The Last Book (previously known as The Anthem to Humankind) grew out of themes that didn't make it into The Book because they weren't deemed "critical for survival." After all, cultural milestones are often harder to weigh than technical breakthroughs. The authors put these ideas aside, and eventually, they blossomed into The Diary of the Last Earthling.
If The Book was the ultimate guide to human technology, The Last Book is a subjective take on our cultural achievements. We often overlook the value of the humanities and ethical principles compared to tangible tools that have immediate utility.
But behind every invention and daring experiment stands the vast intellectual horizon of its creator — a horizon often expanded by the books they read. That’s why we want to share the reading lists of the people behind The Last Book: author-narrator Jonah Howell, editor Margarita Fedorova, and lead researcher Natasha Germanovich.
The Last Book is fundamentally a story about our culture — and culture itself is largely made up of inside jokes and callbacks. But how do you spot them?
Lead author Jonah Howell is pulling back the curtain and sharing the key literary inspirations that fueled The Last Book!
Satantango by László Krasznahorkai
Gotta mention him, not least because his Nobel win was announced today. Reading this book for the first time caused a complete and total overhaul of the way I look at writing. I've got about a foot-high tattoo of the cover art from George Szirtes' English translation of it.
Pkhentz by Abram Tertz (a pseudonym of Andrei Sinyavsky)
Just retranslated to English by Ainsley Morse and Kevin Reese. This one was a HUGE influence on the tone and the style of humor in The Last Book.
Endgame by Samuel Beckett
A major influence on the way I wrote the darker humor. Quoted often. Source, even, of two characters' names.
The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun
Written in the 14th century, it's a wildly thorough compendium of Islamic and pre-Islamic cultural history. He mixes some of the first writings on sociology and comparative linguistics with essays on folk magic, dream prophecies... and discusses them all with openness, sans condescension.
Die Closer to Me by David Kuhnlein
The way he mixes really idiosyncratic sci-fi with absurdist humor and careful, deeply thought world-building is chef's kiss gawgeous.
Great editors need a worldview to match their authors. It’s a mix of language skills, fact-checking, and nudging the story's vibe in just the right direction. That’s why what an editor reads matters. Here is a look at the books that inspired Margarita, editor of The Last Book, and influenced its humor and big-picture perspective!
A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber
I’m deeply interested in human consciousness, its evolution, and how we perceive the world around us. One of my favorite authors exploring this topic is Ken Wilber. Drawing on the wisdom of both Western and Eastern traditions, he has created his own integral framework describing the evolution of the universe as a process of Spirit unfolding — from matter to mind — and the stages of human spiritual development. This book served as a guide for me in keeping the broadest possible perspective while researching for The Last Book.
Freedom from the Known by Jiddu Krishnamurti
A challenging book I keep returning to. It invites me to look inward — to reflect on freedom, authority, memory, religion, and the structure of human communities. It doesn’t offer ready-made answers, but instead poses powerful questions that help deepen one’s understanding of both self and world.
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Written in 1927, in the shadow of one world war and just over a decade before the next, this book is filled with reflections on human nature, inner conflict, music, and genius. To me, it’s about a person’s confrontation with themselves — the breakdown of their usual worldview and the journey toward inner wholeness. As the book says: “The magic theater. Not for everybody. For madmen only. The price of admission is your mind.”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
When I find myself tired from wandering through the vast and cold spaces of ideas and meanings, I turn to humor for warmth. For me, this book is the best example of a unique, witty, and bittersweet take on humanity and the world. After all, how else can we look at ourselves — creatures caught between animal instinct and divine ambition, holding a nuclear bomb in one hand and humanism in the other? I love that The Last Book also offers its own distinctive view of the world — and that it, too, is laced with humor.
The Book of Joy by the 14th Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams
I haven’t read this one yet, but I’m very much looking forward to it. In this book, two Nobel Peace Prize winners — the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu — come together to seek answers to one of the most vital questions of our time: How do we find joy, even in the face of inevitable suffering? I want to search for that answer with them, because I believe that without the ability to find joy, there’s no way to survive in our chaotic world.
The Last Book isn’t straight fiction — it’s a tragicomic guide to human culture with a sci‑fi twist, grounded in rigorous research, weaving surprising facts and connections into the story. That was Natasha's domain. Here are her top recommendations!
The Flood Invades My Spirit by Kenzaburō Ōe
I was deeply fascinated by this book when I first read it. In a strange and powerful way, it taught me how to observe the world around me. I think it reflects not only post-war Japan but also our modern, fractured world. The Nobel Prize in Literature that Kenzaburō Ōe received twenty years after writing this novel was truly well deserved.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl is undoubtedly my hero and a true genius. I postponed reading this book for a long time because I thought the reflections of a psychotherapist from a concentration camp would hardly make for light reading. Yet it turned out to be the most life-affirming work ever written.
The Golden Bough by James George Frazer
My love for anthropology — and for learning about cultures and the psychology of people from different eras — began with this book.
Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
When I was a child, I first read a children’s version of this story and thought it was just a funny tale about two giants who loved to eat. The illustrations by Gustave Doré are still among my favorites. Later, I read the full version and loved it even more. The humor of this 16th-century masterpiece remains surprisingly relevant today.
On Beauty / On Ugliness by Umberto Eco
These books played a key role in my research and served as inspiration for The Last Book.