(More Than) 52 Books

Currently Reading: It seems I’ve purchased a bunch of books but haven’t finished them. Apparently it’s a whole big bunch of books. I’ve decided to make a list at the end of this page of all the books I’ve started but haven’t finished. I’m going to try a new strategy of reading one book of non-fiction, one ‘inspirational’ book, and one book of fiction at a time. You’ll also see a couple of books that are collections of super short essays that I think of as inspirational ‘mind vitamins’ on the list. I read these when I have a few minutes to spare and want to put something good into my brain.

2025

  • Here’s the list of what I’m working through:
    • The Practice: Shipping Creative Work – Seth Godin
    • The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living – Ryan Holiday
    • I, Robot (The Robot Series) – Isaac Asimov
    • Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity – Peter Attia
    • How to Read a Book – Charle Van Doren
  • Books I finished in 2025
    • The One Thing – Gary Keller

2024

  • The War on the West – Douglas Murray
  • Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering – Joseph Nguyen

2023

  • Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again – Johann Hari
  • A Personal Odyssey – Thomas Sowell
  • Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America – John McWhorter
  • I Feel, Therefore I Am: The Triumph of Woke Subjectivism – Mark Goldblatt

2022

  • The Tale of the Body Thief – Anne Rice (re-read)
  • The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity – Douglas Murray
  • Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life – Dale Trumbore
  • Sandman Slim: A Novel – Richard Kadrey (re-read)
  • Free Will – Sam Harris
  • The Wisdom of Insecurity – Alan Watts
  • Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America – John McWhorter
  • Black Rednecks & White Liberals – Thomas Sowell
  • Kill the Dead – Richard Kadrey (re-read)

2021

  • What the hell happened to 2021? It’s all a blur. I went back over my Kindle purchase history, and it seems I bought a bunch of books but didn’t finish most of them. I did re-read ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. I also re-read ‘Interview With a Vampire’ and ‘The Vampire Lestat’ and ‘Queen of the Damned’ by Anne Rice’. I guess it was that type of year. I’m make an effort to reboot and finish more books in 2022.

2020

  • The Shallows:  What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains – Nicholas Carr
  • The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
  • Staying Composed – Dale Trumbore
  • Big Magic:  Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert
  • John Dies at the End – David Wong
  • Foundation and Earth – Isaac Asimov

2019

  • Foundations Edge – Isaac Asimov (re-read)
  • Second Foundation – Isaac Asimov (re-read)
  • Foundation and Empire – Isaac Asimov (re-read)
  • Foundation – Isaac Asimov (re-read)
  • Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits: A Novel – David Wong
  • The Happiness Advantage – Shawn Anchor
  • The Four Agreements – Don Miquel Ruiz
  • John Dies at the End – David Wong

2018

  • Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue – Ryan Holiday
  • Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Media Accounts Right Now – Jared Lanier
  • Start With Why:  How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action – Simon Sinek
  • Burning Chrome – William Gibson
  • The Slight Edge – Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness – Jeff Olson
  • The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance – Steven Kotler
  • Discipline Equals Freedom:  Field Manual – Jocko Wilink
  • A Visit From the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan
  • Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
  • Letter to a Christian Nation – Sam Harris
  • Barking Up the Wrong Tree – Eric Barker
  • Mona Lisa Overdrive – William Gibson

2017

  • Eat & Run – Scott Jurek
  • Finding Ultra – Rich Roll
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’ – Mark Manson
  •  Goodbye, Columbus – Philip Roth
  • Deep Work – Cal Newport
  • So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport
  • The Case Against Sugar – Gary Taubes
  • Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It – Gary Taubes
  • 10 Percent Happier – Dan Harris
  • Count Zero – William Gibson
  • Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life – Steve Martin

2016

  • The ‘Harry Potter’ series by J.K. Rowling
  • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Juno Diaz
  • The Hour of the Star – Clarice Lispector
  • The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell
  • Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud

I tried to read:

– Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth. Ugh, the writing. I didn’t enjoy this at all.

– Middlemarch by George Eliot. I got about halfway through. It’s not a bad book, and I still might revisit it at some point.

– Shikasta by Dorris Lessing. There were some interesting ideas here but I just couldn’t get through it. Another one that I might revisit.

– The Castle by Franz Kafka. I got a start on this one but set it aside for some other books.

– Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.  Kindle says I got 18% through this one.  I might revisit it.

2015

  • The 13 Clocks – James Thurber
  • The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck
  • The End of the Story: A Novel – Lydia Davis
  • The Secret History – Donna Tartt
  • In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
  • Do Androids Dreams of Electric Sheep – Philip K. Dick
  • Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
  • A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
  • The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Hours: A Novel – Michael Cunningham
  • Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi
  • Waking Up – Sam Harris
  • Eat, Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Aloha from Hell – Richard Kadrey
  • Kill the Dead – Richard Kadrey
  • Sandman Slim: A Novel – Richard Kadrey

I tried to read:

– Crime & Punishment – Fyodor Dostoeksky / I did my best with this one, but only got a third of the way through.  Sorry Fyodor.

2014

  • A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
  • Neuromancer – William Gibson
  • The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
  • The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday
  • NOS4A2 – Joe Hill
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clark
  • 2010: Odyssey II – Arthur C. Clark
  • Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
  • Wild – Cheryl Strayed
  • American Gods – Neil Gaiman
  • Jumper – Steven Gould
  • Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
  • Trust Me, I’m Lying – Ryan Holiday

2013

  • Redshirts – John

Books I Own & Haven’t Started / Haven’t Finished

Next Up / Possible Non-Fiction

  • The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure – Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt
  • God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything – Christopher Hitchens
  • Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World – Benny Lewis
  • Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop – Marc Myers
  • Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work – Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal
  • Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business – Neil Postman
  • Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel – Rolf Potts
  • But What If We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past – Chuck Klosterman

Next Up / Possible ‘Inspirational’

  • Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway – Susan Jeffers
  • Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts – Ryan Holiday
  • Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones – James Clear
  • Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Greg Mckeown
  • Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization – Scott Barry Kaufman
  • One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way – Robert Maurer
  • Wake Up and Live! – Dorothea Brande
  • Principles: Life and Work – Ray Dalio
  • Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible – Brian Tracy
  • The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World – Lewis Hyde
  • Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music – Angela Myles Beeching
  • Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable – Tim S. Grover
  • Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment – George Leonard
  • Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team – Simon Sinek
  • Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
  • Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World – Timothy Ferriss
  • Ego Is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday
  • How to Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use – Randy J. Paterson
  • Joy on Demand: The Art of Discovering the Happiness Within – Chade-Meng Tan
  • The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh – Thich Nhat Hanh, Melvin McLeod
  • The Pocket Pema Chodron – Pema Chödrön
  • The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don’t Have with People You Don’t Like Doing Things You Don’t Want to Do – Sarah Knight
  • The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment – Eckhart Tolle
  • Your Erroneous Zones: Step-by-Step Advice for Escaping the Trap of Negative Thinking and Taking Control of Your Life – Wayne W. Dyer
  • Walking – Henry David Thoreau
  • The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth – James Altucher
  • How to Completely Change Your Life in 30 Seconds – Earl Nightingale
  • The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be – Jack Canfield
  • The Way of Peace – James Allen
  • As a Man Thinketh – James Allen (I’ve read this, but want to reread it.)
  • Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires – Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks
  • Interviews with the Masters: A Companion to Robert Greene’s Mastery – Robert Greene
  • I Was Blind But Now I See – James Altucher (I’m pretty sure I finished this.)
  • Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It – Kamal Ravikant (I’m pretty sure I finished this.)
  • The Greatest Salesman in the World – Og Mandino

Next Up / Possible Fiction

  • The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Gertrude Stein
  • Dune Messiah – Frank Herbert
  • Ringworld – Larry Niven
  • Tale of the Body Thief – Anne Rice (I read this ages ago and recently started to re-read it. I’m on the fence about finishing.)
  • Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
  • The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
  • Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Next Up / Possible Auto-Biography-Biography

  • Hitch-22: A Memoir – Christopher Hitchens
  • The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – Edmund Morris
  • Thomas Jefferson: Author of America – Christopher Hitchens
  • The Age of Reason – Thomas Paine
  • My Cross to Bear – Gregg Allman
  • Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • The Diary of a Man of Fifty – Henry James

Books That I Read Way Back When

These are books that I read as a kid and really enjoyed. It would be a more exhaustive list but the box that had all of my all time favorite ‘keeper’ paperbacks was recently eaten by termites at my moms house. Alas. Never store paper things in cardboard boxes in your parents shed.