Bookshelf

I've organized my bookshelf by the importance of the book to me. The years in parantheses are when I read the book.

My pile

What I'm currently reading.

• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

So good it hurts

Books that gave me that feeling of regret that I'll never be able to read them for the first time again. I'd suggest these even if you have no interest in the subject.

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• The Just City by Jo Walton
• Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam
• City of Thieves by David Benioff

I love this book

So good it hurts for me, but I'm not sure it will for you.

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
• What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer

This book has stuck with me

Books that have had a major impact on how I think about the world. The quality of writing in this category is less important than the impact of the ideas on my life.

• Range by David Epstein
• Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule by Gordan Thomas and Greg Lewis
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
• Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson

Really freaking good.

Great writing, just not quite so good it hurts.

• Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• The Glory and the Dream by William Manchester

Honorable mentions

Almost but not quite.

• Decisive by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Hild by Nicola Griffith
• The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Galloway