Life’s Library
I am a fan of reading broadly. Reading is–in my experience–the best way to share others’ experiences. In the fast-paced world of social-media, 24-hour news-networks, and podcasts–full-length texts seem like a significant commitment.
The proliferation of new mediums has made information more accessible than ever. YouTube was founded in 2005, Twitter in 2006, and Facebook in 2004. Before then, you had to be discovered to reach a wide audience.
We have instant access to any song, article, podcast, movie, film, or… well anything.
Still, reading helps me rebuild focus like nothing else.
Although I’m studying literature in college, I don’t read as much as I used to. When I was knee-high, I tore through books non-stop. That lasted until high school. I started to only read the texts I was assigned for class. It’s pretty embarrassing.
This page is very personal. It’s a reminder that I should make time in my hectic life to read. The first half is a rough list of all the books I’ve read. I’m skipping many of the smaller books from when I was younger because frankly I can’t remember them all.
With any luck, I will give you something new to read.
Middle Grades
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan
Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan
The Shadow Children Series, Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Grey Griffins Chronicles, Derek Benz and J. S. Lewis
Divergent Series, Veronica Roth
The Ranger’s Apprentice Series, John Flanagan
The Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling
Goosebumps, R.L. Stine
The Hunger Games Series, Suzanne Collins
The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
Inheritance Cycle, Christopher Paolini
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Born on the Fourth of July, Ron Kovic
Beowulf, tr Seamus Heaney
Huckleberry Fin, Mark Twain
Alice and Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
The High School Years
2012
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare
Death of a Salesmen, Arthur Miller
All is Quite on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Outcasts United, Warren St John
2013
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Julius Caeser, William Shakespeare
A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
Looking for Alaska, John Green
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
On Writing, Stephen King
2014
The Lord of the Flies, William Golding
The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
Hamlet, Shakespeare
Paradise Lost, John Milton
2015
Demian, Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
Macbeth, William Shakespeare
Gawain and the Green Knight, tr Burton Rafael
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Wurthering Heights, Emily Brontë
The Once and Future King, T.H. White
The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The College Years
2016
Faust, Goethe
Nathan the Wise, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Emilia Galotti, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe
Death in Venice, Thomas Mann
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
The Reader, Bernhard Schlink
The Meno, The Cratolus, & the Symposium, Plato
2017
The Odyssey, Homer
The Aeneid, Virgil
Ulysses, James Joyce
An Abundance of Katheryn’s, John Green
Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink
2018
The Happiness Hypothesis, Johnathan Haidt
Turtles all the way Down, John Green
Theories of Child Development, William Crain
Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
The Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris
The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman
2019
In the Blink of an Eye, Walter Murch
Grammar of the Edit, Chrisopher J. Bowmen
The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
Troilus and Cressida, Chaucer
The Dream of the Rood, Unknown
The book of Margery Kemp, Margery Kemp
How Children Succeed, Paul Tough
The 10X Rule, Grant Cardone
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey
The Death of Arthur, Tr. Simon Armitage
How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
American Gods, Neil Gaimen
2020
The Art of Love, Ovid
The Knight of the Cart, Chrétien de Troyes
The Art of Courtly Love, Anreas Capellanus
Wasted, Marya Hornbacher
Driven to Distraction, Edward Hallowell M.D & Jon Ratey M.D.
An Unquite Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison
Total Money Makeover, David Ramasy
Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankel
The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
From Good to Great, James C. Collins
The Magicians, Lev Grossman
The War of Art, Steven Pressfield
2021-2023
The Old Man and the Sea, Earnest Hemingway
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Under the Whispering Door, TJ Klune
Relationships 101, John Maxwell
Why do We Hurt Ourselves?, Baptiste Brossard
Help your Teenager Beat an EAting Disorder (2nd edt.), Lock and La Gragne
The Teenage Brain, Francese Jensesen MD and Amy Nutt
Cover up: Understanding Self harm, Josh Freeman
This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal el-mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus
Understanding and Responding to Self Harm, Allan House
The 5 Levels of Leadership, John Maxwell
The Sword of Kaigen, M. L. Wang
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
The Wise Mans Fear, Patrick Rothfuss
Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn: The Shadows of Self, Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
The Way I See It, Temple Grandin
The Obstacle is the Way, Ryan Holiday
ADHD Nation, Alan Schwartz
Helping Teens Who Cut, (2nd edit), Hollander
Untangled, Lisa Damour PHD
The go Giver, Bob Burg
Turtles all the Way Down, John Green
The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller