Baron Münchhausen

One of my favorite childhood books is the story of Baron Münchhausen. I must have been about five or six years old when my father was reading it to me. I remember those evenings very well, because every half a page my father would burst out laughing — sometimes so hard that tears were running down his face.

At the time I simply enjoyed the stories, but later I learned that the famous book by Rudolf Erich Raspe was partly based on tales told by a real person: Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen.

The real Baron served in the Russian Imperial Army, took part in several campaigns, and was stationed in Riga. In Baltic German noble circles, storytelling was a popular pastime. Gentlemen entertained each other with imaginative accounts of hunting trips, military adventures, and improbable exploits. Münchhausen became famous for telling particularly extravagant stories about himself.

Raspe, who first published the stories in the late 18th century, was a fascinating character himself — a librarian, scholar, and (unfortunately) also something of a con artist. It is very likely that he embellished or even invented some of the adventures that later became part of the legend.

The Baron’s exploits are wonderfully absurd. Among them:

• flying through the air while riding on a cannonball
  
• visiting the Moon
  
• suturing his horse back together with a laurel tree after it had been cut in half
  
• shooting a deer with a cherry pit, only to later find a cherry tree growing from the animal’s head

These stories belong to that delightful category of literature where imagination is allowed to run completely wild.

I strongly recommend reading Baron Münchhausen to children. The stories are unforgettable — and judging from my father’s reaction, they are just as entertaining for adults.

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

While life is serious and often full of tragedy and drama, I also enjoy books that lift the spirits with simple comedy and humor. One of those books is Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), written by Jerome K. Jerome and published in 1889.

Jerome was originally asked to write a travel guide about the River Thames. I can easily imagine another writer producing a long, boring, and absolutely dull book filled with historical references, descriptions of nature and weather, measurements of the river’s current, and average monthly temperatures.

Instead, Jerome wrote something completely different: a fictional account of four friends (one of whom has four legs) traveling along the Thames.

The story constantly wanders into digressions that seem unrelated to the main plot, yet somehow those distractions become the best parts of the book. Thanks to Jerome’s talent, the novel remains a reliable source of laughter and good mood for me.

Even today I can quote entire passages by memory — the famous Irish stew, the legendary cheese with a two-hundred-horsepower scent, and of course Uncle Podger, a character whose name we still use whenever someone tries to fix something and somehow manages to involve every single person in the household.

Perhaps the reason the book still works more than a century later is that the characters feel completely modern. Their laziness, enthusiasm, misplaced confidence, and endless ability to complicate simple tasks are instantly recognizable. Technology changes, but human nature does not. Jerome understood this perfectly — and that is why the book remains funny long after Victorian England has faded into history.

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is another all-time favorite of mine. Written by Daniel Defoe and first published in 1719, the novel tells the story of a man who survives a shipwreck and lives alone on a deserted island for twenty-eight years.

My first impression of the story came from a children’s adaptation. In the Soviet Union, such adaptations usually excluded references to God or religion, so I was later surprised to discover how prominent they are in the original novel.

What mattered to me then — and still does today — is that the story is fundamentally about survival, ingenuity, and hard work. Crusoe slowly builds a life for himself using patience, creativity, and relentless effort.

While the novel has inspired many film adaptations, the modern work that best captures its spirit for me is Cast Away with Tom Hanks. The film reflects something about our own time: a society that is highly goal-oriented, driven by schedules and deadlines, and prone to wasteful habits. In the process, we sometimes forget how to live simply and appreciate the small pleasures of life.

The Geography of Bliss

I first learned about this book while watching The Colbert Report, where the author, Eric Weiner, gave a short interview to Stephen Colbert. It was funny. Then I listened to the book, and it turned out to be not only funny but also deeply resonant with my own philosophy of life.

This is another book I keep recommending to friends and family so often that my wife has forbidden me to mention it again. Thank God for this website. Now I can simply refer people here and recommend a book that teaches us to cherish the little things in life and stop chasing expensive cars, watches, and pens.

Jules Verne

I don’t remember whether I read Jules Verne first or H. G. Wells. Both are often considered the fathers of science fiction. The main difference between them, at least in my mind, is that Jules Verne tended to write about things that eventually did happen.

He imagined the practical invention of the submarine long before it became reality. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo commands the Nautilus, using it both for exploration and for helping oppressed peoples fight for freedom. Verne also wrote about air travel and even journeys to the Moon long before such things became technologically possible.

Recommended Works

• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
• Around the World in 80 Days
• From the Earth to the Moon
• The Mysterious Island

Herbert G. Wells

And then there is H. G. Wells, who wrote about things that, thankfully, never happened — at least as far as we know.

He imagined alien invasions of Earth, the invention of a time machine, and even human invisibility long before James Bond received his first invisible car.

As a side note: in 1938 Orson Welles produced a famous radio adaptation of
The War of the Worlds.

It was broadcast in the style of breaking news reports describing a Martian invasion. Because of its realism, some listeners believed the events were actually happening, leading to a brief but memorable wave of public panic.

Recommended Works

• The War of the Worlds
• The Invisible Man
• The Time Machine

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was born in a Jewish family in what is now the Russian Federation, and his family immigrated to the U.S. when he was a toddler. A first-generation immigrant and lifelong learner, he originally hoped to become a physician but was not accepted into medical school. Instead, he became a biochemistry professor at Boston University — a fortunate turn for literature, as it allowed him the freedom to write prolifically.

While he is best known for his Foundation series, which earned him a Hugo Award, I’m most drawn to I, Robot. There, Asimov not only imagined artificial intelligence but also anticipated its ethical dilemmas. His famous Three Laws of Robotics are still referenced today in discussions about AI ethics and safety.

What I admire most is how his work extends beyond science fiction: in essays and lectures like The Future of Humanity, Asimov addressed overpopulation, gender equity, sustainable technology, and even early concerns about climate instability (which, in the 1970s, included global cooling). He understood that progress isn’t just technological. It has social and ethical sides, too.

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” – Isaac Asimov

Bonus 1: Isaac Asimov’s Vision Of The Future Letterman
Bonus 2: Isaac Asimov Predicts the Future (1978)

Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Lem, like Asimov, was one of the great 20th-century writers of speculative fiction — and also of Jewish descent. Born in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), he studied medicine at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków under pressure from his father. Though he completed the coursework, he refused to take the final diploma, opting instead for an absolutorium. He briefly worked in an obstetrics ward but ultimately abandoned medicine to write full time. We’re lucky he did.

Lem had a relentless imagination and a sharp wit, and both are fully present in his writing. While Solaris remains his best-known work — and one of my favorites — I first encountered Lem through Tales of Pirx the Pilot. That collection follows a young space cadet evolving into a seasoned professional, subtly exploring human nature, decision-making under uncertainty, and repeated confrontations with artificial intelligence.

In The Invincible, Lem dives into swarm intelligence and AI’s capacity for independent evolution, decades before these ideas became widespread. Meanwhile, The Star Diaries of Ijon Tichy offer comical, satirical tales of a self-important space traveler who finds himself bumbling through alien civilizations, highlighting absurdities of both human and extraterrestrial societies.

“Futurology is much more about us than about the future.” – Stanisław Lem

Anton Chekhov

Born in 1860 in the port city of Taganrog near the Azov Sea, Anton Chekhov lived a short but profoundly productive life. Like many authors on this list, Chekhov was drawn to medicine and became a physician — a vocation he practiced even as he built one of the greatest literary legacies in modern literature.

Chekhov began writing out of financial necessity during his medical studies. What started as humor pieces in magazines quickly evolved into a new form of storytelling. He mastered the art of the short story, often writing about the “little man”: someone who does not shape history and will never appear in biographies, but still lives, struggles, hopes, and quietly disappears from the world.

Tragically, Chekhov suffered from tuberculosis for much of his adult life and died in 1904 at the age of 44. He once wrote: “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress.” But in truth, he honored them both.

“Man will become better when you show him what he is like.” – Anton Chekhov

Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kyiv in 1891. He graduated with honors from the Kyiv University School of Medicine and began practicing as a zemsky doctor — a rural physician responsible for all aspects of care, from surgery to infectious disease to trauma, often with minimal resources and complete isolation.

I first encountered Bulgakov as a paramedic student in Russia, exhausted after a grueling 24-hour shift. It was then that I found A Young Doctor’s Notebook. In its crude medical settings and emotional honesty, I saw my own experience mirrored. The connection was instant and enduring.

And then, of course, there is The Master and Margarita. A novel like no other — surreal, satirical, metaphysical, political, and strangely tender.

“Manuscripts don’t burn.” – Mikhail Bulgakov

Alexandre Dumas

When I think of dignity and grace, the name Athos comes to mind. For loyalty, it’s Porthos. For bold action — D’Artagnan. For subtle chess-like moves — Aramis. And when I think of revenge, I think of The Count of Monte Cristo. Although, personally I think Monte Cristo is more of a story of main character who never gives up, even under extraordinary misfortune. Instead, he uses time, knowledge, and patience to reinvent himself.

“All for one and one for all.” – The Three Musketeers

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

You can’t talk about mysteries and thrillers without including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He didn’t just create Sherlock Holmes — he created the modern detective story.

In 1876, while studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Conan Doyle met Dr. Joseph Bell, a professor of surgery whose remarkable diagnostic skills came from his keen observation of tiny details. Bell could deduce a patient’s background, occupation, and illness from a few simple clues — and this fascinated Doyle. The idea of applying that kind of logic to crime solving eventually germinated into the character of Sherlock Holmes.

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – Sherlock Holmes

John le Carré

John le Carré was one of my later literary discoveries. His insider knowledge of British intelligence shaped a body of fiction unlike anything else in the genre. His writing is subtle — much of the meaning is implied, becoming fully clear only at the culmination of the plot. His spy world runs on a cruel but consistent moral code.

“The secret world is the real world.” – John le Carré

Robert Littell

We know surprisingly little about Robert Littell — which somehow feels fitting. Born in 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family of Russian descent, he served in the U.S. Navy, worked as a journalist, and then began writing fiction about the CIA and the Soviet Union with such precision and intimacy that it’s hard to believe he wasn’t part of the cloak-and-dagger world himself.

My first encounter with his work was The Company: A Novel of the CIA. The book is such a gripping read — or listen — that I nearly got into an accident driving to work.

Recommended Works

• The Company: A Novel of the CIA
• The Once and Future Spy: A Novel of Obsession
• Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation
• The Amateur: A Novel of Revenge

William Shakespeare

What’s in a name? asks Juliet in Act II, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet… Well, everything, and nothing. William Shakespeare is the greatest name in world drama, but his true identity remains a mystery.

What matters is the work. I’ve enjoyed Shakespeare both in masterful Russian translations and in the original English — often with commentary or performance, thanks to modern technology.

My favorites include

• Sonnets
• Romeo and Juliet
• King Lear
• Othello
• Hamlet

Gabriel García Márquez

My first encounter with Gabriel García Márquez was through One Hundred Years of Solitude — the novel that brought him international acclaim and the Nobel Prize in Literature.

To put it bluntly: this was not an easy read.

In hindsight, I’d recommend starting with Living to Tell the Tale, a memoir that gently introduces you into his world.

Recommended Works

• Living to Tell the Tale — start here
• Autumn of the Patriarch — my personal favorite
• Memories of My Melancholy Whores
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• No One Writes to the Colonel

Haruki Murakami

If Latin American magical realism feels like a flamboyant carnival, then the Japanese take, as written by Haruki Murakami, is more like a carefully inked scroll. Every word is placed with the accuracy and silence of traditional calligraphy.

What excites me most in Murakami’s writing are his quotes — moments when the prose lifts off the page and delivers a truth so precise, it stops you in your tracks.

“It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness is a story.”
― Kafka on the Shore

“I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.”
― Sputnik Sweetheart

“Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.”
― Norwegian Wood

“If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.”
― 1Q84

“Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?”
― The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

How We Decide

This is a well-written and easy-to-read book. However, the author, Jonah Lehrer, was later criticized for misrepresenting several sources. Knowing this, please make an informed decision about whether you’d like to read it.

A few points I still found valuable:

1. Emotions play an important role in decision-making
   
2. Some decisions should be logical and analytical, but others depend on emotional wisdom
   
3. If intuition (based on experience) turns on an alarm, it’s worth taking a second look

Thinking, Fast and Slow

A classic exploration of “System 1” (fast, intuitive) and “System 2” (slow, deliberate) thinking — and why both matter.

Dan Ariely

• Predictably Irrational
  
• The Upside of Irrationality
  
• The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty