You could read some of these in a day, especially 1984, the pages just fly by. I was initially going to mock the idea, but they're actually quite well chosen for the task at hand. Surprised he hasn't already read some of these though, they're not exactly obscure. And that he hasn't read Player of Games is actually quite a shock, for a techbro, but I think Excession would be a better choice of Iain M Banks book, for him.<p>Sapiens is a waste of time, given it's subtle anti-human bent, completely bizarre for an anthropological text.<p>And Dune in a week. Good luck with that.