My Java Journal

TOP 100 BOOKS

The List
 
*This was the original list I completed in about 2017. I am currently working on the update. I’ve added notes to this original list in RED. In reviewing this list I feel it was rushed. I am making some significant modifications. I am glad I did it though; it is a great baseline to build from.
 
But really, a book list without Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning is an incomplete book list!
 
Books I’ve had and held onto because they made an impression and impacted my views (and in some cases the choices I’ve made):
1.     On The Road – Jack Kerouac
2.     Nahanni Trailhead – Joanne Ronan Moore
3.     The Source – James A. Michener
4.     On a Pale Horse – Piers Anthony
5.     Raptor – Gary Jennings
6.     Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
7.     Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M. Pirsig
8.     Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
9.     Vimy – Pierre Berton
10.  MacBeth – William Shakespeare
11.  Born To Run – Christopher McDougall
12.  The Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank
13.  The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
14.  The Road – Cormac McCarthy
15.  Go Ask Alice – Anonymous
16.  Rule By Secrecy – Jim Marrs
17.  A Short History of Progress – Ronal Wright
18.  The Gates of fire – Steven Pressfield
19.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – F. Scott Fitzgerald
20.  Big Fish – Daniel Wallace
21.  Walden – Henry David Thoreau
22.  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck – Mark Manson
23.  The Geography of Bliss – Eric Weiner
24.  The Heathen’s Guide to World Religions – Hopper
25.  The Art of Dancing in the Rain – Garth Stein
26.  The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
 
Travel books that have, and continue to inspire me to keep exploring:
27.  Jupiter’s Travels – Ted Simon
28.  A Walk Across America – Peter Jenkins
29.  You’ve gone too far this time, Sir – Danny Bent
30.  Pushups in the Prayer room – Norm Schriever
31.  South of Normal – Norm Schriever
32.  Long Way Down – Ewan McGregor & Charlie Boorman
33.  What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim – Jane Christmas
 
Classics I consider must-reads:
34.  The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
35.  Le Petit Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery (you have to read this one in French too)
36.  1984 – George Orwell
37.  Animal Farm – George Orwell
38.  Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
39.  Dracula – Bram Stoker
40.  The Warrior Ethos – Steven Pressfield
41.  The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
42.  Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
43.  Another Roadside Attraction – Tom Robbins
44.  Even Cowgirls Get the Blues – Tom Robbins
45.  Still Life With Woodpecker – Tom Robbins
46.  Skinny Legs and All – Tom Robbins
47.  The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
48.  Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
49.  The Catcher and the Rye – J.D. Salinger
50.  For Whom The Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
51.  The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
52.  The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
53.  Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
54.  Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
55.  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
56.  Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
57.  Beyond Good and Evil – Friedrich Nietzsche
58.  Moby Dick – Herman Melville
59.  Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly
60.  Hamlet – William Shakespeare
61.  A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
62.  Fear and Trembling – Soren Kierkegaard
63.  A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking
64.  Lord of the Flies – William Golding
65.  Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
66.  The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
67.  To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
68.  Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
69.  Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
70.  Call of the Wild – Jack London
71.  The Iliad – Homer
72.  The Odyssey – Homer
73.  Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
 
Books I think everyone should read as baseline references:
74.  The Next 100 Years – George Friedman
75.  People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
76.  A Short History of Canada – Morton
77.  Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes
78.  The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli
79.  The Republic – Plato
80.  Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
81.  Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies – Jared Diamond
82.  The 9/11 Commission Report
83.  America’s Secret War – George Friedman
84.  America Alone – Mark Steyn
85.  Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – John Perkins
86.  Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life – Jon Lee Anderson
 
Books I don’t know how to categorize but felt earned a place on the list:
87.  The Three Day Road – Joseph Boyden
88.  A Long Way Gone – Ishmael Beah
89.  The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson
90.  Delta of Venus – Anais Nin
91.  The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
 
Great military reads (and must-reads):
92.  Bravo Two Zero – Andy McNab
93.  Blackhawk Down – Mark Bowden
 
Books I haven’t read but have been on my to-read list for a long time:
94.  48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene *Read it. I’m dropping it from the list.
95.  The Gentle Art of Tramping – Stephen Graham *Loved it. It stays.
96.  Field Guide to Getting Lost – Rebecca Solnit *Alright, not great.
97.  Future Crimes – Marc Goodman *Must read
98.  Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus – Douglas Rushkoff *Very interesting
99.  Open Source Intelligence Techniques – Michael Bazzell * More reference. Informative.
100.The $100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau *Not bad. Not great.
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The books I am reading now:
Hero With A Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – Robin S. Sharma
 
The bonus offering
If I was stranded on an island, alone, with no real hope of recovery, which book would I take with me?
 
My answer today would (still) be: The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery (It reminds us to not forget the wisdom and curiosity of childhood, while exposing us to the foolishness of egos and aspects of adulthood. Also, that we are small in the vastness of the universe, but never alone if we can appreciate “stars that can laugh”)