A running log of the books I read over the course of 2019. A star indicates something I’d near-universally recommend. Other books aren’t necessarily unrecommended; it’s just that the answer is more, “It depends on what you’re looking to read…”
- Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.
- Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey.
- The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli.
- Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan.
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
- Lead Yourself First by Raymond M. Kethledge and Michael S. Erwin.
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
- Solitude: A Return to the Self by Anthony Storr.
- In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin.
- Hermits: The Insights of Solitude by Peter France.
- The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu.
- The Overstory by Richard Powers.
- Fentanyl, Inc. by Ben Westhoff.
- The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang.
- Ice Age by John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin.
- The Accidental President by A. J. Baime.
- The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang.
- Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas.
- The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton.
- Timefulness by Marcia Bjornerud.
- The Years That Matter Most by Paul Tough. ★
- Hello World by Hannah Fry.
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari.
- Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction by Gary Rogowski.
- Educated by Tara Westover. ★
- Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.
- Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.
- Uncommon Service by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss.
- The Manual by Epictetus.
- Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton. ★
- Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey.
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
- Resilient Management by Lara Hogan.
- The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton.
- Delivering Quality Service by Valarie Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard Berry.
- Zbigniew Brzezinski: America’s Grand Strategist by Justin Vaïsse.
- On the Shortness of Life by Seneca.
- Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
- Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton.
- On Desire by William B. Irvine.
- How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.
- A Complaint Is a Gift by Janelle Barlow and Claus Møller.
- Working by Robert Caro. ★
- Company of One by Paul Jarvis.
- The Goodness Paradox by Richard Wrangham. ★
- Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey.
- Delight Your Customers by Steve Curtin.
- Driving Customer Equity by Roland Rust, Valarie Zeithaml, and Katherine Lemon.
- The Best Service is No Service by Bill Price and David Jaffe.
- The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.
- Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey.
- Strategic Customer Service by John Goodman.
- The Effortless Experience by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi.
- Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders.
- High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service by Micah Solomon.
- The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders.
- The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker.
- See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng.
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.
- The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson. ★
- The Stoics by F.H. Sandbach.
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
- Plutarch’s Lives: Vol. 1 translated by John Dryden.
- Camino Sunrise by Reg Spittle.
- Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.
- Circe by Madeline Miller.
- The Chinese Typewriter: A History by Thomas Mullaney.
- War Trash by Ha Jin.
- Track Changes by Matthew Kirschenbaum.