It is rare that a book-tracking app becomes a key piece of evidence in a federal murder case. But here we are. When the news broke about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, everyone wanted to know who the guy in the backpack was. They found more than just a name; they found a digital paper trail that felt like a psychological map. Specifically, the Luigi Mangione Goodreads account became the most scrutinized reading list in the country.
Honestly, it’s surreal. Usually, Goodreads is just a place for people to argue about whether a fantasy novel had too many dragons or to track their "reading challenge" for the year. For Mangione, it was a repository of thoughts that, in hindsight, look like a slow-motion descent into radicalization. Or, depending on who you ask on Reddit, a manifesto of a man pushed to the brink by a broken system.
The most famous 4-star review on the internet
If you’ve seen the headlines, you know the one. Mangione didn't just have Ted Kaczynski’s Industrial Society and Its Future (the Unabomber Manifesto) on his shelf. He reviewed it. He gave it four stars.
The review itself is weirdly academic. He calls it "prescient." He describes Kaczynski not as a "lunatic," but as an "extreme political revolutionary." He wrote this in January 2024. That’s nearly a year before the Manhattan shooting. In the review, he basically argues that while the violence was wrong, the "uncomfortable problems" Kaczynski identified about modern technology and society are impossible to ignore.
It wasn't just a casual "like." It was a deep engagement with the text. He noted that the manifesto was written by a "mathematics prodigy" and that it read like a series of "lemmas." You can see the Ivy League education bleeding through the prose there. He was looking at the world through a cold, algorithmic lens.
A shelf full of chronic pain and "self-care"
But if you look past the Kaczynski review, the Luigi Mangione Goodreads account paints a much more vulnerable, almost desperate picture. There are 295 books on that list. A huge chunk of them? Books about back pain.
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- Back Mechanic by Stuart McGill (5 stars).
- Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin.
- Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett.
You’ve got a guy who was clearly suffering. His Reddit history—which sleuths matched to his interests—talked about a spinal surgery that didn't go right. He mentioned "intermittent numbness" becoming constant. He was "terrified."
When you see these titles next to the radical political stuff, it starts to click. He wasn't just reading about revolution because he liked the aesthetic. He was reading about it while, according to his own logs, he was in physical agony and felt let down by the very healthcare system the man he allegedly killed represented. It's a dark irony that hasn't been lost on the "Free Luigi" crowd that popped up on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
From Dr. Seuss to Dystopia
The variety is actually wild. One minute he’s giving five stars to The Lorax—a book about environmental destruction, mind you—and the next he’s digging into Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
He seemed obsessed with the idea of "self-optimization." He had the "tech bro" starters pack: The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. He gave Goggins four stars but added a note that Goggins seemed "clearly unhappy." It’s a moment of clarity. He recognized that the "grind" mentality was a dead end, even as he was using those same books to try and fix his own broken body.
Then there’s the political stuff that isn't Kaczynski. He read Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance (gave it 3 stars) and Trevor Noah’s autobiography. He was consuming everything. He wasn't just in an echo chamber; he was a guy trying to solve a puzzle—the puzzle of why he was in pain and why the world felt like it was rotting.
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What happened to the account?
The second Mangione was identified, the internet descended on his profile. For a few hours, you could see everything. Every review, every "want to read" tag, every quote he liked from Kurt Vonnegut.
Then, it went private.
A few users on Reddit reported that they followed the account and saw it go dark within minutes. It’s likely his legal team or family realized that his 5-star review of a book about "overthrowing the system" wasn't going to look great in front of a jury in 2026. But the screenshots are everywhere. The data has been archived on GitHub and mirrored across true crime forums. You can't really "delete" a digital footprint this big.
The "Want to Read" list: A glimpse into the future?
The most haunting part of the Luigi Mangione Goodreads account is the "Want to Read" section. It's like a graveyard of interests that he never got to finish.
- Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents – Shows he was looking inward, maybe trying to figure out family dynamics.
- The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee – His interest in STEM never really went away.
- Moby Dick – The ultimate story of an obsessive, self-destructive quest.
There’s a certain weight to seeing Moby Dick on there. Whether he realized he was becoming Ahab or not, the parallels are uncomfortable.
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Actionable Insights: What we can learn
Looking at this account isn't just about being a voyeur. It tells us a lot about how radicalization actually happens in the 2020s. It’s not always a dark web forum. Sometimes it’s a well-read valedictorian with a master's from Penn, reading the same books you have on your nightstand, but coming to much more violent conclusions.
If you are following the case, keep these things in mind:
- Look for the intersection of personal pain and politics. The most dangerous cocktail isn't just an ideology; it’s an ideology that offers an "answer" to a person's physical or emotional suffering.
- Don't ignore the "self-help" to "radical" pipeline. Many of the books Mangione read are about taking "extreme ownership" of your life. When that fails—like when a surgery doesn't work—that energy can turn outward toward the institutions you blame.
- The digital footprint is the new diary. In the 90s, investigators looked for notebooks. Now, they look at your "Recently Read" shelf on an app.
The trial is set for later this year, and you can bet the prosecution is going to use every single one of those "lemmas" from his Goodreads reviews against him. It's a reminder that what we read doesn't just stay in our heads; it leaves a trail that the world will eventually follow.
Check the court dockets for the September jury selection if you want to see how these digital "exhibits" are actually introduced in court. The "Industrial Society" review is almost certainly going to be Exhibit A.
Next Steps for Research:
You can find the archived lists of his 295 books on various GitHub "storyline" repositories if you want to see the full raw data. Also, keep an eye on the federal evidentiary hearings in New York; the defense is currently trying to suppress the contents of his backpack, which reportedly contains handwritten notes that echo his Goodreads reviews.