I don’t know how I missed this at the beginning of the year.
@acavender - I re-read I, Robot last year and I have the Foundation series on my general list. I had to move it to next year, though. I have too much on the current list. I did read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy this year. I can’t believe it took me this long to get to it.
Here is my remaining reading list for 2025
Winning at Trial
Reading Koine Greek
Baugh, First John Reader
Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics
The Lost Lawyer
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766.
Middlekauff, The American Revolution, 1763-1789
Bowen, Catherine Drinker, The Story of the Constitutional Convention
Amar, The Words that Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840
Amar, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction
Palika, Your German Shepherd Puppy Month by Month
The Monks of New Skete, The Art of Raising a Puppy
Rice, Training Your German Shepherd Dog
Improving Your Storytelling
Hillsdale, U.S. Constitution: A Reader
Amar, America’s Constitution
Heritage Guide to the U.S. Constitution
Amar, America’s Unwritten Constitution
Meacham, American Lion
Sowell, Basic Economics
Wired for Story
Barwig, Schutzhund: Theory and Training Methods
Eggeman, Training Your German Shepherd Dog
Greek Accents
A Treatise on the Law & Gospel
Eats Shoots and Leaves
Think and Grow Rich
Intermediate Greek Grammar (Matthewson)
Advances in the Study of Greek (Constantine)
Greek for Life
Graham, Intelligent Investor
Bowyer, The Maker versus the Takers
Nossel, Defending Free Speech for All
McCullough, 1776
Roane, How to Work a Room
Nicholson, God’s Secretaries
Wells, War of the Worlds
Cron, Story Genius
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Shakespeare, Othello
A History of Western Music
Steinhardt, Indivisible By Four
Griffiths, The String Quartet: A History
John Stuart Mill, On Freedom
Eco, The Name of the Rose
Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Wood, Empire of Liberty
Amar, Born Equal Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840–1920
I really liked this book. I read it along with about 10 web tutorials and ironed out all the bread and butter procedures. Then I took a break from programming and probably have to re-read the darned thing. That said, I thought it was a well written practical book.
I almost took on a patent case by the Korean scientist who also claims to have been first to the crispr party—the third of the triumvirate of scientists claiming to be the originator. I didn’t take the case for a variety of reasons but my interest in the science has not abated. I may add this to my list. Let me know how you like it!
Very curious how you find this one. I just couldn’t get onboard with this book. I wanted to love it.
Once you get through Romance of the Three Kingdoms, may I suggest either Journey to the West or Outlaws of the Marsh.
Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is wonderful but some of his other books which focus on semiotics (his passion) can be a little…difficult.
Good luck with the Greek studies. Sounds fascinating but challenging. So much of our modern culture and language is built on Greek and Roman myths, tales and philosophy ,and plays. It you have a bent for etymology then it should be an enjoyable experience.
I want to read both of those. Do you have a recommended sequence? Should I also read Dream of the Red Chamber?
This came highly recommended to me. I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll see how good I do with this one, then I’ll come back to you for some advice before I tackle any other others. Are the books difficult but worthy of the effort, or just difficult?
During Covid, I started learning elementary Greek, and, though it was (is!) a ton of work, it has been a truly rewarding learning experiences, more so than ever I could have imagined. I developed my own self taught course through intermediate Greek and one of my favorite parts of this whole endeavor, is that I have a built a phenomenal library of Greek reference books – – actually in print. If they were a 12 step program for people who like reference books, I would be the Poster child. But the things I’ve learned about our own language from Greek has been eye-opening. I almost had a double major in the classics and undergrad, but I came to it too late and didn’t get to work on a language like Greek or Latin. I’m glad that I’m doing it now.
I’m seeing a lot of political reading on lists. I’m back on Stefan Zweig again so I can be reminded that we’ve gone through this before (I suppose it’s not really ‘hopeful’ reading, because he ultimately couldn’t see a way to the world he envisioned and ended his life in 1942, but I find his thinking refreshing and he’s been a favourite for a few years now). (Sidenote: I don’t read much fiction nowadays and haven’t read any of his, so I can’t comment on that, though his books were popular in his day and still sell well now. I like his non-fiction.)
I see some very heavy books on this list (Iain Mcgilchrist!) so some of you might be interested in Science and Sanity by Alfred Korzybski, which I have been struggling through for months now (it’s 800+ pages, but also each page melts your brain a bit and you will spend a lot of time thinking about what you’ve just read rather than reading). The book is basically the foundation of non-Aristotelian thinking, which he pretty much invented by himself (he was a philosopher and mathematician). He’s the originator of the idea “the map is not the territory”, I.e. that a description of something is not the thing itself, and that this is true for everything - we rely on models to think, but all our models are flawed because they are just representations of the world, not the world itself.
I’ve also been reading Alan Rickman’s journals, because what is life without a bit of whimsy. (I like published diaries anyway, but he had a dry wit that was amusing, and it’s a fascinating window into acting and film-making as a craft).
If you have the time and energy, Dream of the Red Chambers would also be good. Probably best order is: The Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh) - 14th century, Romance of the Three Kingdoms (14th century), Journey to the West (16th century), then Dream of the Red Chambers (18th century).
They represent different genres but are a major element of the Chinese literary canon. Outlaws is a narrative about heroics, and political struggle. The Three Kingdoms epitomizes the historical novel (part fact/part fiction), Journey to the West is about epic travel and is part fantasy, part legend, and traverses across Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism and pantheon of deities, whilst Dream of the Red Chambers is a family drama, following the rise and fall of a Chinese family. All of them have a large cast of characters which is eminently confusing but once you get into each book, it’s easier to remember the key characters. Journey to the West was made into a Japanese tv series for children (nominally). However, it is quite enjoyable and humorous and boasts a range of quirky characters, lead by the Monkey King. If you are inclined watch the original tv series not the animated series. Getting through all 4 books is a challenge but one which ultimately rewards with great insights into Chinese culture and history.
Umbers Eco. In the Name of the Rose is a medieval whodunnit, (made into an entertaining movie with Sean Connery). It has both a clear plot but deeper philosophical elements if you dig into the text. Eco’s later books are difficult and may be worth it if you like picking apart more obtuse philosophical elements. Noting you are a lawyer, if you have a jurisprudence inclination it may appeal. That said even Umberto Eco himself has said that his books can be too difficult and require you to sit with book in hand an a pencil, and take the time to ponder a page of meaning for 2 weeks. Foucault’s Pendulum would be the next book to read which is less dense. I have tried voyaging further into his writings but abandoned them after a third of the way through, primarily because they were too dense, and I felt on occasions ‘clever for the sake of being clever’. However, noting you are studying Greek, that may make the journey easier.
One of his quotes I like is he talks about his personal library and calls it his ‘anti-library’. The books are not there to demonstrate his learnedness, as vast quantities have yet to be read. Rather, they are a reminder of how much he still needs to read and learn.
