Books I Want To Read:

Modern Library top 100 novels (rival list)
(top non-fiction)
Modern Library
Last 25 Years of American Fiction (NYT)
Book Crossing; Book Trading
Join a book club like Stanford Book Salon or restart CYA's book club ?

Science News (current through Dec 2007)
MathTrek and Food for Thought current through Nov 12 2005, plus 2007 through august (don't know about gap)
Edge Magazine (rec from dad)

Non-Fiction

  • Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology by Brian C. Goodwin, Ricard Sole, both of the Santa Fe Institute.
  • All I Did Was Ask by Terry Gross
  • Backyard Ballistics
  • Stealing the Network: How To Own A Continent
  • 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses by American Heritage Publishing Company
  • (part of) Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard
  • Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
  • The Happiness Trip by Eduardo Punset ?
  • How to Be a Canadian or Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson
  • The Best Software Writing I by Joel Spolsky
  • The Wizard of Sun City ?
  • Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games or The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems or similar
  • The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention by Guy Deutscher ?
  • Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex ?
  • Sociological Justice by Donald Black
  • On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt
  • The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein ?
  • The Discoveries: Great Breakthroughs in 20th-century Science, Including the Original Papers edited by Alan Lightman
  • Monkeyluv by Robert Sapolsky
  • Nature Revealed: Selected Writings by Edward O. Wilson ?
  • Frontiers Past And Future: Science Fiction And the American West by Carl Abbott
  • Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life by Richard Herrnstein
  • A Mind of its Own by Cordelia Fine ?
  • Great Feuds in Mathematics by Hal Hellman
  • Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter Norton
  • Class Acts by Rachel Sherman ?
  • CIA Studies in Intelligence and also When everything is intelligence - nothing is intelligence, Strategic Warning: If Surprise is Inevitable, What Role for Analysis?
  • Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design by Edward Robbins ?
  • Science and Religion, edited by Paul Kurtz
  • Manhattan for Rent, 1785-1850 by Elizabeth Blackmar (rec from Di Yin)
  • Postmodern Pooh by Frederick Crews
  • We Might As Well Win by Johan Bruyneel
  • Kepler's Conjecture: How Some of the Greatest Minds in History Helped Solve One of the Oldest Math Problems in the World by George Szpiro (and no other books)
  • House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live by Winifred Gallagher ?
  • Great Books by David Denby ?
  • The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man by David Maurer (due to this On The Media report) ?
  • Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh ?
  • Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
  • Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea ?
  • The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs
  • Do You Speak American (DVD: 3 hours)
  • The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants by Jane Smith ?
  • Animal Investigators: How the World's First Wildlife Forensics Lab Is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species by Laurel Neme
  • Old Masters, New World: America's Raid on Europe's Great Pictures by Cynthia Saltzman
  • Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson (heard on science friday)?
  • Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer by Chuck Thompson ?
  • Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style by Randy Olson
  • Museum Legs: Fatigue and Hope in the Face of Art by Amy Whitaker ?
  • King Hui: The Man Who Owned All the Opium in Hong Kong by Jonathan Chamberlain ?
  • Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates by Adrian Johns (heard on BBC Thinking Allowed) ?
  • Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home by Doree Shafrir and Jessica Grose
  • Getting Things Done by David Allen
  • Work & Life

  • Downshifting: How to Work Less and Enjoy Life More by John Drake
  • Overworked American by Juliet Schor
  • Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life by Joe Robinson
  • Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
  • Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America by Tom Lutz
  • How to Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson
  • A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright (chapter on Easter Island; rec. by Edison) ?
  • Working At Play: A History of Vacations in the United States by Cindy Aron ?
  • Happier: Can You Learn to be Happy? by Tal Ben-Shahar ?
  • Economics

  • The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives by Michael Heller ?
  • The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
  • Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
  • SuperFreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner ?
  • Armchair Economist by Steven Landsburg ?
  • Hidden Order by David Friedman ?
  • The Economic Naturalist by Robert Frank (? partially because heard much of the book discussed on Forum) (read through chapter two)
  • Medicine

  • Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance and The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande (and no other books)
  • Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing World of Medicine by Jerome Groopman (and no other books)
  • Law

  • The Party of the First Part by Adam Freedman
  • Law in America: A Short History by Lawrence Friedman
  • The Transformation of American Law by Morton Horwitz ?
  • Writing

  • On Writing Well by William Zinsser (read through chapter 14 (bits & pieces))
  • When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better And/Or Worse by Ben Yagoda
  • Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done by Barbara Wallraff and Francine Prose ?
  • Um. . .: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean by Michael Erard ?
  • The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English by Henry Hitchings
  • Food

    (many of these authors have other books too)
  • On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
  • The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler
  • Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Katz (semi-cookbook)
  • Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food or A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines or maybe No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach or ... by Anthony Bourdain
  • Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by Steve Dublanica
  • My Life in France by Julia Child
  • The Tummy Trilogy by Calvin Trillin
  • The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman
  • Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner
  • The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer Lee
  • An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof
  • The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine by Rudolph Chelminski
  • Toast by Nigel Slater
  • The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten
  • Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life by Michael Lee West
  • Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure by Joseph Wechsberg
  • Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
  • Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop (also wrote well-regarded cookbooks)
  • In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
  • Food in Chinese Culture: Antropological and Historical Perspectives edited by K. C. Chang
  • Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink ?
  • The United States of Arugula by David Kamp ?
  • The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen by Jacques Pepin ?
  • Julie and Julia by Julie Powell ?
  • Life Is Meals by James Salter ?
  • The Debt to Pleasure: A Novel by John Lanchester ?
  • What's Your Food Sign? by Alan Hirsch ?
  • Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan ?
  • Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck ?
  • The World in My Kitchen: The Adventures of a (Mostly) French Woman in New York by Colette Rossant ?
  • Two for the Road: Our Love Affair with American Food by Jane Stern and Michael Stern ?
  • Hotel Bemelmans by Ludwig Bemelmans ?
  • The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steve Rinella ??
  • Diggin' In and Piggin' Out: The Truth About Food and Men by Roger Welsch ?
  • Food: The History of Taste by Paul Freedman (parts of) ?
  • Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes ?
  • Flash in the Pan: Life and Death of an American Restaurant by David Blum ?
  • Finance & Markets & Management

  • Winning by Jack Welch
  • The Wisdom of Crowds
  • Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management by Pfeffer and Sutton
  • The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
  • Consider Your Options
  • The Four Pillars of Investing
  • The Strategy & Tactics of Pricing
  • The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham ?
  • More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places by Michael Mauboussin ?
  • Fashion

  • Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion by Alan Flusser (?, because nearly all about formalwear)
  • The Indispensable Guide to Classic Men's Clothing by Josh Karlen (?, because nearly all about formalwear)
  • Classics

  • Scary Stories
  • Stendhal: The Red and the Black (partially done, on book two, chapter four, The Hotel de la Mole, about 2/3rds the way through the chapter) (book salon)
  • more plays by Moliere: The School for Wives Criticized, The Impromptu at Versailles, The Misanthrope, The Clever Women, The Imaginary Invalid (in addition to Tartuffe)
  • read (or see performed) Richard III, King Lear, and maybe Othello by Shakespeare
  • more Borges (Artifices (partially read), preferrably, or The Aleph, both in Collected Fictions)
  • stories by Chekhov (esp. translations by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear)
  • other stories besides The Marquise of O and Michael Kohlhass by Heinrich von Kleist
  • Memorandum (an essay) by E. B. White (don't know what book it is published in)
  • Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (such as Hound of the Baskervilles)
  • The Octopus by Frank Norris ?
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez, perhaps Chronicle of a Death Foretold ?
  • The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding ?
  • Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert ?
  • Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays or All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays by George Orwell ? (On The Media)
  • something by Lu Xun, perhaps The True Story of Ah Q or Diary of a Madman ?
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms (or simply: Three Kingdoms) by Luo Guanzhong, probably translation by Moss Roberts ?
  • Water Margin (a.k.a. Outlaws of the Marsh) by Shi Nai'An ?
  • Journey to the West (or simply: Monkey) by Wu Cheng'en (maybe translation by W.J.F. Jenner) ?
  • Peony by Pearl Buck ?
  • Life on The Mississippi by Mark Twain (rec by Jill L.) ?
  • Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad ?
  • Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
  • In The Penal Colony by Franz Kafka ?
  • Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Confessions of Zeno or Zeno's Conscience (same book, two translations) by Italo Svevo ?
  • A Thousand and One Nights by Scheherazade (perhaps translation The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights by Richard Burton)
  • Handbook of Political Fallacies by Jeremy Bentham ?
  • Fiction

  • Small World by David Lodge (sequel to Changing Places)
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (read through part two, chapter ten)
  • The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander Mccall Smith (read sixth-sevenths)
  • something by Carl Hiaasen
  • A Cup of Light by Nicole Mones
  • something (fiction or non-) by David Foster Wallace (perhaps the title essay in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) or maybe his articles
  • The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ?
  • Fierce Pajamas (New Yorker fiction) (partially read)
  • Lifemanship or One-Upmanship by Stephen Potter
  • The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles ?
  • Alternatives to Sex by Stephen McCauley
  • The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber ?
  • something by William Boyd ?
  • Black Swan Green by David Mitchell ?
  • The Road by Cormac Mccarthy ?
  • The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead ?
  • Time's Arrow by Martin Amis ?
  • A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor ?
  • Letting Loose the Hounds (short stories) or The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint (novel) by Brady Udall
  • Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (partially read)
  • The Baron in the Trees or Difficult Loves (or maybe The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount) by Italo Calvino
  • The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco ?
  • The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon ?
  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen ?
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky ?
  • Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley (heard on KQED interview)?
  • Blue Angel: A Novel by Francine Prose ?
  • When Red Is Black by Qiu Xiaolong ?
  • something by Mavis Gallant ?
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (rec by Bryson) ?
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy

  • more books by Vernor Vinge
  • A Game of Thrones (rec from Bryson and by Kevin Singleton) or the short story Sandkings by George R. R. Martin
  • Children of God by Mary Russell
  • Neverwhere by Gaiman (supposedly not as good as American Gods)
  • something by James Branch Cabell (rec. by Gaiman)
  • something by Roger Zelazny (rec. by Gaiman)
  • something (especially Deathbird Stories) by Harlan Ellison (rec. by Gaiman)
  • Uplift series (except for Sun Diver) by David Brin
  • Fire Watch (rec from Bryson), Lincoln's Dreams, or Impossible Things (or maybe Inside Job) by Connie Willis
  • The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Spin by Robert Wilson ?
  • Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny ?
  • Permutation City by Greg Egan ?
  • Puzzles

  • The Simple Book of Not-So-Simple Puzzles by Serhiy Grabarchuk (and others) (rec by Will Shortz)
  • Visual Art

  • Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: Watchmen ? (rec by Kevin Singleton)
  • Zits (Sketchbook 1-6)
  • Jon Stewart's America
  • a coffee-table book on Chihuly (e.g., de Young catalog)
  • What It Is by Lynda Barry
  • George Sprott by Seth
  • Humor

  • maybe Eat the Rich or maybe Give War a Chance or All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty (in addition to Parliament of Whores) by P. J. O'Rourke
  • Before the Mortgage: Real Stories of Brazen Loves, Broken Leases, and the Perplexing Pursuit of Adulthood by Christina Amini and Rachel Hutton (Editors)