Today’s my 32nd Birthday. I feel obligated to make a birthday list post. My philosophy is not to persuade people to read specific works as long as they are reading. So, this is not a prescriptive list. Maybe something will interest you. If so, great. If not, continue to read at “whim.”
Some are old and some are new, but here’s the list without further ado (thanks Grammar Girl for the tip on ado v. adieu):
Top 32 Books I’ve read since turning 30 in no particular order because that would be way too hard:
1. IQ84, Murakami.
2. The Corrections, Franzen
3. Infinite Jest, Wallace
4. The Iliad, Homer
5. The Odyssey, Homer
6. The Pale King, Wallace
7. Songlines, Chatwain
8. Imagine, Lehrer
9. Jesus’ Son, Johnson
10. The Wasp Factory, Banks
11. Moon Palace, Auster
12. Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography
13. Lincoln’s Melancholy, Shenk
14. The War of Art, Pressfield
15. The Trial (Re-read), Kafka
16. Hero with A Thousand Faces, Campbell
17. Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl
18. Einstein, Issacson
19. Steve Jobs, Issacson
20. The Moviegoer, Percy
21. The Marriage Plot, Eugenides
22. The Art of Fielding, Harbach
23. How to Be Alone, Franzen
24. The Road, McCarthy
25. Sketches from a Hunter’s Album, Turgenev
26. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, Feynman
27. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway
28. How to Read a Book, Adler and Van Doren
29. The Swerve, Greenblatt
30. A Reader on Reading, Manguel
31. Start Something that Matters, Mycoskie
32. War and Peace, Tolstoy
Despite the fact that my birthday is on Friday the 13th I have never read much horror writing. I did particularly like one book that might be loosely classified as horror, Hikikomori by Lawrence Pearce. Consider this your bonus recommendation because my birthday falls on Friday the 13th.
I’ve only heard of about 5 of these books. And one of them is Infinite Jest which I am afraid to read.
That one is a bit intimidating, but brilliant.
Happy Birthday Brandon!
Thank you!
Happy, happy birthday !
Thank you, Angelo!
Happy Birthday! I also love Grammar Girl. So useful. Have you thought about linking up your books with an Amazon affiliate account? Then if someone decides to purchase one of the books, you’ll get a small percentage, but the buyer pays the same as they would anyway. It’s a little thing your readers can do to support your website if they’re interested in reading or buying a book you mention anyway….
Good advice! I will look into Amazon affiliate.
Happy birthday, Brandon!
Murakami is a favorite of mine, but I’m afraid of IQ84. I’ve been reading less than glowing reviews and it seems like such an investment. I adore his short stories though, and many of his other novels. I need to read more Wallace too…I love his essays.
It took me a while to finish it, but I loved it.
Can’t go wrong with anything by Wallace. His take on cruise ships is even brilliant.