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

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