John's Lifetime Reading List
"It's not how many books you get through that matters, as how many get through you." -- Michael Dirda
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Go to: Chronological list | Alpha list | Statistics | In the Garden in 2006 | A-Z in 2005 100 books in 2004 | 100x100 | Reading themes |
| This is a reverse chronological list of all of the books I have read since 1992, with books prior to that listed alphabetically by author. I love recommendations, but if you'd like to suggest a book, you might first look at my list sorted by authors in case I've already read it. |
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[ 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | pre-1992 ]
/| 2003 | ||
| December | ||
| Edgerton, Clyde | In Memory of Junior | 0345410297 |
| Fadiman, Anne | The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures | 0374525641 |
| Kimmel, Haven | Something Rising (Light and Swift) | 0743247752 |
| Winchester, Simon | The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time | 0805055088 |
| Edgerton, Clyde | Killer Diller | 0345410300 |
| Sacks, Oliver (ed) | The Best American Science Writing, 2003 | 0060936517 |
| November | ||
| Chang, Iris | The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II | 0140277447 |
| Edgerton, Clyde | Raney | 0345419057 |
| Dooling, Richard | Bet Your Life | 0060505400 |
| West, Cameron | The Medici Dagger | 0743420357 |
| Schlosser, Eric | Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal | 0060938455 |
| Edgerton, Clyde | Walking Across Egypt | 0345419073 |
| Sachar, Louis | Holes | 0440414806 |
| October | ||
| Blaise, Clark | Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time | 0375401768 |
| Kimmel, Haven | Something Rising (Light and Swift) [uncorrected proof] | 0743247752 |
| Bear, Greg | Vitals | 0345423348 |
| Dick, Phillip K. | Divine Invasion | 0679734457 |
| Konigsburg, E.L. | From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | 0440431808 |
| Rybczynski, Witold | One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw | 0684867303 |
| Tartt, Donna | The Little Friend | 0679439382 |
| September | ||
| Kimmel, Haven | Orville: A Dog Story | 061815955X |
| Kidder, Tracy | Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World | 0375506160 |
| Karlen, Arno | Biography of a Germ [the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, of Lyme disease fame (or infamy)] | 0385720661 |
| August | ||
| Russo, Richard | Empire Falls | 0375726403 |
| Lander, David | Fall Down, Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn't Tell Nobody | 1585420522 |
| Lewis, Sinclair | Arrowsmith | 0451526910 |
| Sacks, Oliver | The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and other Clinical Tales | 0684853949 |
| July | ||
| Weiner, Jonathan | Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior | 0679763902 |
| Ehrenreich, Barbara | Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America [UNC freshman reading selection] | 0805063897 |
| Russo, Richard | The Whore's Child and Other Stories | 0375726012 |
| Gawande, Atul | Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science | 0312421702 |
| Martin, Steve | Pure Drivel | 078688505X |
| Dooling, Richard | White Man's Grave | 031213214X |
| June | ||
| Kidder, Tracy | Home Town [Northampton, MA] | 0606218572 |
| Russo, Richard | Nobody's Fool | 0679753338 |
| May | ||
| Meigs, Joseph | Tenure Track [really bad novel; don't bother] | 1892614383 |
| Dixon, Franklin W. | The Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure | 0448089017 |
| Mate, Ferenc | The Hills of Tuscany: A New Life in an Old Land | 0920256384 |
| Russo, Richard | Mohawk | 0679753826 |
| Russo, Richard | The Risk Pool | 0679753834 |
| Pears, Iain | The Raphael Affair | 0425166139 |
| Morrow, James | Towing Jehovah | 0156002108 |
| Brown, Dan | The Da Vinci Code | 0385504209 |
| Brown, Dan | Angels & Demons | 0671027360 |
| Brown, Dan | Deception Point | 0671027387 |
| April | ||
| Eco, Umberto | How to Travel with a Salmon | 015600125X |
| March | ||
| Salzman, Mark | Iron & Silk [memior of an American teacher in China] | 0394755111 |
| Pears, Iain | The Immaculate Deception | 0743212576 |
| Cooley, Martha | The Archivist | 0316158461 |
| February | ||
| Ridley, Matt (ed) | The Best American Science Writing, 2002 | 0060936509 |
| Bradbury, Ray | Fahrenheit 451 | 0345342968 |
| Conley, Darby | Fuzzy Logic: Get Fuzzy #2 | 0740721984 |
| Edmonds, David & Eidinow, John | Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers | 0060936649 |
| January | ||
| Angier, Natalie (ed) | The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002 | 0618134786 |
| King, Ross | Ex-Libris | 0142000809 |
2002 | ||
| December | ||
| Hilts, Philip J. | Scientific Temperaments: Three Lives in Contemporary Science | 0671505904 |
| Smiley, Jane | Moo | 0449910237 |
| King, Stephen | From a Buick 8 | 0743211375 |
| November | ||
| - none - | ||
| October | ||
| Gleick, James (ed.) | The Best American Science Writing, 2000 | 006019734X |
| September | ||
| Conley, Darby | Get Fuzzy: The Dog is Not a Toy | 0740713922 |
| August | ||
| Zweiger, Gary | Transducing the Genome: Information, Anarchy, and Revolution in the Biomedical Sciences | 0071369805 |
| Kimmel, Haven | A Girl Named Zippy : Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana | 0767915054 |
| Kimmel, Haven | The Solace of Leaving Early | 0385499833 |
| Bacon, Francis | The New Atlantis | PG: 2434 |
| Russo, Richard | Straight Man [gift from Donna V.] | 0375701907 |
| July | ||
| Petroski, Henry | The Book on the Bookshelf | 0375406492 |
| Toole, John Kennedy | A Confederacy of Dunces [fwd by Andrei Codrescu] | 0807126063 |
| Hartwell, David G. | Year's Best SF 4 | 0061059021 |
| Vowell, Sarah | Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World | 0743205405 |
| Tanzi, Rudolph E. & Parson, Ann B. | Decoding Darkness: The Search for the Genetic Cause of Alzheimer's Disease | 0738201952 |
| June | ||
| Ferris, Timothy, ed. | The Best American Science Writing, 2001 | 0060936487 |
| Sagan, Carl | The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark | 0345409469 |
| Frost, Peter J. & Taylor, M. Susan (Eds) | Rhythms of Academic Life : Personal Accounts of Careers in Academia | 0803972628 |
| May | ||
| Kanehisa, Minoru | Post-Genome Informatics | 0198503261 |
| King, Stephen | Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales | 0743235150 |
| Rottenberg, Dan | The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance | 0812236262 |
| Feibelman, Peter J. | A Ph.D is not Enough: A Guide to Survival in Science | 0201626632 |
| April | ||
| Reis, Richard M. | Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering | 0780311361 |
| March | ||
| Deneef, A. Leigh; Goodwin, Craufurd D., eds | The Academic's Handbook, 2nd ed. | 0822316617 |
| Andre, Rae, and Frost, Peter J., eds | Researchers Hooked on Teaching: Noted Scholars Discuss the Synergies of Teaching and Research | 0761906223 |
| McCabe, Linda L. and McCabe, Edward R. B. | How to Succeed in Academics | 0124818331 |
| February | ||
| Bausell, R. Barker | Conducting Meaningful Experiments: 40 Steps to Becoming a Scientist | 0803955316 |
| Sindermann, Carl J. | Winning the Games Scientists Play: Strategies for Enhancing Your Career in Science | 0738204250 |
| Adams, Scott | 7 Years of Highly Defective People: A Dilbert Book | 0836236688 |
| January | ||
| Wodehouse, P.G. | The Indiscretions of Archie [1921] | PG: 3756 |
| Smith, Robert V. | Graduate Research: A Guide for Students in the Sciences | 0295977051 |
| Hartwell, David G. | Year's Best SF 2 | 0061057460 |
| Hartwell, David G. | Year's Best SF | 0061056413 |
2001 | |||
| December | |||
| Torvalds, Linus and Diamond, David | Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary | 0066620724 | |
| Lurie, Karen | Cracking the GRE (Princeton Review) | 0375756264 | |
November |
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| - none - | |||
October |
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| King, Stephen and Peter Straub | Black House | 0375504397 | |
September |
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| Bloom, Dale F., Johnathan Karp, Nicholas Cohen | The Ph.D Process: A Student's Guide to Graduate School in the Sciences | 0195119002 | |
| Harris, Suzannah (Thana) | Under the Same Moon: My life with Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Bob Harris, and a community of other artistic souls | 0739202324 | |
| Willis, Connie | Passage | 0553111248 | |
August |
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| Kress, Nancy | The Prince of Morning Bells | 0967178320 | |
| Sobel, Dava | Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time | 0140258795 | |
July |
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| Kimmel, Haven | A Girl Named Zippy : Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana | 0767915054 | |
| Yarger, Randy Jay; Reese, George & King Tim | MySQL & mSQL | 1565924347 | |
| Allison, Alida & Frongia, Terry | The Grad Student's Guide to Getting Published | 013352972X | |
| Benford, Gregory | Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia | 0380975378 | |
| Jerrard, Richard & Jerrard, Margot | The Grad School Handbook : An Insider's Guide to Getting in and Succeeding | 0399524169 | |
| Bear, Greg | Eternity | 0446601888 | |
June |
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| Bear, Greg | Eon | 0812520475 | |
| Bodmer, Walter & McKie, Robin | The Book of Man: The Human Genome Project and the Quest to Discover Our Genetic Heritage | 0195114876 | |
| Ford, Brian J. | Genes: The Fight for Life | 0304350192 | |
| Bear, Greg | Blood Music | 0441003486 | |
May |
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| Kress, Nancy | An Alien Light | 0877959404 | |
| Varley, John | Titan | 0425073203 | |
| Varley, John | Millennium | 0425076741 | |
| Fadiman, Anne | Ex Libris: Confessions of Common Reader | 0374148600 | |
April |
|||
| Shapiro, Robert | The Human Blueprint: The Race to Unlock the Secrets of Our Genetic Script | 031205873X | |
| King, Stephen | Dreamcatcher | 0743211383 | |
March |
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| Brooks, Frederick P. | The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering [20th anniversary edition] | 0201835959 | |
| Hernandez, Michael J. | Database Design for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design | 0201694719 | |
| Bellairs, John | The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring | 0140363386 | |
| Bellairs, John | The Figure in the Shadows | 0140363378 | |
| Bellairs, John | The House With a Clock in its Walls | 014036336X | |
February |
|||
| Bishop, Jerry E. and Waldholz, Michael | Genome: The Story of the Most Astonishing Scientific Adventure of Our Time -- The Attempt to Map All the Genes in the Human Body | 0671670948 | |
January |
|||
| Ridley, Matt | Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters | 0060194979 | |
| Peters, Robert L. | Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or a Ph.D. | 0374523614 | |
| Feibelman, Peter J. | A Ph.D is not Enough: A Guide to Survival in Science | 0201626632 | |
| Bova, Ben | Immortality: How Science is Extending Your Lifespan and Changing the World | 0380793180 | |
| Feinstein, John | First Coming: Tiger Woods: Master or Martyr? | 0345422864 |
2000 | ||
| December | ||
| Goodsell, David | Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines and Messages | 0387944982 |
| Pollack, Robert | Signs of Life: The Language and Meanings of DNA | 0395644984 |
| Davies, Kevin | Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA | 0743204794 |
| Straub, Peter | Magic Terror: 7 Tales | 0375503935 |
| Werth, Barry | The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug [Vertex Pharmaceuticals] | 0671510576 |
| Burton, Levar | Aftermath [novel] | 0446519936 |
November |
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| Friedman, Kinky | Spanking Watson | 0684850613 |
| Dooling, Richard | Brain Storm | 0312203993 |
| Dooling, Richard | Critical Care | 0312143044 |
| Watson, James D. | The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA | 0451628837 |
| Sawyer, Robert J. | Calculating God | 0312867131 |
| Kress, Nancy | Probability Moon | 0312874065 |
| Straub, Peter | The Hellfire Club | 0517199572 |
October |
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| Smith, Kay Nolte | Catching Fire | 0698111346 |
| Smith, Kay Nolte | The Watcher | 0698110064 |
| Sawyer, Robert J. | Factoring Humanity | 0312864582 |
| King, Stephen | On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft | 0684853523 |
| Straub, Peter | Houses without Doors | 0525249249 |
| Feinstein, John | A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour | 0316277371 |
| Anderson, Dave | The Story of Golf | 0688157971 |
September |
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| King, Stephen & Peter Straub | The Talisman | 0345444884 |
| Feinstein, John | The Majors: In Pursuit of Golf's Holy Grail | 0316277959 |
| Straub, Peter | The Throat | 0451179188 |
| Straub, Peter | Koko | 0451162145 |
August |
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| Weld, William (Bill) | Mackerel by Moonlight | 0684853469 |
| Codrescu, Andrei | Messi@h | 0684803143 |
| Straub, Peter | Ghost Story | 0698109597 |
| Kress, Nancy | Stinger | 0812540387 |
| Brooks, David | BOBOs* in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There (*Bourgeois Bohemians) | 0684853779 |
| Komisar, Randy & Kent Lineback | The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur | 1578511402 |
July |
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| Hughes, Thomas P. | American Genesis: A History of the American Genius for Invention | 0140097414 |
| Straub, Peter | Julia | 0671452835 |
| Straub, Peter | Mr. X | 0449149900 |
| Hillis, Danny | The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work | 046502596X |
| Stephenson, Neal | In the Beginning...Was the Command Line | 0380815931 |
June |
||
| Gleick, James | Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything | 0679408371 |
May |
||
| - none - | ||
April |
||
| Petroski, Henry | To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design | 0679734163 |
| Wu, Harry | Troublemaker: One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty | 0812963741 |
March |
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| Courtenay, Bryce | The Power of One | 0345359925 |
| Pierce, Kerry | Small Production Woodworking for the Home Shop | 1558704620 |
February |
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| Sass, Stephen L. | The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon | 1559703717 |
| Friedman, Kinky | Blast From the Past | 0684803798 |
| Mamet, David | The Village [gift from Donna V.] | 0316543381 |
| Stark, Mike | For the Record: Black Sabbath: An Oral History | 0380793741 |
| Lachs, Lorraine | Flowers for Mei-Ling | 0786704144 |
January |
||
| Rifkin, Jeremy | The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World | 087477909X |
| Abram, Norm | Measure Twice, Cut Once: Lessons from a Master Carpenter | 0316004944 |
| Schwartz, Martin | Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street's Champion Trader | 0887308767 |
| Folsom, Allan | Day of Confession | 0316287555 |
| Jackson, Tim | Inside Intel: Andy Grove and the Rise of the World's Most Powerful Chip Company | 0788192930 |
1999 | ||
| December | ||
| Brooks, John | Telephone: The First Hundred Years: The Wondrous Invention that Changed a World and Spawned a Corporate Giant [AT&T] | 0060105402 |
| Standage, Tom | The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers | 0425171698 |
| Guillen, Michael | Five Equations that Changed the World | 0786861037 |
| Palin, Michael | Hemingway's Chair | 0312205503 |
| Clancy, Tom | Rainbow Six | 0425170349 |
November |
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| Winchester, Simon | The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary [gift from Donna V.] | 0965792951 |
| Cringley, Robert X. | Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date | 0887308554 |
| Folsom, Allan | The Day After Tomorrow | 0316288292 |
| Young, Robert & Wendy Goldman Rohm | Under the Radar: How Red Hat changed the Software Business -- and Took Microsoft by Surprise | 1576105067 |
October |
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| King, Stephen | Hearts in Atlantis | 0684853515 |
| Regis, Ed | Who Got Einstein's Office? Eccentricity and Genius at the Institute for Advanced Study | 0201122782 |
| King, Tabitha | Pearl | 0453006264 |
| Straub, Peter | Mystery | 0525248188 |
September |
||
| Petrosky, Henry | The Evolution of Useful Things | 0679740392 |
| Hogan, James P. | Rockets, Redheads, and Revolution | 0671578073 |
| Drexler, K. Eric; Chris Peterson; Gayle Pergamit | Unbounding the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution | 0688091245 |
| Regis, Ed | Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over the Edge | 0201567512 |
| Hogan, James P. | Outward Bound | 0812571916 |
August |
||
| Kress, Nancy | Yanked! (Book 1 of David Brin's Out of Time young adult series) | 0380799685 |
| Verne, Jules | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [Moby Books YA adaptation, 1977] | |
| Block, Peter | Flawless Consulting [for Nortel training class] | 0893840521 |
| Bronson, Po | The Nudist on the Late Shift and Other True Tales of Silicon Valley | 0375502777 |
| Coupland, Douglas | Microserfs | 0060987049 |
July |
||
| Schimmel, AnneMarie | The Mystery of Numbers | 0195063031 |
| Spignesi, Stephen J. |
