Reading List

This is a list I began when I moved to Seattle. I had no money, little furniture in my bare apartment and no car. My only form of entertainment was walking to the library. I started this list in the fall of 1995 and have kept it FAIRLY up-to-date.

and now, I give you THE LIST * :

1. Johannes Cabal The Necromancer – Jonathan L. Howard
2. Horses Don’t Lie: What Horses Teach Us About Our Natural Capacity For Awareness, Confidence, Courage And Trust – Chris Irwin
3. Some Horses – Thomas McGuane
4. Let The Great World Spin – Colum McCann
5. Nothing To Be Frightened Of - Julian Barnes
6. Drood: A Novel – Dan Simmons
7. Oh Pure And Radiant Heart – Lydia Millet
8. Boswell’s Presumptous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson – Adam Sisman
9. Owls Head: On The Nature Of Lost Things – Rosamond Purcell
10. Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word Of The Bible - David Plotz
11. American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies – Michael W. Kaufman
12. American Buffalo : In Search Of A Lost Icon – Steven Rinella
13. Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963 -Susan Sontag
14. On Seeing : Things Seen, Unseen and Obscene – Frank Gonzalez-Crussi
15. The Wordy Shipmates – Sarah Vowell
16. The Devil In The White City : Murder, Magic and Madness At The Fair That Changed America – Erik Larson
17. Capone: The Man And The Era - Laurence Bergreen
18. Mishima’s Sword : Travels In Search Of A Samurai Legend - Christopher Ross
19. Our Story Begins : New and Selected Stories – Tobias Wolff
20. Letter To A Christian Nation – Sam Harris
21. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God - Carl Sagan
    
22. The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
23. The Grace That Keeps This World: A Novel- Tom Bailey
24. On God : An Uncommon Conversation – Norman Mailer & Michael Lennon
25. Through The Children’s Gate: A Home In New York – Adam Gopnik
26. A Box Of Matches – Nicholson Baker
27. Beautiful Children: A Novel – Charles Bock
28. The Arsonist’s Guide To Writers’ Homes in New England: A Novel – Brock Clark
29. All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well: A Novel – Tod Wodicka
30. The Invention Of Everything Else – Samantha Hunt
31. The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein – Dorothy Hooler
32. The World Without Us – Alan Weisman
33. The Words of Every Song: A Novel – Liz Moore
34. Wild Thoughts From Wild Places – David Quammen
35. Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind – David Quammen
36. The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder – David Quammen
37. Break, Blow, Burn – Camille Paglia
38. Suite Française - Irene Nemirovsky
39. Field Guide to Getting Lost – Rebecca Solnit
40. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel
41. Staying Up Much Too Late: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and the Dark Side of the American Psyche - Gordon Theisen
42. Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon & the Making of The Birds of America – William Souder
43. Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase For Lincoln’s Killer – James L. Swanson
44. Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
45. Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir – Bill Bryson
46. Michelangelo’s Mountain: The Quest For Perfection in the Quarries of Carrara – Eric Scigliano
47. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
48. The Circus in Winter – Cathy Day
49. Case Histories: A Novel – Kate Atkinson
50. The Medici Giraffe:& Other Tales of Exotic Animals & Power – Marina Belozerskaya
51. Are Men Necessary?: When Sexes Collide – Maureen Dowd
52. The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa – Michael Kimmelman
53. Guitar: An American Life – Tim Brooks
54. Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table – Linda Ellerbee
55. A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck – Jane Smiley
56. Death and the Sun: A Matador’s Season in the Heart of Spain – Edward Lewine
57. The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova
58. The Volcano Lover: A Romance – Susan Sontag
59. On Photography – Susan Sontag
60. The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai – John Taylor
61. Man Walks Into A Room – Nicole Krauss
62. The History of Love: A Novel – Nicole Krauss
    
63. A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
64. The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
65. A Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing -Melissa Bank
66. The Bitch Posse – Martha O’Conner
67. The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings – Winona LaDuke
68. Bushworld: Enter At Your Own Risk – Maureen Dowd
69. The Partly Cloudy Patriot – Sarah Vowell
70. Take The Cannoli: Stories From The New World – Sarah Vowell
71. Assassination Vacation – Sarah Vowell
72. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West – Rebecca Solnit
73. Shadow Divers: The True Adventures of Two Americans Who Risked Everything To Solve One Of the Last Mysteries of WWII - Robert Kurson
74. The Trouble With Poetry: And Other Poems - Billy Collins
75. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
76. The Highest Tide – Jim Lynch
77. BFI Film Classics: The Birds – Camille Paglia
78. The Best American Travel Writing 2003 – Ian Frazier
79. And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
80. Continental Drift – Russell Banks
81. Disarmed: The Story of the Venus de Milo – Gregory Curtis
82. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
83. Voyage of the Narwhal – Angela Barrett
84. Flaubert’s Parrot – Julian Barnes
85. The Feast of Love: A Novel – Charles Baxter
86. American Gods: A Novel – Neil Gaiman
87. Kings of Infinite Space: A Novel – James Hynes
88. Nine Horses: Poems – Billy Collins
89. Questions About Angels: Poems -Billy Collins
90. Picnic, Lightning -Billy Collins
91. The Toughest Indian in the World – Sherman Alexie
92. Catcher In the Rye - JD Salinger
93. The Bullfighter Checks Her Make-up: My Encounters with Extraordinary People – Susan Orlean
94. Hunting Mr. Heartbreak: A Discovery of America – Jonathan Raben
95. Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon – Chuck Palahniuk
96. Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before - Tony Horowitz
97. Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook – Martin Dugard
98. The Little Friend – Donna Tartt
99. The Snakebite Survivors’ Club: Travels Among Serpents – Jeremy Seal
100. Great White Fathers: The Obsessive Quest to Create Mt. Rushmore – JohnTaliaferro
101. Exploring Lewis & Clark: Reflections on Men & Wilderness – Thomas Paul Slaughter
102. The Demon and the Angel: Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration - Edward Hirsch
103. The Mutter Museum: Of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia – Gretchen Worden
104. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers - Mary Roach
105. To Have & To Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting – Philip Blom
106. Sweets: A History of Candy – Tim Richardson
107. The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island – Linda Greenlaw
108. Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone – Martin Dugard
109. American Colonies: The Settling of North America -Alan Taylor
110. Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson
111. The Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered the Dinosaurs and Paved the Way for Darwin- Christopher McGowan
112. London: The Biography – Peter Ackroyd
113. Leonardo: The Artist and the Man – Serge Bramly
114. Ship Fever – Andrea Barrett
115. Land of Giants: The Drive to the Pacific Northwest 1750 – 1950 – David Lavendar
116. Appetite – Nigel Slater
117. Spilling Clarence: A Novel – Annie Ursa
118. Blue Angel: A Novel – Francine Prose
119. That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel – Annie Proulx
120. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: A Novel- Michael Chabon
121. The Dante Club: A Novel - Matthew Pearl
122. Carter Beats the Devil – Glen David Gold
123. Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America – Giles Milton
124. America As Seen By Its First Explorers: The Eyes of Discovery -John Bakeless
125. Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser
126. The Unknown Night: The Genius and Madness of RA Blakelock, An American Painter – Glyn Vincent
127. From Here You Can’t See Paris: Seasons In A French Village & Its Restaurant – Michael S. Sanders
128. Hotel Honolulu: A Novel - Paul Theroux
129. Gracefully Insane: The Rise & Fall of America’s Premiere Mental Hospital – Alex Beam
130. Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine & Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill – Robert Whittaker
131. Near A ThousandTables: A History of Food – Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
132. Death Makes A Holiday: A CulturalHistory of Halloween – David J. Skal
133. Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales – Stephen King
134. Frida: Bringing Frida Kahlo’s Life and Art to Film – Julie Taymor
135. The Naturalists: Scientific Travelers in the Golden Age of Natural History – Stephen R. Bowen
136. Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro – Michelle Kort
137. Birds of America: Stories – Lorrie Morgan
138. For The Time Being – Annie Dillard
139. Dreamcatcher – Stephen King
140. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly – Anthony Bourdain
141. American Appetite: The Coming of Age of A National Cuisine – Leslie Brenner
142. The Man Who Ate Everything – Jeffrey Steingarden
143. The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
144. Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots – John Thorne
145. No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City – Katherine S. Newman
146. Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches From the Unfinished Civil War – Tony Horowitz
147. Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast – Bill Richardson
148. They Call Me Mad Dog! : A Story for Bitter, Lonely People – Erika Lopez
149. Bag of Bones – Stephen King
150. The Art of Drowning – Billy Collins
151. The Way of All Flesh: The Romance of Ruins – Midas Dekkers
152. The Witch Must Die: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives – Sheldon Cashdan
153. The Gilded Dinosaur: The Fossil WAr of ED Cope & OC Marsh & the Rise of American Science – Mark Jaffe
154. The Metaphysical Touch: A Novel – Sylvia Brownrigg
155. Forms Of Devotion: Stories and Pictures – Diane Schoemperlen
156. Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman’s Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond – Deborah Laake
157. The Language of Names: What We Call Ourselves & Why It Matters – Justin Kaplan
158. Medicolegal Investigation Of Death: Guidelines For The Application Of Pathology To Crime Investigation - Werner Spitz
159. Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader- Anne Fadiman
160. Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss – Hope Edelman
161. Drawing Down the Moon – Margot Adler
162. 7 Tattoos: A Memoir in the Flesh – Peter Trachtenberg
163. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch – Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
164. The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Madness,Insanity and the Making of the OED - Simon Winchester
165. patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness – Ben Watt
166. Foggy Mountain Breakdown & Other Stories – Sharyn McCrumb
167. The First Time – Cher
168. The American Way of Death – Jessica Mitford
169. The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade – Thomas Lynch
170. The Plague Tales: A Novel – Ann Benson
171. The List of 7: A Novel – Mark Frost
172. Bodies of Water – Rosanne Cash
173. Theatre Culture in America 1825 – 1860 – Rosemarie K. Bank
174. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail – Bill Bryson
175. Waiting For Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts – Samuel Beckett
176. Chicken: A Novel – Paula Martinac
177. Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing – Erika Lopez
178. In the Language of Love: A Novel in 100 Chapters – Diane Schoemperlen
179. Factsheet 5 Zine Reader: The Best Writing From the Underground World of Zines- R. Seth Friedman
180. Edson – Bill Morrisey
181. Glimpses – Lewis Shiner
182. Way Out Here: Modern Life in Ice-Age Alaska – Richard Leo
183. Medieval in L.A. – Jim Paul
184. Terminal Games – Cole Perriman
185. Lost World – Michael Crichton
186. Return of Merlin – Deepak Chopra
187. Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
188. The Woman Who Loved Airports: Stories and Narratives – Marusya Bociurkiw
189. Journey to Chernobyl: Encounters in a Radioactive Zone - Glen Chaney
190. The Free Fall of Webster Cummings – Tom Bodett
191. Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman
192. Read This and Tell Me What It Says – A. Manette Ansay
193. Mapplethorpe: A Biography- Patricia Morrisoe
194. Towing Jehovah – James Morrow
195. Into the Wilderness: An Artist’s Journey – Stephen Lyman
196. Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology- Lawrence Weshler
197. A.D.: A Memoir – Kate Millet
198. The Man Who Turned Into Himself – David Ambrose
199. Mouse Tales: Behind the Ears Look at Disneyland – David Koenig
200. Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of A Forensic Anthropologist – William Maples
201. War of the Witches: A Journey into the Underworld of the Contemporary Aztecs – Timothy Knab
202. Our Noise - Jeff Gomez
203. The Duke Of Cleveland – Les Roberts
204. Bachelor Girls – Wendy Wasserstein
205. Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies – Tom Perotta
206. The Sewing Circle: Hollywood’s Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women – Axel Madsen
207. My Dog Skip – Willie Morris
208. Hunting Dinosaurs – Louie Psihoyos
209. Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide – Robert Michael Pyle
210. Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery – Norman Mailer
211. City of Truth – James Morrow
212. Shot in the Heart – Mikal Gilmore
213. Faustine – Emma Tennant
214. Gone Whaling: Search for Orcas in Northwest Waters – Douglas Hand
215. Drinking the Rain: A Memoir – Alix Kates Schulman
216. Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography – Judith Morgan
217. Acquired Tastes – Peter Mayle
218. Key West Tales – John Hersey
219. Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein – Theodore Roszak
220. Fran Lebowitz Reader – Fran Lebowitz
221. The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood

* note to ThePenpal – you can look and look but you KNOW you won’t find Crime and Punishment on this list – because I NEVER READ IT