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.
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. Confusingly, I have also listed the sections in reverse chronological order. 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.
College Books
Sunt lacrimae rērum… [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.
This section is listed in chronological order, from earliest to latest.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Douglas Hofstadter): Mr. Vallo first recommended this book to me in eighth grade geometry, since he knew that I was “into” math. Years later, I finally read it. I can’t say that I enjoyed all of it (many parts were a chore to get through), but there were some genuinely thought-provoking parts. I’ve also tried to extract a summary of Hofstadter’s presentation of Gödel’s theorem.
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro): Having loved The Remains of the Day so much, I decided to read more Ishiguro. I don’t think Never Let Me Go was quite as good, but it was certainly worth a read.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami): This book was confusingly engaging; I couldn’t put it down despite being unsure of what was going on.
The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien): I’ve casually enjoyed Tolkien for quite a while and finally decided to take the plunge during the summer of 2020. I actually tried reading this once before but couldn’t get past the Ainulindalë. I enjoyed the Akallabêth the most, because although they’re wrong, the jealousy of the Númenóreans was, in a way, relatable.
The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro): I should really stop reading so much Ishiguro. Anyway, this novel is typical of its author: beautifully crafted with a magnificent (if ambiguous) ending.
Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami): I’m not sure how I feel about Murakami’s writing. It’s all one big mixed-up ball of magical realism, which is I guess exactly what I was looking for.
Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell): I’ll certainly grant that Mitchell is very clever and supremely versatile. But as I was reading, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I was looking for a connection that just wasn’t there.
The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles): I have mixed feelings about this one. Some parts were good, but it was also kind of hard for me to get over my active dislike of all of the main characters.
The Children of Húrin (J.R.R. Tolkien): This is essentially just a fleshed-out version of the story of Túrin from the Silmarillion, but I think it’s definitely worth reading if you’re a Tolkien fan. Also, I can recommend the hardcover edition illustrated by Alan Lee—there are marvelous full-page illustrations, and there’s a neat fold-out map at the back.
The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy): I honestly didn’t really like this at all in the beginning; the writing style felt somehow forced at first. It grew on me, and the second half was enjoyable.
Piranesi (Susanna Clarke): The story was skillfully developed, but the resolution to the central mystery didn’t feel quite as satisfying as I would have liked. However, as a huge Narnia fan, I was absolutely delighted by the allusions to The Magician’s Nephew.
The Bone Clocks (David Mitchell): Mitchell is at times too witty or too preachy, and I can’t say I agreed with how he ended the novel. Like Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks is structured as a series of connected stories told across different times and places; while most of the individual stories were captivating, the overall direction of the novel was unsatisfying. I liked the concept—following Holly over the decades as various mortals and immortals pass through her life—but the dystopian ending just felt really uninspired.
Quantum Computing since Democritus (Scott Aaronson): This was a phenomenal book; it was both witty and insightful. However, as Aaronson himself notes, the intended audience is fairly narrow. For example, I’m not sure how you’d follow Aaronson’s presentation of the IP = PSPACE proof or of computation on a closed time-like curve without having seen either before. Some familiarity with the common complexity classes at the undergraduate level (NP, BPP, P/poly, MA, etc.) is almost a prerequisite, and some experience with quantum computing wouldn’t hurt, either.
Also note that this book is more focused on the fundamentals of quantum computing and complexity theory; he doesn’t go into much detail about quantum algorithms (e.g. he mentions but never describes the discrete quantum Fourier transform). But I thought that this suited me, since I had just come out of a course that covered all of that in great detail.
Basically, I enjoyed the book immensely, but your mileage may vary. I think it will stand the test of time, although there are already a couple of new results (like the MIP* = RE result from last year) that were not known when the book was published in 2013.
Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis): There are some places where one can tell that this was written in the 1940s and 50s. But much of it is refreshingly applicable—there is a reason for its enduring popularity. I most enjoyed the third part, on Christian behavior, but the rest of the book is also good. I don’t know that Lewis’s plain reasoning will convince the modern skeptic, but at the very least this is a valuable resource for the new (and old) Christian.
Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes): This felt well-deserving of its reputation. Although the writing is not quite at the level of, say, Ishiguro, it’s conceptually brilliant. I think I found it especially terrifying because growing up, I always put a lot of value on intelligence. Although I could guess the ending from a million miles away, it didn’t lessen the emotional impact at all.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things (Patrick Rothfuss): To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy this too much, even though it seems like the sort of story I would like. Maybe I’ve been away from the world of The Name of the Wind too long; elementary school was a long time ago.
Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang): I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. I will say that “Story of Your Life” was much more compelling than Arrival, the movie that it inspired.
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.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams): I read this as summer reading for ninth grade.
The Most Human Human (Brian Christian): The more boring side of ninth grade summer reading.
The Forest Unseen (David Haskell)
Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension (Matt Parker)
As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner): The stream of consciousness style takes some getting used to, but I didn’t mind it by the end.
Eifelheim (Michael Flynn): This was actually such an interesting book. It’s written in a very compelling manner—it isn’t the most accessible, but I think Flynn really succeeded in getting me into the worldview of a medieval priest.
The Aeneid (Vergil): I have such a long history with Latin, so reading Vergil’s classic seemed fitting. Yes, I read it in English, not in Latin. I started glossing over it toward the end, but I guess I can say that I’ve read it.
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars (Ian Doescher): This was quite a funny twist on a story that I love so much.
Dances with Wolves (Michael Blake): Reading this was probably Ms. Ascari’s excuse for showing the movie in our tenth grade English class.
The House of the Seven Gables (Nathaniel Hawthorne): I was probably one of three people in my tenth grade English class who actually read this cover to cover. I guess it’s somewhat dry, but I think it was not a bad book.
The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare): We also saw one of the many film adaptations…well, that didn’t age well, did it? (I did notice that the tutor in this particular adaptation was actually reciting the opening of Vergil’s Aeneid in Latin, which was a neat little tidbit.)
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens): Of the novels in my Dickens collection as a kid, this was the only one that I never finished. It seemed too dense when I was younger, but I was able to appreciate it more as a high school student. (Also, it was assigned reading, so…)
The Crucible (Arthur Miller): My first dip into reading literature as a political allegory. It’s also just good literature in its own right; it really made my blood boil at certain points. Daniel Day Lewis also provides a powerful performance in the film adaptation, particularly in the “leave me my name” scene.
The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger): Holden is such a relatable character. (Maybe that’s a bad thing…apparently serial killers have an affinity for him, too.)
A Farewell to Arms (Ernst Hemingway): I had the dubious honor of being named the class “Hemingway code hero” at some point. I’m not sure how seriously to take that.
Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut): I really liked this!
Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller)
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller): At first, I really didn’t like the super-modern kind of feel to this book, but it really grew on me toward the end.
An Enemy of the People (Arthur Miller): Miller does have a talent for making me feel so angry when reading his plays.
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald): This was a beautiful novel with a haunting ending.
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Martian (Andy Weir)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde): Did Wilde really base a whole play around one pun?
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro): I chose this book for my “last book” project during senior year. I am very glad that I did; the moment I finished it, I had the supremely satisfying feeling of having finished such a good book. Ishiguro’s writing is simple yet beautiful, very much like the English countryside that he describes.
I also started but never finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Brothers Karamazov.
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. When I think of something new that I want to add, I just insert it into a random spot in the list.
The Magic Treehouse (Mary Pope Osborne)
The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Jules Verne)
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (Roger Green): This kid’s introduction to Arthurian legend is a far cry from Sir Malory, but it fascinated me as a kid. Also, this was the source of a respectable number of quizbowl buzzes during high school.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain): I’m not sure if my Puffin Classics edition was abridged or not.
The BFG (Roald Dahl)
Matilda (Roald Dahl)
The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis): Possibly my favorite book series growing up. Of all the fantasy works I’ve read, this feels the closest to just being pure magic.
The Secret Garden (Frances Burnett)
The Story of the World (Susan Wise Bauer): I must confess that half the history that I ever buzzed on during my quizbowl years was probably taken from this book.
The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells)
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (Michael Scott)
Stuck on Earth (David Klass): I have no clue how I got a copy of this. It’s a kind of cute kid’s book on conservation.
Septimus Heap (Angie Sage)
The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
Ranger’s Apprentice (John Flanagan)
Warriors (Erin Hunter): The series itself was somewhat unremarkable, but I just remember that we (the kids) used to role play as warrior cats during Friday night fellowship gatherings. At one point, I think I was named Stone Paw.
The Tale of Despereaux (Kate DiCamillo)
The Bartimaeus Trilogy (Jonathan Stroud): I remember in sixth grade, I once tried to emulate Bartimaeus’s style by including copious comic footnotes in one of my stories. My teacher was not impressed.
Stuart Little (E.B. White): I think the final image of Stuart driving off on his own into the world really enchanted me at the time.
Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens): My parents encouraged me to read a respectable amount of Dickens. I’ll be a little embarrassingly honest and say that Great Expectations stuck out the most to me, mostly because the relationship between Pip and Estella reminded me of that between me and a friend of mine.
Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)
A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
The Last Dragon Chronicles (Chris d’Lacey): The plot didn’t really make sense to me, but I enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed the parts at the librarium, which seemed like such a wonderful place to live that I can distinctly remember its sticking with me and influencing some of my dreams later on.
Divergent (Veronica Roth): I think I only read the first book.
The E.L. Konigsburg Collection (E.L. Konigsburg): This contained From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth; and The View from Saturday. Growing up, I guess Mixed-Up Files was my favorite, being about two kids who have a cool adventure. However, I look back most fondly on The View from Saturday. Possibly this is partly due to my own quizbowl experience, but it’s just a nice coming of age story in general. As a side note, apparently Konigsburg went to CMU!
Around the World In Eighty Days (Jules Verne)
The Mysterious Benedict Society (Trenton Stewart): I actually started this series when I got a copy of the second book at an airport! I was quite hooked on the adventures of four kids.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms [Abridged, Translated] (Luo Guanzhong): Zhūgě Liàng has a very large cranial surface area.
Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling): Who hasn’t read this?
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Rick Riordan): Good stuff.
The 39 Clues (Rick Riordan et al.)
An Audience for Einstein (Mark Wakely)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)
The Bronze Bow (Elizabeth George Speare)
The Inheritance Cycle (Christoper Paolini): My first exposure to this series was actually through the trailer to the movie (I actually don’t remember if I’ve watched it). This trailer was in the beginning of our DVD copy of The Night at the Museum, so I’d get a peek at this cool fantasy story every time I watched that movie. (I guess the marketing tricks work, at least on kids!) I found a copy of Brisingr at a library (not local; I couldn’t check out books there). I picked out a copy at my elementary school library and found it fascinating. Looking back, it’s not quite as complex as, say, Tolkien’s work, but I quite enjoyed it for a time. I also got Jerry Huang into the series.
Alex Rider (Anthony Horowitz)
The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis): I got a very nice boxed set of C.S. Lewis books from my uncle (Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, etc.), but this was the only one that I ended up reading. Perhaps I will return to the others at some point.
Sent (Margaret Haddox): I have no clue where I got a copy of this book. I read it and was very confused, probably because it is the second book in a series and I have not read the first.
The Hunger Games (Suzanna Collins): I think everyone read this at some point.
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton): I read this for seventh grade English, I think.
Out of My Mind (Sharon Draper): I read this for seventh grade English. I don’t remember anything from it besides the fact that there was a goldfish on the cover. Maybe it’s a metaphor for how unmemorable it was to me.
Dragon Rider (Cornelia Funke): My copy of this book was extremely well-worn. (This was not entirely from reading, but I did reread it a lot.) I quite enjoyed it.
One Lucky Summer (Laura Kvasnosky): I have no clue where I procured a copy of this book. I just remember that my copy had a piece of the cover cut out.
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak): I remember enjoying this book quite a lot, although I’ve forgotten almost all of the plot points by now.
Flags of Our Fathers (James Bradley): I was quite shocked at some of the graphic descriptions of what went on in the Pacific during the second world war.
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Michael Vey (Richard Evans)
The Giver (Lois Lowry): I absolutely loved this book. I think it was the first “serious” book that I ever read (or at least the first such book that I read “seriously”); I read it in Ms. Caliendo’s seventh grade English class, and we had some very interesting (at least to a middle school student) discussions about it.
Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell): For some reason, this was an option on the middle school summer reading list.
The Kingkiller Chronicles (Patrick Rothfuss): This is such a beautiful series, possibly my favorite fantasy series after Tolkien’s legendarium. Now if only Rothfuss would finish it…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson): I read this in Mr. Ferraro’s eighth grade English class. He insisted on pronouncing it as [dʒikl], not [dʒɛkl], arguing that this is how Stevenson would have pronounced it. This convention has stuck with me.
The Unwind Dystology (Neal Shusterman): I really enjoyed this series for being thought-provoking (at least for a middle school student). I think I read it during my “I’m fourteen and this is deep” phase.
Stargirl (Jerry Spinelli): I read this for school at some point.
Redwall (Brian Jacques): I do not remember how many or which books I read from this series.
Masters of Deception (Al Seckel): This was a really neat book about optical illusion in art, featuring Escher, Dalí, etc.
The Elements (Theodore Gray): The photographs in this book are awesome.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney)
Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie)
Dead Man’s Folly (Agatha Christie)
A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin): I’m actually not sure when I read this, but I want to say it was late middle school. I also don’t remember how many books of the series I finished; I definitely read the first book, and I probably read one or two others.
Hamlet (Shakespeare): When I read this for the first time, I didn’t get much out of it (except for memorizing a good chunk of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.) I might have gotten a little bit more out of it when reading it again for eleventh grade English.
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare): Mr. Ferraro made us memorize the prologue sonnet, and it is etched into my memory to this day.
Blood Song (Anthony Ryan): I got a copy from Michael Ni, who thought I’d enjoy it. It was pretty cool, although the main character seemed a bit over-the-top. Michael refused my offer to return the book and I stopped seeing him so much after middle school, so I ended up keeping it.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare): I just remember reading this at a relative’s apartment in Chaoyang, Beijing during a childhood summer.
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
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. I started but never finished War and Peace. My parents always encouraged me to read classics from the “Western canon,” saying that it was good for me. I guess I’m grateful for that now.
I’ve made a conscious decision not to list the Bible here, because it’s a unique book, and the way I read it is likewise unique. If I did, it would belong in this section, since I did my first read-through sometime in middle school.
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