I used Perplexity to build a smart reading list

Perplexity on phone — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

I’m guilty of staring at a screen for most of my day, which makes sense given that my job revolves around a laptop. But even after I log off, my eyes stay locked on a phone screen, a TV screen or my personal laptop when it’s time to unwind.

A behavior change felt necessary. I've already promised myself I'll hit the gym more this year, so I decided to read more, too. To kickstart that mission, I turned to Perplexity and asked it to build me a smart reading list: a mix of fiction and non-fiction pulled from a wide range of genres, tailored specifically to me.

To the surprise of no one, Perplexity delivered a reader’s playlist packed with classic and modern titles that should keep me busy for a long while.

Perplexity pulled a mix of fiction and non-fiction across genres and moods

A shelf with hardcover books — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Before building an Amazon wishlist overflowing with new books to order, I asked Perplexity to lay out a throng of highly recommended books for adult readers. The books that my AI chatbot (who easily transformed into a trustworthy librarian) presented me with spanned different time periods, genres and authors.

A book I’m already familiar with made the list — To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which Perplexity summarized as “a timeless exploration of justice, empathy, and moral growth told through Scout’s childhood in the American South.”

The rest of Perplexity’s reading list included novels I’d either never heard of or had seen in passing and somehow never read.

Here are eight out of the 20 literary works it chose to highlight as quality reading:

The Overstory by Richard Powers
1984 by George Orwell
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

Perplexity zeroed in on top picks, from rapper autobiographies to video game non-fiction

Books on pine shelves with a several indoor plants — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

After looking through Perplexity’s initial reading list, I followed up by asking it to suggest titles in two of my favorite genres: rapper autobiographies and non-fiction books about the video game industry.

The list of rapper memoirs included plenty of books I’d heard of, along with a few I didn’t even know existed. As a longtime fan of MCs like DMX, Prodigy and Rick Ross, it didn’t take much convincing for me to add their books — which chronicle life inside and outside the music industry — to my must-read list.

I also jotted down titles Perplexity put on my radar, including Fck It, I’ll Start Tomorrow* by Action Bronson, Vibrate Higher: A Rap Story by Talib Kweli, and I Make My Own Rules by LL Cool J (with Karen Hunter). Perplexity even narrowed those recommendations down to a strong five-book starter list to get me going.

From there, I asked Perplexity to build one more list — this time focused on non-fiction books about the video game industry. It surfaced notable picks covering gaming history, business, development, studio life, and culture. I gravitated toward the section on criticism, culture, and why games matter, adding several of those titles to my growing reading playlist.

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell
Death by Video Game: Tales of Obsession from the Virtual Frontline by Simon Parkin
Lost in a Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do for Us by Pete Etchells
Video Game of the Year by Jordan Minor

Final thoughts

AI chatbots have become my go-to whenever I need recommendations for my favorite hobbies. Now that regularly reading has become another one of those pastimes, Perplexity has done a fine job when it comes to giving plenty of material to keep busy with during my daily trips in and out of the city.

In my pursuit of finding a way to divert my attention away from digital activities in favor of more physical ventures, I tapped into my AI companion’s well of knowledge to set me on the right path. It might be worth doing what I did to discover your next batch of books, albums, games, or whatever else you’re passionate about.

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Elton Jones is a longtime tech writer with a penchant for producing pieces about video games, mobile devices, headsets and now AI. Since 2011, he has applied his knowledge of those topics to compose in-depth articles for the likes of The Christian Post, Complex, TechRadar, Heavy, ONE37pm and more. Alongside his skillset as a writer and editor, Elton has also lent his talents to the world of podcasting and on-camera interviews.

Elton's curiosities take him to every corner of the web to see what's trending and what's soon to be across the ever evolving technology landscape. With a newfound appreciation for all things AI, Elton hopes to make the most complicated subjects in that area easily understandable for the uninformed and those in the know.

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