February 8, 2026
Bring a forklift
Every book recommended on the Odd Lots Discord
842 “recommended” books? Odd Lots Discord ignites a reading riot
TLDR: Odd Lots’ Discord published a massive list of 842 “recommended” books. The community split between calling it an unbeatable learning library and mocking it as uncurated overload, sparking debates over what “recommended” means, who wrote blurbs, and how anyone is supposed to tackle a mountain of reading.
Odd Lots, the market-obsessed podcast at Bloomberg, just dropped a jaw-stretching “recommended” list: 842 books spanning economics, politics, culture, technology, colonialism, ecology, sci-fi, and more. The titles range from “Oh, what a Blow that Phantom Gave Me!” to “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” with categories like “joe-recommended,” “technology-and-society,” and “governance.” The community reaction? Instant whiplash. One camp gasped at the sheer scale—“800 books? Too big to be useful”—while others defended the list as a deep-dive library for people who want to understand the world, not just skim headlines. Newcomers asked, “What’s Odd Lots?” and the comments quickly turned into a showdown over what “recommended” actually means.
The biggest drama: curation vs. chaos. Is this a library or a shopping cart of every book ever mentioned on the pod? People demanded clarity—who wrote the blurbs, and how do we sort this mountain? The memes came fast: “Bring a forklift,” “Make an ETF of books,” and “This TBR pile has a GDP.” Fans called it a treasure map for market nerds; skeptics saw homework disguised as hustling. The vibe: equal parts admiration and side-eye, with the Discord turning a simple book drop into a full-on shelf war over curation, credibility, and how to learn in public.
Key Points
- •The page lists 842 books recommended within the Odd Lots community (Discord).
- •Topics span economics, politics, culture, technology, biography, literature, colonialism, sci-fi, military, ecology, science, governance, commodities, and technology-and-society.
- •The compilation functions as a centralized index of all recommended titles.
- •Example titles include corporate, historical, and science-focused works such as “Eli Hurvitz and the Creation of Teva Pharmaceuticals” and “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.”
- •The tag set indicates at least 215 additional topical categories beyond those initially displayed.