🐻 My Cornell reads, fall 2026
I use this page to track books and papers I’ve read that are used in Cornell classes.
I compiled publicly available information from the campus bookstore, library reserves, and course webpages
Computer Science
Intro. to Computing: A Design & Development Perspective CS 1110
Python CS 1133
- 📕 Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist by Allen B. Downey
Object-Oriented Programming & Data Structures CS/ENGRD 2110
- 📕 Object-Oriented Design & Data Structures by Myers & Kozen
- 📕 Principled Programming: Intro. to Coding in Any Imperative Language by Tim Teitelbaum
- 🔗 Google Java style guide • Two hard things in computer science
Object-Oriented Design & Data Structures - Honors CS 2112
- 📕 Object-Oriented Design & Data Structures by Myers & Kozen
- 📕 Effective Java: Best Practices for the Java Platform by Joshua Bloch
- 📕 Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma et al.
- 📄 Identifying & Correcting Java Programming Errors for Introductory Computer Science Students by Hristova et al.
- 🔗 Don’t learn to code • Tips for Java programmers • Programming in 10 years
Computer System Organization & Programming CS 3410
Intro. to Machine Learning CS 3780
- 📕 Mathematics for Machine Learning by Deisenroth et al.
Systems Programming CS 4414
- 📄 Always Measure One Level Deeper by John Ousterhout
- 🔗 Mastering Rust Programming by Vitaly Bragilevsky
Principles of Large-Scale Machine Learning Systems CS 4787
- 📄 Large Scale Distributed Deep Networks by Dean et al.
- 🔗 GPipe • GPUs vs. CPUs • Mixed-precision training
Distributed Computing Principles CS 5414
- 📄 Distributed Computing Meets Game Theory: Combining Insights from 2 Fields by Abraham et al.
- 📄 Another Advantage of Free Choice: Completely Asynchronous Agreement Protocols by Michael Ben-Or
- 📄 Nonblocking Commit Protocols by Dale Skeen
Systems for Large-Scale ML CS 5470
- 📄 Reducing Activation Recomputation in Large Transformer Models by Korthikanti et al.
- 📄 Attention Is All You Need by Vaswani et al.
- 📄 Roofline: An Insightful Visual Performance Model for Multicore Architectures by Williams et al.
- 🔗 Making deep learning go brrrr • Illustrated transformer
Category Theory for Computer Scientists CS 6117
- 📕 Practical Foundations for Programming Languages by Robert Harper
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Digital Logic & Computer Organization ECE/ENGRD 2300
- 📄 The IEEE Verilog 1364-2001 Standard: What’s New & Why You Need It by Stuart Sutherland
Design w/ Embedded Operating Systems ECE 4725
- 📕 The C Programming Language by Kernighan & Ritchie
Computer Architecture ECE 4750 / CS 4420
- 📕 Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist by Allen B. Downey
AI Hardware ECE 4950-002
- 📄 Domain-Specific Hardware Accelerators by Dally et al.
- 📄 A Domain-Specific Supercomputer for Training Deep Neural Networks by Jouppi et al.
- 📄 There’s Plenty of Room at the Top: What will Drive Computer Performance after Moore’s Law? by Leiserson et al.
- 📄 Roofline: An Insightful Visual Performance Model for Multicore Architectures by Williams et al.
- 📄 Why Systolic Architectures? by K.T. Jung
- 🔗 Fast multidimensional matrix multiplication • SIMD < SIMT < SMT • The perceptron
Modern Datacenter Architecture ECE 6765
- 📄 There’s Plenty of Room at the Top: What will Drive Computer Performance after Moore’s Law? by Leiserson et al.
- 📄 Computing’s Energy Problem (and What We Can Do About It) by Mark Horowitz
- 📄 The Tail at Scale by Dean & Barroso
- 📄 Roofline: An Insightful Visual Performance Model for Multicore Architectures by Williams et al.
- 📄 The Case for Energy-Proportional Computing by Barroso & Hölzle
- 📄 Web Search for a Planet: The Google Cluster Architecture by Barroso et al.
General Engineering
Ethics of Computing & AI Technologies ENGRG/STS 3605 / PHIL 2473
- 📕 Deceptive Patterns: Exposing the Tricks Tech Companies Use to Control You by Harry Brignull
- 📕 The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking by Shannon Vallor
- 📕 Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom & Resistance in the Attention Economy by James Williams
- 📄 AI: Approaches to Safety by D’Alessandro & Kirk-Giannini
- 📄 ChatGPT Is Bull by Hicks et al.
- 📄 Dismantling the “Black Opticon”: Privacy, Race, Equity & Online Data-Protection Reform by Anita L. Allen
- 📄 How Twitter Gamifies Communication by C. Thi Nguyen
- 📄 The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance by Carroll et al.
- 📄 Algorithms, Agency & Respect for Persons by Rubel et al.
- 📄 Driving to the Panopticon: A Philosophical Exploration of the Risks to Privacy Posed by the Highway Technology of the Future by Jeffrey H. Reiman
- 📄 What is Computer Ethics? by James H. Moor
- 🔗 Chatbots of the dead • GNU manifesto
History
History of Law: Great Trials HIST 1600
- 🎞️ Judgment at Nuremberg by Stanley Kramer
U.S. History through Literature HIST/AMST 1770
- 📕 The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (my highlights)
- 📕 Hiroshima by John Hersey
From the New Deal to the Age of Reagan HIST/AMST/SHUM 2220
- 📰 Revolt of the white lower middle class by Pete Hamill
- 🎞️ The Vietnam War by Burns & Novick
The American Revolutionary Era HIST/AMST 2665
- 📰 Battle for 1776 by Jennifer Schuessler
Sex, Drugs & Experimenting with Democracy in 1960s & 1970s America HIST 2680 / AMST 2682
- 📕 The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (my highlights)
- 🎞️ The Post • Selma • 13 Days • Apocalypse Now • All the President’s Men • Dirty Harry
Monuments, Museums & Memory: An Intro. to Public History HIST/AMST/SHUM 2792
- 🎞️ Night & Fog by Alain Resnais
Latinos & the United States, 1492-1880 HIST/LSP 3770 / AMST 3775
- 📰 Let Puerto Rico be free by Jaquira Díaz
Monsoon Kingdoms: Pre-Modern Southeast Asian History HIST 3950 / ASIAN 3397
- 🎞️ Kingdom of Heaven by Ridley Scott
Contesting Votes: Democracy & Citizenship Throughout U.S. History HIST/AMST 4203
- 🎞️ Selma by Ava DuVernay
Law
The Law of Software LAW 7688
- 📕 Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe
- 📄 The Law of AI is the Law of Risky Agents w/out Intentions by Ayres & Balkin
- 📄 Some Misconceptions about Software in the Copyright Literature by Bloch & Samuelson
- 📄 Speech In, Speech Out by James Grimmelmann
- 📄 There’s No Such Thing as a Computer-Authored Work – And It’s a Good Thing, Too by James Grimmelmann
- ⚖️ Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International
- 📄 Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue by James Ming Chen
- 📄 Encryption Source Code & the 1st Amendment by Robert Post
- 📄 Cyberspace & the Law of the Horse by Frank H. Easterbrook
- 🔗 When law is code • Planet Telex
Psychology for Practicing Transactional Lawyers LAW 7749
- 📕 Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (my highlights)
Literatures in English
Writing Across Cultures: Modern Fantasy Media ENGL 1111-104
- 📕 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (my highlights)
- 📕 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Writing the Environment: Enchanting Nature ENGL 1130-101
- 🎭 A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
True Stories ENGL 1134
- 📔 They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
American Voices: Lost in the City: The Great Migration & Imagining the Urban Space through Black Art ENGL 1158-102
- 📕 The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (my highlights)
Intersections: Race, Writing & Power ENGL 1160
- 📕 Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli (my highlights)
- 📕 Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (my highlights)
Short Stories ENGL 1170-105
- 📕 The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (my highlights)
Word & Image ENGL 1183
- 📕 Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (my highlights)
Toni Morrison’s Novels ENGL/ASRC/FGSS 4509 / AMST 4519
- 📕 Home (my highlights)
Romance Studies
Writing Italy, Writing the Self: Jewish-Italian Lit & the Long 20th Century ITAL 1113
- 📕 Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II by Lia Levi (my highlights)
Perspectives on Spain in Spanish SPAN 2235
- 🎞️ Land Without Bread • Un Chien Andalou
Pinocchio: Adventures in Literature & Film ITAL 3750
- 📕 Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (my highlights)
- 📕 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Uncanny SPAN/COML/ROMS 4196
- 🎞️ Blue Velvet • The Shining • The Exterminating Angel
Sociology
Intro. to Sociology SOC 1101
American Society through Film SOC/AMST 1290
- 🎞️ Good Will Hunting • The Godfather
Classical Sociological Theory SOC 3750
- 🎞️ Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin
Fascism, Nationalism & Populism SOC 4540
- 📕 How Democracies Die by Levitsky & Ziblatt (my highlights)
- 📕 On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century by Timothy Snyder (my highlights)
Business
✔️ I’ve read or seen the following:
Entrepreneurial Marketing & Strategy AEM 3249
- 🎞️ The Social Network by David Fincher
Digital Platform Strategy AEM 4615 / NBA 5615
- 📰 OpenAI uses network effects • Reddit goes dark • Tesla charging network • Booking.com’s shift to the merchant model
Leading Teams NCC 5040
- 🎞️ 12 Angry Men by Sidney Lumet
Power & Influence in Organizations NBA 6540
- 🎞️ 12 Angry Men by Sidney Lumet
Architecture, Art & Planning
Media Arts, Performance & Sound: Intersections ART/PMA 2701
- 🎞️ Un Chien Andalou by Luis Buñuel
History of Architecture II ARCH 2802
- 📕 The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Economic & Community Development Workshop CRP 3074
- 📰 Investment Firms Acquire Trailer Parks by Sheelah Kolhatkar
Contemporary Italian Culture - Italian Cinema ART/ARCH 3117
- 🎞️ La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini
Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature, Film & Media COML 2030
- 📕 AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley & the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
- 🎞️ Arrival • The Big Short • 2001: A Space Odyssey • Modern Times
Demons & Witches in Russian Literature & Film RUSSL 2500
- 🎞️ Night Watch by Timur Bekmambetov
Poetry’s Image COML 2251 / ENGL 2951
- 📕 Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (my highlights)
Classics
Classics & Comics CLASS 1812
- 📔 Age of Bronze, v.1: A Thousand Ships by Eric Shanower
- 📔 Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay (my highlights)
Greek Mythology CLASS 2604
- 📜 The Odyssey by Homer
Government
Making Sense of World Politics GOVT 1817
- 📕 The Cold War: A Very Short Intro. by Robert J. McMahon
- 📰 What Tucker Carlson means • How the elite behave • Sacrifice of college’s soul • Most rejected generation • No one has ever defeated autocracy from the sidelines • Climate policy is working • JFK’s secrets fed conspiracy culture • Ukraine holds the future • Du Bois doctrine • Safe spaces • Alumni withhold donations • Nuclear weapons don’t matter • Vanishing nuclear taboo? • Obituary: Stanislav Petrov • I.S. won’t become a normal state • Jihadi threat • How much of a state is the I.S. • War to end all wars? • Cuban Missile Crisis revisited • Cuban Missile Crisis at 50 • Quiet coup • Keeping Saddam Hussein in a box • Women & the evolution of world politics • Failure in our success • Clash of civilizations? • Sources of Soviet conduct
America, Business & International Political Economy GOVT/AEM/GDEV/ILRGL 3547
- 📰 What Tucker Carlson means • New trade order • A dangerous nation • How the elite behave • Exorbitant pillage • Return of the energy weapon • New supply chain insecurity • America’s coming crash • New Delhi’s grand strategy • Sacrifice of college’s soul • India’s great-power delusions • Most rejected generation • Myth of the global • Safe spaces • Becoming strong • Whistling past the graveyard • Strongmen strike back • Globalization survived populism once before • Learning to love stagnation • America’s energy edge • Dollar dilemma • Manifest destiny warmed up? • Pivotal states & U.S. strategy
Performing Arts
Intro. to Acting PMA 2800
- 🎞️ Macbeth by Justin Kurzel
Global Cinema & Media PMA 3550 / COML 3261 / VISST 3175
- 🎞️ Nope • Eraserhead • La Jetée • Singin’ in the Rain • Meshes of the Afternoon • Modern Times • The Life & Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra • Entr’acte • Sherlock Jr. • Barsoum Looking for a Job • Felix in Hollywood • Cinderella • Luke’s Movie Muddle • Mabel’s Blunder • Suspense • Life of an American Fireman
Queer Archives & Archiving Queerness PMA/AMST/FGSS/LGBT/SHUM 4695
- 📔 Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Information Science
The Structure of Information Networks INFO/CS 6850
- 📄 An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks by Dodds et al.
- 📄 Looking Up Data in P2P Systems by Balakrishnan et al.
Linguistics
Language, Thought & Reality LING 1100
- Words & Pictures
101- 📔 Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman
- Speech & the Undead
102- 🎞️ Warm Bodies • Night of the Living Dead • Dracula
Anthropology
Laboratory in Visual Anthropology ANTHR/PMA 3190
- 🎞️ City of Smiles by Arafat Mazhar
Creative Epistemologies: Experiments in Knowledge Production ANTHR 4438
- 📕 The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (my highlights)
Jewish Studies
Jews on Film: Visible & Invisible JWST 1987
- 🎞️ Annie Hall • Casablanca • A Plantation Act
Agriculture & Life Sciences
Foundations in Leadership: Skills for Personal & Professional Effectiveness GDEV/LEAD 3100
- 🎞️ Remember the Titans by Boaz Yakin
Public Policy
Social Problems in the U.S. PUBPOL 2250
- 📚 Julián Is a Mermaid • Ada Twist, Scientist • Red: A Crayon’s Story
Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Feminist Fabulations & Queer Alter-Worlds FGSS 1100
- 📕 The Deep by Solomon et al. (my highlights)