

Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night's sleep every night.

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The Wandering Earth

By Liu Cixin

'I’ve never seen the night, nor seen a star; I’ve seen neither spring, nor fall, nor winter. I was born at the end of the Reining Age, just as the Earth’s rotation was coming to a final halt.'

The Sun is about to unleash a helium flash, threatening to swallow all terrestrial planets in the solar system. On Earth, the Unity Government has erected Earth Engines. With them it plans to propel our planet out of the solar system, setting it on a journey into outer space in search of a new sun. The Earth begins its centuries-long, wandering travels through outer space.

Just as we began our journey, my grandfather passed away, his burnt body ravaged by infection. In his final moments, he repeated over and over, “Oh, Earth, my wandering Earth...”

China Galaxy Science Fiction Award of Year 2000.

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Portfolio Choice Problems: An Introductory Survey of Single and Multiperiod Models

By Nicolas Chapados

This brief offers a broad, yet concise, coverage of portfolio choice, containing both application-oriented and academic results, along with abundant pointers to the literature for further study. It cuts through many strands of the subject, presenting not only the classical results from financial economics but also approaches originating from information theory, machine learning and operations research. This compact treatment of the topic will be valuable to students entering the field, as well as practitioners looking for a broad coverage of the topic.

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Liar's Poker

By Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush.

Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years, a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business. From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis’s knowing and hilarious insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.

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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

By Robert M. Pirsig

Robert M. Pirsig's Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an examination of how we live, a meditation on how to live better set around the narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son.

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Hello World: How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine

By Hannah Fry

You are accused of a crime. Who would you rather determined your fate: a human or an algorithm? ‍An algorithm is more consistent and less prone to error of judgement. Yet a human can look you in the eye before passing sentence.

Welcome to the age of the algorithm, the story of a not-too-distant future where machines rule supreme, making important decisions in healthcare, transport, finance, security, what we watch, where we go even who we send to prison. So how much should we rely on them? What kind of future do we want?

Hannah Fry takes us on a tour of the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us. In Hello World she lifts the lid on their inner workings, demonstrates their power, exposes their limitations, and examines whether they really are an improvement on the humans they are replacing.

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The Wisdom of Fighters

By Neil C

Suitable for fighters and non-fighters alike, The Wisdom of Fighters is a motivating, uplifting, wise, page-by-page guide, offering inspirational wisdom from some of the greatest UFC and MMA fighters of all time. Each page features a powerful quote from the likes of Conor McGregor, Rickson Gracie, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Rose Namajunas, Nate Diaz, Ronda Rousey, Dustin Poirier, and many others.

Supporting the quotes are short, thought-provoking commentaries that will help you better understand the mentality of some of the greatest fighters of all time and the resilience that helped them achieve the success they have today.