My First Book List
How a book list from the summer of 2000 focused my reading life.
I’ve always been a sucker for a good list of books. I came across the one above in the June 6, 2000 edition of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, an antiquated medium used by past generations to obtain news. Here were the summer reading lists for area high schools. I had heard of many of the books but had only read a handful of them. That was all about to change. I quickly ripped the page out of the newspaper and still have it to this day.
This list provided a starting point for my budding interest in books and specifically in books that matter. I began selecting titles at random, purchasing the books, and reading them. I remember encountering The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, and The Old Man and the Sea for the first time and being utterly amazed. You’ll see dots next to the titles I read between 2000 and 2005.
It was nearly 10 years later when I read Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss in the final months of 2016. In the book, Ferriss highlighted interviews he had conducted with the world’s top performers where he asked them about their favorite and most-gifted books. I made a list of those titles and began reading them one by one and starting this reading project to chronicle the experience.
In 2023, I decided to make my own list of 200 Great Books and read them in chronological order. I’ve since renamed the list The Immortal Books and am in year 3 of the quest to read them all. I expect it to take 15 years in all.
I’ve read some wonderful books in my life, with or without a guiding list. But I’ve found book lists to be one of the best ways to both inspire and introduce me to new books.
What are some of the book lists that have impacted you the most in your life?
I wish I’d seen that one 25 years ago! I was a new-ish mom with a toddler and a newborn when that came out, so small wonder I missed it. (But we had a subscription to the AJC, so…)
Hands down, the Honest Broker’s “immersive Humanities course,” which I’m 18 weeks into and starting Week 19’s Bhagavad Gita today. I have appreciated the structure, starting with Plato and moving through the ancient world. Since it’s only a year, I can see a finish line of sorts, although now it feels a little like I’ll only be getting to the end of the beginning.
I look to Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon" for reading inspiration from time to time.