Peco and I will be publishing an updated reading list of “Unmachined Words”. We are looking to include new fiction and non-fiction books that were published since 2024. What are your recommendations?

Note: We are looking not just for “great” books,but ones that highlight the negative impact of technology on what it means to be a person, the importance of digital minimalism, or something that metaphorically expresses the dangers of technology as one of its primary themes.

Also what are your recommendations for the best Substack publications that address this theme?

Mary Harrington Paul Kingsnorth Nicholas Carr Ted Gioia Matthew B. Crawford Aaron Long Josh Brake Joshua Pauling Meg Mittelstedt Grant Martsolf Zach Rausch Jonathon Van Maren Jonathan Malesic Iain McGilchrist Brad Littlejohn Clare Morell Leah Libresco Sargeant Tessa Carman Robin Phillips

These are the books that we included in the “Non-fiction - Modern” section last year (Note: there is a separate section for Social Media/Tech Impact and Management in the post):

• Carr, Nicholas. The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us (2015)

• Coperthwaite, William. A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity (2007)

• Crawford, Matthew B. Shop Class as Soulcraft (2010) and The World Beyond Your Head (2016)

• Gatto, John Taylor. Weapons of Mass Instruction (2010)

• Desmet, Mattias. The Psychology of Totalitarianism (2022)

• Fleming, David. Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It (2016)

• Fukuoka, Masanobu. The One-Straw Revolution (2009)

• Haidt, Jonathan and Greg Lukianoff. The Coddling of the American Mind (2019)

• Harrington, Mary. Feminism Against Progress (2023)

• Langlands, Alexander. Cræft:An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts (2019)

• McGilchrist, Iain. The Master and His Emissary (2009) and The Matter With Things (2021)

• Morozov, Evegeny. To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism (2014)

• Naydler, Jeremy. In the Shadow of the Machine (2018)

• Norton, Albert Jr. The Mountain and the River: Genesis,  Postmodernism, and the Machine (2023)

• Lanier, Jaron. You Are Not a Gadget (2011)

• Phillips, Robin and Joshua Pauling. Are We All Cyborgs Now?: Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine (2024)

• Sax, David. The Revenge of Analog (2017)

• Smaje, Chris. A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity and a Shared Ear (2020)

• Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (2004)