2024 Reading List

One of my goals is to replace all the TV I watch (an obscene amount during and post-pandemic) with reading. I did pretty well with it towards the end of 2023. The goal is actually to read 24 books.

I usually read several books at a time: one fiction (short story or novel), one philosophy, one history.

At the moment I'm interested in: Zen Buddhism, other Eastern philosophies/religions (e.g. other flavors of Buddhism, revisiting Confucianism and Daoism), Existentialism, old (1950s to 1980s) scifi and fantasy, George Saunders, history and philosophy of the Ancient Greeks, screenwriting/storytelling books, and current fiction.

Status (3/30/2024): 4/24

The List

strikethrough = read it

  1. Zen in the Art of Archery

    • Eugen Herrigel
    • an introduction to Zen Buddhism through the experience of Mr. Herrigal (and his wife)
    • very poetic but maybe not a great introduction to Zen
    • liked it, gonna write a blog post about my first encounters with Zen soon

  2. Into the Woods

    • John Yorke
    • storytelling theory, borrows very heavily from Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey (a.k.a. monomyth)
    • enjoyed this one in the beginning, but in the end I didn't like how opinionated it was (also planning a blog post for storytelling notes)
    • lots of good examples of how different movies fit into 3 or 5 or 7 act structure and the monomyth

  3. My Year of Rest and Relaxation

    • Ottessa Moshfegh
    • novel about a young woman abusing various psychiatric and sleep medicines to cope with her mental anguish, sort of a dark comedy
    • loved the first 3/4, but not the anticlimactic and unsatisfying ending

  4. The Republic

    • Plato (from Hackett's complete works)
    • reading this in my book club, it's maybe my third time but I'm excited for doing the deep read and chatting about it

  5. The Librarianist

    • Patrick Dewitt
    • novel about the life of a man (who happens to be a librarian), kind of an atypical love story
    • loved this one, and all of this author's work (except French Exit)

  6. An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

    • D. T. Suzuki
    • intro to Zen Buddhism aimed at us Westerners

  7. The Odyssey

    • Homer (Richmond Lattimore translation)

  8. Save The Cat!

    • Blake Snyder
    • screenwriting book that's been recommended to me twice

  9. 1984

    • George Orwell
    • classic scifi

  10. Lysistrata

    • Aristophanes
    • Ancient Greek play about the women of the Pelopponese witholding sex to stop the Pelopponesian War
    • (book club read Thucydides last year so I think this will be really fun)

  11. Neuromancer

    • William Gibson
    • more classic scifi

  12. Novelist as a Vocation

    • Haruki Murakami
    • because I think it's a book on storytelling and it was a nice gift

  13. Forget the Alamo

    • Bryan Burrough & Chris Tomlinson & Jason Stanford
    • I went to high school in San Antonio (where the Alamo was relocated) and this sounds fun

  14. The Problems of Philosophy

    • Bertrand Russell
    • I read this one ages ago but remember it being relevant to Plato's Forms

  15. Liberation Day

    • George Saunders
    • collection of short stories by one of my favorite modern writers

  16. Dandelion Wine

    • Ray Bradbury
    • I think the only thing of his I haven't read?

  17. Existentialism is a Humanism

    • Jean-Paul Sartre
    • a lecture, supposed to be an accessible introduction to his ideas

  18. The Alchemist

    • Paulo Coelho
    • fiction, recommended to me a few times
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