[What I'm Reading]


"Mostly Classics" Project: Part 2


So I haven't had time to rate all the books like I'd hoped, but I thought I'd at least share the list of books that I have read for this project since it started in 2023. The books are in reverse chronological order that I read them. You'll notice several how-to books on building things that I bought after reading Thoreau's Walden Lol. I haven't built them yet, but they're on my to-do list.

I thought most of these books were amazing, and all of them worth reading. Some standouts for me have been:

  • A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander — A worldview-altering take on our relationship with the built environment.
  • The Iliad, Homer — An epic story that helped shape my views on masculinity.
  • Rhetoric, Aristotle — Reshaped my understanding of human emotion.
  • Moby-Dick, Herman Melville — The magnitude of the setting, plot, and writing style is awe-inspiring.


Books Read (most recent first)

Title Author
Six Easy PiecesRichard Feynman
SiddharthaHermann Hesse
A Christmas CarolCharles Dickens
UtilitarianismJohn Stuart Mill
River of DoubtCandice Millard
Brave New WorldAldous Huxley
The Standard of TasteDavid Hume
The Art of WarSun Tzu
Le Petit Prince (French version)Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Voyage of the BeagleCharles Darwin
FrankensteinMary Shelley
A Timber Framer's WorkshopSteve Chappell
Braiding SweetgrassRobin Wall Kimmerer
A Pattern LanguageChristopher Alexander
Treasure IslandRobert Louis Stevenson
On PropositionsAristotle
Bringing Nature HomeDoug Tallamy
The Nature of OaksDoug Tallamy
A Wrinkle in TimeMadeleine L'Engle
The IliadHomer
CanoecraftTed Moores
The Complete Deck BookSunset Books
Building Small Barns, Sheds, and SheltersMonte Burch
Building & Restoring The Hewn Log HouseCharles McRaven
Pretty Good HouseMichael Maines et al
WaldenHenry David Thoreau
Old Man and the SeaErnest Hemingway
Robinson CrusoeDaniel Defoe
CategoriesAristotle
1984George Orwell
SymposiumPlato
Madame BovaryGustave Flaubert
Meditations of First PhilosophyRené Descartes
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoyevsky
An Enquiry into Human UnderstandingDavid Hume
DuneFrank Herbert
PhysicsAristotle
DraculaBram Stoker
GorgiasPlato
The Call of the WildJack London
De AnimaAristotle
The ConfessionsSt. Augustine
Gulliver's TravelsJonathan Swift
PhaedoPlato
MenoPlato
CritoPlato
ApologyPlato
EuthyphroPlato
A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens
RhetoricAristotle
Mrs DallowayVirginia Woolf
MeditationsMarcus Aurelius
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyDouglas Adams
One Hundred Years of SolitudeGabriel García Márquez
PoliticsAristotle
Moby-DickHerman Melville
RepublicPlato
The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli
Heart of DarknessJoseph Conrad
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald
A Brief History of JapanJonathan Clements
Slaughterhouse-FiveKurt Vonnegut
On the Origin of SpeciesCharles Darwin
EthicsAristotle
FoundationsIsaac Asimov
Guns, Germs, and SteelJared Diamond
PoeticsAristotle
The Secret HistoryDonna Tartt