bookshelf
i starting tracking books when i made a goodreads account in late 2023, but didn’t use it all that much. i want to be better about recording what books i read and when, but for now, the best i can do is list a few i remember from the last few years + classics. textbooks are not listed, but you can get an idea of some of the studying i did from my brain garden.
some of my favorite authors include david foster wallace, george saunders, toni morrison, and james baldwin.
notable books i enjoyed have a ♡ symbol next to their titles. books i strongly disliked have a ◞‸◟ so website viewers don’t judge me for listing them.
currently reading
i don’t usually read multiple books at a time, so i’m not sure if this warrants a table:
| started | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| may 2025 | the girl with curious hair | david foster wallace |
| april 2025 | infinite jest ♡ | david foster wallace |
2025
so far, i’ve read 6 books! recently, i’ve been on a shopping spree at independent used bookstores, so i’ve got my work cut out for me.
| finished | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| march 2025 | tenth of december | george saunders |
| feb 2025 | the third life of grange copeland | alice walker |
| feb 2025 | fermat’s enigma | simon singh |
| jan 2025 | a supposedly fun thing i’ll never do again ♡ | david foster wallace |
| jan 2025 | my beloved world | sonia sotomayor |
| jan 2025 | outliers: the story of success ◞‸◟ | malcolm gladwell |
| jan 2025 | thinking, fast and slow ◞‸◟ | daniel kahneman |
2024
in 2024, i read (roughly) 23 books! i wasn’t diligent about tracking…
| finished | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| dec 2024 | the stranger ◞‸◟ | albert camus |
| dec 2024 | the luzhin defense ♡ | vladimir nabokov |
| nov 2024 | the old man and the sea | ernest hemingway |
| nov 2024 | ordinary notes ♡ | christinia sharpe |
| nov 2024 | the calculus of friendship | steven strogatz |
| nov 2024 | who cooked adam smith’s dinner? ◞‸◟ | katrine marçal |
| nov 2024 | the only woman in the room: why science is still a boys’ club | eileen pollack |
| oct 2024 | normal people ◞‸◟ | sally rooney |
| jul 2024 | the optimist: a case for the fly fishing life ♡ | david coggins |
| may 2024 | you could make this place beautiful | maggie smith |
| may 2024 | plunder: private equity’s plan to pillage america | brendan ballou |
| may 2024 | between the world and me | ta-nehisi coates |
| march 2024 | my body | emily ratajkowski |
| jan 2024 | the year of magical thinking | joan didion |
| jan 2024 | citizen: an american lyric | claudia rankine |
| jan 2024 | notes on grief | chimamanda ngozi adichie |
| jan 2024 | dear ijeawele, or a feminist manifesto in fifteen suggestions | chimamanda ngozi adichie |
| jan 2024 | we should all be feminists | chimamanda ngozi adichie |
| jan 2024 | the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house | audre lorde |
| jan 2024 | drown | junot diaz |
| jan 2024 | go tell it on the mountain ♡ | james baldwin |
| jan 2024 | lincoln in the bardo | george saunders |
| jan 2024 | trick mirror: reflections on self-delusion | jia tolentino |
books i read before i tracked them
like everything else, this is roughly in reverse chronological order.
| finished | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| good for a girl: a woman running in a man’s world ♡ | lauren fleshman | |
| mathematics for human flourishing | francis su | |
| strangers to ourselves: unsetlled minds and the stories that make us ◞‸◟ | rachel aviv | |
| minor feelings: an asian american reckoning ♡ | cathy park hong | |
| < 2023 / 2022 | the nix | nathan hill |
| on earth we’re briefly gorgeous ♡ | ocean vuong | |
| night sky with exit wounds ♡ | ocean vuong | |
| a farewell to arms | ernest hemingway | |
| the bluest eye | toni morrison | |
| jazz ♡ | toni morrison | |
| liberation day | george saunders | |
| pastoralia ♡ | george saunders | |
| home fire ◞‸◟◞‸◟◞‸◟ | kamila shamsie | |
| the history of jazz | ted gioia | |
| burnt shadows ◞‸◟◞‸◟◞‸◟ | kamila shamsie | |
| othello | william shakespeare | |
| water by the spoonful | quiara alegría hudes | |
| the man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales | oliver sacks | |
| home | toni morrison | |
| paradise | toni morrison | |
| to the lighthouse | virginia woolf | |
| americanah ♡ | chimamanda ngozi adichie | |
| the catcher in the rye | jd salinger | |
| born a crime | trevor noah | |
| for whom the bell tolls | ernest hemingway | |
| the adventures of huckleberry finn | mark twain | |
| lean against this late hour | garous abdolmalekian | |
| wild thing | philip norman | |
| jimi hendrix: electric gypsy | harry shapiro | |
| the awakening | kate chopin | |
| acid for the children ♡ | flea | |
| gödel, escher, bach: an eternal golden braid | douglas hofstadter | |
| miles: the autobiography ♡ | miles davis | |
| a swim in a pond in the rain ♡ | george saunders | |
| bluets | maggie nelson | |
| < 2022 / 2021 | frankenstein | mary shelley |
| their eyes were watching god | zora neale hurston | |
| first person singular ◞‸◟ | haruki murakami | |
| delivering happiness | tony hsieh | |
| death of a salesman | arthur miller | |
| the great gatsby | f scott fitzgerald | |
| homegoing | yaa gyasi | |
| just mercy | bryan stevenson | |
| the things they carried | tim o’brien | |
| a clockwork orange | anthony burgess | |
| the picture of dorian gray | oscar wilde | |
| jane eyre | charlotte brontë | |
| war and peace | leo tolstoy | |
| <<< | things fall apart | chinua achebe |
| a raisin in the sun ♡ | lorraine hansberry | |
| the book thief | markus zusak | |
| the grapes of wrath | john steinbeck | |
| the color purple ♡ | alice walker | |
| brave new world | aldous huxley | |
| the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime | mark haddon | |
| warriors don’t cry | melba pattillo beals | |
| animal farm | george orwell | |
| 1984 | george orwell |