• A list of books I’ve read since October 2016. For more on what I’m reading right now, check out my currently reading posts.
• Reverse chronological order of when I read them. Most recent is at the top.
• Books I strongly recommend are starred ★

2025

44 BOOKS
22 non-fiction, 22 fiction

• Pheasant Tail Simplicity by Chouinard, Mathews, and Mazzo (2025)
• There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (2025)
• Valkyrie (Expeditionary Force Book 9) by Craig Alanson (2020)
• Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller (2020)
• Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2019)
• Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries 5) by Martha Wells (2020)
• The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson (2018)
• River Flowers by Robert J. Romano, Jr (2021)
• Exit Strategy (Murderbot Diaries 4) by Martha Wells (2018)
• Ensorcelled by Eliot Peper (2025)
• The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan (2018) ★
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (2025) ★
• Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries 3) by Martha Wells (2018)
• The Cape Cod Mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (1931)
• Common Ground: A Naturalist’s Cape Cod by Robert Finch (1981)
• Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries 2) by Martha Wells (2018)
• How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson (2015) ★
• All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries 1) by Martha Wells (2017) – recommended by Kat O’Dea
• Armageddon (Expeditionary Force Book 8) by Craig Alanson (2019)
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2023) – recommended by Kat O’dea
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (2014) – recommended by staff at Transom Bookshop and Colin & Hayden
• 88 Names by Matt Ruff (2020) – recommended by owner of By-the-Dam books
• James by Percival Everett (2024) ★
• Ride with me, Mariah Montana by Ivan Doig (1990)
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008)
• Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (2021) ★
• Good Fishing Close to New York City by Jim Capossela (1985)
• Fran Betters’ Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, and Pattern Guide by Fran Betters (1986)
• The Control of Nature by John McPhee (1989)
• Tenkara Today by Morgan Lyle (2019)
• Trout Fishing in the Catskills by Ed van Put (2007) ★
• Nineteen Reservoirs by Lucy Sante (2022)
• Fly Fishing Small Streams by John Gierach (1989)
• Renegades (Expeditionary Force Book 7) by Craig Alanson (2019)
• The Bug Book by Paul Weamer (2017)
• Trout and their Food by Dave Whitlock (2010)
• The Soft-Hackled Fly and Tiny Soft Hackles by Sylvester Nemes (2006)
• Wet Flies by Dave Hughes (2015)
• Reading Trout Water by Dave Hughes (2010) ★
• Tying & Fishing Soft-Hackled Nymphs by Allen Mcgee (2007)
• How to Fool Fish with Simple Flies by Paul Gaskell and John Pearson (2017)
• Polostan by Neal Stephenson (2024)
• And a Bottle of Rum by Wayne Curtis (2007)
• The Feather Bender’s Flytying Techniques by Barry Ord Clarke (2020)

2024

30 BOOKS
14 non-fiction, 16 fiction

• Irons in the Fire by John McPhee (1997)
• Mavericks (Expeditionary Force Book 6) by Craig Alanson (2018)
• Zero Hour (Expeditionary Force Book 5) by Craig Alanson (2018)
• A Perfect Spy by John le Carré (1986)
• Simple Fly Fishing by Yvon Chouinard, Mauro Mazzo and Craig Mathews (2019) ★
• Fly Fishing the Croton Watershed by Croton Watershed Trout Unlimited Chapter (2023)
• Simple Flies by Morgan Lyle (2015) ★
• Tenkara Kebari: Traditional & Kebari-Inspired Trout Patterns by David E. Dirks (2020)
• Tenkara: The Book by Daniel Galhardo (2017) ★
• Not Til We Are Lost (Bobiverse Book 5) by Dennis E. Taylor (2024)
• The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey (1975) ★
• Black Ops (Expeditionary Force Book 4) by Craig Alanson (2017)
• Paradise (Expeditionary Force Book 3) by Craig Alanson (2017)
• Reap3r by Eliot Peper (2022)
• SpecOps (Expeditionary Force Book 2) by Craig Alanson (2017)
• Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (2021) – recommended by Meathead Goldwyn on Twitter
• Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force Book 1) by Craig Alanson (2016)
• Foundry by Eliot Peper (2023)
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2011)
• Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz (2023) ★
• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2018) ★
• Potty Training in 3 Days by Brandi Brucks (2016)
• Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki (2015)
• The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone (2017) ★
• The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Norr (2020)
• Turning Wood by Richard Raffan (1985) ★
• The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (2024) ★
• Dare to Sketch by Felix Scheinberger (2017) ★
• Freehand by Helen Birch (2013)
• Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig (1987) ★

2023

29 BOOKS
10 non-fiction, 19 fiction

• Liberty’s Daughter by Naomi Kritzer (2023)
• The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli (2017) ★
• Birdseye: Adventures of a Curious Man by Mark Kurlansky (2012) ★
• System of the World (Baroque Cycle book 8) by Neal Stephenson (2004)
• The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (2023) ★
• Candle by John Barnes (2000)
• Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards (2017)
• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss (2016)
• The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier (2016)
• Currency (Baroque Cycle book 7) by Neal Stephenson (2004)
• Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte (2022)
• Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara (2022)
• Shores of Bohemia: A Cape Cod Story, 1910-1960 by John Taylor Williams (2022) ★
• Simone by Eduardo Lalo (2011)
• Cod by Mark Kurlansky (1997) ★
• American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen (2010) ★
• Golden Son by Pierce Brown (2015)
• Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez (2023)
• Delta-v by Daniel Suarez (2019)
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (2016)
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2014)
• Solomon’s Gold (Baroque Cycle book 6) by Neal Stephenson (2004)
• Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (1945) ★
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1995)
• Freedom™️ by Daniel Suarez (2010)
• Daemon by Daniel Suarez (2006) ★
• Recursion by Blake Crouch (2019) ★
• The Juncto (Baroque Cycle book 5) by Neal Stephenson (2004)
• Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (2002)

2022

26 BOOKS
10 non-fiction, 16 fiction

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020) ★
• The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky (2006)
• Trust by Hernan Diaz (2022) ★
• Woodswoman by Anne LaBastille (1976) ★
• A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks by Brad Edmondson (2021)
• The Adirondack Reader by Paul F. Jamieson (1982) ★
• Bonanza (Baroque Cycle book 4) by Neal Stephenson (2004)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019) ★
• Odalisque (Baroque Cycle book 3) by Neal Stephenson (2003)
• English Creek by Ivan Doig (1984) ★
• King of the Vagabonds (Baroque Cycle book 2) by Neal Stephenson (2003)
• 12 ways to be better to work with by Jaimee Finney (2021)
• Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle book 1) by Neal Stephenson (2003)
• A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (2005)
• American Buffalo by Steven Rinella (2008)
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (2022)
• The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi (2006)
• Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson (2021)
• The Valley of the Horses by Jean M. Auel (1980)
• The Amish: A Concise Introduction by Steven M. Nolt (2016)
• Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb (2018) ★
• The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (1923)
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934) ★
• Dust by Hugh Howey (2016)
• The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (1980)
• Truffle Hound by Rowan Jacobsen (2021) ★

2021

36 BOOKS

• Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P. G. Wodehouse (1954) ★
• Very Important People by Ashley Mears (2020)
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré (1963) ★
• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020)
• Shift by Hugh Howey (2013)
• Mexico by James A. Michener (1992)
• The End of All Things by John Scalzi
• Wool by Hugh Howey (2011)
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
• Smalltime by Russell Shorto (2021)
• The Human Division by John Scalzi (2013)
• Very Good, Jeeves! by P. G. Wodehouse ★
• Apex by Ramez Naam (2015)
• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (2012)
• The Last Colony by John Scalzi (2007)
• The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin (2018) ★
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930) ★
• The Tide: The Science and Stories Behind the Greatest Force on Earth by Hugh Aldersey-Williams (2016) ★
• The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi (2007) ★
• The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain (2019) ★
• Looking for a Ship by John McPhee (1965) ★
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (2005) ★
• Friday by Robert Heinlein (1982)
• Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021)
• The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson (1975)
• Outland by Dennis E. Taylor (2015)
• The Singularity Trap by Dennis E. Taylor (2018)
• The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch (2018) ★
• Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein (2017)
• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (2002) ★
• The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo (2019)
• Building an Adirondack Guideboat by John D. Michne (2018)
• Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord (2018)
• Intimations by Zadie Smith (2020)
• Oranges by John McPhee (1967) ★
• The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse (1938) ★

2020

27 BOOKS

• Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler (2016)
• Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson (2012)
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Pearl Poet (Tolkien translation) (1925) ★
• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor (2020) ★
• Once Upon a Time in the North by Phillip Pullman (2008)
• Psmith, Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse (1915) ★
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
• Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard (1990)
• Heaven’s River by Dennis E. Taylor (2020) ★
• Homeland by Cory Doctorow (2013)
• Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
• Goodbye to a River by John Graves (1959) ★
• Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee (1975) ★
• The Amber Spyglass: His Dark Materials, Book 3 by Phillip Pullman (2000)
• Crux by Ramez Naam (2013)
• Nexus by Ramez Naam (2012)
• Veil by Eliot Peper (2020)
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (2020)
• Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry (1990)
• The Powers of the Earth (Aristillus Book 1) by Travis J. I. Corcoran (2017)
• Xenogenesis by Octavia Butler (1987) ★
• Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (2016)
• The Subtle Knife: His Dark Materials, Book 2 by Phillip Pullman (1997)
• God’s Kingdom by Howard Frank Mosher (2015)
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (2007) ★
• The Anarchist’s Tool Chest by Christopher Schwarz (2011) ★
• Exhalation by Ted Chiang (2019) ★

2019

33 BOOKS

• The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials, Book 1 by Phillip Pullman (1995)
• Malagash by Joey Comeau (2017)
• Basin and Range: Annals of the Former World, Book 1 by John McPhee (1981)
• Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth by Gabriel Weinberg (2014)
• Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee (2006) ★
• The Founding Fish by John McPhee (2002) ★
• Atmosphaera Incognita by Neal Stephenson (2019)
• Wolf Boys by Dan Slater (2016)
• Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday (2019)
• Masters at Work: Becoming a Sommelier by Rosie Schaap (2019)
• Radicalized by Cory Doctorow (2019) ★
• The Pine Barrens by John McPhee (1967)
• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (1972) ★
• The Last Pirate of New York by Rich Cohen (2019) ★
• Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson (2019) ★
• The Boatbuilder by Daniel Gumbiner (2018)
• The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff (2019)
• The River of Kings by Taylor Brown (2017)
• Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression by Johann Hari (2018) ★
• A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean (1976)
• The New Right by Michael Malice (2019) ★
• Keep Going by Austin Kleon (2019)
• The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower (1978) ★
• When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink (2018)
• Discontent and its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London by Mohsin Hamid (2014)
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (2018) ★
• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (1990)
• Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen (2018)
• Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport (2019)
• A Work in Progress: A Journal by René Redzepi (2019) ★
• Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin (1983) ★
• The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen (2012) ★
• Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street by William Poundstone (2006)

2018

38 BOOKS

• The World is a Narrow Bridge by Aaron Thier (2018)
• Cape Cod by Henry David Thoreau (1908)
• The Outermost House by Henry Beston (1928) ★
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov (1951)
• Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (2017)
• Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark (2017)
• Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins by Garry Kasparov, Mig Greengard (2017)
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss (2016)
• Fashion Climbing by Bill Cunningham (2018)
• Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford (2009)
• Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda (2018)
• Bobiverse Trilogy by Dennis E. Taylor (2016) ★
• Niche Down by Christopher Lochhead & Heather Clancey (2018)
• Island by Alistair MacLeod (2000) ★
• The Great Halifax Explosion by John U. Bacon (2017)
• Hooked by Nir Eyal (2014)
• Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown (2017)
• Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World by Rand Fishkin (2018)
• Secret Sauce by Austen Allred (2017)
• Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald (2017)
• High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil (2018)
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2014) ★
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2017) ★
• Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick (2011)
• Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney (2016) ★
• Rise and Fall of the Dodo by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland (2017)
• “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” by Richard Feynman (1988)
• Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday (2018)
• Prediction Machines by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb (2018)
• Reamde by Neal Stephenson (2011) ★
• Mr. Eternity by Aaron Thier (2016)
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950)
• The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany (1967)
• Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday (2013)
• Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown (2007)
• Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller (2017)
• Kindred by Octavia Butler (1979) ★
• A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (2017) ★

2017

22 BOOKS

• Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams by Philip K. Dick (2017)
• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (2002) ★
• A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh (2015)
• The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice by Trevor Corson (2006)
• The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto (2004) ★
• Boon Island: Including Contemporary Accounts of the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley by Kenneth Roberts (1956)
• The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean by Trevor Corson (2004) ★
• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon (2014) ★
• Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan (2011)
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1968)
• The Gentle Giants of Ganymede by James P Hogan (1978)
• Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (2016)
• Inherit the Stars by James P Hogan (1977)
• Giants’ Star by James P Hogan (1981) ★
• On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks (2015)
• The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz (1959)
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber (1985)
• ‘Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!’: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman (1985) ★
• The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin (2007)
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (2014) ★
• Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth by Isaac Morehouse with Hannah Frankman (2017) ★
• Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald (2015)

2016

14 BOOKS

• Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss (2016)
• Townie: A Memoir by Andre Dubus III (2011)
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance (2016) ★
• Deep Work – Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport (2016)
• Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (2015) ★
• Maus I – My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman (1986) ★
• Algorithms to Live By – The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths (2016)
• Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison (1979)
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (1962)
• Pivot – The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One by Jenny Blake (2016)
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992) ★
• Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson (2010)
• My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir (1911)
• Touching the Wild by Joe Hutto (2014)