My Personal Library

This is a list of the books that I own, either in print or in digital. They are spread out across a few places (namely my apartment and a storage unit [climate controlled] that I rent). This is partially to give me a mobile listing that I can use to weed out titles that I already own when going to thrift shops. Others, however, may also be interested in what all books I own and have read.

I love to read, and I love collecting, trading, and recommending books. If you are interested in any of the titles that you see here and want to know more about them, my thoughts, or want to chat about your experience with any of these titles (or ones that aren't here)- feel free to send me an email.

The coolest bookstore that I ever went to was Powell's Books in Portland, OR. If that changes (I highly doubt it), I'll let you know. The second coolest was the Dickson Street Book Shop near the University of Arkansas' campus in Fayetteville, AR. One of the bookshops near Harvard was pretty cool too. I can't recall what the name was, but it was probably like "The Harvard Bookstore" (or some other equally uninspired name).

This is a structural pillar at Powell's Books. It is reserved for visiting author's to sign (note Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson)

I don't like Barnes and Noble for 2 reasons:

1. They are usually pretty bad about keeping their shelves stocked
2. I got kicked out of one when I was in college and I'm still a little embarassed about it.

• 📖 - I have read it.
• 📱 - I own it as an eBook or PDF.
• 📚 - I own it as both an eBook/PDF and as a hard copy.

Fiction

High Fantasy

• By The Sword - Mercedes Lackey 📖
• Magic's Pawn - Mercedes Lackey 📖 📱
• Magic's Promise - Mercedes Lackey 📖 📱
• Magic's Price - Mercedes Lackey 📖 📱
• Arrows of the Queen - Mercedes Lackey 📖 📖
• Arrow's Flight - Mercedes Lackey 📖 📖
• Lord Valentine's Castle - Robert Silverberg 📖 📚
• Majipoor Chronicles - Robert Silverberg
• Valentine Pontifex - Robert Silverberg
• Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind 📖
• The Stone of Tears - Terry Goodkind
• Temple of the Winds - Terry Goodkind
• Faith of the Fallen - Terry Goodkind
• Naked Empire - Terry Goodkind
• The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson 📖 📱   »   I read this when I was going through a divorce. It helped a bit.
• Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin 📖
• A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin
• A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin
• A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin
• A Dance With Dragons - George R.R. Martin

Science Fiction

• Rendezvous With Rama - Arthur C. Clarke 📱   »   I have listened to this as an audiobook while I was falling asleep. I contend that it was responsible for giving me very weird dreams.
• A World Out of Time - Larry Niven 📖📱   »   My copy was signed by Larry!
• The Integral Trees - Larry Niven 📖
• Ringworld - Larry Niven 📱
• Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven;
• Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany 📱 - Rydra Wong (character in this story) is one of my favorite characters in the canon of science fiction <3
• Stranger In a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
• I Will Fear No Evil - Robert A. Heinlein 📱
• The Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls - Robert A. Heinlein
• Time Enough for Love - Robert A. Heinlein
• Farnham's Freehold - Robert A. Heinlein
• Traitor's Sun - Marion Zimmer Bradley - Her worldbuilding around "Darkover" has been very interesting to me as an adult. Sadly, some very unsavory facts came out, posthumously, about MZB. An example of being able to appreciate a work of art after severing the art from the artist.
• Oath of the Renunciates - Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Stormqueen! - Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Make Room! Make Room! - Harry Harrison 📖 📱
• Neuromancer - William Gibson
• Count Zero - William Gibson
• Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson
• Foundation - Isaac Asimov
• Dune - Frank Herbert - I fell in love with Frank Herbert's vision for the Dune universe by way of David Lynch's Dune- starring Kyle Maclachlan. While many did not prefer Lynch's work, I did.
• God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert

Horror

• The Complete Literary Works of HP Lovecraft - Howard Phillips (HP) Lovecraft
• A Flame in Byzantium - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
• Who Goes There? - John W. Campbell 📖📱   »   This is the novella that inspired one of my favorite films - John Carpenter's The Thing

General Fiction

• East of Eden - John Steinbeck
• A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
• Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
• Knight and Day - Ron Nessen, Johanna Neuman
• Shame of Man - Piers Anthony

Non-Fiction

• Handbook of Statistical Methods for Engineers and Scientists - Harrison M. Wadsworth
• The Cuckoo's Egg - Clifford "Cliff" Stoll 📱 📖
• Designing Data Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems - Martin Kleppmann 📱
• Matters of Life and Data - Charles D. Morgan 📱 📖   »   I actually worked for this guy's (second) company for a little while.
• Now What? A Story of a (finally) Successful Startup - Charles D. Morgan 📱 📖   »   - The guy's second company (Acxiom... Redux!)
• The Human Race to the Future (What Can Happen and What To Do) - Dr. J. Daniel Berleant 📱   »   - He was one of my professors in college (and is my doctoral advisor).
• The Chemicals of Life - Isaac Asimov
• Bad Blood - John Carreyrou 📱 📖   »   - This was the reporter that made the general public aware of the Theranos story in the New York Times. Great read.
• Smoking: The Artificial Passion - David Krogh
• Riding the Iron Rooster: On Train Through China - Paul Theroux
• Genesis Revisited - Zecharia Sitchin - I do not posit that this book has any legitimate scientific significance. When I originally bought this book, I actually thought it was going to be a rigorous, scientific, investigation into claims made in the Christian Bible (what I get for judging it by its title). I kept it because Sitchin seems to be such a polarizing figure in the scientific community that it seemed worth holding onto as an example of the issues with "believing everything that you read".
• The Complete Kama Sutra: The First Unabridged Modern Translation of the Classic Indian Text - Alain Danielou - The word "sutra" stems from Sanskrit, which is etymologically linked to the word "suture", that we have in English, which means "a thread." The Kama Sutra ("kama" meaning "desire") is "a story about desire." Much more wholesome and romantic than how modern, popular culture portrays this book!

Linguistics

• The Oxford Handbook of Computational Linguistics (2nd Edition ?) - Ruslan Mitkov
• Yale Linguistic Series; Beginning Chinese - ???
• Rebel With a Clause - Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian - Ellen Jovin
• The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
• On Language - Noam Chomsky

Buddhism/Zen

Many of these books were gifted to me by my cousin, JDP, that filled in as my surrogate grandfather (following the death of my grandfather- he died when I was still young). I found Zen to be a beautiful way to look at life, and I'm thankful that he shared his interest in Zen with me.

• Zen Flesh, Zen Bones - Paul Reps - I have read some of the Zen koans that are included in this book
• The Tao of Zen - Ray Griggs
• Siddhartha - Herman Hesse - Siddharta is the name of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). This book follows the experience of a young man that is not the historical Buddha.