Books I Have Read

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I went to college in the late 1970's. I got a four-year degree in 36 months (I went to summer school every year). During those three years, I lived alone in a little apartment without television or telephone (by choice, not out of necessity). For entertainment, instead of sitting glued to the idiot box, I read books. For three years.

Most of these are books I read before I went to college.

I've read five or six books about JFK conspiracies, but I didn't include them in the list.

TITLE	AUTHOR	COMMENTS
101 Uses for a Dead Cat	Simon Bond	Okay, this one isn't exactly literature.
666	Salem Kirban	I read it in college. It is almost unbelievably bad.
1984	George Orwell	A great classic. I read it in high school.
American Caesar	William Manchester	A biography of Douglas MacArthur.
The Amityville Horror	Jay Anson	Published as a true story, but it turns out that a lot of it was just made up.
The Andromeda Strain	Michael Crichton	Vintage science fiction.
Animal Farm	George Orwell	A great classic. Two legs good, four legs bad!
The Arms of Krupp	William Manchester	Great book. I read it when I was 16.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X	Malcolm X	Fascinating book.
The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World	Harlan Ellison	I read it in high school. It includes the unforgettable novella A Boy and His Dog, which features a talking dog named Blood. "Find, Blood. I'm not kidding."
The Bible	God	I didn't actually read all of it, but I did like the good parts. Some advice: skip the first nine chapters of I Chronicles. Trust me on this.
The Big Four	Agatha Christie	A Hercule Poirot novel.
The Bell Jar	Sylvia Plath	One of the best books I've ever read that was written by a suicidal person.
Black Like Me	John Howard Griffin	Fascinating book. I read it when I was 15.
Born Standing Up	Steve Martin	The famous comedian gives a somewhat sketchy account of his life so far. He mentions Bernadette Peters only once, and mentions Victoria Tennant, to whom he was married for seven years, only briefly.
The Call of the Wild	Jack London	A classic. I wish they hadn't hit the dog so much.
A Canticle for Leibowitz	Walter M. Miller, Jr.	I read it when I was in college. A great, great book.
Carrie	Stephen King	The first and last book I ever read by this twisted author.
Catch-22	Joseph Heller	One of the first anti-war novels.
The Catcher in the Rye	J.D. Salinger	A great classic.
Chariots of the Gods	Erich von Daniken	A hugely popular book which suggests that ancient civilizations were founded/started by extraterrestrial visitors. Problem is that von Daniken is a liar and a charlatan.
Christmas at Fontaine's	William Kotzwinkle	Not his best work. By the author of ET, the Extraterrestrial, and his Adventures on Earth.
A Clockwork Orange	Anthony Burgess	I read it about a year before Stanley Kubrick made the movie. Horrorshow.
Come Help Change the World	Bill Bright	Dr. Bright systematized Christianity with the Four Spiritual Laws. He's the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.
A Confederacy of Dunces	John Kennedy Toole	Junk. Really poorly written. Not worth reading.
Cosmic Trigger Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati	Robert Anton Wilson	Recommended.
Cosmic Trigger Volume II: Down to Earth	Robert Anton Wilson	Weird, but fascinating.
Cosmic Trigger Volume III: My Life After Death	Robert Anton Wilson	Weird, but worth reading.
Crash Go the Chariots	Clifford Wilson	Debunks the lies in Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods books.
The Cross and the Switchblade	David Wilkerson	The true story of a country preacher who went to New York City and started Teen Challenge. Dramatic stuff.
Cruel Shoes	Steve Martin	A weighty tome, with layers of meaning (just kidding).
The Day of the Jackal	Frederick Forsyth	A great suspense novel.
Death of a Citizen	Donald Hamilton	Written in 1960. The first spy novel I ever read that I thought was "literature."
The Defense Never Rests	F. Lee Bailey	Great book. Made me want to become a lawyer (which I did).
Demon Experiences in Many Lands	[Various writers]	A very interesting book; each chapter is written by a different Christian missionary.
The Demon-Haunted World	Carl Sagan	A great book from a great mind. He died without ever believing in God.
Dumbth	Steve Allen	A great book. An essay on the decline of civilization, and standards in general.
The Eden Express	Mark Vonnegut	Interesting book. The author states that during part of the time he was writing it, he was insane.
Escape From Witchcraft	Roberta Blankenship	Another one of those "true confession" stories that I don't believe really happened.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex But Were Afraid to Ask	David Reuben	I read it when I was 15. Hey, what 15-year-old boy DIDN'T read this book? Someone has noted that the first three words in this book are a lie: Reuben begins by saying "As a psychiatrist ..." Turns out he WASN'T a psychiatrist.
Evidence That Demands a Verdict	Josh McDowell	Not a great book; it seems to dodge the really tough questions.
The Exorcist	William Peter Blatty	Good scary stuff.
Fail Safe	Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler	Emotionally wrenching. It made people think.
The Faith Healers	James Randi	He exposes the televangelists/"faith healers" for the fakes they are.
The Fan Man	William Kotzwinkle	A strange, fun novel. By the author of ET, the Extraterrestrial, and his Adventures on Earth. I especially liked the chapter on "Dorky Day."
Farnham's Freehold	Robert Heinlein	Very imaginative and thought-provoking.
Flim Flam	James Randi	He's the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF).
Flowers for Algernon	Daniel Keyes	Another must-read. A great, great novel.
Food is Your Best Medicine	Henry Bieler	I found this one in a used bookstore in 1975. It got me interested in nutrition.
For the Defense	F. Lee Bailey	A good book. It was part of my inspiration to become a lawyer.
Future Shock	Alvin Toffler	The first major doom-and-gloom book forecasting environmental disasters (not counting Silent Spring). It was popular about the same time as The Greening of America, which predicted a rosier future.
Ghost Story	Peter Straub	Good stuff.
Glory Road	Robert Heinlein	Another quirky science fiction novel from the master.
Go Ask Alice	[Anonymous]	The diary of a young hippie girl who (eventually) overdosed on drugs in the late 1960's. There is some question as to whether or not it's authentic, but it is very much worth reading.
The God Who is There	Francis Shaeffer	I'm not a big Shaeffer fan.
God's Smuggler	"Brother Andrew" with John and Elizabeth Sherrill	"Lord, you made blind eyes see. Now make seeing eyes blind!" True story of a man who smuggled Bibles into Communist countries during the Cold War.
God's Warrior	Frank G. Slaughter	A novel of the life of St. Paul. Good stuff.
Goodbye Columbus	Philip Roth	Good stuff.
The Graduate	Charles Webb	Written in 1963. The famous 1967 movie was based on it. A great novel. Very readable.
The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank	Erma Bombeck	Folksy and down-to-earth (aggressively so).
The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	Poignant.
Great Lion of God	Taylor Caldwell	A fictionalized biography of St. Paul. Not very good. Too "mystical."
A Grief Observed	C.S. Lewis	The author's wife died, and he struggled with his faith.
Griffin and Sabine	Nick Bantock	One of the strangest books I ever read; it's in the form of a series of letters (or postcards) written between two people who have never met. The letters are in little envelopes inside the book. The ending is very mysterious.
Hang Loose With Jesus	Frances Gardner Hunter	She's the Erma Bombeck of Christian writers. In other words, she tries way too hard to be earthy and blue-collar.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	J.K. Rowling	The only Harry Potter novel I've read. Not too bad of a book. "It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
The Haunting of Hill House	Shirley Jackson	The basis for the 1960 movie "The Haunting." A truly scary, sometimes depressing book.
He is There and He is Not Silent	Francis Shaeffer	I have stopped believing that Shaeffer is "over our heads" and now believe that he is just confused.
Helter Skelter	Vincent Bugliosi	Chilling. Great stuff. The true story of the Manson family, told by the prosecutor who put them behind bars.
The Hiding Place	Corrie Ten Boom	A family in Holland hides Jews from the Nazis (this is a true story). A good read.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Douglas Adams	Great, quirky science fiction. Much better than the movie.
The Horse and His Boy	C.S. Lewis	One of his seven Narnia books. I read it while I was in college.
How Did a Fat, Balding, Middle-Aged Jew Like You Become a Jesus Freak?	Zola Levitt	Yes, this is actually the title. Not a bad book.
How to Win Friends and Influence People	Dale Carnegie	Great practical stuff. Showing appreciation isn't the same as mere flattery.
How You Can Find Happiness During the Collapse of Western Civilization	Robert J. Ringer	I recommend this one. It was written in 1983, and Western Civilization hasn't collapsed yet (well, unless you count the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004).
The Human Zoo	Desmond Morris	His followup to The Naked Ape. More pop anthropology.
I Am Legend	Richard Matheson	There have been, so far, three separate movies based on this book: "The Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price; "The Omega Man" starring Charlton Heston; and "I Am Legend" starring Will Smith. Mr. Matheson is one of the great unsung authors of the 20th Century.
I Believe in Miracles	Kathryn Kuhlmann	Kathryn Kuhlman was a faith healer.
I'll Quit Tomorrow	Vernon E. Johnson	About alcoholism.
I'm Out to Change My World	Ann Kiemel	A book of somewhat sappy blank-verse poems. She wrote this in the 1960's, and later left the faith.
In Cold Blood	Truman Capote	Excellent book.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull	Richard Bach	I read it when I was 19. I was able to spot Bach as a Christian Scientist before I got halfway through the book.
Joni	Joni Eareckson	This is quite an autobiography. A girl who was born in 1949 grew up in a Christian home. In her teenage years, she realized she was drifting away from Jesus, so she prayed one night for Jesus to do whatever was necessary to keep her safe in him (or something to that effect). A few months later, she went swimming in an unfamiliar lake, and a diving accident left her paralyzed from the neck down ... permanently. Later, she realized she had artistic talent, and she did some painting with a brush held in her mouth. The book was made into a movie (1979), and the author stars in it as herself.
The Last Battle	C.S. Lewis	One of his seven Narnia books (the last one). I read it while I was in college.
The Late Great Planet Earth	Hal Lindsey	A standard work on the end times, the second coming of Jesus, and eschatology.
Let Our Children Go!	Ted Patrick	The true story of a man who is a "cult deprogrammer." He rescues people from the Moonies (and other brainwashing cults).
Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit	Adelle Davis	I read it in college.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe	C.S. Lewis	The first of the Narnia books. The witch is the bad guy (gal). Some people have complained that in these books, the children are given wine to drink. [sigh]
The Listener	Taylor Caldwell	Not great literature.
Little House in the Big Woods	Laura Ingalls Wilder	Written for children, but it's a great read for adults.
Looking Out for Number One	Robert Ringer	A best-seller from the 1970's. A very readable book about rational self-interest.
Lord of the Flies	William Golding	I read it when I was 12 years old. It's an interesting novel, but I don't think it's a masterpiece.
Love and Addiction	Stanton Peele and Archie Brodsky	I read this book in college.
Love is Now	Peter Gillquist	You should definitely read it. The original title was Farewell to the Fake ID.
Love Story	Erich Segal	I read it, and I liked it, okay? Now shut up.
The Magician's Nephew	C.S. Lewis	One of his seven Narnia books. I read it while I was in college.
M*A*S*H	Richard Hooker	A good novel.
Masks of the Illuminati	Robert Anton Wilson	A great novel; it expands one's mind.
The Medium is the Message	Marshall McLuhan	An interesting bit of pop anthropology from the 1960's.
The Men Who Stare at Goats	Jon Ronson	The true story of an Army unit that was set up to study New Age phenomena with a view toward using them in the "war on terror."   It's been made into a movie (it was released in December 2009).
Michelle Remembers	Michelle Smith	Another "true story" about Satanic rituals, occult abuse, and animal sacrifice. This story has been thoroughly debunked; most of the incidents described could not possibly have happened.
Mr. God, This is Anna	"Fynn"	A man talks to a little girl and imbues everything she says with tons of meaning. A tiresome book.
Mommie Dearest	Christina Crawford	A chilling true story. The author was adopted as a child by Joan Crawford, and was screamed at and abused. You probably saw the movie with Faye Dunaway ... no wire hangers, ever! One interesting aspect of growing up with an abusive mother ... after you survive that, it takes a lot to scare you. Think about it ... you're three years old, tiny, helpless, and a 140-pound woman (twice your height, three times your weight) stands over you and screams at you and hits you in the face, over and over ... now 20 years later, is it going to scare you when your drill sergeant in basic training gets mad at you?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress	Robert Heinlein	One of my favorite books of all time and, in my opinion, the best Heinlein novel. Great, great stuff. Trust me on this.
My Darling, My Hamburger	Paul Zindel	Mr. Zindel wrote several books which are geared toward teenagers.
My Life on Trial	Melvin Belli	One of the books that made me want to become a lawyer.
My Name is Asher Lev	Chaim Potok	Good stuff.
The Naked Ape	Desmond Morris	Pop anthropology. Good stuff.
Night	Elie Wiesel	A true story. Emotionally wrenching. Wiesel spent time in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and most of the rest of his life was spent hunting down Nazi war criminals.
No Time For Sergeants	Mac Hyman	Pretty funny stuff, but you can detect a true underlying hatred this author had for some Air Force sergeant he'd known.
Not in Kansas Anymore	Christine Wicker	A book about Wicca that's written by an outsider. She takes an honest look at the modern Neo-Pagan movement and writes in a clear, engaging style.
Of Mice and Men	John Steinbeck	A classic. Great stuff.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Ken Kesey	A great novel. Inspired by the author's experiences working in a mental hospital. My favorite line: "I'm the bull goose loonie!!!"
The Onion Field	Joseph Wambaugh	Nonfiction.
Operators and Things: the Inner Life of a Schizophrenic	Barbara O'Brien	Nonfiction. The author woke up one morning to find some men standing over her bed talking about her ... one of them had the head of a lizard. And they could read her thoughts. It was all a schizophrenic hallucination, but she didn't know it at the time. They told her to buy a bus ticket and go traveling, which she did. A fascinating true story.
The Other	Thomas Tryon	Wow! A great novel.
Out of the Silent Planet	C.S. Lewis	The first book in the Perelandra trilogy. It turns out that the "silent planet" (Thulchandra) is Earth.
Peace with God	Billy Graham	Good stuff.
The Pearl	Jon Steinbeck	A classic.
Perelandra	C.S. Lewis	Book two of the Perelandra trilogy.
The Perfect Storm	Sebastian Junger	Great stuff. Includes an unforgettable description of how it feels to drown.
The Peter Principle	Lawrence Peter	The Peter Principle is the idea that in a hierarchy, one eventually rises to his "level of incompetence," that is, he will be promoted one rung higher than he should be.
Phantom Over Vietnam	John Trotti	Written by an F4J pilot who served in the Air Force in the 1960's. Excellent book.
The Pigman	Paul Zindel	Zindel wrote several books which are geared toward teenagers. They usually feature (1) an oddball title, (2) a mother who is mean [Zindel's mother was a horror of a human being, according to him], and (3) a scene in which a boy and a girl are alone and consider having sex but are too scared to do it. This book is quirky and offbeat in a good way.
Podkayne of Mars	Robert Heinlein	A great novel.
Portnoy's Complaint	Philip Roth	Good stuff.
The Power of Positive Thinking	Norman Vincent Peale	A classic. I read it when I was 16.
Praise the Lord Anyway	Frances Gardner Hunter	Ms. Hunter is the Erma Bombeck of Christian writers. Not a great writer at all.
Prince Caspian: the Return to Narnia	C.S. Lewis	One of his seven Narnia books. I read it while I was in college.
Psychic Mafia	M. Lamar Keene	The confessions of a former "psychic" fraud who bilked gullible people out of their money and property. Very interesting stuff.
The Promise	Chaim Potok	Good stuff.
The Puppet Masters	Robert Heinlein	Another good one from the master.
Purple Violet Squish	David Wilkerson	Written in 1972, this book represents the author's effort to "get groovy" and confront hippies with Jesus Christ. It is jaw-droppingly uncool.
Rants	Dennis Miller	"The back seat of the taxi smelled like a man eating Gorgonzola cheese while getting a permanent in the septic tank of a slaughterhouse." Dennis Miller has a way of painting pictures with words (via extended similes). But that's just my opinion; I could be way off.
Reminiscences	Douglas MacArthur	His autobiography. Stilted, stuffy, barely readable.
The Road to Bithynia	Frank G. Slaughter	A novel of the life of St. Luke. Good stuff.
Rosemary's Baby	Ira Levin	I read it when I was 16.
Run, Baby, Run	Nicky Cruz	This is the Cross and the Switchblade story told from the point of view of Nicky Cruz, former gang leader. It's actually pretty readable.
Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth	Hal Lindsey	The original end-times bestseller.
The Satan Seller	Mike Warnke	Written as if it were an autobiography, this book turned out to be a pack of lies. Mike Warnke is a lying hypocrite, and he got caught.
The Scarlet Letter	Nathaniel Hawthorn	A bit heavy-handed. The symbolism is over the top.
The Screwtape Letters	C.S. Lewis	Great stuff.
A Separate Peace	John Knowles	I read it in high school, and again when I was in my 40's, and it's not a great book. Sorry. Too much of it just doesn't work.
A Separate Reality	Carlos Castaneda (d. 1998)	The author has conversations (he says) with a Yaqui shaman. Pretty pedestrian stuff (as far as the spiritual insights go). I read it when I was in college. It's worth reading, but it's fiction   —   back in 1973, a cover story in Time magazine exposed the author as a fraud. He lied about his own nationality and several other background facts. We're 99.9% certain that "Don Juan" is a fictitious character.
Silent Spring	Rachel Carson	Written in the early 1960's, this was one of the very first major works to warn about air and water pollution. It was far ahead of its time.
The Silver Chair	C.S. Lewis	One of his seven Narnia books. I read it while I was in college.
Small Gods	Terry Pratchett	A strange little book by an author who thinks outside the box. Read this book before you die.
Starship Troopers	Robert Heinlein	Another great novel by the master. You can tell that the author was once in the military.
Steal This Book	Abbie Hoffman	A great, fun read. And yes, I did steal my copy.
Stranger in a Strange Land	Robert Heinlein	Definitely worth reading, but not his best work. The ending is a disappointment. He won a Nebula Award for this book.
Summer of '42	Herman Raucher	A great novel. I read it when I was a teenager. It's one of those coming-of-age-during-World-War-II novels, similar to A Separate Peace.
Tao Te Ching	Lao Tzu	A book of ancient Chinese wisdom. Don't tell anybody, but I didn't get that much out of it.
The Terminal Man	Michael Crichton	I read it the year it was written (1972). Great book.
That Hideous Strength	C.S. Lewis	Book #3 of his Perelandra trilogy.
They Speak With Other Tongues	Sherwood Wirt	A very sympathetic (yet objective and fact-filled) look at the charismatic/tongues-talking movement.
This Present Darkness	Frank Peretti	A pretty dreadful Christian novel. In one chapter, a stalled car is caused by an invisible demon stabbing the engine with a flaming sword.
Tortured for Christ	Richard Wurmbrand	True stories. Gripping.
Tuesdays With Morrie	Mitch Albom	Not much to it. It has "great insights" such as "tell the people you love that you love them."
Turned On to Jesus	Arthur Blessitt	Written in the 1960's during the "Jesus Movement." Not a bad book; rough around the edges, but he writes from the heart. Blessit says that he prayed with George W. Bush to receive Jesus in 1984. Blessitt seems to be "the real thing."
The Ultimate Evil	Maury Terry	Written in 1987. It makes a very interesting case (well-reasoned, but I don't buy it) for the proposition that there is a worldwide evil occult conspiracy   —   an actual organization of people who commit murder at random in the name of some Dark Lord. He found similarities among several "oddball" murders. This guy doesn't seem to be a nutcase.
The Vision	David Wilkerson	Written in 1973, this book gives specific predictions about the future (direct from Jesus) ... none of which happened.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	C.S. Lewis	One of his seven Narnia books. I read it while I was in college.
Waldo and Magic, Inc.	Robert Heinlein	Not my favorite Heinlein novel, but worth reading.
Watership Down	Richard Adams	A novel about migrating rabbits ... great book.
The Way Things Ought to Be	Rush Limbaugh	Yes, I read the whole thing. Don't hate me. It was during my arch-conservative phase.
Who Moved the Stone?	Frank Morison	An analytical look at the Biblical accounts of the death of Jesus.
Why People Believe Weird Things	Michael Shermer	He's the founder of the Skeptics Society. I met the author in 1999. Personally. Shook his hand. Had my picture taken with him. No kidding. It's in my office. You could come look.
Wicked	Gregory Maguire	Not a great novel. It's the story of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West. It was made into a musical in 2003. If you get a chance, go see the musical (don't bother reading the book).
Winning Through Intimidation	Robert Ringer	I read it when I was 16, I think.
The World According to Garp	John Irving	A horrible book. I'm sorry I bothered to finish it.