The Calm Before the Storm

Since 2003, I’ve been keeping a list of every book that I’ve devoured in its entirety. These books are sitting on a bookshelf in my condo, but let’s face it, how many people really ever come to my condo and look at my bookshelf? How else is anyone supposed to know that I’m an intellectual if they don’t see my bookshelf of Hardy Boys or Choose your own adventure series?

I resolved to read at least 1 book a year starting in 2003 and have been doing so ever since. Why? Because in the future, if my kids (no, I don’t have any yet) see that daddy doesn’t read, then they sure as heck won’t either. I’ve got to at least appear smarter than them.

Have any recommendations or just want to make fun of my choices? Feel free to email me.

Books:

1. I know This Much Is True – Wally Lamb
2. She’s Come Undone – Wally Lamb
3. A Grief Observed – C.S. Lewis
4. Epic – John Eldredge
5. The Corner – A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood – David Simon
6. The Harmony Silk Factory – Tash Aw
7. Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor Frankl
8. Deception Point – Dan Brown
9. Old School – Tobias Wolff
10. Felicia’s Journey – William Trevor
11. July, July – Tim O-Brien
12. The Great Fire – Shirley Hazzard
13. The Dive From Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer
14. Winner of the National Book Award – Jincy Willett
15. Brooklyn Noir – Tim McLoughlin
16. A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
17. A Multitude of Sins – Richard Ford
18. Independence Day – Richard Ford
19. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
20. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
21. Animal Dreams – Barbara Kingsolver
22. Before You Know Kindness – Chris Bohjalian
23. Aloft – Chang-Rae Lee
24. Nobody’s Fool – Richard Russo
25. Empire Falls – Richard Russo
26. The Cold Six Thousand – James Elroy
27. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara – David Kertzer
28. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
29. Harry Potter And the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling
30. Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling
31. Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling
32. Harry Potter And The Order of The Phoenix – J.K. Rowling
33. The Dive From Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer
34. Celebration of Discipline – Richard Foster
35. Born to Win – William MacDonald
36. The Purpose Driven Life – Rick Warren
37. The Memory Cathedral – A Secret History of Leonardo Da Vinci – Jack Dann
38. Guns, Germs, And Steel – The Fates of Human Societies – Jared Diamond
39. Black Rain – Masuji Ibuse
40. In His Steps  – What Would Jesus Do? – Charles Sheldon
41. Hiroshima – John Hersey
42. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
43. Spartacus – Howard Fast
44. The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
45. The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
46. Player Paino – Kurt Vonnegut
47. Ragged Dick – Haratio Alger, Jr.
48. Motherless Brooklyn – Jonathan Lethem
49. The Bureau and the Mole – David Vise
50. Being Dead – Jim Crace
51. Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom
52. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
53. The Case for Christ – Lee Strobel
54. Success – Martin Amis
55. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
56. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
57. A Son of the Circus – John Irving
58. Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller
59. Telling the Truth – Frederick Buechner
60. Catch Me If You Can – Frank Abagnale
61. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
62. A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley
63. Cry, The Beloved Country – Alan Paton
64. The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
65. Lullaby – Chuck Palahniuk
66. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
67. Mr. White’s Confession – Robert Clark
68. Seabiscuit – Laura Hillenbrand
69. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
70. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
71. Bringing Down The House – Ben Mezrich
72. Forever – Pete Hamill
73. The Dress Lodger – Sheri Holman
74. A Bend in the Road – Nicholas Sparks
75. Angels & Demons – Dan Brown
76. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
77. Behind Bars – Surviving Prison – Jeffrey Ross & Stephen Richards
78. Leadership – Rudolph Guiliani
79. Jack – Straight From the Gut – Jack Welch
80. When I Lay My Isaac Down – Carol Kent
81. Seven Stages of Money Maturity – George Kinder
82. Meditations on First Philosophy – Descartes
83. Curious Naturalists – Niko Tinbergen
84. Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village – Victor Montejo
85. Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
86. The Path – Laurie Beth Jones
87. On Wings of Song – Thomas Disch
88. Tales of Neveryon – Samuel Delany
89. Neveryona – Samuel Delany
90. The Road to Science Fiction – Volume 3: From Heinlein To Here – edited by James Gunn
91. Wild Goose Chase – Mark Batterson
92. Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama
93. Wild At Heart – John Eldridge
94. Celebration of Discipline – Richard Foster
95. The Five Love Languages – Gary Chapman
96. Crazy Love – Francis Chan
97. Passion & Purity – Elisabeth Elliot
98. Primal – Mark Batterson