Reading List

Currently Reading

• G. K. Chesterton
  • In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G. K. Chesterton
• Francis Fukuyama
  • Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
• Bruce Tift
  • Already Free
• Nicholas Murray
  • Aldous Huxley
• Plato
  • Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo
• Ajaan Chah
  • A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Ajaan Chah
• D. W. Winnicott
  • Playing and Reality

Unread

❗ = high pri

Essays

• Susan Sontag
  • Styles of Radical Will (1969)

Fiction

• Caro, Robert
  • The Power Broker
• Carson, Anne
  • red doc> ❗
• Chiang, Ted
  • Exhalation (2019) ❗
• Crichton, Michael
  • Sphere (1987)
• DeWitt, Helen
  • The Last Samurai (2000)
• Dostoevsky, Fyodor
  • The Brothers Karamazov
  • The Idiot
• Fante, John
  • Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938)
• Faulkner, William
  • Absalom, Absalom ❗
  • The Sound and the Fury ❗
• Gaddis, William
  • The Recognitionists (1955) ❗
• Hesse, Hermann
  • Siddhartha (1922)
• Huxley, Aldous
  • Island (1962)
• Ishiguro, Kazuo
  • Klara and the Sun
• James, Henry
  • The Golden Bowl (1904)
• Machado, Carmen Maria
  • Her Body and Other Parties: Stories (2017)
• McCarthy, Cormac
  • All the Pretty Horses ❗
  • (reread?) The Road
  • The Passenger
• Miri, Yu
  • Tokyo Ueno Station (2014) ❗
• Narayan, Kirin
  • Love, Stars, and All That
• Pynchon, Thomas
  • Gravity’s Rainbow
• Tsujimura, Mizuki
  • Lonely Castle in the Mirror (2021) ❗
• Wallace, David Foster
  • The Pale King
  • The Broom of the System
• White, T.H.
  • The Once and Future King (1939)

Memoir

• Chouinard, Yvon
  • Let My People Go Surfing (2005)
    • story of the founding of Patagonia
• Jenkins, Jedediah
  • To Shake the Sleeping Self
    • man cycles from alaska to patagonia

Nature & Ecology

• Berry, Wendell
  • The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture (1977)

Philosophy/Spirituality/Religion

• Baudrillard, Jean
  • America (1986)
• Frankfurt, Harry
  • On Bullshit (2005)
• Heidigger, Martin
  • Being and Time
• Heschel, Abraham J.
  • The Prophets (1955)
• Krishnamurti, Juddi
  • Freedom from the Known (1969) ❗
• Murdoch, Iris
  • The Sovereignty of Good (1970)
• Nagarjuna
  • The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (150) ❗
• Patrul Rinpoche
  • Words of My Perfect Teacher (1994)
• Sartre, Jean Paul
  • Being and Nothingness
• Tillich, Paul
  • The Courage to Be

Poetry

• Basho, Matsuo
  • The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (1702) (poetry/travel?)

Political Science

• Fukuyama, Francis
  • Trust
  • The End of History

Psychology

• Csikszentymihalyi, Mihaly
  • Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990)
• Dennett, Daniel C.
  • Consciousness Explained (1991)
• Robert Kegan
  • The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development

Self-Help

• Abdaal, Ali
  • Feel Good Productivity (2023)
• Gendlin, Eugene
  • Focusing
• Sivers, Derek
  • Hell Yeah or No: What’s Worth Doing (2020)

Social Sciences/Business/Economics

• Cowen, Tyler; Gross, Daniel
  • Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World (2022)
• Kaufman, Peter
  • Poor Charlie’s Almanack
    • The sayings of Charlie Munger

Theatre

• Euripides
  • Four Plays (trans. Anne Carson)

Writing

• Alison, Jane
  • Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative (2019)
• Bradbury, Ray
  • Zen in the Art of Writing (2015)
• Murakami, Haruki
  • Novelist as a Vocation 2022

Finished

⭐ = notably above average

💖 = great, among my favorites

2024

• Cormac McCarthy
  • Blood Meridian
• Hakuin Ekaku
  • Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin
• Joan Didion
  • Slouching Towards Bethlehem ⭐
• Terry Pratchet
  • Small Gods
• Aldous Huxley
  • The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell (1954)
• Alex Ross
  • Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music (2020)
• Amal El-Mohtar
  • This Is How You Lose the Time War (2019)
• Anthony Bourdain
  • Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000)
• Avery Carl
  • Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth: Your Guide to Analyzing, Buying, and Managing Vacation Properties (Unknown)
• Bessel van der Kolk
  • The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (2014)
• Brianna Madia
  • Nowhere for Very Long (2022)
• Carolyn Elliott
  • Existential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power (2020)
• Chris Guillebeau
  • The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life (2014)
• David Chang
  • Eat a Peach (2020)
• David Chapman
  • Meaningness (Unknown)
• David Eagleman
  • Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives (2009)
• David Foster Wallace
  • Something to Do with Paying Attention (2011)
  • Infinite Jest (1996) 💖
• James Allen
  • As a Man Thinketh (1902)
• James P. Carse
  • Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility (1986) ⭐
• John Darnielle
  • Devil House (2022)
• Liliuokalani
  • Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (1898)
• Matthew Kepnes
  • Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler’s Journey Home (2019)
• Michael A. Singer
  • The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection (2015)
• Mihail Sebastian
  • Fragments from a Found Notebook (1932)
• Nick Winter
  • The Motivation Hacker (2013)
• Patrick Rothfuss
  • The Narrow Road Between Desires (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #0.6) (2023)
• Pete Holmes
  • Comedy Sex God (2019)
• Ram Dass
  • Experiments in Truth (Unknown)
• Ramana Maharshi
  • Who Am I?: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (2008)
• Ray Dalio
  • Principles: Life and Work (2017)
• Richard Rohr
  • True Self/False Self (2003) ⭐
• Rob Burbea
  • Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising (2014) 💖
• Robert Greene
  • Mastery (2012)
• Rolf Potts
  • Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (2002) ⭐
• Scott Galloway
  • The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security (2024)
• Shinzen Young
  • The Science of Enlightenment: Teachings and Meditations for Awakening Through Self-Investigation (1998)
• Susanna Clarke
  • Piranesi (2020) ⭐
• Tynan
  • Life Nomadic: How to Travel the World for Less Than You Pay in Rent (2010)
• Unknown
  • Beowulf (1000)
• Yasunari Kawabata
  • Thousand Cranes (1952)

2023

• Anne Carson
  • Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (1998) 💖
• Annie Besant
  • Thought-Forms (1905)
• Anonymous
  • The Dhammapada (400 BC)
• Bernardo Kastrup
  • Why Materialism Is Baloney: How True Skeptics Know There is no Death and Fathom Answers to Life, the Universe and Everything (2014)
• C.S. Lewis
  • The Weight of Glory (1949) ⭐
• Daniel Todd Gilbert
  • Stumbling on Happiness (2006)
• Eugen Herrigel
  • Zen in the Art of Archery (1948)
• George Saunders
  • Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) :sparking_heart:
• Guy Armstrong
  • Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators (Unknown)
• Haruki Murakami
  • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994)
  • A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat, #3) (1982)
• Hiroko Oyamada
  • The Hole (2013)
• Ichiro Kishimi
  • The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness (2013)
• Italo Calvino
  • Invisible Cities (1972) ⭐
• J.L. Collins
  • The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life (2016)
• James Hillman
  • The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling (1996)
• James Nestor
  • Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art (2020)
• John Darnielle
  • Wolf in White Van (2014) ⭐
• Joseph Heller
  • Catch-22 (1961)
• Julia Cameron
  • The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (2002)
• Kathy L. Kain
  • Nurturing Resilience: Helping Clients Move Forward from Developmental Trauma-An Integrative Somatic Approach (2018)
• Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
  • Like Shaking Hands with God: A Conversation about Writing (1999)
• Luke Burgis
  • Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life (2021)
• Marcus Aurelius
  • Meditations (180)
• Mary Oliver
  • A Thousand Mornings: Poems (2012)
• Matsuo Bashō
  • On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho (1985)
• Michelle Zauner
  • Crying in H Mart (2021)
• Nicole Sealey
  • The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named: Poems (Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize) (2016)
• Nikolai Leskov
  • Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865)
• Oliver Burkeman
  • Four Thousand Weeks (2021)
• Patrick Rothfuss
  • The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2) (2011)
  • The Slow Regard of Silent Things (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2.5) (2014)
• Paul Millerd
  • The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life (2022)
• Phil Stutz
  • The Tools: 5 Tools to Help You Find Courage, Creativity, and Willpower–and Inspire You to Live Life in Forward Motion (2012)
• Raymond Carver
  • What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981) :sparking_heart:
• Rebecca Makkai
  • I Have Some Questions for You (2023)
• Robert Aitken
  • Taking the Path of Zen (1982)
• Robert T. Kiyosaki
  • Rich Dad, Poor Dad (1997)
• Seth Godin
  • The Practice: Shipping Creative Work (2020)
• Sheila Heti
  • Pure Colour (2022)
• Stephen King
  • On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)
• Stephen Batchelor
  • Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism (1983)
• Steven Pressfield
  • The War of Art (2002)
• Terry Pratchett
  • Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990)
• Thomas Pynchon
  • The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
• Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
• Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw
  • Practical Insight Meditation (1971)
• Verlyn Klinkenborg
  • Several Short Sentences About Writing (2012)
• Virgil
  • The Aeneid (19 BC)
• Yukio Mishima
  • Confessions of a Mask (1949)

Pre-2023

• Gardner, John
  • Grendel (1971) 💖
• Heller, Joseph
  • Catch-22
• Ingram, Daniel
  • Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (2018)
• James, Henry
  • The Turn of the Screw
• Vonnegut, Kurt
  • Slaughterhouse Five (1969) ⭐
  • Breakfast of Champions (1973)
  • Cat’s Cradle (1963) ⭐
  • The Sirens of Titan (1959)
  • Mother Night (1961)
• Waldrop, M. Mitchell
  • The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal (2001) 💖