Rather than trying to describe what kinds of books I like, I have decided
to just keep a running log of the books I have read, and how many stars
(out of five) I gave them on Amazon's
Reccomendations ratings. This list started in December of 2002.
2008
- Our Babies, Ourselves - Meredith Small (***)
- Super Spy - Matt Kindt (****)
- Runaways - Brian Vaughan et al (****)
- The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolano (****)
- An Ordinary Spy - Joseph Weisberg (*****)
- The Presidential Election Game - Steven J Brams (***)
- Random Curves: A memoir - Neil Koblitz (**)
- Big If - Mark Costello (****)
- Super Crunchers - Ian Ayres (***)
- Mathematics and Democracy - Steven J Brams (*****)
- It Aint Over Till Its Over - Baseball Prospectus Staff (***)
- The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland (***)
- The Road - Cormac McCarthy (*****)
- Beginner's Greek - James Collins (****)
- Dirty Money - Richard Stark (****)
- A Spy By Nature - Charles Cumming (***)
- The Stuff of Thought - Stephen Pinker (***)
- Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris (*****)
- American Nerd: The Story Of My People - Benjamin Nugent (***)
- A Person Of Interest - Susan Choi (****)
- The Dark Knight Strikes Again - Frank Miller (**)
- Hit The Ground Crawling - Greg Bishop (**)
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (*****)
- Group Theory In The Bedroom - Brian Hayes (*****)
- Eight Million Ways To Die - Lawrence Block (****)
- Alternadad - Neal Pollack (****)
- Maps and Legends - Michael Chabon (****)
- Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman (***)
- Hit And Run - Lawrence Block (***)
- The Best of World Cafe - David Dye et al (****)
- Kirby: King of Comics - Mark Evanier (****)
- Slam - Nick Hornby (****)
- The Edge of the Universe - Steve Kennedy and Deanna Haupsburger et al (****)
- Dead Even - Brad Meltzer (****)
- The Black Hole War - Leonard Susskind (*****)
- The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffenger (***)
- Atmospheric Disturbances - Rivka Galchen (**)
- Superman Family Vol.2 - Curt Swan etal (****)
- The Zero Game - Brad Meltzer (***)
- The Numerati - Stephen Baker (***)
- The Drunkards Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives - Leonard Mlodinow (*****)
- Downtown Owl - Chuck Klosterman (****)
- Severance Package - Duane Swierczynski (***)
- The World in Six Songs - Daniel Levitin (***)
- Man In The Dark - Paul Auster (***)
- The Broom of the System - David Foster Wallace (***)
- Batman and Philosophy - various (***)
- The Nine: Inside the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin (****)
- The Blonde - Duane Swierczynski (****)
- The Best Nonrequired Reading 2008 - Dave Eggers et al (***)
- Indignation - Philip Roth (*****)
- Dear American Airlines: A Novel - Jonathan Miles (*****)
- The Book of Getting Even - Benjamin Taylor (***)
- Fun Home - Allison Bechdel (****)
- An Abundance of Katherines - John Green (****)
- Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State - Andrew Gelman (****)
- Icarus at the Edge of Time - Brian Greene (****)
- State By State - Matt Weiland et al (*****)
- Kingdom Come - Mark Waid & Alex Ross (reread)
- The Book of Murder - Guillermo Martinez (****)
2007
- The Man Who Ate Everything - Jeffrey Steingarten (****)
- The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing - Charles Papazian (****)
- The Devil Knows You're Dead - Lawrence Block (****)
- Play It Again: Baseball Experts on What Might Have Been - Jim Bresnahan et al (***)
- God Save The Mark - Donald Westlake (****)
- Mathematics and Common Sense - Philip Davis (****)
- Him Her Him Again The End of Him - Patricia Marx (***)
- The End of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas (****)
- Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name - Vendela Vida (*****)
- You Don't Love Me Yet - Jonathan Lethem (**)
- The Triumph Of The Thriller - Patrick Anderson (***)
- Lucky at Cards - Lawrence Block (***)
- It Must Have Been Something I Ate - Jeffrey Steingarten (*****)
- Whats So Funny - Donald Westlake (***)
- What The Best College Teachers Do - Ken Bain (***)
- Citizen Vince - Jess Walter (****)
- The Baseball Economist - JC Bradbury (***)
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - JK Rowling (reread)
- Love is a Mix Tape - Rob Sheffield(****)
- The Mexico City Reader - Ruben Gallo et al (****)
- No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July (***)
- Que Vivan Los Tamales: Food and The Making of Mexican Identity - Jeffrey Pilcher (****)
- The Uncomfortable Dead - Paco Ignacio Taibo II & Subcommandante Marcos (**)
- The Code Book - Simon Singh (reread)
- Civil War - Mark Millar et al (****)
- The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb (***)
- The Yiddish Policemans Union - Michael Chabon (****)
- Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (reread)
- The Spy in the Ointment - Donald Westlake (***)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling (*****)
- The First Counsel - Brad Meltzer (****)
- The Entitled - Frank Deford (****)
- The Areas of My Expertise - John Hodgman (*****)
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt 3W - Gabriel Brownstein (****)
- Privacy On The Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption - Diffie & Landau (*****)
- Liars Poker - Michael Lewis (***)
- New England White - Stephen L Carter (****)
- Ice Haven - Daniel Clowes (****)
- Crypto - Steven Levy (reread)
- Acceptance - Susan Coll (***)
- Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way - Bruce Campbell (**)
- The Eternals - Neil Gaiman (****)
- Tree of Smoke - Denis Johnson (****)
- Benjamin Franklin's Numbers - Paul Pasles (***)
- The Girl With The Long Green Heart - Lawrence Block (****)
- X Out Of Wonderland - David Alan Cates (**)
- An Arsonists Guide To Writers Homes In New England - Brock Clarke (***)
- The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perrotta (****)
- When The Sacred Ginmill Closes - Lawrence Block (***)
- I Am America and So Can You! - Stephen Colbert (****)
- Crazy '08 - Kait Murphy (****)
- The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan (*****)
- A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel - Gaurav Suri (****)
2006
- The Oxford Murders - Guillermo Martinez (****)
- PopCo - Scarlett Thomas (****)
- The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved - Mario Livio (****)
- As She Crawled Slowly Across The Table - Jonathan Lethem (***)
- The Believer Book Of Writers Talking To Writers - Vendela Vida et al (***)
- The Republican War On Science - Chris Mooney (****)
- On Beauty - Zadie Smith (*****)
- What Good Are The Arts - John Carey (***)
- Trust Me On This - Donald Westlake (***)
- Selected Letters - John von Neumann (****)
- The Shroud of the Thwacker - Chris Elliot (***)
- Apex Hides The Hurt - Colson Whitehead (***)
- Baseball Between The Numbers - Baseball Prospectus staff (*****)
- This Shape We're In - Jonathan Lethem (***)
- Consider The Lobster - David Foster Wallace (****)
- Blue Angel - Francine Prose (****)
- Superman: Secret Identity - Kurt Busiek (****)
- Avengers Forever - Kurt Busiek (**)
- In Your Face - Scarlett Thomas (***)
- Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (***)
- Microserfs - Douglas Coupland (reread)
- J-Pod - Douglas Coupland (**)
- Ticket To The Boneyard - Lawrence Block (****)
- Fantasyland: A season on baseball's lunatic fringe - Sam Walker (***)
- Man of My Dreams - Curtis Sittenfield (***)
- Time to Murder and Create - Lawrence Block (****)
- On The Cutting Edge - Lawrence Block (***)
- Jennifer Government - Max Berry (****)
- Astonishing X-Men - Joss Whedon (****)
- Oddysey of an Eavesdropper - Martin Kaiser (***)
- The Last Spymaster - Gayle Lynds (****)
- Symmetry and the Monster - Mark Ronan (****)
- Hit Parade - Lawrence Block (****)
- Plastic Man: On The Lam - Kyle Baker (**)
- Superman: Red Son - Mark Millar (****)
- Everyman - Philip Roth (***)
- Mexican Days - Tony Cohan (****)
- Dance at the Slaughterhouse - Lawrence Block (****)
- The Plot Thickens - Mary Higgens Clark etal (***)
- Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins (***)
- The Natural - Bernard Malamud (*****)
- Adverbs - Daniel Handler (****)
- Maya Missions - Richard Perry (****)
- Our Underachieving Colleges - Derek Bok (****)
- Identity Crisis - Brad Metzler (*****)
- Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth (****)
- Heat - Bill Buford (****)
- Nobody Runs Forever -
Donald WestlakeRichard Stark (****)
- The Ruins - Scott Smith (****)
- Comeback - Richard Stark (***)
- Categories on the Beauty of Physics - Emiliano Sefusatti (*****)
- Spiderman: Evolve or Die - Peter David etal (***)
- Brainiac - Ken Jennings (****)
- Ask The Parrot - Richard Stark (****)
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl (*****)
- Chronicles Volume One - Bob Dylan (****)
- Mathematicians in Love - Rudy Rucker (***)
2005
- America: The Book - Jon Stewart et al. (*****)
- How To Be Good - Nick Hornby (reread)
- Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safren Foer (****)
- Hacker Cracker - Ejovi Nuwere (***)
- Mcsweeneys Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories - Michael Chabon,
etal. (****)
- Prime Times: Writers on Their Favorite TV Shows - Douglas Bauer etal (***)
- The Plot Against America - Phillip Roth (*****)
- Take The Cannoli - Sarah Vowell (*****)
- Bad News - Donald Westlake (****)
- Too Weird For Ziggy - Sylvie Simmons (**)
- The Final Solution - Michael Chabon (****)
- 1602 - Neil Gaiman (*****)
- Faculty in New Jobs - Robert Menges et al (***)
- Going Out - Scarlett Thomas (****)
- All The Flowers Are Dying - Lawrence Block (****)
- Plastic Angels - Nerissa Nields (****)
- The Numbers Game - Alan Schwarz (*****)
- Mcsweeneys 13 - Chris Ware et al (****)
- Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland (***)
- The Dissapointment Artist - Jonathan Lethem (****)
- Dead Clever - Scarlett Thomas (****)
- A Philosophical Introduction To Probability - Maria Carla
Galavotti (***)
- Jump In! - Mark Burnett (and ghostwriter) (**)
- Gotham Central: In The Line Of Duty - Greg Rucka et al (****)
- Watch Your Back! - Donald Westlake (****)
- Freakonomics - Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (****)
- What's The Matter With Kansas? - Thomas Frank (***)
- A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby (*****)
- The Neyer/James Guide To Pitchers - Rob Neyer & Bill James
(***)
- Alternative Atlanta - Marshall Boswell (****)
- Prep - Curtis Sittenfeld (****)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling (reread)
- Morningside Heights - Cheryl Mendelson (***)
- Incompleteness: The Proof of Kurt Godel - Rebecca Goldstein
(****)
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - JK Rowling (*****)
- Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to
Measure The Universe - George Johnson (****)
- Random Walk - Lawrence Block (**)
- Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell (****)
- Garlic and Sapphires - Ruth Reichl (****)
- Hit List - Lawrence Block (****)
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (*****)
- Good Behavior - Donald Westlake (****)
- Killing Yourself to Live : 85% of a True Story - Chuck Klosterman (*****)
- Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation - Robert Littell (***)
- The Bourbaki Gambit - Carl Djerassi (****)
- Listener Supported: The History of Public Radio - Jack Mitchell (****)
- Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (****)
- How We Are Hungry - Dave Eggers (****)
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them - Al Franken (****)
- Contact Zero - David Wolstencroft (*****)
- The Truth (with jokes) - Al Franken (***)
- Political Numeracy - Michael Myerson (****)
- Life On The Tenure Track - James Lang (****)
- The Diviners - Rick Moody (****)
- The Better of McSweeneys - Dave Eggers et al (****)
- Mind Game - Baseball Prospectus Guys (****)
- Cinderella Sims - Lawrence Block (***)
2004
- Everything and More - David Foster Wallace (****)
- The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract - Bill James
(*****)
- Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003 - Dave Eggers et al
(****)
- May The Best Team Win - Andrew Zimbalist (****)
- Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson (***)
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again - David Foster
Wallace (****)
- One True Platonic Heaven - John Casti (****)
- Wonder When You'll Miss Me - Amanda Davis (****)
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time - Mark Haddon
(****)
- The Death of an Amiable Child - Irene Marcuse (**)
- The Bobby Gold Stories - Anthony Bourdain (***)
- The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came To Be - Dana Mackenzie (****)
- The Main Enemy : The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with
the KGB - Risen & Bearden (****)
- Pattern Recognition - William Gibson (****)
- Astro City: Life in the Big City - Kurt Busiek et al (*****)
- The Gatekeepers - Jacques Steinberg (****)
- Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace (***)
- The Effect of Living Backwards - Heidi Julavits (****)
- Priorities of the Professoriate - Ernest Boyer (***)
- Kingdom Come - Mark Waid & Alex Ross (****)
- The Burglar on the Prowl - Lawrence Block (*****)
- Distinctively American: The Residential Liberal Arts
College - Koblik & Graubard (****)
- Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste - Lester Bangs (***)
- The Mineral Palace - Heidi Julavits (***)
- How To Breathe Underwater - Julie Orringer (*****)
- What Was She Thinking? - Zoe Heller (***)
- Sherlock Holmes in Babylon and Other Tales of Mathematical
History - various (****)
- Count Down: Six Kids Vie For Glory In The Toughest Math
Competition - Steve Olson (*****)
- Publish and Perish - James Hynes (****)
- The Wild Numbers - Philip Schogt (****)
- The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe (reread)
- In Code - Sarah Flannery (****)
- Cogwheels of the Mind - AWF Edwards (****)
- The Topless Tulip Caper - Lawrence Block (****)
- The Secret Pilgrim - John LeCarre (***)
- Hooking Up - Tom Wolfe (*****)
- Money For Nothing - Donald Westlake (****)
- Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland (*****)
- Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Botton Line - David Kirp (*****)
- The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem (*****)
- Fugitives and Refugees : A Walk in Portland, Oregon - Chuck
Palahniuk (**)
- Thieves' Dozen - Donald Westlake (****)
- Notable American Women - Ben Marcus (**)
- Food Inc: The Perils and Promise of the Biotech Industry -
Peter Pringle (****)
- The Road To Ruin - Donald Westlake (***)
- Joe College - Tom Perrotta (*****)
- Oblivion - David Foster Wallace (****)
- Forty Watts From Nowhere - Sue Carpenter (***)
- Amalee - Dar Williams (****)
- Kings of Infinite Space - James Hynes (****)
- After The First Death - Lawrence Block (***)
- Gasping For Airtime - Jay Mohr (***)
- The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde (**)
- Starman: Times Past - James Robinson (***)
- The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, from Tiddledy Winks
to Trivial Pursuit - Philip E. Orbanes (****)
- Little Children - Tom Perrotta (****)
- So You Wanna Be A Rock n' Roll Star - Jacob Slichter (*****)
- The Hook - Donald Westlake (***)
- Losing My Faculties: A Teacher's Story - Brendan Halpin (****)
- Proof - David Auburn (*****)
- The Wishbones - Tom Perrotta (****)
- Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans - Dave Eggers et al
(****)
- Nine Innings - Daniel Okrent (****)
- Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (****)
- Checkpoint - Nicholson Baker (***)
- Reunion - Alan Lightman (****)
- A Pretext For War - James Bamford (****)
- Radiant Cool - Dan Lloyd (**)
- In The Shadow Of No Towers - Art Spiegelman (***)
- Man Walks Into A Room - Nicole Krause (***)
- Dress Your Family in Courdory and Denim - David Sedaris (*****)
- Media Mythmakers - Benjamin Radford (***)
- Good News, Bad News - David Wolstencroft (****)
- Men and Cartoons - Jonathan Lethem (*****)
- The Work of the University - Richard Levin (****)
- I Am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe (****)
- Deadly Honeymoon - Lawrence Block (***)
- Worlds Fair - EL Doctorow (****)
- The Librarian - Larry Beinhart (***)
- The Polysylllabic Spree - Nick Hornby (****)
2003
- Great Jones Street - Don DeLillo (****)
- The Last Samurai - Helen DeWitt (*****)
- Word Freak - Stefan Fatsis (****)
- The Autograph Man - Zadie Smith (***)
- Double Fold - Nicholson Baker (****)
- Radio On - Sarah Vowell (****)
- Song Book - Nick Hornby (*****)
- I. - Stephen Dixon (*****)
- Coraline - Neil Gaiman (****)
- The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker (***)
- Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem (***)
- Don't Ask - Donald Westlake (****)
- The Math Gene - Keith Devlin (****)
- Carnival of Saints - George Herman (****)
- Firebreak - Richard Stark (***)
- The Fermata - Nicholson Baker (****)
- The Marraige of Sticks - Jonathan Carroll (****)
- Movies - Stephen Dixon (***)
- Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (***)
- Small Town - Lawrence Block (**)
- Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon (*****)
- The Company - Robert Littell (****)
- If I Never Get Back - Darryl Brock (***)
- Vox - Nicholson Baker (****)
- Mcsweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales - Michael
Chabon etal (****)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakhban - JK Rowling (reread)
- The Partly Cloudy Patriot - Sarah Vowell (*****)
- Spy Dust - Antonio and Jonna Mendez (***)
- Oaxaca Journal - Oliver Sachs (***)
- The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson (****)
- Naked - David Sedaris (*****)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling (reread)
- The Politics of Glory - Bill James (****)
- Giotto's Hand - Iain Pears (****)
- The Cities of Ancient Mexico - Jeremy Sabloff (**)
- What's The Worst That Could Happen - Donald Westlake (*****)
- The Bernini Bust - Iain Pears (****)
- Aztec - Gary Jennings (*****)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling (*****)
- The Game Of Life: College Sports and Educational Values -
Shulman and Bowen (****)
- The Burglar In The Rye - Lawrence Block (****)
- The Big Book of Baseball Lineups - Rob Neyer (*****)
- Strong Motion - Jonathan Franzen (****)
- Aztec Autumn - Gary Jennings (***)
- You Shall Know Our Velocity - Dave Eggers (*****)
- Summerland - Michael Chabon (***)
- The Wizards of Langley - Jeffrey T. Richelson (***)
- The Grasshopper King - Jordan Ellenberg (*****)
- The Great Big Book of Tomorrow - Tom Tomorrow (*****)
- The Emperor of Ocean Park - Stephen Carter (****)
- Straight Man - Richard Russo (****)
- How To Be Alone - Jonathan Franzen (****)
- The Amateur - Robert Littell (***)
- Moneyball - Michael Lewis (*****)
- Sandman: Endless Nights - Neil Gaiman et al. (****)
- The Visiting Professor - Robert Littell (**)
- The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature - Neal
Pollack (****)
- The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (***)
- All Families Are Psychotic - Douglas Coupland (***)
- The Mammoth Cheese - Sheri Holman (****)
- Breakout - Richard Stark (***)
- A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market - John Allen Paulos
(***)
- A Box of Matches - Nicholson Baker (****)
- And Now You Can Go - Vendela Vida (****)
- Mailman: A Novel - J. Robert Lennon (***)
- Universities In The Marketplace - Derek Bok (****)
- Game Time - Roger Angell (****)
- Superbad - Ben Greenman (****)
- American Pastoral - Philip Roth (reread)
- The Secret History - Donna Tarrt (***)
- The Uses of the University - Clark Kerr (*****)
- High Fidelity - Nick Hornby (reread)
- You Could Call It Murder - Lawrence Block (***)
- The Raphael Affair - Iain Pears (****)
- Backflash - Richard Stark (****)
- The Creation of the Future - Frank Rhodes (*****)
- Turing (a novel about computation) - Christos H. Papadimitriou
(****)
- Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby (***)
- Never Mind The Pollacks - Neal Pollack (****)
- Drowned Hopes - Donald Westlake (****)