Book List

This page is a list of books that I can remember reading. A complete list, especially from early childhood, is probably impractical, but it’s a fun exercise in nostalgia to get as many of them down as I can recall. I have doubtless forgotten many of the more unmemorable books that I’ve read, but my hope is that I’m not too late to record some of the most important ones.

If my book lists get too long/complex (which is probably a good thing!), I’ll split them up by genre, but for now I think I can compartmentalize them pretty well by age. I won’t include the Bible, though I have read through it (multiple times for most books). I will include things like Biblical commentaries.

This Book [is] the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.

British coronation ceremony, quoted in the preface to the 2011 ESV

In terms of formatting, I have listed books roughly in chronological order (from earliest to most recent) where I can remember, but some of the ordering might be a bit fuzzy, particularly for books that I read long ago. When it comes to author names, I have tried to use first and last name, unless the author is more commonly known by something else (e.g. Vergil or C.S. Lewis). I try to group series under their most common names where applicable.

Childhood Books

I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

Like many people, I liked reading a good deal when I was younger. Here, I’ll list some of the books I remember from up until high school. There’s no real reason to try to recount every single random fantasy series I consumed in elementary school and middle school; it’s just a bit of nostalgic fun. Since this was so long ago, I’ve completely thrown out the chronological ordering in this section.

I’m also pretty sure that I read Moby Dick at some point, but I don’t remember if I finished it, so I will refrain from listing it above.

High School Books

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

In high school, almost all of the books that I read were for assignments. Sometimes, we’d get to choose the books, but ultimately they all went toward some required reading. However, I did get to read some excellent books this way, so I can’t really complain. In theory I can exactly order these books by looking at timestamps on past assignments, but in practice I don’t think that it’s worth it. The list below is approximately in chronological order, with perhaps a standard error of +/- 5 places or so. It may be more mixed up toward the end, since I had the same English teacher (the wonderful Ms. Agazarian) for both junior and senior year, so my memory might be a bit blurred as to exactly what happened during which year. I remember very clearly that The Remains of the Day was the last book that I read.

Some repeats from middle school, such as Fahrenheit 451, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Hamlet, are not included.

College Books

Sunt lacrimae rerum… [There are tears of things…]

Vergil, Aeneid 1.462, quoted in Cloud Atlas

My reading has been more limited in college, but on the upside, everything I’ve read has been for my own pleasure and edification, not because someone else told me to. For most of these books (or at least the ones for which I own a physical copy), there should be a yellow post-it note in the inside cover containing more detailed thoughts about the book as well as the date I finished it.