required reading
I’m an avid reader — averaging about two books a week — across literary fiction, business, economics, history, culture, philosophy, science and more. Since this website focuses on business writing, here are a few of the top business and management books that have made the biggest impact on my career as a marketing leader.
Reading List
For the lasty few years I’ve tracked tracked my reading to keep my memory sharp and to share good books with my friends and colleagues. Here are the books I've read (descending from present), with occasional breaks where I quit tracking for several months at a time. Also, If you’re also a big reader, connect with me on Goodreads.
Updated 5/11/20
2020
238. Leckie, Ann - Ancillary Justice
237. Lencioni, Patrick - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
236. Louis, Edouard - The End of Eddy
235. Wells, Martha - All Systems Red
234. Banks, Iain M. - Player of Games
233. Simmons, Dan - Hyperion
234. Watts, Peter - Blindsight
233. Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Dispossessed
231. Ferrante, Elena - My Brilliant Friend
230. Allison, Graham - Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
229. Pessl, Marisha - Night Film
228. Oster, Emily - Crib Sheet
227. Brinker, Scott - Hacking Marketing
226. Holiday, Ryan - Growth Hacker Marketing
225. Tybout, Alice - Kellogg On Marketing
224. Tokarczuk, Olga - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
223. Ballard, J.G. - Crash
222. Wilson, Kea - We Eat Our Own
221. Plato - Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo
220. Russell, Bertrand - The Problems of Philosophy
219. Christensen, Clay - How Will You Measure Your Life
218. Christensen, Clay - The Innovator’s Dilema
217. Matheson, Richard - Hell House
216. Rhys, Jean - Good Morning, Midnight
215. Barrett, Andrea - Ship Fever: Stories
214. Rovelli, Carlo - The Order of Time
213. Herbert, Frank - Dune
<<< Somewhere in here I had a baby and stopped tracking most of my reading for about a year. I’ve tried to jot down here the books I remembered reading, but definitely left out quite a few. >>>
2019
213. Herbert, Frank - Dune
212. Gordis, Daniel - Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
211. Nunez, Sigrid - The Friend
210. Jeffrey, Mark - Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know
209. Dweck, Carol S. - Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
208. Lahiri, Jumpha - Interpreter of Maladies: Stories
207. Moore, Geoffrey A. - Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products
206. Barta, Thomas - 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader
205. Oakley, Barbara - A Mind for Numbers
204. Brott, Armin - The Expectant Father
203. Lanier, Jaro - Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts
202. HBR - On Mental Toughness
201. Wells, Martha - All Systems Red
200. Langan, John - The Wide, Carnivorous Sky
199. Bonnet, James - Stealing Fire From the Gods
198. Dempster, Craig - The Rise of the Platform Marketer
197. Kamiya, Gary - Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco
196. Ligotti, Thomas - Teatro Grotesco
195. Evenson, Brian - Last Days
194. Saramago, Jose - Blindness
Past: 2018
193. Evenson, Brian - Last Days
<<< I stopped tracking my reading for several months in this period. I am also going to begin to track notable longform reads and short stories — not just books >>>
192. Steel, Jon - Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business
191. Wu, Tim - The Attention Merchants
190. Barry, Pete - The Advertising Concept Book
189. Hollandsworth, Skip - The Midnight Assassin
188. Greene, Robert - Mastery
187. Hart, William - The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught By S.N. Goenka
186. Church, Alan - The High Potential's Advantage
185. Greger, Michael - How Not to Die
184. Foer, Jonathan Safron - Eating Animals
183. Wolff, Michael - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
182. Kozol, Jonathan - Shame of the Nation
181. Matheson, Richard - Hell House
180. Culdasa - The Mind Illuminated
179. Gunaratana, Bhante - Mindfulness in Plain English
2017
178. Currid-Halkett, Elizabeth - The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class
177. Machen, Arthur - The Great God Pan
176. Rand, Ken - From Idea to Story in 90 Seconds
175. Straub, Peter - Ghost Story
174. Lansdale, Joe R. - The Bottoms.
173. Malerman, Josh - The Bird Box.
172. Barker, Clive - The Hellbound Heart.
171. Ligotti, Thomas - Songs of a Dead Dreamer.
170. Barron, Laird - The Imago Sequence.
169. Langan, John - The Fisherman.
168. King, Stephen - Salem’s Lot.
167. Barker, Clive - Books of Blood.
166. Mievelle, China - The City & The City.
165. Okorafor, Nnedi - Binti.
164. Jesimin, N.K. - The Fifth Season.
163. Liu, Cixin - The Three Body Problem.
162. VanderMeer, Jeff - Annihilation.
161. Kaushik, Avinash - Web Analytics 2.0.
160. Stavridis, James - The Leader’s Bookshelf.
159. Bonnet, James - Stealing Fire From the Gods.
158. HWA - On Writing Horror.
157. Ramo, Joshua Cooper - The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune and Survival in the Age of Networks.
156. Pressfield, Steven - The War of Art.
155. Cabane, Olivia Fox - The Charisma Myth.
154. Trott, David - Creative Mischief.
153. HBR 10 Must-Reads: For New Managers.
152. HBR 10 Must-Reads: Managing Yourself.
151. HBR 10 Must-Reads: Managing People.
150. HBR 10 Must-Reads: Leadership.
149. Scalzi, John - The Collapsing Empire.
148. Cronin, Justin. The Passage.
147. Percy, Benjamin. Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction.
2016
146. Wilhelm, Kate. Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop.
145. Pancake, Breece D'J. The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake.
144. Clements, Jonathan. How to Think About Money.
143. Shah, Sonia. Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola.
142. Collins, J.L. The Simple Path to Wealth.
141. Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time.
140. Adichie, Chimimanda Ngozi. Americanah.
139. Herr, Michael. Dispatches.
138. Lispector, Clarice. The Hour of the Star.
137. Kondo, Marie. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
136. Godin, Seth. Linchpin.
135. Gordon, Avi. MBA Admissions Strategy: From Profile Building to Essay Writing.
134. Gospe, Mike. Marketing Campaign Development.
133. Stevens, Ruth P. Maximizing Lead Generation.
132. Pulizzi, Joe. Epic Content Marketing.
131. Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow.
130. Modiano, Patrick. Suspended Sentences.
129. Solnit, Rebecca. Men Explain Things to Me.
128. Eggers, Dave. The Circle.
127. Hersh, Seymour. The Killing of Osama Bin Laden.
126. Cain, Susan. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.
125. Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me.
124. Castellani, Christopher. The Art of Perspective.
123. Didion, Joan. Play It As It Lays.
122. Lish, Atticus. Preparations for the Next Life.
121. Smith, Dominic. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos.
2015
120. Baldwin, James. Go Tell it on the Mountain.
119. Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day.
118. Cohan, Tony. On Mexican Time: A New Life in San Miguel.
117. Saval, Nikil. Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace.
117. Salter, James. A Spot and a Pastime.
116. Crawford, Matthew B. The World Beyond Your Head.
115. Johnson, Dennis. The Laughing Monsters.
114. DeLillo, Don. White Noise.
113. Browner, Jesse. How Did I Get Here?
112. Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime.
111. Wallace, David Foster. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments.
110. Darnielle, John. Wolf in White Van.
109. Rosenbaum, Ron. Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil.
108. Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres.
107. Gass, William. In the Heart of the Heart of the Country.
106. Salter, James. Dusk.
105. Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky.
2014
104. St. Aubyn, Edward. The Patrick Melrose Novels.
103. Ferrante, Elena. Days of Abandonment.
102. Faulkner, William. Go Down, Moses.
101. Schneider, Peter. The Wall Jumper.
100. Vann, David. Legend of a Suicide.
99. Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America.
98. Carver, Raymond. Where I’m Calling From.
97. Davis, Lydia. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis.
96. McCarthy, Cormac. The Road.
95. Boll, Heinrich. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.
94. Shalamov, Varlam. Kolyma Tales.
93. Stone, Robert. Bear and His Daughter.
::: Highlight: "Helping"
92. Dexter, Pete. Paris Trout.
91. Bowles, Paul. Collected Stories 1939-1976.
::: David Shields told me that all you have to read is "A Distant Episode," and you've read every Paul Bowles story.
90. Dobyns, Stephen. Best Words. Best Order.
::: Highlight: his essay on metaphor.
89. Millhauser, Steven. The Knife Thrower: And Other Stories.
88. Bezmozgis, David. Natasha and other Stories.
::: Highlights: "Natasha"
87. Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad.
::: I had avoided this because of all the hype (kind of a stupid reason), but I absolutely loved it. Great example of a linked story collection that is more than the sum of its parts--perhaps why it's officially a "novel."
86. Strugatsky, Arkady & Boris. Roadside Picnic.
85. Gavron, Jeremy. Moon.
84. Carson, Anne. Autobiography of Red.
83. Johnson, Denis. Angels.
2013
82. Ross, Alex. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.
::: A wonderful primer on twentieth-century classical music. Even if you aren't a fan of classical, it's worth reading for the ways in which Ross describes music and sound.
81. Hofstadter, Douglas R. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
::: I'll be honest and admit that much of this book went over my head. One strange side effect: I came out of it obsessed with classical music.
80. Kelly, Kevin. What Technology Wants.
::: I couldn't shake the feeling that the entire premise was a little suspect. Still, a thought-provoking read.
79. Hofstadter, Douglas R. I Am a Strange Loop.
78. DeWitt, Patrick. The Sisters Brothers.
77. Doyle, Roddy. The Commitments.
76. Nyren, Ron, and Stone, Sarah. Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers.
::: This is a nice high-level survey of craft issues. I wish I had read it earlier in my writing career.
75. Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita.
::: Not a fan of this one at all.
74. Doctrow, E.L. The March.
::: During a break from school I read this intermittently while watching the Ken Burns documentary "The Civil War." I recommend the pairing; one enriches the other.
73. Keret, Etgar. Suddenly, A Knock on the Door.
::: Highlights: "Chesus Christ"
72. Ondaatje, Michael. Divisadero.
::: Amazing prose style, and mostly great story, but the ending left me a little unfulfilled. I recommend the book nevertheless.
71. Canin, Ethan. Emporer of the Air: Stories.
70. O'Connor, Flannery. The Complete Stories.
69. Percy, Benjamin. Refresh, Refresh.
68. MacLeod, Alistair. Island: The Complete Stories.
::: Very deliberate, emotionally resonant stories.
67. Orner, Peter. Last Car over the Sagamore Bridge.
::: Great collection of Orner's very short and powerful fiction.
66. Salter, James. Light Years.
::: Beautiful, lyrical novel. Every writer should read this.
65. Munro, Alice. The Moons of Jupiter.
64. Fehrenbach, T. R. Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans.
::: Eight-hundred pages of TX history. YeeHaw!
63. Galloway, J. R. The Servant Girl Murders: Austin, TX 1885.
62. Eggers, Dave. A Hologram for the King.
61. Bass, Rick. The Hermit’s Story.
60. Holmes, A. M. Music for Torching.
59. Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse.
58. Pynchon, Thomas. Slow Learner: Early Stories.
57. Doctrow, E. L. The Book of Daniel.
::: One of my favorite novels of all time. Fiercely recommended.
56. Jauss, David. Alone With All That Could Happen: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom About the
Craft of Writing Fiction.
55. Johnson, Denis. Train Dreams.
54. Russell, Karen. St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.
53. Jones, Thom. The Pugilist at Rest: Stories.
52. Somerville, Patrick. This Bright River.
51. McCarthy, Cormac. Child of God.
::: Just your run of the mill homocidal necropheliac novel.
50. Haruf, Kent. Plainsong.
::: Beautiful novel; It's word the read for the descriptions of rural Colorado alone.
49. Ford, Richard. Rock Springs.
::: Great read. I learned a lot about short story form and structure from Richard Ford.
48. Saunders, George. Pastoralia.
47. Hemingway, Ernest. The Short Stories.
::: After fifty consecutive Hemingway short stories you'll be ready to shoot an iceberg with an elephant gun.
46. Baxter, Charles. Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction.
45. Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space.
::: Profound subject matter, but also profoundly boring. Good late-night insomnia read.
2012
44. Maxwell, William. So Long, See You Tomorrow.
43. McCarthy, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses.
42. Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Perpetual Orgy: Flaubert and Madame Bovary.
::: Recommended if you plan on tackling Madame Bovary. Vargas Llosa was a great guide. Nabokov also published a lecture on the book that is worth reading.
41. Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary.
::: I read the Francis Steegmuller translation, and recommend it. I've also heard the Lydia Davis translation is great as well.
40. Erdrich, Louise. The Round House.
39. Munro, Alice. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.
38. Moore, Lorrie. Like Life.
37. Cullen, David. Columbine.
::: The definitive book on the massacre. It's amazing how much the facts differ from the popular narrative of why Columbine happened.
36. Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides.
::: Beautiful novel.
::: My annotation: The Beginning of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides
35. Dubus, Andre. Selected Stories.
::: My annotation: Pivot Points in Andre Dubus' "The Fat Girl"
34. Watson, Brad. Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives: Stories.
::: I wrote about this in a double annotation: Narrative Time in Cary Holladay’s “Merry-Go-Sorry” and Brad Watson’s “Fallen Nellie”
33. Wood, James. How Fiction Works.
32. Carver, Raymond. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories.
::: A must-read for every short story writer. Worth reading Carver's essay on writing, too.
::: My annotation: Free Indirect Style in Raymond Carver’s “After the Denim”
28. Johnson, Dennis. Jesus’ Son.
::: Ruined me. I've been trying to write like DJ ever since.
::: My annotation: Characterization in Denis Johnson’s “Work”
31. Baldwin, James. Going to Meet the Man.
::: My annotation: Flashback in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”
30. Yates, Richard. Revolutionary Road.
::: My annotation: Detail in Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road
29. O’Connor, Frank. The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story.
28. Canin, Ethan. The Place Thief: Stories.
::: My annotation: The Fast-Forward Ending of Ethan Canin’s “Batorsag and Szerelem”
27. Joyce, James. Dubliners.
::: My annotation: Exploring the Ending of James Joyce's "The Clay"
26. Holladay, Cary. The Palace of Wasted Footsteps.
::: Not an easy book to track down, but worth the effort. "Merry-Go-Sorry" from this collection is a haunting fictional account of the West Memphis Three murders. Worth owning for that story alone.
::: My annotation: Aspects of Omniscient Narration in Cary Holladay’s “Merry-Go-Sorry”
::: I also wrote about this in a double annotation: Narrative Time in Cary Holladay’s “Merry-Go-Sorry” and Brad Watson’s “Fallen Nellie”
25. Boswell, Robert. The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction.
::: Highlight: "On Omniscience"
24. Chekhov, Anton. Stories of Chekhov.
::: My annotation: Structure in Anton Chekhov’s “Sleepy”
23. Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them.
::: Highlight: "Learning from Chekhov"
22. Aristotle. Poetics.
21. Cather, Willa. The Professor’s House.
::: I loathed this book and would have put it down if it were not for an assignment.
::: My annotation: Character Description in Willa Cather's The Professor's House
20. Baxter, Charles. The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot.
::: A great little craft book for writers, particularly useful for the sections on dialog.
19. Adichie, Chimamanda. Half of a Yellow Sun.
::: One of my favorites.
18. Coetzee, J.M. The Life and Times of Michael K.
17. Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room.
16. Cameron, Peter. Coral Glynn.
15. Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying.
::: Great book with an absolutely shattering ending that left me in tears.
14. Robinson, Marilyn. Gilead.
::: I hated it. But everyone else loves it. You be the judge.
13. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men.
::: Audiobook is read by Gary Sinese; I recommend it on a long drive.
12. Proulx, Annie. Close Range: Wyoming Stories.
::: If you're wondering where to start with Annie Proulx, start here. A wonderful collection that puts her stylistic range on display.
11. Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas.
::: Somehow less than the sum of its parts.
10. Glover, Douglas. Attack of the Copula Spiders.
::: Highlghts: "The Drama of Grammar"
9. Jauss, David, ed. Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight from Vermont College of Fine Arts M.F.A. Program.
::: A great MFA-level writing craft book
8. O’Brien, Tim. In the Lake of the Woods
::: A friend who studied under Tim O'Brien told me that, of all of his books, he viewed this one as his best. I can't say I agree.
7. Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises.
6. Hemingway, Ernest. In Our Time.
5. Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury.
::: I understood the novel much better the second time around, and after reading this Amazon review.
4. Fernandez, Humberto. Heroin.
::: Not the kind of depth I was looking for on the epidemic. Very little here you couldn't glean from Wikipedia.
3. Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast.
2. Banks, Russell. Lost Memory of Skin.
1. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby.