At some point I started keeping a list of books I’ve read. Not necessarily included here are many children’s books, comic books, books that weren’t very memorable, text books and other technical books, re-readings of books, individual essays and short stories, liturgical texts, and the Holy Bible.
Regarding the Bible, I try to read it every day, and I’ve found that following a schedule can be very helpful. Here is the one I use. The whole Bible is read in two years, and the whole New Testament is read every year.
I was originally inspired to do this by a couple of other now defunct online chronological reading lists. One was from the Benedictines of Nursia, who used to post their Readings at Table (the 2016 earthquake seems to have also disrupted their website and they don’t post these anymore; here it is again on their older website). The other was from a Catholic blog whose owner sadly apostasized at some point and deleted all his old posts. You can find the description of his reading list here (scroll down to “Reading List for the Past Decade”), but it seems the actual list didn’t end up on archive.org.
Currently Reading (2026-03-14)
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting |
|============>...........|
226 / 420 pages read
|
|
| 射鵰英雄傳 |
|======>.................|
29 / 100 % read
|
|
| The Realm |
|==================>.....|
126 / 160 pages read
|
Before 2005
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| My Father’s Dragon | The first “chapter book” I ever read. | |
| various Swallows & Amazons books | ||
| various books | ||
| various Choose Your Own Adventure books | ||
| Just So Stories | ||
| all his children’s books | ||
| various books | ||
| various Horatio Hornblower books | ||
| My Side of the Mountain | ||
| You Can Pick Me Up at Peggy’s Cove | ||
| Out of the Dark | ||
| The Maestro | ||
| The Children’s Illustrated Bible |
ill. Eric Thomas
|
|
| The Chronicles of Narnia | ||
| The Hobbit | ||
| The Lord of the Rings | ||
| The Silmarillion | ||
| The Once and Future King | ||
| The Giver | ||
| Bridge to Terabithia | ||
| The Jungle Book | ||
| Gulliver’s Travels | ||
| Dragonlance Chronicles | ||
| the Asterix books |
tr. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge
|
|
| the Tintin books |
tr. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner
|
|
| Into the Mummy’s Tomb | ||
| Charlotte’s Web | ||
| Stuart Little | ||
| Little House on the Prairie | ||
| The Ear, the Eye and the Arm | ||
| The Eyes of the Amaryllis | ||
| The Egypt Game | ||
| various Redwall books | ||
| Watership Down | ||
| Shardik | ||
| The Wind in the Willows | ||
| Master Cornhill | ||
| The Trumpeter of Krakow | ||
| the Earthsea books | ||
| Lord of the Flies | ||
| The Great Gatsby | ||
| The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | ||
| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | ||
| Hamlet | ||
| Macbeth | ||
| Julius Caesar | ||
| Much Ado About Nothing | ||
| The Merchant of Venice | ||
| Heart of Darkness | ||
| Of Mice and Men | ||
| Tortilla Flat | ||
| The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series | ||
| Dirk Gently’s Hollistic Detective Agency | ||
| The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul | ||
| the Harry Potter books | ||
| Silverwing | ||
| 1984 | ||
| The Metamorphosis |
tr. ???
|
|
| Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | ||
| The Tao of Pooh | ||
| The Te of Piglet | ||
| The Poisonwood Bible | ||
| How the Irish Saved Civilization | ||
| To Kill a Mockingbrd | ||
| Dune | Notes | |
| Dune Messiah | ||
| Children of Dune | ||
| Salt in His Blood: The Life of Michael De Ruyter | ||
| Le Petit Prince | ||
| Terre des Hommes | ||
| Maria Chapdelaine | ||
| L’Étranger | ||
| Volkswagen Blues | ||
| The Mozart Season | ||
| Sophie’s World |
tr. Paulette Miller
|
|
| the His Dark Materials books | ||
| Guns, Germs, and Steel | ||
| 1421: The Year China Discovered the World | ||
| Slaughterhouse-Five | ||
| Fahrenheit 451 | ||
| Catch-22 | ||
| The Phantom Tollbooth | ||
| No Great Mischief | ||
| Beautiful Losers | ||
| The Commitments | ||
| The Last Samurai | ||
| No Destination: Autobiography of a Pilgrim | ||
| The Remains of the Day | Notes | |
| An Artist of the Floating World | ||
| Roverandom | ||
| The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea |
tr. John Nathan
|
2005 – 2014
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World |
tr. Alfred Birnbaum
|
|
| 海邊的卡夫卡 |
tr. 林少華
|
|
| The Elephant Vanishes |
tr. Alfred Birnbaum & Jay Rubin
|
|
| The Fountainhead | ||
| The Grapes of Wrath | ||
| King Arthur: The True Story | ||
| Rashomon and Other Stories |
tr. Takashi Kojima
|
|
| various よつばと! books | ||
| various 花田少年史 books | ||
| various 浦安鉄筋家族 books | ||
| 倚天屠龍記 | ||
| 西遊記 | ||
| 80°C | ||
| One Hundred Years of Solitude |
tr. Gregory Rabassa
|
|
| Lord Jim | ||
| The History of Love | ||
| Viroconium | ||
| Light | ||
| The Emperor’s New Mind | ||
| Sons and Lovers | ||
| Danziger’s Britain: A Journey to the Edge | ||
| Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village | ||
| Lolita | ||
| The Selfish Gene | ||
| The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz | ||
| The Crossing | ||
| No Country for Old Men | ||
| The Road | ||
| The End of the Affair | ||
| The Power and the Glory | ||
| Father Brown Stories | ||
| The Little World of Don Camillo |
tr. Una Vincenzo, Lady Troubridge
|
|
| Orthodoxy | ||
| The Confessions |
tr. Frank J. Sheed
|
|
| Apologia pro Vita Sua | ||
| Wise Blood | ||
| Brideshead Revisited | ||
| Collapse | ||
| The Song of the Dodo | ||
| The Norse Atlantic Saga | ||
| Heroic Song and Heroic Legend |
tr. B. J. Timmer
|
|
| Tolkien, Artist and Illustrator |
ill. J. R. R. Tolkien
|
|
| Father Christmas Letters | ||
| Unfinished Tales | ||
| Theology for Beginners | ||
| American Gods | I had heard lots of good things about Neil Gaiman, and looked forward to reading something by him, but was disappointed by this. There were fun parts in it, but mostly I found it was a book that kept saying, “Look at me, I’m being clever!” and I actually found it was quite predictable in parts and lacked overall cohesion. | |
| The Worm Ouroboros | ||
| Alice in Wonderland | ||
| Crossing to Safety | ||
| The Code Book | ||
| The Mountains of Madness | ||
| various short stories | ||
| The Bugnini-Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform | ||
| Parzival auf der Suche nach dem Gral | ||
| Lord of the World | ||
| Out of the Silent Planet | ||
| Gödel, Escher, Bach | ||
| From Beirut to Jerusalem | ||
| Why Catholics Can’t Sing | ||
| The Romance of Tristan & Iseult |
tr. Hillaire Belloc
|
|
| Temple Theology: An Introduction | ||
| Humanae generis |
tr. ???
|
|
| Deutsche Sagen | ||
| The Wood Beyond the World | ||
| The Well at the World’s End |
2015
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| The Sleepwalkers | ||
| Introduction to Christianity | ||
| The Red Book of Chinese Martyrs |
ed. Gerolamo Fazzini
|
|
| The Religious Sense | ||
| A Rabbi Speaks to Jesus | ||
| The Way of a Pilgrim |
tr. R. M. French
|
|
| How the Reformation Happened | ||
| In the Steps of the Master | ||
| Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | ||
| East of the Sun and West of the Moon |
ill. Kay Nielsen
|
2016
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Norse Legends | ||
| Beowulf |
tr. J. R. R. Tolkien
|
|
| Kateri Tekakwitha | ||
| Treasure Island | ||
| The Book of the New Sun | ||
| Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City |
tr. Helge Dascher
|
|
| Living the Mystery | ||
| Life-Giving Love | ||
| Three to Get Married | ||
| Deep River |
tr. Van C. Gessel
|
|
| House Rules | ||
| A Canticle for Leibowitz | ||
| As You Like It | ||
| The Path to Rome | ||
| The Life of Thomas More | ||
| Star-Spangled Crown | ||
| Der Komet |
2017
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| In Search of London | ||
| Into the Silent Land | Notes | |
| Dialogue concerning Heresies | ||
| With God in Russia | ||
| The Fathers: Part I | ||
| The Green Fairy Book | ||
| The Left Hand of Darkness | ||
| Ficciones | ||
| The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath | ||
| The Cleaving of Christendom | ||
| Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town | ||
| Liturgical Latin: Its Origins and Character | ||
| The World’s Oldest Church | ||
| Leaf by Niggle | ||
| Norwegian Wood |
tr. Jay Rubin
|
Having read some previous Murakami books, I was expecting more of the whimsical, supernatural elements, but instead found this a bit boring and depressing. I enjoyed parts of it, and I found especially memorable the character Nagasawa’s advice about only reading books whose authors have died at least 30 years ago, but otherwise wouldn’t recommend. |
| Shane Leslie’s Ghost Book | ||
| The Brothers Karamazov |
tr. Constance Garnett
|
|
| The Dictator Pope |
2018
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| A Christmas Carol | ||
| Mary Tudor: England’s First Queen Regnant | ||
| De Imitatione Christi | ||
| Time and the Gods (Fantasy Masterworks collection) | ||
| Journal d’un cure de campagne | ||
| The Fifth Head of Cerberus | ||
| Rerum novarum | ||
| Seven Secrets of the Eucharist | ||
| Kidnapped | ||
| Legenda Aurea |
ed. Rainer Nickel
|
|
| Quadragesimo anno |
tr. ???
|
|
| The Prisoner of Zenda | ||
| Jesus of Nazareth: Part I |
2019
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| The Best of Gene Wolfe | ||
| The Grace of Enough | ||
| Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts | ||
| Splintered Light: Logos & Language in Tolkien’s World | ||
| Jesus of Nazareth: Part II | ||
| The Secret of the Rosary | ||
| English Fairy Tales | ||
| The Screwtape Letters | ||
| The Cousins’ Wars | ||
| The Picture of Dorian Gray | ||
| Trolle, Wichtel, Königskinder |
ill. John Bauer
|
|
| From Jerusalem to Rome: The Jewish Origins and Catholic Tradition of Liturgy | ||
| The Story of a Soul |
tr. Fr. Michael Day Cong. Orat.
|
|
| 61 Minutes to a Miracle | ||
| John Henry Newman: A Biography | ||
| The Thirty-Nine Steps | ||
| Did Jesus go to school? | ||
| Jesus of Nazareth: Part III |
2020
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| The Secret History | ||
| Henry VI: A Good, Simple and Innocent Man | ||
| Tolkien’s Gedling | ||
| Meditations and Devotions |
ed. Ian Ker
|
|
| The Code of the Woosters | ||
| Regula Monachorum | ||
| Three Great Novels | ||
| Magnus | ||
| The Making of Martin Luther | Notes | |
| A Gentleman in Moscow | ||
| Anne of Green Gables | ||
| Peace | ||
| Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories | ||
| Anne of Avonlea | ||
| Before Church and State | Notes |
2021
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell | I was a bit disappointed. I found this novel just okay. There were interesting and fun and funny parts in it, but it was probably too long and didn’t make for a very cohesive whole. | |
| Anne of the Island | ||
| The Blue Fairy Book | ||
| Celibacy in Context | Notes | |
| Under the Laurel Tree | ||
| Utopia | Notes | |
| Always Coming Home | ||
| The Iliad |
tr. William Cullen Bryant
|
Notes |
| The Martian Chronicles | ||
| Loss and Gain | Notes | |
| Bluenose Ghosts | ||
| The Quest of the Holy Grail |
tr. Pauline M. Matarasso
|
Notes |
2022
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Laurus |
tr. Lisa C. Hayden
|
Notes |
| The Euthyphro |
tr. G. M. A. Grube
|
|
| Black Colossus | ||
| Rogues in the House | ||
| Red Nails | ||
| The Laches |
tr. Rosamond Kent Sprague
|
|
| The Lysis |
tr. Stanley Lombardo
|
|
| The Phoenix on the Sword | ||
| The Ion |
tr. Paul Woodruff
|
|
| The Apology |
tr. G. M. A. Grube
|
|
| The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis | ||
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | ||
| Very Good, Jeeves | ||
| Prisoners of Time: Prussians, Germans and Other Humans | ||
| St. Francis of Assisi | ||
| Tempus Adventus | ||
| Christ the Eternal Tao | Notes | |
| The Willows | ||
| The Mysteries of the Shroud | ||
| Meditations for Advent |
tr. Christopher Blum
|
|
| Anne of Windy Poplars | ||
| Neuromancer | Notes |
2023
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| The Divine Comedy |
tr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
|
|
| Moominvalley in November |
tr. Kingsley Hart
|
|
| From the Holy Mountain | ||
| Klara and the Sun | Notes | |
| The Master and Margarita |
tr. Michael Glenny
|
|
| The Island of Doctor Moreau | ||
| The Deep Enders | ||
| The Virgin and the Grail | ||
| The Emperor |
tr. William R. Brand & Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand
|
|
| The Hole |
tr. David Boyd
|
|
| The Urth of the New Sun | ||
| Days of Fire | ||
| Demon Ex Machina | ||
| Our Private Kingdom | ||
| After Supper Ghost Stories | ||
| Eyes in the Walls | Really enjoyed this. Good suspense throughout as you try to figure out the nature of the threat: is there something criminal, psychological, or supernatural going on? I liked the understated nostalgia of the setting, and the the description of the father’s city apartment as a kind of sanctuary. The protagonist’s resourcefulness and the girl’s loyalty are very endearing. Some good horror with a satisfying ending. | |
| The Wasting Desert | ||
| The China Convergence | ||
| The Man in the High Castle |
2024
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| The Princess and the Goblin | ||
| Burning Chrome | ||
| Kingdom of Characters | An interesting book, albeit sometimes not very well written. I especially enjoyed learning about Chinese typewriters. | |
| Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves | ||
| Earthen Vessels |
tr. Michael J. Miller
|
Notes |
| The Spirit of the Liturgy |
tr. John Saward
|
Notes |
| Tales of the Dying Earth | ||
| Frankenstein | Notes | |
| Midnight Blue |
tr. Jenny Watson
|
|
| Piranesi | Notes | |
| Christmas: The Original Story |
2025
| Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Gardens of the Moon | Notes | |
| Blessed Charles of Austria | ||
| The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien |
ed. Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien
|
Notes |
| She | ||
| Darwin’s Doubt | Very compelling. A lot of things I wish I had known when I was in university and talking to neo-Darwinists. | |
| The Secret Garden | Notes | |
| The Martian | ||
| Le Bestiaire du Christ | ||
| Seven Secrets of Divine Mercy | ||
| Stories of Your Life and Others |