I started keeping track of the books I’ve read in 2018. Added a bunch of other ones from memory.
I got really into history around 2010 which started with various histories of Rome, progressed to medieval European history, read way too much about World War 2, and read a bunch of American history during COVID and after. I love a good sit down to get lost in a totally different world.
COVID lockdown seems to have re-activated the reading circuits. Lately (2021-2024) I have been trying to read genre fiction, mainly modern science fiction.
| Year | Book Title | Author | Subject | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | The Magician King | Lev Grossman | Fantasy | Meh |
| 2024 | The Magicians | Lev Grossman | Fantasy | 👍 |
| 2024 | Purple Hibiscus | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Coming-of-age | |
| 2024 | The Saint of Bright Doors | Vajra Chandrasekera | Fantasy | 👍 |
| 2024 | A Tree Grows in Brookyln | Betty Smith | Coming-of-age | 👍👍 |
| 2024 | A Song for a New Day | Sarah Pinkser | Science Fiction | |
| 2024 | Klara and the Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro | Science Fiction | Meh |
| 2024 | The Haunting of Hill House | Shirley Jackson | Horror | |
| 2024 | The Winged Histories | Sofia Samatar | Fantasy | |
| 2024 | A Stranger in Olondria | Sofia Samatar | Fantasy | |
| 2024 | I Capture the Castle | Dodie Smith | Coming-of-age | Reread (first read 2021) |
| 2024 | To the Bright Edge of the World | Eowyn Ivey | Historical Fiction | |
| 2024 | Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand | Helen Simonson | Adult Fiction | |
| 2024 | The Summer Before The War | Helen Simonson | Historical Fiction | |
| 2024 | Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica | Nicholas Johnson | Memoir | |
| 2024 | Speaker for the Dead | Orson Scott Card | Science Fiction | |
| 2024 | Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Cad | Science Fiction | |
| 2024 | Some Desperate Glory | Emily Tesh | Science Fiction | |
| 2024 | A Desolation Called Peace | Arkady Martin | Science Fiction | |
| 2024 | A Memory Called Empire | Arkady Martin | Science Fiction | |
| 2024 | Ripley’s Game | Patricia Highsmith | Thriller | |
| 2024 | Ripley Under Ground | Patricia Highsmith | Thriller | |
| 2024 | The Talented Mr. Ripley | Patricia Highsmith | Thriller | |
| 2024 | Network Effect | Martha Wells | Science Fiction | Murderbot 5 |
| 2024 | The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes the World | Helen Czerski | Popular Science | |
| 2024 | Exit Strategy | Martha Wells | Science Fiction | Murderbot 4 |
| 2024 | The Year of Magical Overthinking | Amanda Montell | Cultural Analysis | |
| 2024 | Rogue Protocol | Martha Wells | Science Fiction | Murderbot 3 |
| 2024 | Artificial Condition | Martha Wells | Science Fiction | Murderbot 2 |
| 2024 | Doppleganger | Naomi Klein | Current Events | |
| 2024 | All Systems Red | Martha Wells | Science Fiction | Murderbot 1 |
| 2024 | Dreamsnake | Vonda McIntyre | Science Fiction | |
| 2024 | The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. Le Guin | Science Fiction | Re-read, first read 2018 |
| 2024 | Acceptance | Jeff VanderMeer | Science Fiction | |
| 2023 | Dragonlance Legends Trilogy | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman | History | Re-read, last read 2002 or so |
| 2023 | Watership Down | Richard Adams | Fiction | |
| 2023 | The Dispossessed (reread) | Ursula K. Le Guin | Science Fiction | Re-read, first read 2018 |
| 2023 | A History of Ancient Egypt | John Romer | History | |
| 2023 | The Mauritius Command | Patrick O’Brien | Historical Fiction | |
| 2023 | HMS Surprise | Patrick O’Brien | Historical Fiction | |
| 2023 | The Burning God | R. F. Kuang | Fantasy | |
| 2023 | The Dragon Republic | R. F. Kuang | Fantasy | |
| 2023 | California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric | Katherine Blunt | Current Events | |
| 2023 | Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood | Satya Doyle Byock | Psychology | |
| 2023 | Authority | Jeff VanderMeer | Science Fiction | |
| 2023 | China: A New History | John King | History | |
| 2022 | Annihilation | Jeff VanderMeer | Science Fiction | |
| 2022 | The Sleepwalkers | Christopher Clark | History | |
| 2022 | Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin | Timothy Snyder | History | |
| 2022 | The Pursuit of Love | Nancy Mitford | Fiction | |
| 2022 | The Poppy War | R. F. Kuang | Fantasy | |
| 2022 | Babel | R. F. Kuang | Fantasy | |
| 2022 | Stoner | John Williams | Fiction | |
| 2022 | Against the Grain | James C Scott | Sociology | |
| 2022 | Logicomix | A. Doxiadis and C. Papadimitriou | Graphic Novel | |
| 2022 | The Sixth Extinction | Elizabeth Kolbert | Popular Science | |
| 2022 | Shadow’s End | Sheri Tepper | Science Fiction | |
| 2022 | The Tragedy of Cambodian History | David P Chandler | History | |
| 2022 | Oathbringer | Brandon Sanderson | Fantasy | |
| 2022 | Forever Land: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage | Heather Havrilesky | Personal Essays | |
| 2021 | Red State Blue State Rich State Poor State | America Gelman | American Politics | |
| 2021 | Words of Radiance | Brandon Sanderson | Fantasy | |
| 2021 | The Way of Kings | Brandon Sanderson | Fantasy | |
| 2021 | Embassytown | China Miéville | Science Fiction | |
| 2021 | Seeing Like A State | James C Scott | Sociology | |
| 2021 | The End of Everything | Katie Mack | Popular Science | |
| 2021 | Post Captain | Patrick O’Brien | Historical Fiction | |
| 2021 | Master and Commander | Patrick O’Brien | Historical Fiction | |
| 2021 | Gardens of the Moon | Steven Erickson | Fantasy | |
| 2021 | I Capture the Castle | Dodie Smith | Coming-of-age | |
| 2021 | The Seven Surrenders | Ada Palmer | Science Fiction | |
| 2021 | Too Like The Lightning | Ada Palmer | Science Fiction | |
| 2021 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Warton | Literature | |
| 2021 | We Have Always Lived In The Castle | Shirley Jackson | Adult Fiction | |
| 2021 | Empire of Liberty | Gordon S. Wood | American History | |
| 2021 | Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus | Rick Perlstein | American History | |
| 2021 | Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory | David Blight | American History | |
| 2021 | Reaganland | Rick Perlstein | American History | |
| 2021 | The Invisible Bridge | Rick Perlstein | American History | |
| 2020 | Nixonland | Rick Perlstein | American History | |
| 2020 | Railroaded: The Transcontinentals | Richard White | American History | |
| 2020 | The Republic For Which It Stands: United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age | Richard White | American History | |
| 2020 | The Future is History | Masha Gessen | Current Events (Russia) | |
| 2020 | The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America | Frances Fitzgerald | American History | |
| 2020 | Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? | Mark Fisher | Current Events | |
| 2020 | The Schoolhouse Gate | Justin Driver | Constitutional Law | Started 2019 |
| 2020 | Au Bonheur Des Dames | Émile Zola | French Literature | Life in an early department store |
| 2020 | Nana | Émile Zola | French Literature | |
| 2020 | Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 | Tony Judt | European History | |
| 2020 | The War of Wars: European Conflict 1793 - 1815 | Robert Harvey | European History | |
| 2020 | The Thirty Years War | CV Wedgwood | European History | |
| 2020 | The Triumph of the Dark: European International History, 1933-1938 | Zara Steiner | History | Started 2017 |
| 2020 | The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 | Richard J Evans | History | Started 2017 |
| 2020 | The Crying of Lot 49 | Thomas Pynchon | Fiction | Re-read; first read ~2006 |
| 2020 | Mason & Dixon | Thomas Pynchon | Fiction | Started 2010 |
| 2019 | The Guns of August | Barbara Tuchman | History | Started 2018 |
| 2019 | The Lathe of Heaven | Ursula K. Le Guin | Science Fiction | |
| 2019 | Chapterhouse Dune | Frank Herbert | Science Fiction | |
| 2019 | Heretics of Dune | Frank Herbert | Science Fiction | |
| 2019 | What If This Were Enough? | Heaver Havrilesky | Personal Essays | |
| 2019 | The Republic, Crito, Apology, Phaedo | Plato | Literature | Audiobook |
| 2019 | Right Ho, Jeeves | PG Wodehouse | Fiction (Humor) | Audiobook |
| 2019 | A Fisherman of the Inland Sea | Ursula K. Le Guin | Science Fiction | |
| 2019 | My Man Jeeves | PG Wodehouse | Fiction (Humor) | Audiobook |
| 2019 | Tehanu | Ursula K. Le Guin | Fantasy | |
| 2018 | The Farthest Shore | Ursula K. Le Guin | Fantasy | |
| 2018 | The Tombs of Atuan | Ursula K. Le Guin | Fantasy | |
| 2018 | A Wizard of Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin | Fantasy | |
| 2018 | The Reactionary Mind | Corey Robin | Current-events | |
| 2018 | God-Emperor of Dune | Frank Herbert | Science Fiction | |
| 2018 | Children of Dune | Frank Herbert | Science Fiction | |
| 2018 | Misquoting Jesus | Bart D. Ehrman | Religion | |
| 2018 | Dune Messiah | Frank Herbert | Science Fiction | |
| 2018 | Dune | Frank Herbert | Science Fiction | |
| 2018 | The Dispossessed | Ursula K. Le Guin | Science Fiction | |
| 2018 | The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. Le Guin | Science Fiction | |
| 2018 | A Distant Mirror | Barbara Tuchman | History | |
| 2018 | Why The West Rules For Now | Ian Morris | History | |
| 2018 | Moby Dick | Herman Melville | Literature | Re-read, audiobook |
| 2018 | Winnie-the-Pooh | AA Milne | Children’s Literature | Re-read, audiobook |
| 2018 | House on Pooh Corner | AA Milne | Children’s Literature | Re-read, audiobook |
| 2017 | To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 | Ian Kershaw | History | |
| 2017 | The Lights That Failed: European International History, 1919-1933 | Zara Steiner | History | |
| 2017 | The End of Europe | Jaime Kirchick | Current Events | |
| 2017 | Germinal | Émile Zola | French Literature | |
| 2016 | The Romanovs: 1613-1918 | Simon Sebag Montefiore | History | |
| 2016 | Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914 | Robert Gildea | History | |
| 2015 | The Thirty Year’s War, Europe’s Tragedy | Peter Wilson | History | |
| 2015 | The Reformation: A History | Diarmaid MacCulloch | History | |
| 2015 | Europe in the High Middle Ages | William Jordan | History | |
| 2015 | Iron Kingdom: Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600 - 1947 | Christopher Clark | History | Started 2014 |
| 2014 | The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815 | Tim Blanning | ||
| 2014 | Swann’s Way | Marcel Proust | Novel | Re-read; Audiobook |
| 2013 | The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 | Christopher Wickham | History | |
| 2012 | 1587, A Year of No Significance | Ray Huang | History | |
| 2012 | Antony and Cleopatra | Adrian Goldsworthy | History | |
| 2012 | Caesar | Adrian Goldsworthy | History | |
| 2012 | How Rome Fell | Adrian Goldsworthy | History |
Grad School
I read a bunch in grad school, mostly from the “modern canon”.
- In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust (all of the books over the course of 3 years)
- Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway, Jacob’s Room, The Waves, To The Lighthouse, The Voyage Out
- Samuel Beckett: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, How It Is
- Franz Kafka: Amerika, The Castle, The Trial
- Vladamir Nabokov: Lolita, Pale Fire, The Eye, Bend Sinister, most of Invitation to a Beheading, The Eye
- Thomas Pynchon: Gravity’s Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49
- Haruki Murakami: Norweigan Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After the Quake