Backlog
(last edited )
This page contains the ever-growing list of things I intend to try.
Books, games, movies, anything goes. I try to keep it up-to-date.
Trivia: italics indicate what I’ll probably go through next or am currently on!
Reminder: None of these are endorsements or representative of who I am.
Sometimes, it’s quite the opposite.
Table of contents
Books
There are endless amounts of books, and I’ll never read enough. Nevertheless, this list provides ideas for myself for what to read next whenever I finish a book.
- East of Eden (Steinbeck)
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
- All the Light we Cannot See (Doerr)
- Dune (Herbert) (2nd book and onwards)
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) (4th book and onwards)
- Disco Ely- okay fine not the funniest joke
- Dying Inside (Silverberg)
- Infinite Jest (Wallace)
- Man’s Search for Meaning (Frankl)
- One Hundred Years of Solitude (García Márquez)
- Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
- The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged (Rand) (know your enemy)
- The Things They Carried (O’Brien)
- Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
- All Quiet On The Western Front (Remarque)
- Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut)
- A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick)
- The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
- Moby-Dick (Melville)
- Netherland (O’Neill)
- Solaris (Lem)
- Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson)
- Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)
Russian literature
- Достоевский
- “Идиот”
- “Братья Карамазовы”
- “Игрок”
- Толстой (Лев)
- “Война и мир”
- “Анна Каренина”
- “Севастопольские рассказы”
- “Воскресение”
- Толстой (Алексей) - “Гиперболоид инженера Гарина”
- Булгаков - “Белая Гвардия”
- Чернышевский - “Что делать?”
- Пастернак - “Доктор Живаго”
- Шолохов - “Тихий Дон”
- Илья Ильф и Евгений Петров - “Двенадцать стульев”
- Солженицын - “Архипелаг ГУЛАГ”
- Стешин - “Священная военная операция: от Мариуполя до Соледара”
Computer Science related
- Crafting Interpreters (Nystrom) (I even bought it physically!)
- The UNIX-HATERS Handbook
- Game Programming Patterns (Nystrom)
- Defensive Security Handbook (Brotherston, Berlin, Reyor)
- This is How They Tell Me the World Ends (Perlroth)
- Unix: A History and a Memoir (Kernighan)
- Linux From Scratch
- Governable Spaces (Schneider)
- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (Abelson, Sussman x2)
- The Art of Computer Programming (Knuth)
- How to Measure Anything in Cybersecurity Risk (Hubbard, Seiersen)
- Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman)
- Engineering a Compiler (Keith D. Cooper, Linda Torczon)
- Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation (Muchnick)
- Hypermedia Systems (Gross, Stepinski, Akşimşek)
Politics related
The “this list doesn’t represent me” applies doubly so here, due to sensitivity of “politics” (whatever the word means these days). The bar for being here is as low as being mentioned in a discussion.
- The Republic (Plato)
- The Prince (Machiavelli)
- Foundations of Geopolitics (Dugin)
- Why Nations Fail (Acemoglu, Robinson)
- The Dictator’s Handbook (Bueno de Mesquita)
- Hillbilly Elegy (J. D. Vance)
- The Communist Manifesto (
Santa Claus, Marx, Engels) - Das Kapital (Marx)
- On War (Clausewitz)
- A Theory of Justice (Rawls)
- Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Nozick)
- The Righteous Mind (Haidt)
- Islam and the Future of Tolerance (Harris, Nawaz)
- The Closing of the Muslim Mind (Reilly)
- Imperial Life in the Emerald City (Chandrasekaran)
- Государство и революция (Ленин)
- Что делать? (Ленин) (and his other short works)
- Fascism: A Warning (Albright)
- The Anatomy of Fascism (Paxton)
- World Order (Kissinger)
- Red Plenty (Spufford)
- Трагедия и подвиг Афгана (Ляховский)
Games
I currently don’t have much time for these, but there are many I’m nonetheless interested in playing eventually. When I say many, I mean it. This section is long.
Narrative
The part I care most about in a game is the story, if there is one.
- Quintessence: The Blighted Venom
- Do You Remember My Lullaby?
- Placebo Love
- Eliza
- Neva
- Universe For Sale
- Minds Beneath Us
- Until Then
- Still There
- One Dreamer
- INMOST
- GOODBYE WORLD
- Spiritfarer
- METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE
- A Highland Song
- Not For Broadcast
- Citizen Sleeper
- Bastion
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Roadwarden
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Read Dead Redemption 2
- Planescape: Torment
- DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT
- Undertale *(seeing this game here fills you with determination)
Puzzles!
- The Case of the Golden Idol
- The Witness
- Baba is You
- Chants of Sennaar
- Manifold Garden
- FEZ
- Gorogoa
- Myst & Riven
- The Looker
- Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
- The Roottrees are Dead
- Zachtronics games
- Void Stranger
- Botany Manor
- Satisfactory
- Factorio
- ABI-DOS (thanks Lan!)
Waiting…
- …for release
- The Last Hour of an Epic TO THE MOON RPG (2025 release?!)
- The Talos Principle: Reawakened
- Deltarune
- Goodnight Universe
- PVKK
- Light No Fire
- Space Engineers 2
- Locator
- Social Caterpillar
- Hail to the Rainbow
- Hollow Knight: Sil- HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
- …to forget
- The Beginners Guide
- Detroit: Become Human
- Subnautica & Below Zero
- Hitman: World of Asssasination
- Stray
- …for bravery
- …for polishing
- Shadows of Doubt
- ULTRAKILL (played Early Access)
- Project Zomboid
Gameplay Containment Zone
These may very well be tons of fun, but they’re focused on gameplay and as such are discriminated against a bit. Such is life in glorious Drewstan.
- TUNIC (sure, “knowledge based”)
- (Replay) Black Mesa
- Ace Combat 7
- Control UE
- Enter the Gungeon
- Bioshock 1 & 2
- Metro series
- Nine Sols
- SANABI
- Hades
- Pizza Tower
- I Am Your Beast
- Heat Signature
- Hotline Miami & Hotline Miami 2
- CrossCode
- The Long Dark
- Zelda BOTW/TOTK (not buying Nintendo consoles though…)
- CrossCode
- Stellaris
- Omori (yes it’s actually on the list)
- In Stars And Time
- Jusant
- Halo: Reach
Hmm?
These found their way into my Steam wishlist one way or the other. Maybe a mention in an article, maybe a recommend from a Steam friend. Maybe it was 1am and I was 5 obscure websites deep into the internets. Whatever’s the case, I simply don’t know enough about them to judge.
- Animal Well
- Suzerain
- Yippie Psycho
- The Operator
- Kujlevka
- TOEM: A Photo Adventure
- Untitled Goose Game
- In Other Waters
- Ace Attorney Trilogy
- Keep Driving
- Door Kickers 2
- Stardew Valley: Expanded (a mod)
- Wanderstop
Recommended by friends
If you suggest a game to me, it may appear here! The plan is to slowly move these into other categories.
- Rain World
- Pacific Drive
- Celeste (fine, let’s see what the fuss is about)
- Sublustrum / Outcry
- Spot (1998)
- I’m gonna YIIK out so hard!!!
- THE LONGING (thanks Nick!)
- Hearts of Iron IV’s The Fire Rises mod (thanks Shadow!)
- the Serious Sam series
Movies, TV, Video
I think it’s safe to say I’m not a movie person at all. This list is a combination of popular movies with an interesting premise, ones recommended by friends and a couple I put off for years. Better late than never!
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Better Call Saul
- Breaking Bad
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Godfather 1 & 2
- Interstellar
- The Matrix
- Blade Runner (the literally me one)
- Blade Runner (the 1982 one)
- Fight Club
- Requiem for a Dream
- Memento
- Children of Men
- 12 Angry Men
- Jaws
- The Green Mile
- Primer
- The Truman Show
- Ex Machina
- The Lighthouse
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- The Zone of Interest
- Yes that was 4 A24s in a row
- No the above isn’t a movie title
- Dune 2
- Arrival
- My Cousin Vinny
- Shutter Island
- Apocalypse Now
- Look Who’s Back
- About Time
- Source code
- Something by Ghibli, perhaps Grave of the Fireflies
- I was told to watch other Ghibli stuff too
- Night At The Museum (here and below, special thanks Nick!)
- Independence Day
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended)
- Spider-Man trilogy (Sam Raimi)
- Something about that Bat Man guy (
Morbius?) - The Magnificent Seven
- A Man Named Otto
- Oppenheimer…
- …and Barbie (what a time to be alive, huh)
- Jingle All The Way
- Cinema Paradiso
- City of God
- I’m Still Here
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- (end of Nick’s recommendations)
- Lost in Translation
- Кин-дза-дза!
- Белорусский вокзал
- Они сражались за Родину
- (more Soviet films should be here eventually)
- The Prisoner (1967)
- Synecdoche, New York
Done
A non-exhaustive list of things I’ve finished (and haven’t reviewed)
Books
- Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Make it Stick by a lot of very smart people
- Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
- The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick
- Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky
Games
- 1000xRESIST
- The Forgotten City
- Last Word
- GRIS
- Rakuen & Mr. Saitou
- Talos Principle 1 & 2
- A Space for the Unbound
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Subnautica
- SDV (I played enough to form opinions)
- Journey
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- American Arcadia
- Half Life Blue Shift & OPFOR
- Firewatch
- The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe
- ULTRAKILL
- Lacuna and Between Horizons
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Dear Esther (it sucked)
- ABZÛ
- Superliminal
- A Short Hike
- Mosa Lina
- …Team Fortress 2?
Movies
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Aftersun
:D