Recommendations

The best in books, films, TV series, and video games

This is an evolving list of my recommended books, films, TV series, and video games. I have watched and read many more, but I consider these works to be the best of the best, either in their quality or particular personal impact.

Not all the entries below are critical darlings. They may not be considered the best in their respective subgenres - or even in their own series. But they're all extremely well put-together works and were thought-provoking in some way.

I'd gladly return to all of these titles given the time, but I'm also always looking for new favourites. If you have your own recommendations that you think I'd enjoy, please do reach out via email or message me on X.

•   Books
•   Websites
•   Television
•   Films
•   Video games

Books

Fiction

•   Animal Farm, George Orwell (1945)
•   Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
•   Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson (1971)
•   Glamorama, Bret Easton Ellis (1998)
•   Neapolitan Quartet, Elena Ferrante (2012-2015)
•   Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (1949)
•   Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami (1987)
•   The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera (1979)
•   The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (1939)
•   The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway (1926)
•   The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera (1984)
•   The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1995)

Non-fiction

•   American Kingpin, Nick Bilton (2017)
•   Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman (1985)
•   Chaos Monkeys, Antonio Garcia Martinez (2016)
•   Code, Charles Petzold (1999)
•   Lost in Thought, Zena Hitz (2020)
•   The Coddling of the American Mind, Haidt/Lukianoff (2018)
•   The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll (1989)
•   The Four-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss (2011)
•   Unwinding Anxiety, Judson Brewer (2021)

Television

•   Better Call Saul (2015-2022)
•   Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
•   Extras (2005-2007)
•   Mad Men (2007-2015)
•   Peep Show (2003-2015)
•   Silicon Valley (2014-2019)
•   The Hour (2011-2012)

Films

•   Another Round (2020)
•   Birdman (2014)
•   Fight Club (1999)
•   Lost in Translation (2003)
•   Nightcrawler (2014)
•   Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
•   Oppenheimer (2023)
•   Rush (2013)
•   The Big Short (2015)
•   The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012)
•   The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
•   The Social Network (2010)
•   The Matrix (1999)
•   Whiplash (2014)

Video games

•   Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (2025, PS5)
•   Fallout: New Vegas (2010, Xbox 360)
•   Formula 1 97 (1997, PS1)
•   Grand Theft Auto IV (2008, Xbox 360)
•   Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001, PS2)
•   Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (2005, PS2/Xbox)
•   RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (2002, PC)
•   The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006, Xbox 360)
•   The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011, Xbox 360)
•   The Sims (2000, PC)
•   Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016, PS4)

Field Notes // A monthly newsletter by MattCASmith

A monthly roundup of my latest writing, plus observations and recommendations I don't share anywhere else

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