Reading List

Reading is how I feed my soul. I saw a comment somewhere that a small bookstore contains more wisdom than all of television, which I wholeheartedly agree with. My reading generally includes a mix of classics, popular fiction, science fiction, non-fiction, Christian non-fiction, memoirs, satire, and mountaineering literature.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the books I have read, in reverse chronological order. Mostly, this is for me to keep track of things, but if I didn’t enjoy or complete a book, it won’t be here, so you could perhaps use this as a source of inspiration if you’re in need of something new to read. Books featured here are a combination of physical books and e-books, which I read on an iPad.

2024

  • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
  • An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
  • The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God by Timothy Keller
  • The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
  • Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff
  • My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
  • Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy. by Bob Goff
  • The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, And Greed by John Vaillant
  • Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder by Gabor Maté
  • Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People by Bob Goff
  • The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
  • The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer
  • I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression by Terrence Real
  • Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, MD
  • Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road by Timothy Keller

2023

  • It by Stephen King
  • Breathless by Amy McCulloch
  • Structured Chaos: The unusual life of a climber by Victor Saunders
  • Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey
  • The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
  • Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
  • Where the Clouds Can Go by Conrad Kain
  • Native Air by Jonathan Howland
  • The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
  • Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks

2022

  • The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
  • Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson
  • What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves by Sam Allberry
  • Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter
  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
  • One Green Bottle by Elizabeth Coxhead
  • Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

2021

  • The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
  • Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
  • The Firm by John Grisham
  • The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
  • Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey
  • Carrie by Stephen King
  • The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition by Stephen King
  • 50 Percent of Mountaineering is Uphill by Susanna Pfisterer
  • The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
  • McTeague by Frank Norris
  • On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
  • The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

2020

  • Anna Karenin by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Rosemary Edmonds
  • Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre
  • At Home in Nature by Rob Wood
  • This Is Depression: A Comprehensive, Compassionate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Understand Depression by Diane McIntosh
  • The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by Armand Nicholi
  • Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley

2019

  • South by Ernest Shackleton
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
  • Educated by Tara Westover
  • Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
  • Beyond the Mountain by Steve House
  • Echoes: One Climber’s Hard Road to Freedom by Nick Bullock

2018

  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  • Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
  • China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
  • Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
  • The Bold and Cold: A History of 25 Classic Climbs in the Canadian Rockies by Brandon Pullan
  • Art of Freedom: The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka by Bernadette McDonald
  • Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose in the Avalanche Patch by Bruce Kay
  • Mountains in My Heart: A Passion for Climbing by Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner
  • A Purpose Ridden by Ryan Correy
  • Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  • Radical by David Platt
  • The 10 Best Decisions a Man Can Make: The Adventure of living in God’s Plan by Bill Farrel
  • Soul Surviver: How my Faith Survived the Church by Philip Yancey

2017

  • The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
  • Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
  • The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
  • The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
  • Disappointment with God by Philip Yancey
  • What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey
  • Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison
  • The Real Face of Atheism by Ravi Zacharias
  • The Problem of God by Mark Clark
  • Orthodoxy by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

2016

  • I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max
  • Sloppy Seconds by Tucker Max
  • Hilarity Ensues by Tucker Max
  • Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
  • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  • Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
  • Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
  • The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
  • One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

2015

  • Summit Fever. The Story of an Armchair Climber on the 1984 Mustagh Tower Expedition by Andrew Greig

2014

  • The Calling: A Life Rocked by Mountains by Barry Blanchard
  • One Day as a Tiger: Alex Macintyre and the Birth of Light and Fast Alpinism by John Porter
  • K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs
  • Annapurna: First Conquest of an 8000-meter Peak by Maurice Herzog
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

2013

  • Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
  • The Will to Climb: Obsession and Commitment and the Quest to Climb Annapurna–the World’s Deadliest Peak by Ed Viesturs

2012

  • No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks by Ed Viesturs
  • Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern
  • I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern

Earlier

Exact timing on when I read these is fuzzy, but I do remember these titles being worthwhile.

  • Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
  • Dune by Frank Herbert
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  • Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
  • Absolute Friends by John le Carré
  • The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
  • Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien
  • Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
  • The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
  • Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
  • Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
  • Deathwatch by Robb White