currently reading

A running list of what I’m reading right now (and what I have read). A significant portion of my reading is tied up with the sociology of religion, skepticism, etc. This is complemented by a consistent study of the writer’s craft, from academic prose to narrative structure. For leisure, I prefer escapism through extensive reading in fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery.

  • The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

completed

on writing & craft

  • 250 Things You Should Know About Writing by Chuck Wendig
  • 500 More Ways To Be A Better Writer by Chuck Wendig
  • 500 Ways To Tell A Better Story by Chuck Wendig
  • 500 Ways To Write Harder by Chuck Wendig
  • About Writing by Gareth L. Powell
  • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
  • During the Dissertation: A Textual Mentor for Doctoral Students in the Process of Writing by Christine Pearson Casanave
  • Editing Canadian English, 3rd edition by Editors’ Association of Canada
  • FICTION FORMULA FIX-IT: How to Revise Your Fiction by Deborah Chester
  • FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING by Deborah Chester
  • FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING PRACTICE by Deborah Chester
  • Gentle Writing Advice: How to Be a Writer Without Destroying Yourself by Chuck Wendig
  • Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder & Richard Todd
  • How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them by Ben Yagoda
  • How to Tell a Story and Other Essays by Mark Twain
  • Last But Not Least: A Guide to Proofreading Text by Leslie Vermeer
  • Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences by Michael Billig
  • Million Dollar Outlines by David Farland
  • Oxford Guide to Plain English by Martin Cutts
  • Planning in Plain English: Writing Tips for Urban and Environmental Planners by Natalie Macris
  • Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell
  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
  • Screenwriting Tricks for Authors (and Screenwriters!): STEALING HOLLYWOOD by Alexandra Sokoloff
  • Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron
  • Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker
  • The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty
  • The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide To Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job by Karen Kelsky
  • The Sample: how to take a story from first draft to final edit by Michael Milton
  • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
  • The Ten Day Outline: A Writer’s Guide to Planning a Novel in Ten Days by Lewis Jorstad
  • This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley
  • Write No Matter What: Advice for Academics by Joli Jensen
  • Write Your Novel From The Middle by James Scott Bell
  • Writing with Pleasure by Helen Sword
  • Yes! No! But Wait…!: The One Thing You Need to Know To Write a Novel by Tim Lott

fantasy & sci-fi

  • A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R. R. Martin
  • A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness Book 1) by Joe Abercrombie
  • A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift Book 1) by Kate Griffin
  • A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings) by Kevin Hearne
  • Age of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom Book 1) by RJ Barker
  • Battlemage (Age of Darkness Book 1) by Stephen Aryan
  • Between Dragons and Their Wrath (The Shattered Kingdom Book 1) by Devin Madson
  • Chosen (Alex Verus Book 4) by Benedict Jacka
  • Cursed (Alex Verus Book 2) by Benedict Jacka
  • Dead Things (Eric Carter) by Stephen Blackmoore
  • Dirty Magic (Prospero’s War Book 1) by Jaye Wells
  • Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 by Matt Dinniman
  • Emperor of Thorns (The Broken Empire Book 3) by Mark Lawrence
  • Empire of Silence: The Sun Eater: Book One by Christopher Ruocchio
  • Escape from a Video Game: Mystery on the Starship Crusader by Dustin Brady
  • Escape from a Video Game: The Endgame by Dustin Brady
  • Escape from a Video Game: The Secret of Phantom Island by Dustin Brady
  • Fated (Alex Verus Book 1) by Benedict Jacka
  • Golden Son (Red Rising Series Book 2) by Pierce Brown
  • Gods of the Wyrdwood (The Forsaken Trilogy Book 1) by RJ Barker
  • Half a King (Shattered Sea Book 1) by Joe Abercrombie
  • Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
  • Heir to the Jedi: Star Wars by Kevin Hearne
  • Hidden (Alex Verus Book 5) by Benedict Jacka
  • Horus Rising (The Horus Heresy Book 1) by Dan Abnett
  • Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book One) by Kevin Hearne
  • How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman
  • Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
  • Hunted: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Six by Kevin Hearne
  • King of Thorns (The Broken Empire Book 2) by Mark Lawrence
  • Kings of the Wyld (The Band Book 1) by Nicholas Eames
  • Knight’s Shadow (The Greatcoats) by Sebastien de Castell
  • Legionnaire (Galaxy’s Edge Book 1) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
  • Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse Book 1) by James S. A. Corey
  • Libriomancer (Magic Ex Libris Book 1) by Jim C. Hines
  • Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen Book 1) by John Gwynne
  • Mass Effect - Andromeda: Nexus Uprising by Jason M. Hough & K C Alexander
  • Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
  • Moonbound: A Novel by Robin Sloan
  • Of Blood And Fire (The Bound and The Broken Book 1) by Ryan Cahill
  • Peace Talks (Dresden Files Book 16) by Jim Butcher
  • Pines (The Wayward Pines Trilogy, Book 1) by Blake Crouch
  • Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire Book 1) by Mark Lawrence
  • Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor 1) by Mark Lawrence
  • Rise of Empire (Riyria Revelations box set Book 2) by Michael J. Sullivan
  • Rivers of London: 10th Anniversary Edition by Ben Aaronovitch
  • Rosemary and Rue (October Daye Book 1) by Seanan McGuire
  • Scourged (The Iron Druid Chronicles) by Kevin Hearne
  • Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel Book 1) by Josiah Bancroft
  • Shattered: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Seven by Kevin Hearne
  • Station Eleven: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel
  • Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) by Jim Butcher
  • Swords of Good Men (The Valhalla Saga Book 1) by Snorri Kristjansson
  • Taken (Alex Verus Book 3) by Benedict Jacka
  • The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
  • The Book of Doors: A Novel by Gareth Brown
  • The City Stained Red (Bring Down Heaven series Book 1) by Sam Sykes
  • The Daughters’ War (Blacktongue) by Christopher Buehlman
  • The Emperor’s Blades: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book I by Brian Staveley
  • The Eye of the World: Book One of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
  • The First Chronicles Of Druss The Legend by David Gemmell
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne
  • The Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf Book 1) by Richard Swan
  • The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir
  • The Martyr (The Covenant of Steel Book 2) by Anthony Ryan
  • The Providence of Fire: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book II by Brian Staveley
  • The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
  • The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy Book 1) by James Islington
  • The Silver Thief (The Cycle of Galand Book 2) by Edward W. Robertson
  • The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan Book 1) by Robert Jackson Bennett
  • The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, Book 1) by Brandon Sanderson
  • The Way of Shadows (Night Angel Book 1) by Brent Weeks
  • The Will of the Many (Hierarchy Book 1) by James Islington
  • The Wound of the World (The Cycle of Galand Book 3) by Edward W. Robertson
  • This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
  • Traitor’s Blade (The Greatcoats) by Sebastien de Castell
  • Trapped: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Five by Kevin Hearne
  • Tricked: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Four by Kevin Hearne
  • Veiled (Alex Verus Book 6) by Benedict Jacka
  • Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) by Brandon Sanderson

crime, mystery & horror

  • A Beautiful Blue Death: The First Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch
  • A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang
  • A Man of Means by P. G. Wodehouse
  • A Spy Alone by Charles Beaumont
  • Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare
  • Dead To Me (A Simon Canderous Novel Book 1) by Anton Strout
  • Hell’s Gate: A Thriller by Bill Schutt & J. R. Finch
  • I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
  • Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean
  • IQ (An IQ Novel Book 1) by Joe Ide
  • It by Stephen King
  • Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, Book 1) by Lee Child
  • Knots And Crosses by Ian Rankin
  • Magpie Murders: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz
  • Night Without End by Alistair MacLean
  • Origin: A Novel (Robert Langdon Book 5) by Dan Brown
  • The Blue Cross by G.K. Chesterton
  • The Bookman’s Tale by Chalie Lovett
  • The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike Book 1) by Robert Galbraith
  • The Godwulf Manuscript (The Spenser Series Book 1) by Robert B. Parker
  • The Gray Man (A Gray Man Novel Book 1) by Mark Greaney
  • The Guards: A Jack Taylor Novel by Ken Bruen
  • The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
  • The Republic of Thieves: The Gentleman Bastard Sequence, Book Three by Scott Lynch
  • The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
  • The Strings of Murder: Frey & McGray Book 1 by Oscar de Muriel
  • The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel by Richard Osman
  • Thirty-One Bones: A Novel by Morgan Cry
  • Tripwire (Jack Reacher Book 3) by Lee Child
  • Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean

sociology, religion & skepticism

  • Atheist Awakening: Secular Activism and Community in America by Richard Cimino & Christopher Smith
  • American Heathens: The Politics of Identity in a Pagan Religious Movement by Jennifer Snook
  • An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural by James Randi
  • Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict by Ara Norenzayan
  • Caught in The Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind by Daniel C. Dennett & Linda LaScola
  • Debating Rights Inflation in Canada: A Sociology of Human Rights by Dominique Clément
  • Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism by Ibn Warraq
  • eGods: Faith versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming by William Sims Bainbridge
  • Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World by David Silverman
  • Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice by Alice Dreger
  • Godless Paganism: Voices of Non-theistic Pagans by John Halstead
  • Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science by Paul R. Gross & Norman Levitt
  • Homeopathy and its Kindred Delusions by Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • Imagine There’s No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World by Mitchell Stephens
  • Inside Terrorism by Bruce Hoffman
  • Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach by Quintan Wiktorowicz
  • Islamic Extremism: A Case Series in Middle East Studies by Quintan Wiktorowicz
  • Islamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future by Robert Spencer & David Horowitz
  • Islamophilia by Douglas Murray
  • ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss & Hassan Hassan
  • Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out by Ibn Warraq
  • Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism by Bernard-Henri Lévy
  • Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions by Phil Zuckerman
  • Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge: Asian Traditions in a Transnational World by D. S. Farrer & John Whalen-Bridge
  • Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars by Sikivu Hutchinson
  • Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk by Massimo Pigliucci
  • Not Peace but a Sword- The Great Chasm between Christianity and Islam by Robert Spencer
  • Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem by Massimo Pigliucci & Maarten Boudry
  • Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas
  • Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality by Darrel Ray
  • Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment by Phil Zuckerman
  • Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y by Adam Possamai
  • Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion by Susan Jacoby
  • SuperVision: An Introduction to the Surveillance Society by John Gilliom & Torin Monahan
  • Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence by Mark Juergensmeyer
  • The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam by Simon Cottee
  • The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature by Gad Saad
  • The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris
  • The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France by Jennifer Hecht
  • The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement by Stephen LeDrew
  • The Healing Gods: Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Christian America by Candy Gunther Brown
  • The History Of Scepticism From Erasmus To Descartes by Richard Popkin
  • The Legacy Of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims by Andrew G. Bostom & Ibn Warraq
  • The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism by John Gray
  • The Qur’an (Oxford World’s Classics) by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem
  • The Sacred Project of American Sociology by Christian Smith
  • The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts by Jeff Goodwin & James M. Jasper
  • The Sociology of Human Rights by Mark Frezzo
  • The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook by Niall Ferguson
  • The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray
  • The Transhumanist Wager by Zoltan Istvan
  • Toward a Sociology of Irreligion by Colin Campbell
  • Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial by Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst
  • Unnatural Acts: Critical Thinking, Skepticism, and Science Exposed! by Robert Carroll
  • Under the Stained Glass Ceiling: Atheists’ Precarious Place in Modern American Politics by Paul Fidalgo
  • Why are Women more Religious than Men? by Marta Trzebiatowska & Steve Bruce

science, psychology & parenting

  • Autism and The Predictive Brain: Absolute Thinking in a Relative World by Peter Vermeulen
  • Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting by Emily Oster
  • Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin E. P. Seligman
  • How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber & Julie King
  • Natural Causes: Life, Death and the Illusion of Control by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
  • The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome by Dr. Anthony Attwood
  • The Happiest Toddler on the Block by Harvey Karp

history, biography & classics

  • A Company Man: The Remarkable French-Atlantic Voyage of a Clerk for the Company of the Indies by Marc-Antoine Caillot
  • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
  • Against Decolonization: Taking African Agency Seriously by Olúfemi Táíwò
  • An Encyclopedia of the Crusades by Alfred J. Andrea
  • Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis by Kingsley Amis
  • Fifty years in both hemispheres by Vincent Nolte
  • Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
  • Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber
  • Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
  • Max Weber: A Biography by Joachim Radkau
  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  • PARADE’S END: THE COMPLETE TRILOGY by Ford Madox Ford
  • Sharpe’s Tiger: The Siege of Seringapatam, 1799 by Bernard Cornwell
  • The Annotated Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  • The Average American Male: A Novel by Chad Kultgen
  • The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans
  • The Greek Myths: Vol. 1 by Robert Graves
  • The History of American Homeopathy by John S. Haller & Michael Flannery
  • The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter & Christopher Tolkien
  • The Management of Savagery by Max Blumenthal
  • The Pursuit of the Millennium by Norman Cohn
  • The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism by Windsor Mann
  • The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
  • The Second World War by Antony Beevor
  • THOMAS PAINE COMPLETE WORKS by Thomas Paine