navigationBooks read in 2021
Paris In The Present Tense by Mark Helprin (and all his fiction)
Rules of Civility: The 110 precepts that guided our first president in war and peace by George Washington
Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the rake who wrote the Constitution by Richard Brookhiser
12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
I Claudius (and sequels) by Robert Graves
Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves
Island by Aldous Huxley
All That Is by James Salter (and all his fiction)
Burning The Days by James Salter
The Snoring Bird by Bernd Heinrich (and all his books on running)
How To Live or A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell
Goodbye, Things by Funio Sasaki
Becket by Jean Anouilh (also enjoyed the movie version)
The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the raid that sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Tribe by Sebastian Junger
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
Aristotle’s Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
The Wet Engine by Brian Doyle
Simon the fiddler by Paulette Jiles
The Last Season by Eric Blehm
The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child
An Officer And A Spy by Robert Harris
The Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris
Now reading (long, dense, meaty) From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun
The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great by Steven Pressfield
The Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Shane Comes Home by Rinker Buck
A Free Life by Ha Jin
Waiting by Ha Jin
A Good Fall by Ha Jin
Under the Red Flag by Ha Jin
The Boat Rocker by Ha Jin
War Trash by Ha Jin
A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
The Color of Lightening by Paulette Jiles
Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford
In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
The City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash
Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca by Andres Resendez
The Spy And The Traitor by Ben Macintyre
Beyond Winning: The Timeless Wisdom of Great Philosopher Coaches by Gary Walton
The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Li Zhisui
Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
The Obesity Code by Jason Fung, MD
A Great and Terrible King by Marc Morris
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
A Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez
Thunderstruck by Eric Larson
The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester
The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits
A Gravestone Made of Wheat by Will Weaver
Old School by Tobias Wolff
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben MacIntyre
Where The Sea Breaks Its Back by Corey Ford
Pearl of China by Anchee Min
My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather
438 Days by Jonathan Franklin:
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick
Red Azalea by Anchee Min
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
Red Ginger by Anchee Min
Paul Among The People: The Apostle Reinterpreted And Reimagined In His Own Time by Sarah Ruden
Martial’s Epigrams: A Selection by Garry Wills
Let Me Finish by Roger Angell
The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson
Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey
Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life by Michael Lewis
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson
A Life of Privilege, Mostly by Gardner Botsford
Lake of the Ozarks by Bill Geist
With The Old Breed by E.B. Sledge
Katherine by Anchee Min
The Cooked Seed: A Memoir by Anchee Min
The Music of Silence: A Memoir by Andrea Bocelli
The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin
How I Learned To Understand The World: A Memoir by Hans Rosling
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams by David S. Brown
Washington Schlepped Here by Christopher Buckley
The Crazyladies of Pearl Street by Trevanian
Incident At Twenty-Mile by Trevanian
Grace Notes by Brian Doyle
Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding by Daniel E. Lieberman
The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms by J.P. Donleavy
Land of Wolves by Craig Johnson
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule
The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
This Living Hand And Other Essays by Edmund Morris
Conspiracy: A True Story of Power, Sex, and a Billionaire’s Secret Plot to Destroy a Media Empire by Ryan Holiday
Lives Of The Stoics by Ryan Holiday
Way Off The Road by Bill Geist
Throwin Way Leg: Tree-Kangaroos, Possums, And Penis Gourds by Tim Flannery
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
Last Night by James Salter
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
Ocean of Words: Army Stories by Ha Jin
A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger
Another Kind Of Eden by James Lee Burke
Travels With Epicurus by Daniel Klein
The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers by Eric Weiner
The Encheiridion by Epictetus
The Lady And The Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto by Pico Iyer
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman
Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck
Socrates: A Man For Our Times by Paul Johnson
It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Michael Abrashoff
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Walking The Himalayas by Levison Wood
Walking The Americas by Levison Wood
Literary Life: A Second Memoir by Larry McMurtry
Memories Of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
The Forgotten Village by John Steinbeck
The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
In The Pond by Ha Jin
Travels With Myself And Another: A Memoir by Martha Gellhorn
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby
Creators by Paul Johnson
Mozart : A Life by Paul Johnson
Chasing Excellence: The Remarkable Life and Inspiring Vigilosophy of Coach Joe I. Vigil by Pat Melgares
Back In The World by Tobias Wolff
The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff
Walking The Nile by Levison Wood
The Spymaster of Baghdad by Margaret Coker
Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall & The Oregon Story by Brent Walth
About Alice by Calvin Trillin
Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff
First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans… by Thomas E. Ricks
In The Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff
Tne Crazed by Ha Jin
The Spartans by Paul Cartledge
The Great Taos Bank Robbery And Other True Stories of the Southwest by Tony Hillerman
An Arabian Journey by Levison Wood
Fearless: The Undaunted Courage…of Navy SEAL Team SIX… By Eric Blehm
Racing The Rain by John L. Parker
For The Glory: Eric Liddell’s Journey… by Duncan Hamilton
Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush: The 1908 Olympic Marathon… by David Davis
Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby
I’m with Stupid: One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding…by Gene Weingarten
and Gina Barreca
A Torch Kept Lit by William F. Buckley, Jr.
Father Joe by Tony Hendra
The Messiah of Morris Avenue by Tony Hendra
Travels With George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick
Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign by Pico Iyer
Slowly Down the Ganges by Eric Newby
Racing Yesterday by Andy Baxter
Messages from My Father by Calvin Trillin
It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell
On the House: A Washington Memoir by John Boehner
Seven Men And The Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Metaxas
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
Book by Book by Michael Dirda
Eisenhower: A Life by Paul Johnson
A Curious Man:The Strange & Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley by Neal Thompson
Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard
A Song Everlasting by Ha Jin
Game of Snipers by Stephen Hunter
Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday
Utopia For Realists by Rutger Bregman
180, if I counted correctly. Did I read every page? That would be yes 90+ per cent of the time. A remarkable achievement? Not really. On average, it takes me 2 to 3 hours to read a book. Let’s say 3, that’s only 540 hours in a year. Americans average 4 hours of television each day, 1460 hours in a year. Americans average 3 hours, 45 minutes each day on their smart phones. Don doesn’t have a smart phone, but does (mostly) waste several hours a day on the internet.
