2025

• Alex Karp and Nicholas Zamiska, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West. Read. Mar.
• Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities. Read. Feb.
• Michael Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross. Skimmed.
• Graham Greene, The Quiet American. Read.
• Søren Kierkegaard, The Last Years (read), Training in Christianity (read some), Concluding Unscientific Postscript (read some).

2024

• John Julius Norwich, The Other Conquest (The Normans in the South). Reading.
• James Joseph Walsh, The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries. Read in part.
• Larry Harris, Trading and Exchanges. Referenced.
• Qian, Hua, Sorensen. Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management. Read in part.
• Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil. Reading.
• Alain-René Lesage, Gil Blas. Reading, on and off.
• Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim. On hold.
• Paul Theroux, The Last Train to Zona Verde. Read. Apr.
• James Buchan, Frozen Desire. On hold.
• Alan Blinder, A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961 – 2021. Skimmed.
• Ron Chernow, The Death of the Banker. Read. Apr.
• Sebastian Mallaby, More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite. Read. Apr.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Double. Read.

2023

• John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Reading, on and off.
• William Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications, Vol. 2. On hold.
• Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. On hold.
• 1 & 2 Samuel. Read through.
• ████, ████. Palo Alto. Oct. Read.
• Bohumil Hrabel, Too Loud a Solitude. Palo Alto. Sep. Read.
• Knut Hamsun, Growth of the Soil. Athens. Read.
• Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago. Athens. Sampled.
• Jacob Burkhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. NYC. In progress.
• Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldy Wisdom. NYC.
• Jim Gatheral, The Volatility Surface. NYC. Referenced.
• Antti Ilmanen, Expected Returns on Major Asset Classes. NYC. Sampled.
• Nassim Taleb, Dynamic Hedging. NYC. Referenced.
• Dino Buzzati, The Tartar Steppe. NYC. Read.
• Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto. Palo Alto. Skimmed.
• Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince and parts of Discourses on Livy.
• Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis. Read through.
• Vladimir Soloviev, A short tale of the antichrist. Read through.
• Rene Girard, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Read 2/3.
• Carl Schmidt, Political Theology, The Concept of the Political, and Land and Sea. Read through.
• Karl Lowith, Meaning in History.
• Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.
• Mary Eberstadt, How the West Really Lost God.
• Henry George, Progress and Poverty.
• Alexander Kojeve, Tyranny and Wisdom (and response by Strauss).

2022

• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. Read. Athens, GA. Dec.
• David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. Read partly. Palo Alto. Nov.
• Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, ongoing. Palo Alto. Oct.
• Aaron Clarey, Enjoy the Decline. Read through. Palo Alto. Sep.
• Arthur Schopenhauer, various essays. France. Sep.
• Michel Houellebecq, H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life. Read through. Santa Clara. Sep.
• Knut Hamsun, Hunger. Read through. Portland. August.
• Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road. Read through. Seattle. August.
• Alexandre Dumas Pere, The Count of Monte Cristo. Started. Seattle. July.
• Genesis, trans. Robert Alter. Started. Seattle. July.
• Peter Thiel, Zero to One. CA. Read through. May.
• Reid Hoffman & Bes Casnocha, The Startup of You, 2nd ed.. CA. Read through. May
• Budd Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run?. CA. Read through, CA and GA. Apr.
• Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles. CA. On hold.
• Benvenuto Cellini, My Life, (Bondanella trans). CA. In progress.
• Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation. CA. In progress.
• David Williams, Probability with Martingales. CA. Apr.
• Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, Rework. CA. Mar. Read through.
• Westminster Larger Catechism. CA. Mar. Read through
• Tyler Cowen, Stubborn Attachments. CA. Mar. Read through.
• Ernst Jünger, Eumeswil. CA. Mar. Abandoned.
• David Cayley, Ivan Illich: An intellectual journey. CA. Mar. In progress.
• Ann Douglas, The Feminization of American Culture. CA. Mar. On hold.
• Callum G. Brown, The Death of Christian Britain. CA. Mar. On hold.
• H. R. Rookmaaker, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. CA. Mar. On hold.
• Paul Feyeraband, Against Method. CA. Mar. On hold.
• Geoffrey Hosking, Russia and the Russians. CA. Mar. In progress.
• Michel Houellebecq, In the Presence of Schopenhauer. CA. Feb.
• Friedrich Nietzsche, Schopenhauer as Educator. CA. Feb.
• David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs. Read through. CA. Feb.
• Ivan Illich, Medical Nemesis. Read through. CA. Jan.
• Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels. Read through. Airplanes. Jan.
• Sam Pink, Ice Cream Man and other stories. Read through. GA. Jan.

2021

• Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations. Read through. SSP, MN. Dec.
• Homer, The Odyssey. Read through. South St Paul, MN. Dec.
• J. K. Huysmans, Against Nature. Read through. All over. Dec.
• C. R. Wiley, Man of the House and The Household and the War for the Cosmos. Read through. Athens, GA. Dec.
• John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Read through. Athens, GA. Dec.
• Nassim Taleb, Skin in the Game. Read through. Athens, GA. Nov.
• James Burnham, Suicide of the West. Inspectional read. Athens, GA. Nov.
• James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State. Started. Palo Alto, CA.
• Leon Krier, Drawing for Architecture. “Read” through. Palo Alto, CA.
• Richard Fariña, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me. Read through. Palo Alto, CA.
• Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason. First attempt, abandoned. Palo Alto.
• John Williams, Butcher’s Crossing. Partially read. Palo Alto, CA and across the West.
• Dietrich Dörner, The Logic of Failure. Read quickly (this paper has the main insight). Athens, GA. Sep.
• August library reading (partially read or skimmed).

  • Quine, Word and Object
  • Girard, I see Satan fall like lightning
  • R. G. Collingwood, The Idea of History
  • Densmore, The American Indians and Their Music
  • Poincare, Science and Hypothesis
  • Mandelbrot's autobiography
  • Carlos Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650
  • Alexander Mikaberidze, The Napoleonic Wars: a global history
  • Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political and Leo Strauss's review
  • Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae
  • Knut Hamsun, On Overgrown Paths
  • Witold Gombrowicz's Diary
  • The Crucifixion by Fleming Rutledge
• ████, ████. Read through. Athens, GA. Aug.
• Tyler Cowen, Big Business. Read through. Athens, GA. Aug.
• Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle (book one). Read through. Athens, GA. Aug.
• Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan. Reread. Athens, GA. Aug.
• Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund. Read through. Athens, GA. Aug.
• Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Read through. Madison, WI. Jul.
• Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose. Read through. Madison, WI. Jul.
• Michel Houellebecq, Serotonin. Read through. Athens, GA. Apr.
• Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Read through. Madison, WI. Apr.
• Primo Levi, The Periodic Table. Read through. Madison, WI. Mar.
• Thomas Mann, “Death in Venice”. Read through. Madison, WI. Mar.
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness. Second reading. Madison, WI. Feb.
• Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols. Read through. Madison, WI. Feb.
• Chistopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism. Read through. Madison, WI. Jan.
• Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millenium. Read through. Madison, WI. Jan 13.

2020

• Emanuel Derman, Models Behaving Badly: Why confusing illusion with reality can lead to disaster on Wall Street and in life. Read through. Madison, WI. Dec.
• Michel Houellebecq, The Map and the Territory. Read through. Madison, WI. Dec.

  In my opinion, one of Houellebecq's best works. The theme, death; the setting, the world of high art. Houellebecq writes himself into the second half of the novel, which is both pretentious and hilarious. Recommended.

• Geir Kjetsaa, Fyodor Dostoevsky: A Writer’s Life. Read through. Madison, WI. Dec.
• Ian Stewart, Letters to a Young Mathematician. Read through. Madison, WI. Dec.
• Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons. Read through. Madison, WI. Nov.
• Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget. Read through. Madison, WI. Nov.
• C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves. Read through. Madison, WI. Nov.
• Luigi Pirandello, Short Stories. Read through. Madison, WI. Nov.
• Leo Tolstoy, “The Kreutzer Sonata” and “The Death of Ivan Ilych”. Read through. Madison, WI. Nov 5 and 6.
• Michel Houellebecq, Submission. Second time, read through. Madison, WI. Nov 4.
• Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Read through. Madison, WI. Oct 25.
• Don DeLillo, White Noise. Read through. Madison, WI. Oct 18.
• Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls, the Guerney translation. Read through, delightful. Madison, WI. Oct 15.
• T.H. Watkins, The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. Sampled. Madison, WI. September
• Herman Melville, Moby Dick. Read through. Madison, WI. September.
• Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind. Read through. Madison, WI. Aug 15.
• Walter Bruegmann, Sprawl: A Compact History. Read through. Madison, WI. August 11.
• James Clear, Atomic Habits. Read through. Madison, WI. August 9.

I start work at Epic.

• Usama ibn Munqidh, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades. Grazed.
• Boccaccio, Decameron. Book club suspended at Day 7 / 10.
• Dante, Inferno. Unfinished.
• Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita. Read through. Commerce, GA. July 13.
• The Book of Nahum. Read through. Commerce, GA. June 7.
• Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy. Inspectional read out of curiosity. Commerce, GA. June 2.
• Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions. Read through. Athens, GA. Finished reading all the stories.

I graduate college, remotely.

• Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory. Read through. Athens, GA.
• Erasmus, Praise of Folly. Read through. Athens, GA.
• W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge. Read through. Commerce, GA.

COVID-19 pandemic + quarantine.

• Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek. Read through. Athens, GA.
• Franz Kafka, Amerika. Read through. Athens, GA.
• Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Read through. Athens, GA.

Last semester as an undergraduate.

2019

• Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge. Read through. South St Paul, MN.
• Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian. Read through. South St Paul, MN.
• Tyler Cowen, The Complacent Class. Read through. South St Paul, MN.

Returned home for the holidays.

• James V. Schall, A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning. Reread. Athens, GA.
• Douglas Coupland, Generation X. Read through. Athens, GA.
• Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi). Read through. Athens, GA.
• André Malraux, Man’s Fate. Read through. Athens, GA.
• Italo Calvino, Marcovaldo. Read through. Athens, GA. Delightful stories, I’ll read them to my kids one day.
• Peter Mountford, A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism. Read through. Athens, GA.
• Nassim Taleb, Antifragile. Reread. Athens, GA.

Back in Athens for my senior year.

• Dante, Inferno. Incomplete. NYC.
• Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray. Read through. NYC.
• Michel Houellebecq, The Elementary Particles. Read through. NYC.
• Shusaku Endo, Silence. Read through. NYC.
• Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. Read through. NYC.
• Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow. Read through. NYC.
• J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey. Read through. NYC.

Interned in New York.

• John Steinbeck, East of Eden. Read through. Bali.
• John Owen, The Mortification of Sin. Read through.

Spring break in Bali.

• Cal Newport, Deep Work. Reread. Athens, GA.
• Ryan Holiday, Trust Me, I’m Lying. Read through. Athens, GA.
• Nassim Taleb, Fooled By Randomness. Read. Athens, GA.

Sixth semester at UGA. Reading records are incomplete.

2018

• Mark Mazower, The Balkans: A Short History. Read through. Budapest.
• Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls. Partial. Budapest.
• Fyodor Dostoyevksy, Crime and Punishment. Read through. Budapest.

Studied abroad in Budapest. Formed a book club that met at a cake shop to discuss Crime and Punishment.

• Raphael Patai, Apprentice in Budapest. Partial. South St Paul, MN. Aug.
• Brian Stock, Ethics through Literature. Partial. South St Paul, MN. Aug.
• Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism. Partial. South St Paul, MN. Aug.
• Walker Percy, The Moviegoer. Read through. South St Paul, MN. Aug.
• Edward Frenkel, Love and Math. Partial. South St Paul, MN. Aug.
• 1 Samuel. Read through. South St Paul, MN. Aug.
• Matt Kepnes, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day. Read through. South St Paul, MN. Aug.

Returned home from Worcester.

• Marilynne Roberts, The Givenness of Things. Partial. Worcester, MA. Jul.
• N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God. Partial. Worcester, MA. Jul.
• Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian. Partial. Worcester, MA. Jul.
• Nassim Taleb, Antifragile. Read through. Worcester, MA. Jul.
• The Gospel According to John. Read carefully. Worcester, MA. Jun.
• Eugene Vodolozkin, Laurus. Read through. Worcester, MA. Jun.
• C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce. Read through. Worcester, MA. Jun.
• Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan. Read through. South St Paul, MN. May.

Summer REU in Worcester, Massachusetts.

• Michel Houellebecq, Submission. Complete. Athens, GA. Or perhaps this was in 2019.
• Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach. Finished part one. Athens, GA. Apr.
• Ronald C. White Jr., The Second Inaugural: Lincoln’s Greatest Speech. Read through. Athens, GA. Mar.
• Beth Macy, Dopesick. Read through. Athens.
• Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Read through. Costa Rica. Mar.

Spring break in Costa Rica.

• David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest. Partial. Athens, GA. Feb.
• Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building. Partial. Athens, GA. Jan.
• Michel Houellebecq, Whatever. Complete. Athens, GA. Feb. My first Houellebecq, a gateway drug.
• Matt Anderson, The End of Our Exploring. Complete. Athens, GA.
• Timothy Keller, Prayer. Partial. Athens, GA. Feb.
• N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus. Read through. Athens, GA. Jan.

Fourth semester begins.

2017

• Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream. South St Paul, MN.
• Timothy Keller, Making Sense of God. Athens, GA. Dec.
• N. T. Wright, How God Became King and After You Believe. Athens, GA. Nov-Dec.
• Galatians. Complete. Athens, GA. Oct.
• The Gospel According to Luke. Complete. Athens, GA. Sep.

Third semester of college.

• Ernest Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying. Complete. South St Paul.
• The Gospel According to Matthew. Partial. South St Paul. Aug.
• E. M. Almedingen. St. Francis of Assisi. Complete. South St Paul. Aug.
• Louis L’Amour, Education of a Wandering Man. Complete. South St Paul. Aug.
• Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Educated Mind. Complete. South St Paul. Aug.
• Cervantes, Don Quixote. Incomplete. South St Paul. Jul.
• Jerram Barrs, Echoes of Eden. Complete. South St Paul. Jul.
• Susan Cain, Quiet. Complete. South St Paul. Jul.

Home.

• Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning. Complete. Tivat, Montenegro. Jul.
• Søren Kierkegaard, The Last Years. Sampled, then lost. Zagreb. Jun.
• Milan Kundera. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Complete. Prague. Jun.
• Fyodor Dostoyevksy, Crime and Punishment. Partial. Europe. Jun.

Backpacked around Europe.

• BBC. The Christians. Complete. Oxford. May.
• Shakespeare, Hamlet, Othello, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Measure for Measure. Complete, except for Measure for Measure. Oxford. May-Jun.

Studied in Oxford.

• Paul Kalinithi, When Breath Becomes Air. Read through. Athens, GA. Apr.
• Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church. Incomplete. Athens, GA. Apr.
• C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. Read through. Athens, GA. Apr.
• The Gospel According to John. Athens, GA. Mar.
• The Way of a Pilgrim. Read through. Athens, GA.
• John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez. Read through. Athens, GA. Mar.
• George Orwell, Road to Wigan Pier. Partial. Athens, GA.

Studied European History.

• The Gospel According to Matthew. Read through. Athens, GA. Feb.
• George Dyer, The Missing of the Somme. Read through. Athens, GA. Jan.
• C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. Read through. Athens, GA. Jan.
• Timothy Keller, The Reason for God. Read through. Athens, GA. Jan.
• Yann Martel, Life of Pi. Read through. Athens, GA. Jan.

Second semester at UGA.

2016

• Martin Luther King, Jr., A Testament of Hope. Selections. South St Paul, MN. Dec.
• Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die and The Alchemist. Athens, GA and South St Paul, MN. Nov-Dec.
• Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power. Partial. Athens, GA. Nov.
• Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Athens, GA. Oct.
• Anne Lamott, Bird By Bird. Athens, GA. Oct.
• Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions. Read selected stories for an incoming-freshman seminar. Invaluable.
• Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler. Athens, GA. Oct.
• Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. Athens, GA. Aug.

Started college at UGA.

• Albert Camus. The Plague. South St Paul, Aug. Only fiction of the summer.
• Velleman, How to Prove It. South St Paul, Aug. Read to prepare for my math major.
• Cedric Villani, Birth of a Theorem. South St Paul. Jul.
• Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way. South St Paul. Jul.
• Mortimer J Adler, How to Read a Book. South St Paul. Jul.
• Edmund Carpenter, They Became What They Beheld. South St Paul. Jul.
• Frederic Gros, A Philosophy of Walking. South St Paul. Jul. Started a snowball in my life.
• Clifford Pickover, The Math Book. South St Paul. Jun.
• Wynton Marsalis, Moving to Higher Ground. South St Paul. Jun.
• Cal Newport, Deep Work, How to Become a Stright-A Student, and How to Win at College. June.
• Matt Burriesci, Dead White Guys. Read through. South St Paul. June.
• Nicholas Carr, The Shallows. Read through. South St Paul. June.
• Alex Chediak, Beating the College Debt Trap. Read through. South St Paul. June.
• Paul Harding, Tinkers. Read through. South St Paul. June.
• Dale J Stephens, Hacking Your Education. Read through. South St Paul. May.
• Hermann Hesse, Siddharta. Read through. South St Paul. May.
• Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers. Read through. South St. Paul. Mar.
• Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half. Read through. South St Paul. Mar.

I would find lots of interesting books to read while working at the public library.

• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. Read through. South St Paul. Mar. For school.
• Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle. Read through. South St Paul. Mar.
• Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea. Read through. South St Paul. Mar.
• Tom Hodgkinson, How to be Idle. Read through. South St Paul. Jan. This book worried my parents.

The year I graduated from high school and went to college.