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Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I wanted to do a month by month breakdown of my reading log but I read too much too fast. So I am going back to lists. I will fill in my 2023 and 2024 logs. I will begin 2025 with the first book I have finished so far, “James” by Percival Everett.

How to Fight a Hydra by Josh Kaufman

The Fall by Albert Camus

Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes

The Real Frank Zappa by Frank Zappa

How Am I Doing?: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself by Dr. Corey Yeager

A Lot of People are Saying by Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenbaum

Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich

Speech Police by David Kaye

So I have been keeping a reading log for years now but I got this great idea to do a month-by-month breakdown. Every month I would list all of the books I had read and what I thought was the best of the books. So I have a lot of notes and lists but none of them have made it to the blog yet. That will change! Lots of ideas and over 100 books later I have some new items to post and they will start with lists and reading lists. All good stuff coming soon. By the way, 2023 ended reading 87 books. I am getting close to the 100 mark. Maybe if I didn’t enjoy reading so much I could just push through and get the numbers in.

Oct. 1st Unhuman

Oct. 2nd Black Phone

Oct. 3rd Unfriended: Dark Web

Oct. 4th Willow Creek

Oct. 5th It Stains the Sands Red

Oct. 6th. Curtains

Oct. 7th Scare Package

Oct. 8th Terrifier 2

Oct 9th The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976)

Oct 10th The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)

Oct. 11th The Dark and the Wicked

Oct. 12th Halloween Ends

Oct. 13th Smile

Oct. 14th Night Watchmen

Oct. 15th Clown

Oct. 16th Stitches

Oct. 17th Victor Crowley

Oct. 18th Hatchet 2

Oct. 19th Hatchet 3

Oct. 20th Splice

Oct. 21st Office Uprising

Oct. 22nd Possum

Oct. 23rd Host

Oct. 24th I Saw the Devil

Oct. 25th My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To

Oct. 26th Savageland

Oct. 27th Bad Milo!

Oct. 28th. Bubba Ho-Tep

Oct. 29th. #Alive

Oct. 30th The Lighthouse

Oct. 31st The Wailing

1. Information Wars by Richard Stengel
2. Lonely Boy by Steve Jones
3. This Is Not Propaganda by Peter Pomerantsev
4. LongShot by David Heath
5. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
6. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
7. On Fascism by Matthew C. MacWilliams
8. Tranny by Laura Jane Grace
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
10. Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
11. Tragedy + Time by Adam Cayton-Holland
12. Brave by Rose McGowan
13. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
14. Dear America by Jose Antonio Vargas
15. War Dances by Sherman Alexie
16. Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
17. Ask Me What’s For Dinner One More Time by Meredith Masony
18. Off The Edge by Kelly Weill
19. Fighting Misinformation: Digital Media Literacy by Tara Susman-Peña, Mehri Druckman, Nina Oduro
20. Anti-Vaxxers: How to Challenge a Misinformed Movement by Jonathan M. Berman
21. Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl
22. How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How an Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers – and Why That’s Great News by Peter Enns
23. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (Third Time Reading)
24. Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records by Jim Ruland
25. Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion by Bad Religion & Jim Ruland
26. The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City by Jennifer Toth
27. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
28. Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green
29. Christian Nation by Frederic C. Rich
30. The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters by Tom Nichols (Second Time Reading)
31. I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai
32. The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War by John “Chick” Donohue and J.T. Molloy
33. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
34. Not a Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent and Utterly Mangle Science by Dave Levitan
35. Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
36. Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs
37. Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison
38. Confessions of a Former Fox News Christian by Seth Andrews
39. Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith by Obery M. Hendricks
40. White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America by Anthea Butler
41. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
42. The N-Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why (Second Time Reading) by Jabari Asim
43. The Marshmellow Test by Walter Mischel
44. Paranormality (Second Time Reading) by Dr. Richard Wiseman
45. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
46. The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
47. The Old Man and The Sea (Sixth Time Reading) by Ernest Hemmingway
48. Science Friction by Dr. Michael Shermer
49. Is That A Fact? Frauds, Quacks, and the Real Science of Everyday Life by Dr. Joe Schwarcz
50. Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Dr. Michael Shermer
51. Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding by David Tolin , Randy O. Frost , Gail Steketee
52. Truth over Tribe: Pledging Allegiance to the Lamb, Not the Donkey or the Elephant by Patrick Miller , Keith Simon
53. Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave , Seán O’Hagan
54. We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism by Andy B. Campbell
55. Engaging College Students: A Fun and Edgy Guide for Professors by Mike Kowis
56. Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Q. Whitman
57. The Toaster Oven Mocks Me: Living with Synesthesia by Steve Margolis
58. Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate by Zoë Quinn
59. The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher
60. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell
61. Making Space: Creating a Home Meditation Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh
62. Fat Kid Rules the World by K. L. Going
63. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
64. Letters to a Young Scientist by: Edward O. Wilxon
65. The Metamorphosis A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky by Franz Kafka , Susan Bernofsky – translator
66. On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
67. You’re the Only One I’ve Told: The Stories Behind Abortion by Dr. Meera Shah
68. The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan
69. Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America by Lauren Rankin
70. The Turnaway Study: The Cost of Denying Women Access to Abortion by Diana Greene Foster PhD
71. Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion by Katie Watson
72. Six Impossible Things: The Mystery of the Quantum World by John Gribbin
73. Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs

DISPATCHES by Michael Herr

This book was actually first published in 1977 but I discovered it while reading Mary Carr’s book, “The Art of Memior”. If you have ever seen a Vietnam film you have this book to thank for the realistic dialogue and stark images. Almost every film from Full Metal Jacket to Platoon to Apocalypse Now have all taken dialogue directly from this book.

BECOMING NICOLE by Amy Ellis Nutt

I have referenced this book more times this year than any other I have read. When I do not understand something I often do the work necessary to better understand the conversation. At CCRI we recently had an incident where gender signs were removed from the bathroom doors with “Die Faggots” graffitied in place of a welcoming sign of inclusion. I read this and still think about it all these months later. Although the book was published in 2016 it is still so relevant today. This should be more of required reading for all Americans.

I have had the book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed since it came out years ago but had never had a moment to read it. Once I did the hooks were in deep and I loved this writer and his writing style. His name is Jon Ronson and he has the most amazing job ever! Since finishing his book I have since bought every other book he has available and have devoured them with a fire. I was sad to have finished all of them and am patiently waiting for his next book. His work is based around being curious and investigating people, places, and events that may not be of much interest to people but he makes them downright magical. The things he investigated I didn’t even think were possible to write about let alone do any sort of investigative journalism! Remember the real life superhero Pheonix Jones? Yeah, Jon Ronson went on patrol with him and begged a cab driver to stay with him when a fight was close to breaking out. He investigated the tragic suicide of a porn actress August Ames and found many threads to a sad story about public shaming gone too far. He drove an Aston Martin car using the same route as James Bond to write about the experience. If you have not read any of his books he is worth the trouble of looking up. His writing not only inspires me to write but to be curious about the world around me and never stop asking questions. Cheers Jon!