I think most of what I have listed here was worth reading and probably still is.
When I was rating books on Goodreads, I realized that all my ratings were 4s and 5s. If a book engaged me enough to finish reading it, I usually gave it a high rating. If a book doesn’t engage me, I usually don’t finish it. If I don’t finish it, I don’t feel I should rate it.
The exception would be things I happen across that are so bad I feel a warning is in order.
If you try something on these lists I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts on it.
There is also a collection of “first paragraphs” of books I’ve read that you might like to browse.
One final note. I’ve been rather lazy about linking these items. I’ve decided that going forward I’ll try to link to the author’s website if they have one and are still living. Otherwise, I’ll leave it to you to choose a source since there are so many and I’m not affiliated with any sellers. Remember the best place for you to get any of these is at your local library.
Currently Reading:
On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation, Alexandra Horowitz, 2014
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner, 1971
Assembling California, John McPhee, 1993
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, 2008
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion, Jia Tolentino, 2019
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh, 1945
Rabbit, Run John Updike, 1960
Completed in 2020
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles, 2016
The Boy From the Woods, Harlan Coben, 2020
- Consider giving this a pass. There wasn’t much to it.
Foundation, Isaac Asimov, 1951
Rising From the Plains, John McPhee, 1986
To a God Unknown, John Steinbeck, 1933
In Suspect Terrain, John McPhee, 1983
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Aldo Leopold, 1949
Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey, 1968
Basin and Range, John McPhee, 1981
Deep Work, Cal Newport, 2016
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, 1847
Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard, 1977
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard, 1974
I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven, 1967
Walden, Henry David Thoreau, 1854
A Canticle for Leibowitz, William M. Miller, Jr, 1959
On Deck:
Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, Marcus Chown, 2019
Losing Earth: A Recent History, Nathaniel Rich, 2019
On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, Naomi Klein, 2019
No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies, William T. Vollmann, 2018
Memoirs and Selected Writings, Ulysses S. Grant
The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa
The Age of Reason, Jean-Paul Sartre
Battle Cry of Freedom, James M. McPherson
Lying, Sam Harris
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
At The Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails, Sarah Bakewell
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
These Truths: A History of the United States, Jill Lepore, 2018
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, Naomi Klein, 2014
Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-63, Taylor Branch, 1988
My Struggle: Book One, Karl Ove Knausgård, 2009
The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life, Lauren Markham, 2017
Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War, Marwan Hisham, 2018
The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East, Robert Fisk, 2005
The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen, 2009
On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948-2000, Julian E. Zelizer, 2004
Making Minnesote Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party, Jennifer A. Delton, 2002
Social Policy in the United States: Future Possibilities in Historical Perspective, Theda Skocpol, 1994
Exhalation: Stories, Ted Chiang, 2019
House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday, 1968
The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from our Eyes, Donald D. Hoffman, 2019
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, William Styron, 1990
Entrenchment: Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies, Paul Starr, 2019
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins, 1976
A Torch Kept Lit, William F. Buckley
A Colony In A Nation, Chris Hayes, 2017
Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville, 1835
A People’s History of Sports in the United States, Dave Zirin, 2009
Our Only World, Wendell Berry, 2015
Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery, 1975
On The Trail, Silas Chamberlin 2016
Animals Strike Curious Poses, Elena Passarello, 2017
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriett Beecher Stowe, 1851
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, 2007