I've always wanted to keep a list of the books that I've read, so now I'm going to do it here on the blog. These are in chronological order to the best of my ability. This is a work in progress as I am certain to have missed more than a couple in recent history, nevermind the long-term work it's going to take to excavate the books I knew from my more distant past.
After some consideration I've decided to do this twofold.
- First is the list of books, posted in this entry. I am only including books that I finished.
- Next I am going to track down my comments for however-many of these books I have in my journal, and post them as separate blog entries according to the approximate date in which I finished reading them. Future book commentaries, then, will be future blog posts.
Part of me is hoping that if I start to keep a bibliography of my life it will help to inform and direct my future writing.
This reading list is the master list of all the books I've ever read in my life. Obviously this is a huge work in progress and will be revised often. Commentaries on individual books are separate entries. The most up-to-date part of this list are the recent books, as I am now keeping track.
RECENT BOOKS:
- Exploring the Elements of Design - 10.28.09
- Exploring Typography by Tova Rabinowitz - 10.16.09
- ¡Yo! by Julia Alvarez - 10.15.09
- The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - 9.29.09
- In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan - 9.18.09
- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - 9.15.09
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberty - 9.9.09
- Empire: A Zombie Novel by David Dunwoody - 8.21.09
- Plainsong by Kent Haruf - 8.5.09
- The Known World by Edward P. Jones - 7.27.09
- The Little White Trip by Peter Joseph Gallagher - 7.5.09
- Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat- 6.09
- Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich - 6.09
- Virtual Light by William Gibson - 6.20.09
- Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen - 5.8.09
- The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver - 5.1.09
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - 4.24.09
- West with the Night by Beryl Markham - 4.14.09
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Book Doctor by Esther Cohen - 11.5.08
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom - 10.23.08
- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - 9.26.08
- Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol - 9.23.08
- The Celestine Prophecy - 9.22.08
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein - Summer 08
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig - Summer 08
- Into the Wild by John Krakauer - 1.3.08
- Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol - 12.8.07
- Electric Sheep by Gabe Mahoney (unpublished) - 11.24.07
- Two Seconds by Jim Marcotte (unpublished) - 11.24.07
- Yes Man by Danny Wallace - 11.2.07
- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - 10.19.07
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 10.18.07
- Sight Hound by Pam Houston - 10.20.05
- The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
- Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi - 8.4.05
- The Ground Under Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
- Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D. Houston
- The Stand by Stephen King
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
- At Our Core: Women Writing about Power compiled by Sandra Haldeman Martz
- Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
- Succulent Wild Women by Sark
- Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
COLLEGE:
- Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
- Iliad & Odyssey by Homer
HIGH SCHOOL:
- Hunting the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons
- Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
- Woman in the Mists by Farley Mowat
- Call of the Wild by Jack London
- Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- The Pigman by Paul Zindel
- The Collector by John Fowles
- Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel
JUNIOR HIGH / MID-to-LATE ELEMENTARY:
CHILDHOOD PICTURE BOOKS: (Added 9.20.09: This is going to be an almost endless list but I figured I'd start to get a start on it as writing & illustrating children's books is one of my aspirations, and step 1 will be to determine my background and influences.)
- Could Be Worse by James Stevenson
- Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
- The Lorax and other books by Dr. Seuss
- Shel Silverstein poetry books
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi & Ron Barrett
- Christina Katerina and the Box by Patricia Lee Gauch
- The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord
PICTURE BOOKS FROM MY TEACHING DAYS:
- Dav Pilkey books including Dogzilla, Kat Kong, The Paperboy
- The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and George Ford
- Buz by Richard Egielski
JUVENILE & YOUNG ADULT FICTION FROM MY TEACHING DAYS & BEYOND:
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- The Crossing by Gary Paulsen
(Note: From college on down the booklist is a work in process. Don't for a second think that a Bard College education included no reading!)
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