
In case one any cares to know which books that I have read, plan to read, or am reading, I’ve put this page together. Since I’m a writer, these books have not only affected my character, but also my writing style. Some books have influenced me more than others, of course. In my novel (In Search of Kafka), the main character, Oliver is written very much in my voice, and also in the voice of P.G. Wodehouse. Oliver is similar to Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster character, but with the cleverness of his related character, Jeeves. Oliver’s situation is reminiscent of a Franz Kafka character in that he is a person normally protected from the world, but is not forced to interact with it and all of its non-sensicalness. The overall plot, however, follows a thriller novel style like a John Buchan novel in which the main character is hotly pursued by the police—for a crime which he is wrongly accused--as he tries to find the true criminals to hand to them in his stead (e.g., The 39 Steps). Similar to a Raymond Chandler novel, amongst the usual happenings of the character are some wisdoms, as well as insights into the character and thereby into me. Glancing through my lists of books read below and reading my web log will help you better to understand and appreciate Oliver.
In the past year people have asked me if I’ve read novel by their particular favorite authors and quite often I’ve had to say No since they invariably refer to a modern day author. Most of the novels I’ve read have been written by people prior to 20th century: I like to say that I’ve only read books by dead people. However, since the 20th century is now finished, I’ve decided to try to read some novels from that period, to fill in a large gap in my have read list. So, I’ve been reading books by Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Pearl Buck, Graham Greene and a few others. If you want to see how I’m doing so far, books that I’ve recently read are shown in the longer list below in blue.
Here’s what I’m currently reading:
I’m still struggling to finish What Maisie Knew after a year. I suspect some sort of psychological barrier for me on this particular novel of his, one of my favorite authors.
Below is a list of books that I’ve purchased with the thought of reading. This may not occur any time soon, though. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please email me. My address is at the bottom of almost every page of my web site.
Below is a list of books that I have read. As part of my on-going study of literature and language, I like to keep track of what I have read. This not only gives me a sense of accomplishment, but also helps me to determine whichs books I need to read based on gaps in periods, countries, or authors.
By default, the list is sort by date. To resort the list, click on the heading that you wish to sort by.
| Title | Author | Country | Year |
| Epic of Gilgamesh | Anonymous | Iraq | -2100 |
| Tao Te Ching | Lao Tzu | China | -600 |
| Agamemnon | Aeschylus | Greece | -500 |
| Antigone | Sophocles | Greece | -450 |
| Oedipus Rex | Sophocles | Greece | -450 |
| Republic | Plato | Greece | -400 |
| Hebrew & Christian Bible | Various | Greece | 100 |
| Didache | Anonymous | Greece | 125 |
| Confessions | Augustine of Hippo | Tunisia | 397 |
| Beowulf | Anonymous | Greece | 850 |
| Pearl | Anonymous | Greece | 1350 |
| Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | Anonymous | Greece | 1350 |
| Second Shepherd's play | Wakefield Master | United Kingdom | 1350 |
| Piers Plowman | William Langland | United Kingdom | 1350 |
| Everyman | John Skot | United Kingdom | 1537 |
| Castaways | Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca | United States of America | 1542 |
| Love's Labour's Lost | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1588 |
| Romeo & Juliet | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1595 |
| Henry V | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1600 |
| Hamlet | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1602 |
| Measure for Measure | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1604 |
| Doctor Faustus | Christopher Marlow | United Kingdom | 1604 |
| King Lear | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1605 |
| MacBeth | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1606 |
| Anthony & Cleopatra | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1607 |
| Coriolanus | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1609 |
| Othello | William Shakespeare | United Kingdom | 1622 |
| Duchess of Malfi | John Webster | United Kingdom | 1623 |
| Diary of Samuel Pepys | Samuel Pepys | United Kingdom | 1660 |
| Oroonoko | Aphra Behn | United Kingdom | 1688 |
| Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe | United Kingdom | 1719 |
| Moll Flanders | Daniel Defoe | United Kingdom | 1722 |
| Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan Swift | Ireland | 1726 |
| Tom Jones | Henry Fielding | United Kingdom | 1749 |
| Vicar of Wakefield | Oliver Goldsmith | United Kingdom | 1766 |
| Tristram Shandy | Laurence Sterne | United Kingdom | 1767 |
| Humphrey Clinker | Tobias Smollet | United Kingdom | 1771 |
| Sorrows of Young Werther | Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe | Germany | 1774 |
| Letters from an American Farmer | J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur | United States of America | 1782 |
| Autobiography of Ben Franklin | Benjamin Franklin | United States of America | 1793 |
| Sense & Sensibility | Jane Austen | United Kingdom | 1811 |
| Pride & Prejudice | Jane Austen | United Kingdom | 1813 |
| Frankenstein | Mary Shelly | United Kingdom | 1818 |
| Betroved | Alessandro Manzoni | Italy | 1827 |
| On Our Own Ground | William Apess | United States of America | 1829 |
| Tour on the Prairies | Washington Irving | United States of America | 1835 |
| Poor Folk | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Russia | 1845 |
| Life of Fredrick Douglass | Frederick Douglass | United States of America | 1845 |
| Wuthering Heights | Emily Bronte | United Kingdom | 1847 |
| Jane Eyre | Charlotte Bronte | United Kingdom | 1847 |
| Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne | United States of America | 1850 |
| David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | United Kingdom | 1850 |
| Twelve Years a Slave | Solomon Northup | United States of America | 1853 |
| Hard Times for These Times | Charles Dickens | United Kingdom | 1854 |
| Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens | United Kingdom | 1859 |
| First Love | Ivan Turgenev | Russia | 1860 |
| Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | United Kingdom | 1861 |
| Fathers and Sons | Ivan Turgenev | Russia | 1862 |
| Notes from Underground | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Russia | 1864 |
| Crime & Punishment | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Russia | 1866 |
| Idiot | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Russia | 1871 |
| Far from the Madding Crowd | Thomas Hardy | United Kingdom | 1874 |
| Daisy Miller | Henry James | United States of America | 1878 |
| Washington Square | Henry James | United States of America | 1880 |
| Brothers Karamozov | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Russia | 1880 |
| The Portrait of a Lady | Henry James | United States of America | 1881 |
| Song of Myself | Whitman Walt | United States of America | 1882 |
| Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | United Kingdom | 1883 |
| Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | United States of America | 1884 |
| Bostonians | Henry James | United States of America | 1886 |
| Kidnapped | Robert Louis Stevenson | United Kingdom | 1886 |
| Miss Julie | August Strindberg | Sweden | 1888 |
| The Steppe | Anton Chekhov | Russia | 1888 |
| Tragic Muse | Henry James | United States of America | 1890 |
| Iola LeRoy | Frances Watkins | United States of America | 1892 |
| The Importance of Being Earnest | Oscar Wilde | United Kingdom | 1895 |
| Red Badge of Courage | Stephen Crane | United States of America | 1895 |
| Captains Courageous | Rudyard Kipling | United States of America | 1897 |
| Cyrano de Bergerac | Edmond Rostand | France | 1897 |
| Turn of the Screw | Henry James | United States of America | 1898 |
| In the Cage | Henry James | United States of America | 1898 |
| Resurrection | Leo Tolstoy | Russia | 1899 |
| Vocation and a Voice | Kate Chopin | United States of America | 1899 |
| Awakening | Kate Chopin | United States of America | 1899 |
| Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | Poland | 1902 |
| Little Princess | Frances Hodgson Burnett | United Kingdom | 1905 |
| The Secret Agent: a Simple Tale | Joseph Conrad | Poland | 1907 |
| Howards End | E.M. Forster | United Kingdom | 1910 |
| Prester John | John Buchan | United Kingdom | 1910 |
| A Gentleman of Leisure | P.G. Wodehouse | United Kingdom | 1910 |
| Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton | United States of America | 1911 |
| Pygmalion | Bernard Shaw | Ireland | 1913 |
| The Sons | Franz Kafka | Czech Republic | 1913 |
| The Dubliners | James Joyce | Ireland | 1914 |
| The Castle | Franz Kafka | Czech Republic | 1914 |
| The Trial | Franz Kafka | Czech Republic | 1914 |
| Aliens | William McFee | United Kingdom | 1914 |
| Metamorphosis | Franz Kafka | Czech Republic | 1915 |
| The Thirty-Nine Steps | John Buchan | United Kingdom | 1915 |
| My Ántonia | Willa Cather | United States of America | 1918 |
| The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | United States of America | 1920 |
| Inimitable Jeeves | P.G. Wodehouse | United Kingdom | 1923 |
| Mrs. Dalloway | Virginia Woolf | United Kingdom | 1925 |
| Winnie the Pooh | A.A. Milne | United Kingdom | 1926 |
| Decline and Fall | Evelyn Waugh | United Kingdom | 1928 |
| The Maltese Falcon | Dashiell Hammett | United States of America | 1929 |
| Across the River into the Trees | Ernest Hemingway | United States of America | 1929 |
| The Man Within | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1929 |
| Very Good, Jeeves | P.G. Wodehouse | United Kingdom | 1930 |
| Vile Bodies | Evelyn Waugh | United Kingdom | 1930 |
| The Murder at the Vicarage | Agatha Christie | United Kingdom | 1930 |
| The Good Earth | Pearl S. Buck | United States of America | 1931 |
| Black Mischief | Evelyn Waugh | United Kingdom | 1932 |
| Stamboul Train | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1932 |
| The Big Sleep | Raymond Chandler | United States of America | 1934 |
| The Thin Man | Dashiell Hammett | United States of America | 1934 |
| Uncle Tom's Children | Richard Wright | United States of America | 1936 |
| A Gun for Sale | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1936 |
| Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck | United States of America | 1937 |
| Horatio Hornblower (11 vols.) | C.S. Forester | United States of America | 1937 |
| To Have and Have Not | Ernest Hemingway | United States of America | 1937 |
| Brighton Rock | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1938 |
| The Confidential Agent | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1939 |
| Farewell, My Lovely | Raymond Chandler | United States of America | 1940 |
| Old Order | Katherine Ann Porter | United States of America | 1941 |
| House of Bernarda Alva | Federico Garcia Lorca | Spain | 1941 |
| The High Window | Raymond Chandler | United States of America | 1942 |
| The Lady in the Lake | Raymond Chandler | United States of America | 1943 |
| The Ministry of Fear | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1943 |
| Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh | United Kingdom | 1944 |
| Animal Farm | George Orwell | United Kingdom | 1945 |
| The Pearl | John Steinbeck | United States of America | 1947 |
| The Heart of the Matter | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1948 |
| The Loved One | Evelyn Waugh | United Kingdom | 1948 |
| Seven Storey Mountain | Thomas Merton | United States of America | 1948 |
| The Little Sister | Raymond Chandler | United States of America | 1949 |
| The Third Man | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1949 |
| The End of the Affair | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1951 |
| Lesson | Eugene Ionesco | Romania | 1951 |
| Zen in the Art of Archery | Eugen Herrigel | Germany | 1953 |
| The Quiet American | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1955 |
| Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Tennnessee Williams | United States of America | 1955 |
| Endgame | Samuel Beckett | Ireland | 1958 |
| Our Man in Havana | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1958 |
| Rhinoceros | Eugene Ionesco | Romania | 1959 |
| A Burnt-out Case | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1960 |
| Selected poems | Robert Frost | United States of America | 1965 |
| Vatican II Documents | Various Various | Vatican City State (Holy See) | 1965 |
| The Commedians | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1966 |
| Aubrey/Maturin (19 vols.) | Patrick O'Brian | United Kingdom | 1970 |
| Golf in the Kingdom | Michael Murphy | United States of America | 1972 |
| Spenser Series (first 14 vols.) | Robert B. Parker | United States of America | 1973 |
| The Human Factor | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1978 |
| Ways of Escape | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1980 |
| Good Man in Africa | William Boyd | United Kingdom | 1981 |
| Top Girls | Caryl Churchill | United Kingdom | 1982 |
| Master Harold, And the Boys | Athol Fugard | South Africa | 1982 |
| If on a Winter's Night a Traveler | Italo Calvino | Italy | 1982 |
| The Tenth Man | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1985 |
| Ellen Foster | Kaye Gibbons | United States of America | 1987 |
| The Captain and the Enemy | Graham Greene | United Kingdom | 1988 |
| Fair & Tender Ladies | Lee Smith | United States of America | 1988 |
| Can't Quit You, Baby | Ellen Douglas | United States of America | 1988 |
| Visitation of Spirits | Randall Kenan | United States of America | 1989 |
| Tao of Pooh | Benjamin Hoff | United States of America | 1990 |
| Few Words in the Mother Tongue | Irena Klepfisz | United States of America | 1990 |
| Dreams of an Insomniac | Irena Klepfisz | United States of America | 1990 |
| Atlas of the Difficult World | Adrienne Rich | United States of America | 1991 |
| Te of Piglet | Benjamin Hoff | United States of America | 1992 |
| Good Scent from Stange Mountain | Robert Olen Butler | United States of America | 1992 |
| Color Purple | Alice Walker | United States of America | 1992 |
| Lives of Birds | Lester Short | United States of America | 1993 |
| Lesson Before Dying | Ernest Gaines | United States of America | 1993 |
| Great Fires | Jack Gilbert | United States of America | 1994 |
| Other Side of Sleep | Maxine Cassin | United States of America | 1995 |
| Widow's Coat | Miriam Sagan | United States of America | 1999 |
| Music We Dance To | Rebecca Seiferle | United States of America | 1999 |
| Armadillo | William Boyd | United Kingdom | 2000 |
| Eden | Olympia Vernon | United States of America | 2003 |
| Logic | Olympia Vernon | United States of America | 2004 |
Below are a couple of my books that have been published and are still in print. Click on the book cover image to go to a site where you can buy my book.
This is my first novel. It’s what I call a hi-tech comical thriller. It’s not about Kafka, incidentally. It’s about a computer programmer who inadvertently breaks into a Starbucks’ computer server and gets into trouble as a result. Throughout the novel he’s being hunted by Homeland Security.
This is a reference book (the second edition) which I wrote on the computer database software, MySQL. It’s not an interesting read, but it’s useful if you’re a MySQL software developer. If you’re interested in this topic, you should also check out my web site on MySQL Resources.