[digikazi]

Reading books that are unrelated to what you do for a living is not a waste - not in my opinion at least.

The stuff you read "for work" will undoubtedly increase your technical knowledge and make you a better software engineer, but the books you read for pleasure might just soothe your soul, increase your knowledge about the world you live in (good, interesting biographies, history books, etc) or they might just be good fun and a good way to switch off.

So while I don't necessarily think your mindset is harmful per se, I do think it is perhaps a little self limiting. That's just my opinion of course - I like literature so for me books are definitely a pleasure. Your mileage might vary :)

[happy_path]

Thank you. I needed to read that.

[dwighttk]

Lists like these are great for finding books that are worth reading. Find someone you respect and then just pick one of the books they recommended. Or look at a few lists and see if there is one that keeps popping up. Books are a bit of commitment so it is nice to have at least the promise that a book is going to be good when you are just starting to read for more than work.