Reading

Last updated July 2026.

I read constantly. A rolling all-time top ten, in no particular order:

• Augustus, John Williams. Breathes life into the ancient world. History's broad strokes as the narrative arc, the daily stories that "could have" been filled in around them. Augustus as father of both Rome and his daughter, and how he reconciles the two in banishing her, hit hard as a new father.
• The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas. My desert-island book, for two reasons. It's the ultimate redemption story, and it's long enough to last the stay.
• The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury. My first love in science fiction. Bradbury's creativity is second to none, and nearly every story here deserves the screen.
• River of Darkness, Buddy Levy. The age of exploration reads like science fiction, and the Spanish conquest of the Americas most of all. The men are reprehensible, the voyages unmatched. Plenty of conquistador accounts are this gripping, but the vast, unknown Amazon captures my imagination like nothing else.
• The Expanse Series, James S.A. Corey. Foundation started my love of epic science fiction; Corey took me right back to that wonder at the scale of the universe. Martin-caliber writing, but they actually keep their publishing cadence, and every new installment is a gift.
• The Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov. Incredible in every way. The scale and polish confirm what I already knew: Asimov was cut from different cloth.
• Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir. Incredibly fun. The everyman's science fiction story. Even my wife liked it.
• Shōgun: The Epic Novel of Japan, James Clavell. I read for escapism, to be transported somewhere completely foreign to my world. The Japan of this era is foreign and enchanting, and the clash of two worlds at the heart of it is fantastic.
• Dune, Frank Herbert. The GOAT of science fiction, and the clearest case of a series decaying as it runs on. The first book is seminal, the last is incomprehensible.
• The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu. Like much of what I've listed here, it drops you into a world foreign enough that you can't help but get invested. Early communist China and the characters it produced are delightfully alien to a reader like me. Add some brilliant science fiction concepts and it's an amazing read.