Latest Book Recommendations

The Best Philosophy Books of 2020, recommended by Nigel Warburton

2020 has been a great year for popular philosophy with many excellent books published. Here, Nigel Warburton, our philosophy editor and co-host of the Philosophy Bites podcast, picks his favourites and explains what he likes about them.

Recent Recommendations

"Playing hard-to-get does have a physiological basis, drawing on the dopamine hit of variable rewards"
Cultural critic Mia Levitin recommends books on Dating

"For Romans, how you died was a very important summation of how you had lived. And the consequences of Caesar's death meant that no one ever forgot him."
Peter Stothard chooses the best Julius Caesar books to help you understand both the man and what motivated him

The Best Business Books of 2020: Andrew Hill, management editor of the Financial Times, talks us through the books shortlisted for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award:
“I like to think that we’ve stretched the genre”

Most Popular Expert Interviews

"As a species we have always told stories to define our existence and for these reasons, we must all just keep on reading, learning and sharing to develop our innate love of the word."Margaret Busby, chair of this year's Booker Prize judges, on the best fiction of 2020

"In Nietzsche’s view, consciousness and reasoning are fairly superficial aspects of human beings." Brian Leiter updates his reading recommendations of the best Nietzsche books

"Critical thinking is not just pure logic. It’s a cluster of things. But its aim is to be clear about what is being argued, what follows from the given evidence and arguments, and to detect any cognitive biases or rhetorical moves that may lead us astray.” Philosopher Nigel Warburton on Critical Thinking Books

“An alien world gives you the opportunity to explore both this strange new planet and, also, humanity” Tom Hunter, director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, on the best sci fi of 2020

“Everybody should have the skill of thinking computationally” Dr Ana Bell of MIT on books for learning Computer Science

“It’s about three things: connection, connection and connection. Really good sex is about a deep, not just physical, but emotional, connection.” Susan Quilliam, who updated The Joy of Sex, on Sex

Most Recommended Books

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
wealth of nations
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Plato's Republic
Dracula by Bram Stoker

Recent Reader Lists

Our aim is to make Five Books the place to go to on the web for book recommendations, arranged by topic. Help us achieve our goal by making a reading list on a subject you know a lot about. These lists have been created by our readers using our new interactive tool. Browse them all, or make your own.

The Best Books on the Ottoman Empire, recommended by AlevScott

Birds Without Wings
by Louis de Bernieres

Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950
by Mark Mazower

The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Volume I: 1708-1720
by Mary Wortley Montagu

Twice a Stranger
by Bruce Clark

The Bridge on the Drina (Phoenix Fiction)
by Ivo Andríc

The best Jorge Luis Borges books, recommended by Galaad

Collected Fictions
by Jorge Luis Borges

Borges: Selected Non-Fictions
by Jorge Luis Borges

Evaristo Carriego: A Book About Old-time Buenos Aires
by Jorge Luis Borges

Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature
by Jorge Luis Borges

This Craft of Verse (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)
by Jorge Luis Borges

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