I recently read an article about The Art Garfunkle Library, where Mr. Garfunkle has listed out online every book he has read since the late 1960’s. An ambitious project and one that got me thinking about my reading habits over the past 20 years. While clearly not as voracious as Art, I think I have made a good dent, and I probably can put together a list of about 80% of everything I’ve read, although there is no way I’ll piece together the exact year or month each book was consumed.
So, I will therefore be slowly over the next few months try to assemble all the books I have read since I got into reading seriously in the early 1990’s. As much as possible, I’ll offer a little tidbit on why I enjoyed or didn’t enjoy each of the books. This page is going to be an interesting work in progress.
As you can see (if you look at all the links closely), all of the books and music listed below are linked to Amazon.com through my affiliates account. While this is a personal site and generally not intended to be more than a place for me to write a bit and post a few photos, yes, if you click any of those links and buy something on Amazon, they will give me some money. How much money, I have no clue. Think of this as an experiment in “how much traffic does one need to generate to make any kind of money on a personal site”? BTW, I’m planning on just getting paid in gift cards, so buy yourself a book!
Books I’ve Read
Ready Player One: A Novel
1984, George Orwell
100 Myths about the Middle East, Fred Halliday
1000 Record Covers (Taschen 25), Michael Ochs
5 Weeks to Winning Bridge, Alfred Sheinwold
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
Calculated Risk, Katherine Neville
Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas, Chuck Klosterman
A Fine Ending, Louis Rastelli
A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Julian Barnes
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present, Howard Zinn
A Short History of Canada, Desmond Morton
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink
Absurdistan: A Novel, Gary Shteyngart
Adventures in a TV Nation, Michael Moore
African Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend, Jan Knappert
Africa in History, Basil Davidson
Agile Estimating and Planning, Mike Cohn
America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World, Barry Fell
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) Teacher’s Edition: A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, Jon Stewart
American Gods: A Novel, Neil Gaiman
American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, Bernard-Henri Levy
Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders, Jim Carlton
Atonement: A Novel, Ian McEwan
Audio in Media, Stanley R. Alten
Baron Byng to Bagels Tales of Jewish Montreal, Joe King
Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers), Johanna Rothman & Esther Derby
Being And Nothingness: An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology, Jean-Paul Sartre
Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte
Belling the Cat: Essays, Reports and Opinions, Mordecai Richler
Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie (Gonzo Papers, vol. 4), Hunter S. Thompson
Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, Henry Miller
Biko, Revised and Updated Edition, Donald Woods
Black Box, Amos Oz
Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists, Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Jeff Mao, Gabe Alvarez, Brent Rollins, Gabriel Alvarez
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets: How to Keep Your Portfolio Up When the Market is Down (Little Books. Big Profits). Peter D. Schiff
Bobby Flay’s Burgers, Fries, and Shakes, Bobby Flay
Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and Survive in Good Times and Bad, Michael A. Cusumano
Canadians at Last: The Integration of Newfoundland as a Province, Raymond B. Blake
Cannery Row, John Steinbeck
Cardboard Gods, Josh Wilker
Che Guevara on Global Justice, Ernesto Che Guevera
Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clark
China Revised Edition: Tradition and Transformation, John King Fairbank & Edwin Reischauer
Christine, Stephen King
Churchill, Roy Jenkins
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition, Jared Diamond
Communication Studies: An Introductory Reader, John Corner & Jeremy Hawthorn
Communism in Eastern Europe, Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone
Comparative Politics: The Quest for Theory, James A. Bill & Robert L. Hardgrave
Conan The Defender, Robert Jordan
Contemporary International Relations: Frameworks for Understanding, Daniel S. Papp
Critical Thinking, Brooke Noel Moore and Richard Parker
Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best for Brands in the 21st Century, Jim Aitchison
Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace, Douglas Rushkoff
Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Huizdala,Vaclav Havel
Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards
Dune, Frank Herbert
Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert
Children of Dune, Frank Herbert
God Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert
Heretics of Dune, Frank Herbert
Chapterhouse: Dune, Frank Herbert
Bob Dylan, Anthony Scaduto
Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman
England, England, Julian Barnes
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins
Exodus, Leon Uris
Fantastic Voyage, Isaac Asimov
Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota, Chuck Klosterman
Fatherland: A Novel, Robert Harris
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail, Hunter S. Thompson
Footnotes in Gaza: A Graphic Novel, Joe Sacco
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, Greg Grandin
Forward the Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Earth, Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov
Foundation’s Edge, Isaac Asimov
Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, Jon Meacham
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Free: How Today’s Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing, Chris Anderson
French Kiss: Stephen Harper’s Blind Date with Quebec, Chantal Hebert
Friday, Robert A. Heinlein
From Warsaw to Sofia: A History of Eastern Europe, Henry Bogdan
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, John Heilemann & Mark Halperin
Getting Started: A Memoir of the 1950s, William Weintraub
The Golem’s Mighty Swing, James Strum
Group Politics and Public Policy, A. Paul Pross
Growing a Business, Paul Hawken
Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond
Hamburger America: Completely Revised and Updated Edition: A State-by-State Guide to 150 Great Burger Joints, George Motz
Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga, Stephen Davis
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance, Noam Chomsky
Hell’s Angels, Hunter S. Thompson
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, Vincent Buglosi
Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life, Michael Moore
Hey Nostradamus!, Douglas Coupland
Hicksville, Dylan Horrocks
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill
Holy Bible: King James Version
How Music Works, David Byrne
How the States Got Their Shapes, Mark Stein
Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports, Mark Ribowsky
I Am the New Black, Tracy Morgan
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Imperial Earth, Arthur C. Clarke
In the Balance: An Alternate History of the Second World War, Harry Turtledove
Intelligent Life in the Universe, I. S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan
Irish Sagas and Folk Tales, Eileen O’Faolain
Iron Man McGinnity: A Baseball Biography, Don Doxsie
Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism’s Challenge to Democracy, Benjamin R. Barber
Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion, Michael Levy
Lady Oracle, Margaret Atwood
The Law of Success: The Master Wealth-Builder’s Complete and Original Lesson Plan for Achieving Your Dreams, Napoleon Hill
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, James W. Loewen
Life and Energy, Isaac Asimov
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Life, the Universe and Everything, Douglas Adams
Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller
Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism, Thomas L. Friedman
The Lords of the Realm, John Helyar
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Marley & Me, John Grogan
Marxism and Politics, Ralph Miliband
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman
Media in Society: Readings in Mass Communications, Caren J. Deming & Samuel L. Becker
Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice
Memoirs, René Lévesque
Memoirs, Pierre Trudeau
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex, John Gray
Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis & Quincy Troupe
Milk It: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the ’90s, Jim DeRogatis
Modern Times Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties, Paul Johnson
Moneyball, Michael Lewis
Mordecai: The Life & Times, Charles Foran
Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams
Musicians in Tune: 75 Contemporary Musicians Discuss the Creative Process, Jenny Boyd
My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, Kevin Smith
My Life, Bill Clinton
My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
Natasha: And Other Stories, David Bezmozgis
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe, Bill Bryson
Nick: A Montreal Life: Nick Auf Der Maur, Nick Auf Der Maur, Melissa Auf Der Maur & Mordecai Richler
Night Shift, Stephen King
No Logo, Naomi Klein
No One Here Gets Out Alive, Jerry Hopkins & Danny Sugerman
Of Matters Great and Small, Isaac Asimov
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
Only A Trillion, Isaac Asimov
Paradise Lost, John Milton
Party Politics in Canada, Hugh G. Thorburn & Alan Whitehorn
Past Through Tomorrow, Robert A. Heinlein
People, Politics and Government – Political Science: A Canadian Perspective, James John Guy
Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation, Chris Turner
Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, Anonymous
Promised Land, Karel Schoeman
Public Policy in Canada – An Introduction, Stephen Brooks
Putin’s Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy, Anna Politkovskaya
QB VII, Leon Uris
R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country, R. Crumb
Race and Ethnic Relations: American and Global Perspectives, Martin N. Marger
“Redemption” of Ahasuerus: The “Eternal Jew” in Nazi film, Baruch Gitlis
Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market, Eric Schlosser
Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form, Scott McLeod
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Politics and History since 1917, Stephen F. Cohen
Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors, John Densmore
Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, James Mann
Robots and Empire, Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1, Isaac Asimov
The Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely New Reviews: Every Essential Album, Every Essential Artist
Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Gary Shteyngart
Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec, Taras Grescoe
Saturday night at the bagel factory, and other Montreal stories, Don Bell
Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen, David Sax
Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen: The Story, Bill Brownstein
Scope and Methods of Political Science, Alan C. Isaak
‘Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child, David Henderson
Second Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Self-Promotion for the Creative Person: Get the Word Out About Who You Are and What You Do, Lee Silber
Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays, Camille Paglia
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Roméo Dallaire
Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel, Kurt Vonnegut
Slugging It Out in Japan: An American Major Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield, Warren Cromartie
Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
Side Effects, Woody Allen
Skywriting by Word of Mouth : And Other Writings, Including “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, John Lennon
Sophie’s World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy, Jostein Gaarder
Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1, William Theodore De Bary
Soviet Jewry Today and Tomorrow, Boris Smolar
Soviet Political Society, Leon P. Baradat
Soviet Politics in Transition, Joan Debardelben
Speak Human: Outmarket the Big Guys by Getting Personal, Eric karjaluoto
Heir to the Empire: Star Wars, Timothy Zahn
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, Bob Woodward
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A Heinlein
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, Michael Davis
The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler
The Art of Happiness at Work, Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, Guy Kawasaki
The Art of War, Sun Tzu
The Aztecs, Fagan
The Barrytown Trilogy, Roddy Doyle
The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique (33 1/3), Dan LeRoy
The Big Book of Jewish Conspiracies, Joshua Neuman
The Bostonians, Henry James
The Bronfmans: The Rise and Fall of the House of Seagram, Nicolas Faith
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide to Running a Small Graphics Design or Communications Business, Cameron S. Foote
The Case for Israel, Alen Dershowitz
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
The Collapse of Globalism: And the Reinvention of the World, John Ralston Saul
The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus, Henry C. Roberts
The Cuba Project: CIA Covert Operations 1959-62, Fabian Escalante
The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour M. Hersh
The Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, Neil Strauss
The Edge of Tomorrow, Isaac Asimov
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, Peter F. Drucker
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present, Felix Gilbert
The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
The Famished Road, Ben Okri
The Fixer and Other Stories, Joe Sacco
The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld, Herbert Asbury
The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Great Political Theories V.1: A Comprehensive Selection of the Crucial Ideas in Political Philosophy from the Greeks to the Enlightenment, Michael Curtis
The Gutenberg Galaxy, Marshall McLuhan
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Illustrated History of Canada, Craig brown
The Jewish Connection, Hirsh M. Goldberg
The Jews in Canada, Brynn, Scaffir & Weinfeld
The Jews of Montreal and their Judaisms : a voyage of discovery, MacKay L. Smith
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East, Neil MacFarquhar
The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey, Ernesto Che Guevara
The Naked Sun, Isaac Asimov
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James
The Numbers Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics, Alan Schwartz
Past Through Tomorrow, Robert A Heinlein
The Pearl, John Steinbeck
The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America, Kenneth M. Pollack
The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke, C.B. Macpherson
The Purple Decades, Tom Wolfe
The Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty, Jane Jacobs
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
The Rebirth of East Europe, Michael G. Roskin
The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe
The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, David Suzuki
The Sayings of Confucius, Confucius
The Second World War (Six Volume Boxed Set), Winston Churchill
The Shadow Line: Deviance and Crime in Canada, Ian McDermid Gomme
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein
The Stone Angel, Margaret Lawrence
The Torah, the Jewish Publication Society of America
The Tunnels of Cu Chi: A Harrowing Account of America’s “Tunnel Rats” in the Underground Battlefields of Vietnam, Tom Mangold
The Watch That Ends the Night, Hugh MacLennan
Theology and mythology: A short summary of Joseph Campbell, Malcolm Spicer
Thinking with a Pencil, Nelms
This Is My God, Herman Wouk
This Year In Jerusalem, Mordecai Richler
Three Nights in Havana, Robert Wright
Three Popes and the Cardinal, Malachi Martin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel, John le Carré
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Travels with Charley in Search of America, John Steinbeck
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
Tropic of Capricorn, Henry Miller
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan
Unfulfilled Union: Canadian Federalism and National Unity, Garth Stevenson
Virtual Reality, Howard Reingold
Waldo & Magic, Inc., Robert A. Heinlein
War and Peace in the Global Village, Marshall McLuhan
War: The Lethal Custom, Gwynne Dyer
What to Do When the Russians Come: A Survivor’s Guide, Robert Conquest and John White
Where Was God When Pagan Religions Began?, Lester Frank Sumrall
While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy, Arthur D. Morse
Why I Write, George Orwell
Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism, Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin
Women, Sex and Rock ‘n’ Roll: In Their Own Words, Liz Evans
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks
Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky
Candide, Zadig and Selected Stories, Francois Voltaire