Thursday, December 29, 2011

Reading log, 2011

All during 2011 I kept a list of the books I read. I don't feel like writing any book reports, or even short blurbs, so here it is: just the list.

  • Chris Townsend
    The Backpacker's Handbook (2nd ed)

  • John Steinbeck
    The Grapes of Wrath

  • Lisa Rogak
    Moving to the Country Once and for All

  • William Gibson
    Neuromancer

  • Jared Diamond
    Guns, Germs & Steel

  • William Zinsser
    On Writing Well

  • Wanda Urbanski & Frank Levering
    Moving to a Small Town

  • (various essayists)
    Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?

  • T. C. Boyle
    Drop City

  • Margaret Atwood
    The Year of the Flood

  • John Steinbeck
    Travels with Charley in Search of America

  • J. K. Rowling
    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • John Michael Greer
    A World Full of Gods

  • Henry D. Thoreau
    Walden

  • John L. Casti & Werner De Pauli
    Gödel: A Life of Logic

  • Dan Brown
    The Lost Symbol

  • Edward Feser
    Aquinas

  • J. K. Rowling
    Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

  • J. K. Rowling
    Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  • Sean Carrol
    From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time

  • J. K. Rowling
    Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

  • J. K. Rowling
    Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

  • J. K. Rowling
    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

  • J. K. Rowling
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

6 comments:

Bobby and the Presidents said...

JEC, great list and thanks for sharing -- I'd like to know which book you were most glad to have read and also what your favorite Steinback book is. Additionally, I am flat out impressed with how quickly you hammered through the Potter books (assuming you listed the books in order read and cross referencing that assumption with your blog about some of the books to confirm when you were reading them), Wow.

Craig Brandenburg said...

Bobby et al.— The book I'm most glad to have read is On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I believe by reading the book I improved my writing greatly—a sentiment I hope long-term JEC readers agree with. If nothing else, it inspired me to both use hyphens and end sentences with prepositions guiltlessly.

Runner-up for most-glad-I-read-it book is Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel.

My favorite Steinbeck book is The Grapes of Wrath.

And you're right: I listed the books in chronological order—in the order I finished them, to be exact. I blew through the Potter books because they were fun to read. Reading all of Professor Snape's dialog by imagining Alan Rickman's voice helped, too.

Lindsey said...

I enjoyed your list and hope you keep reading and sharing in 2012! :) I really liked The Grapes of Wrath, too.

Craig Brandenburg said...

Lindsey— Thank you.

Bobby and the Presidents said...

JEC, commenting again on this post as I appreciated so...I am very seriously considering reading the "On Writing Well" book, if you happen to own it please advise if I can borrow, otherwise I'll pick up at the library. That may not give you confidence that I'll return it proptly, but, well, I never intent to deceive you.

Also, simply because I wish to tell you...the book I was most glad to have read in 2011 is "The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown" by Daniel Coyle. I think you would appreciate it. (I own it, sort of, which is to say it's on my Kindle)

Craig Brandenburg said...

Bobby et al.— Thanks for the suggestion; I'll keep it in mind.