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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Books I Read Before 1994

In 1994, when I was twenty, I began to record every book I'd read during the course of a year, a habit I've kept to the present day. This was largely due to seeing lists like that in Louis Lamour's autobiography. There were catches - it had to be a cover to cover read, intro, footnotes, and all, and it had to be started and completed in the same calendar year. OCD, I know.

This is a list of books I read prior to the start of those lists; obviously the vast majority of titles are now lost to time.

I hope to update it as titles pop into my head.

1. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
2. Dune by Frank Herbert [the longest book I'd read to that time; proudly finished it during a Cub Scout Pack meeting]
3. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin
4. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
7. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
8. Running Man by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King)
9. The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King)
10. Looking Forward by George HW Bush
11. Remember the Alamo by Robert Penn Warren
12. Day of Infamy by Walter Lord
13. Education of a Wandering Man by Louis Lamour
14. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial by Herman Wouk
15. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
16. Catcher in the Wry by Bob Uecker
17. Say Hey by Willie Mays
18. Gracie by George Burns
19.Sackett’s Land - by Louis Lamour
20.To the Far Blue Mountains - by Louis Lamour
21. The Warrior’s Path - by Louis Lamour
22.Jubal Sackett - by Louis Lamour
23. Ride the River - by Louis Lamour
24. The Daybreakers - by Louis Lamour
25. Lando - by Louis Lamour
26. Sackett - by Louis Lamour
27. Mojave Crossing - by Louis Lamour
28. The Sackett Brand - by Louis Lamour
29. The Skyliners - by Louis Lamour
30. The Lonely Men - by Louis Lamour
31. Mustang Man - by Louis Lamour
32. Galloway - by Louis Lamour
33. Treasure Mountain - by Louis Lamour
34. Ride the Dark Trail - by Louis Lamour
35. Lonely on the Mountain - by Louis Lamour
36. Fair Blows the Wind by Louis Lamour
37. Hondo by Louis Lamour
38. Heller with a Gun by Louis Lamour
39. Last Stand at Papago Wells by Louis Lamour
40. The First Fast Draw by Louis Lamour
41. Fallon by Louis Lamour
42. Kid Rodelo by Louis Lamour
43. Borden Chantry by Louis Lamour
44. The Haunted Mesa by Louis Lamour
45. The Shadow Riders by Louis Lamour
46. Yondering by Louis Lamour
47 Night Over the Solomons by Louis Lamour
48. Bowdrie's Law by Louis Lamour
49. Bowdrie by Louis Lamour
50 The Hills of Homicide by Louis Lamour
51. Smoke From This Altar by Louis Lamour
52. The Cat who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein
53. Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein
54. The Untouchables by Elliot Ness
55. Witness movie adaptation
56. Rocky III movie adaptation
57. Raiders of the Lost Ark movie adaptation
58. A very good, very dark sci-fi novel about a human war vs. deer-like creatures in which the main character was taken as POW. in the end deer planet is blasted back into the stone age
59. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
60. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
61. Star Wars by George Lucas
62. The Empire Strikes Back adaptation
63. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
64. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
65. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
66. The Sun also Rises (?) by Ernest Hemingway
67. Dracula by Bram Stroker
68. Flowers for Algernon
69. Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
70. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
71. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
72. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson Mullers
73. Shane by Jack Schaefer
74. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
75. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
76. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
77. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
78. Babe Ruth's Autobiography
79. The Science of Hitting by Ted Williams
80. The Natural by Bernard Malmud
81. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
82. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
83 The Journals of Thomas Boswell vol. 1
84. About a gazillon Three Investigators and Encyclopedia Brown books
85. The first six or so Hardy Boys Casefiles
86. Robotech: The End of the Circle by Jack McKinney
87. Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary
88. Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
89. Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
90. Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary
91. Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
92. Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary
93. Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary
94. Fingers
95. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
96. Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
97. The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
98. Henry and the Clubhouse by Beverly Cleary
99. honestly, near every Children's Illustrated Classics ever made
100. Jurasic Park by Michael Crichton
101. Many non-fiction books, children's and adult. A majority were clustered around WWII, American History, and the Presidents. While the info seems to have stuck, the titles have not.
102. The Firm by John Grisham
103. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
104. Don Baylor's autobiography
105. Two Blake's 7 novels (NOT 'Afterlife')
106. a YA book about a wrong # who turns out to be Mr. Right, although of course he is secretly a dork not the jock he claims to be. written in diaglouge only. For a brief moment - remembered only now, as I wrote this - I was big into YA romances and purchased a few from Toys R Us
107. Doctor Who: The Chase
108. Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child
109. A few dozen other Doctor Who books, 1st-4th doctors, and 1 seventh
110 Many choose-your-own adventure books
111. A trilogy of Battletech novels centered around the Grey Wolf Squadron
112. Ba Ba Black Sheep by Gregory 'Pappy' Boyington
113. Pork Chop Hill by SL Marshall
114. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
115.The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
116,The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
117. The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
118. The Complete Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes
119. Sphere by Michael Crichton
120. Robotech: Genesis by Jack McKinney
121. Robotech: Battle Cry by Jack McKinney
122. Robotech:Homecoming by Jack McKinney
123. Robotech:Battle Hymn by Jack McKinney
124. Robotech: Force of Arms by Jack McKinney
125. Robotech:Doomsday by Jack McKinney
126. A James Bond novel by John Gardner (sp?). I don't remember any of it, other than James memorizes the layout of a (friendly) vessel he's on, saying it's of vital importance in an emergency.
127. The White Mountains by John Christopher (oh Man I loved this book!)
128. One Albert Campion mystery, with Peter Davidson on the cover
129. The Art of Hitting .300 by Charlie Lau
130. A sci-fi paperback. It featured a time traveler sent to snatch Abe Lincoln at the moment of his death and replace him with a double, so ol' Abe could lead the future world government. The time traveler had the ability to automatically skip backwards in time a few minutes each time he was killed, thereby allowing him three or four chances to get it right.
131. The incredible journey by sheila burnford
132. A mid-elementary level book (fiction) about the life cycle of a red-tail hawk. I loved it.
133. The Stars are Ours! Andre Norton
134. Star Trek: The Entropy Effect
135. Paul Darrow's Avon novel
136. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
137. Ben and Me
138. The 21 Balloons
139. Is Elvis Alive?
140. Fools Crow by James Welch (very good!)
141. A Cricket in Times Square
142. The Red President by Martin Gross
143. Jeffrey Cooper's novelization The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1,2, 3: The Continuing Story (1987)
144 - 149:

Photon

Peter David, writing as David Peters:

  • For the Glory (1987)
  • High Stakes (1987)
  • In Search of Mom (1987)
  • This Is Your Life, Bhodi Li (1987)
  • Exile (1987)
  • Skin Deep (1988)

3 comments:

Bridgett said...

I've read a great deal of these books.

Did you like Dracula? I honestly thought the prose was much to flowerly and slow for the topic of the book. Just me? Perhaps.

I just never could get into it. Give me Twilight anyday. :)

And The Long Walk by Stephen King...one of my favorites.

XOXO

p.s. I should start writing this info down too. It would be interesting to see what I'm reading through the years. Good idea!

megryphon said...

Looks like you just might be a Louis L'Amour/Beverly Cleary fan--an intersting segment of the US population.

Are you keeping this list in a database? My sister http://kansasreader.blogspot.com/ started listing the books in her house--over 2000 so far--just a fraction of what she has read in her lifetime.

;^) Jan the Gryphon
http://gryph-wotd.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

You and I seem to have had a very similar childhood, at least as it comes to books.
When I was 13 I had a serious kidney infection that laid me up at home for about six weeks in the summer. My mother went to the library and chose books at random for me to read. One was Red Planet by Heinlein. That sparked a couple of decades of reading sf. In this house we have about three decades of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I loved reading new stories by relative unknowns, some of whom became household names and some who disappeared back into their teaching jobs.
You have inspired me as well to begin keeping a list. I'll add it to the sorting of photos, yarn and general toschkes.