Paul's Book Lists   

I love reading. In my childhood and teens I read 100 or more books a year. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever caught my wide-ranging interests. I had two particularly wonderful reading years when my Mom was at Columbia University in the late 60s to early 70s and I went to a "free school" at Teacher's College--and they really meant "free." I'd check in with my home room teacher in the morning, and then head off to the university library almost every day. Bliss!

I've always kept lists of the books I read. The habit started as a kid, but as I grew older, other activities impinged upon reading. Girls. Work. And, eventually...Wife :-). A few years ago I was shocked to discover that my "consumption" had dropped from 118 books in 1986 to 17 in 1996. I've managed to raise that over the last few years.

"Cave ab homine unius libri [Beware the man of one book]. Anonymous, quoted by Isaac D'Israeli in Curiosities of Literature [1791-1793]. I know no Latin, but it sure looks impressive, eh?

"Woe be to him that reads but one book." George Herbert, 1593-1633.

"There are some people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing." H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956.

"A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever." Martin Tupper, 1810-1889.

"I cannot live without books." Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826.

Books I've Read Since Starting This Page:

Number 1 is the most recent:

1. The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen
2. The Complete Guide to Buying, Owning, and Selling a House in Canada by Margaret Kerr and JoAnne Kurtz
3. You Can't Take It With You by Sandra Foster
4. Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler
5. The Money Advisor by Bruce Cohen
6. The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian
7. Timeline by Michael Crichton
8. Windows 2000 Professional for Dummies by Andy Rathbone and Sharon Crawford (note: a waste of money if you've ever used any version of Windows from Win95 on!)
9. Tom Clancy's Net Force: Breaking Point by Steve Perry
10. Networking is More Than Doing Lunch by Larry Easto
11. Business for Beginners by Frances McGuckin
12. The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman
13. The Izu Dancer and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata and Yasushi Inoue
14. Red Hat Linux for Dummies by Jon Hall and Paul Sery
15. Boom, Bust and Echo: How to Profit From the Coming Demographic Shift by David Foot and Daniel Stoffman
16. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
17. Bowering's B.C.: A Swashbuckling History by George Bowering
18. Memoir From Antproof Case by Mark Helprin
19. This Business of Writing by Gregg Levoy
20. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
21. The Canada Trip by Charles Gordon
22. Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities by John Hagel III and Arthur G. Armstrong
23. Understanding Canadian Business 2nd ed. by Nickels et al
24. Canadian Organizational Behaviour 3rd ed. by Steven McShane
25. Management: Canadian Sixth Edition by Stephen Robins et al
26. Net Force Night Moves by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
27. Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century by Simson Garfinkel
28. Looking Good in Print 4th ed. by Roger Parker and Patrick Berry
29. How to Start and Run a Writing and Editing Business by Herman Holtz
30. The Popcorn Report by Faith Popcorn
31. Starting a Successful Business in Canada by J.D. James
32. In Danger's Path by W.E.B. Griffin
33. Internet  World Guide to Maintaining and Updating Dynamic Web Sites by Jeannie Novak and Pete Markiewicz
34. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
35. Incorporation and Business Guide for British Columbia by J.D. James
36. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville
37. The Tailor of Panama by John Le Carre
38. Secrets of Succesful Websites by David Siegel
39. Web Publishing Unleashed by William R. Stanek et al
40. The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories by Ray Bradbury
41. Cycling the Kettle Valley Railway by Dan and Sandra Langford
42. The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton
43. The Pistoleer by James Carlos Blake
44. Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
45. Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy by Stan Davis and Chrisopher Meyer
46. Red Hat Linux 6.0 Installation Guide
47. Empire of the Bay Peter  C. Newman
48. Fort Langley by B. A. McKelvie
49. Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard
50. Start and Run a Profitable Freelance Writing Business by Christine Adamec
51. The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian
52. Time to Hunt by Stephen Hunter
53. Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers
54. A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel
55. The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
56. Webonomics: Nine Essential Principles for Growing Your Business on the World Wide Web by Evan Schwartz
57. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
58. Flood Tide by Clive Cussler
59. Never Out of Season: A Primer for Building Your Wealth  by David Hunter
60. Canadian Home Business Guide to Taxes by Evelyn Jacks
61. Personal Finance for Dummies for Canadians by Eric Tyson and Tony Martin
62. The Invasion of Canada by Pierre Burton
63. Net Force by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
64. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
65. Transforming Vision: Writers on Art selected by Edward Hirsch
66. Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors ed. by Mark Stefik
67. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
68. Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg
69. Numbered Account by Christopher Reich
70. Beyond Humanity: Cyberevolution and Future Minds by Gregory Paul and Earl Cox
71. Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy by Patrick O'Brian
72. Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age by Esther Dyson
73. Getting Started with Microsoft FrontPage 98
74. The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian
75. The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian
76. All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
77. The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian
78. The Thirteen Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian
79. The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian
80. Startup by Jerry Kaplan
81. The Road Ahead by Bill Gates
82. Star Trek The Next Generation: The Last Stand by Brad Ferguson
83. Star Trek: Sarek by A.C. Crispin
84. Star Trek: Best Destiny by Diance Carey
85. The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian
86. The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian
87. Treason's Harbour by Patrick O'Brian
88. The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian
89. The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian
90. The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian
91. Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian
92. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian
93. H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian
94. Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian
95. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
96. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
97. The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
98. Illustrated Catwatching by Desmond Morris
99. Digerati: Encounters With the Cyber Elite by John Brockman
100. Creating Killer Web Sites by David Siegel
101. Idoru by William Gibson
102. How to Do What You Want to Do by Paul Hauck
103. What Will Be by Michael Dertouzos
104. Bloomberg by Bloomberg
105. Learning the Unix Operating System by Todino, Strang and Peek
106. Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
107. Executive Order by Tom Clancy
108. The Art and Craft of Novel Writing by Oakley Hall
109. The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies
110. The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought by David Gelernter
111. The Counterfeiters by André Gide
112. A Moveable Feast (2nd time) by Ernest Hemingway
113. Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg
114. The Cry of the Halidon by Robert Ludlum
115. Murder is my Business Spillane and Collins, eds.
116. Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age Constance Hale, ed.
117. Getting Started with Microsoft FrontPage 97
118. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet by Hafner & Lyon
119. Missionary Stew by Ross Thomas
120. In Search of Nature by Edward O. Wilson
121. Windows 95 Unleashed by Tiley et al
122. Running Linux by Welsh & Kaufman
123. Longitude by Dava Sobel
124. Shock Wave by Clive Cussler
125. The Daughters of Cain by Colin Dexter
126. Voodoo River by Robert Crais
127. ECCO Pro Manual by NetManage
128. Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise and other Imponderables by David Feldman
129. Hiking and Backpacking by Karen Berger
130. All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
131. The Elements of Technical Writing by Gary Blake and Robert Bly
132. American Tongue and Cheek: A Populist Guide to Our Language by Jim Quinn
133. The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace
134. Star Trek The Next Generation: Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter
135. Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg
136. Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland
137. Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
138. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
139. Learning Perl by Randal L. Schwartz
140. PGP: Pretty Good Privacy by Simon Garfinkel
141. Gates by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews
142. The SLIP/PPP Connection by Paul Gilster
143. Microsoft Publisher Manual (Second time read)
144. The Night Manager by John Le Carré
145. Hong Kong: Epilogue To An Empire by Jan Morris
146. Straight Talk about the Information Superhighway by Reid Goldsborough
147. Creating Cool Web Pages with HTML by Dave Taylor
148. Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte
149. The Macintosh Bible, 5th Edition
150. Fallen Angels by Niven, Pournelle, and Flyn
151. Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy
152. How To Want What You Have by Timothy Miller
153. Navigating the Internet, Deluxe Edition by Smith and Gibbs
154. Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
155. A Passion For Excellence by Tom Peters and Nancy Austin
156. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
157. The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog by Ed Krol

I'll update the list every now and then. If you have any questions or comments about any of these books, email me.

To close, a word of warning from Robert Louis Stevenson: "Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life." I wonder what he would have thought of the Internet and the WWW?!