I Love Books

I’m going to be very busy for the next couple of weeks, so I will take a break from the blog until September. This week, though, I’m fulfilling a promise I made in a post a while back. A couple of decades ago I started keeping a list of all the “serious” books I had read cover to cover. In my line of work, I do a fair amount of reading, but most of this list is the result of my habit of reading at least three books at a time at home. It takes longer to get through a single volume, but the variety is nice. I’ve pruned a few titles from the original list, but this is still complete enough to give you a feel for the sorts of books I’m interested in.

If you find this list a bit daunting, I would ask you to keep in mind that I am a slow reader, I suffer from a severe sports addiction, I have a wife and four children, I play basketball three mornings a week and watch Jeopardy every evening, I try to keep my yard looking nice, and at one time not long ago I had four church callings (none of them overwhelming). So don’t give up hope. If, on the other hand, you find this list rather meager, then please remember that I am a slow reader, I suffer from . . . Let’s just say I’m dedicated to reading and to learning at my own slow pace.

With a few notable exceptions, I would recommend any of these books to a curious reader. An asterisk indicates a book I would highly recommend. I obviously don’t agree with the premises presented in all of these books, but they have all broadened my horizons and given me a chance to think about a variety of topics. Anyway, without further explanation, here’s the growing list:

Adams and Jefferson: A Revolutionary Dialogue, by Merrill D. Peterson

Adam Smith’s Mistake: How a Moral Philosopher Invented Economics and Ended Morality, by Kenneth Lux

Affluenza, by James de Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor

*Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, by David C. Korten

*The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation, by Armand L. Mauss

Approaching Zion, by Hugh Nibley

The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, by Kevin Phillips

Beyond Death’s Door, by Brent L. Top

Bleachers, by John Grisham

A Brief History of Time, by Stephen W. Hawking

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, by John G. Turner

Brigham Young: Sovereign in America, by David Vaughn Mason

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

*Children of the Promise (5 volumes), by Dean Hughes

The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students, by Allan Bloom

*Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier

Colonel Thomas L. Kane and the Mormons, 1846–1883, ed. David J. Whittaker

Coming from the Light, by Sarah Hinze

The Coming Plague, by Laurie Garrett

Cosmic Questions, by Richard Morris

Culture of Complaint, by Robert Hughes

D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, by Stephen E. Ambrose

*David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, by Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Wright

Dialogues with Myself, by Eugene England

A Different God? Mitt Romney, the Religious Right, and the Mormon Question, by Craig L. Foster

The Disuniting of America, by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

*The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy, by Marjorie Kelly

The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst

Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss

*The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken

Educating Zion, edited by John W. Welch and Don E. Norton

The End of Bureaucracy and the Rise of the Intelligent Organization, by Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot

Executioner’s Song, by Norman Mailer

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom

Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman

The Fundamentals of Ethics, by Russ Shafer-Landau

*Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick

The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon, by Brant A. Gardner

“God Has Made Us a Kingdom”: James Strang and the Midwest Mormons, by Vickie Cleverley Speek

The God Who Weeps, by Terryl and Fiona Givens

*Gorky Park, by Martin Cruz Smith

Having Authority: The Origins and Development of Priesthood during the Ministry of Joseph Smith, by Gregory A. Prince

Hearing the Voice of the Lord, by Gerald N. Lund

Hearts of the Children (5 volumes), series by Dean Hughes

A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi, by Keshavan Nair

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

*Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life, by Boyd J. Petersen

The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration, by Tad R. Callister

In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death, by Samuel Morris Brown

The J. Golden Kimball Stories, by Eric A. Eliason

J. Reuben Clark: The Church Years, by D. Michael Quinn

Joseph Smith, by Robert V. Remini

*Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, by Richard L. Bushman

The L Word: An Unapologetic, Thoroughly Biased, Long-Overdue Explication and Defense of Liberalism, by David P. Barash

Leadership and the New Science, by Margaret J. Wheatley

Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, by Edward L. Kimball

Lehi in the Desert, by Hugh Nibley

The Life Before, by Brent L. Top

Life before Life, by Richard Eyre

The Life Beyond, by Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie

The Life of Dr. Frederick G. Williams: Counselor to the Prophet Joseph Smith, by Frederick G. Williams

*Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, by Robert M. Pirsig

*The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

Managing by the Numbers: Absentee Owners and the Decline of American Industry, by Christopher Meek, Warner Woodworth, and W. Gibb Dyer

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard

Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis

The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism, by Grant Underwood

Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn from the Latter-day Saints, by Stephen H. Webb

Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery

*The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, by D. Michael Quinn

*The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, by D. Michael Quinn

Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930, by Thomas G. Alexander

*The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith, by Matthew Bowman

Mormon Polygamy: A History, by Richard S. Van Wagoner

*The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got to Be That Way, by Bill Bryson

Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Andrew Jenson and David H. Morris Collections, edited by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Ronald W. Walker

My Mormonism: A Primer for Non-Mormons and Mormons, Alike, by David V. Mason

Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, by Hugh Nibley

*One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism, by William Greider

*Organizational Values in America, by William G. Scott and David K. Hart

Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration, by Patricia Ward Biederman and Warren Bennis

*A Painted House, by John Grisham

Papers on the Ethics of Administration, edited by N. Dale Wright

Parliament of Whores, by P.J. O’Rourke

Peace Breaks Out, by John Knowles

*People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture, by Terryl L. Givens

Polar Star, by Martin Cruz Smith

Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You’re Stupid,

      by Joe Klein

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories/Once upon a More Enlightened Time, by James Finn Garner

The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria

*Power from On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood, by Gregory A. Prince

The Radicalism of the American Revolution, by Gordon S. Wood

Red Rum Punch, by Ceylon Barclay

Reengineering Management: The Mandate for New Leadership, by James Champy

The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, by Christopher Lasch

A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean

Rose, by Martin Cruz Smith

The Scholar of Moab, by Steven L. Peck

Secrets of the Street: The Dark Side of Making Money, by Gene G. Marcial

*Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country, by William Greider

*A Separate Peace, by John Knowles

Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport, by Armand L. Mauss

*Shoeless Joe, by W. P. Kinsella

A Short History of Financial Euphoria, by John Kenneth Galbraith

A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson

A Short Stay in Hell, by Steven L. Peck

The Silmarillion, by J. R. R. Tolkien

Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess, by Richard S. Van Wagoner

Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered, by E. F. Schumacher

Standing for Something, by Gordon B. Hinckley

Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest, by Peter Block

*Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Trouble with Money, by William Greider

*The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics, by Christopher Lasch

*This Is My Doctrine: The Development of Mormon Theology, by Charles R. Harrell

Trust: The Social Virtues & the Creation of Prosperity, by Francis Fukuyama

Turning Freud Upside Down: Gospel Perspectives on Psychotherapy’s Fundamental Problems, ed. Aaron P. Jackson, Lane Fischer, and Doris R. Dant

Tyranny of the Bottom Line: Why Corporations Make Good People Do Bad Things, by Ralph Estes

*Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand

*Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide, by Grant Hardy

Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth, by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy, by Terryl L. Givens

*Way Below the Angels: The Pretty Clearly Troubled but Not Even Close to Tragic Confessions of a Real Live Mormon Missionary, by Craig Harline

*Wayward Saints: The Social and Religious Protests of the Godbeites against Brigham Young, by Ronald W. Walker

We Are All Self-Employed: The New Social Contract for Working in a Changed World, by Cliff Hakim

*Why I Stay, ed. by Robert Rees

*When Corporations Rule the World, by David C. Korten

Why Leaders Can’t Lead: The Unconscious Conspiracy Continues, by Warren Bennis

Wish You Well, by David Baldacci

Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English, by Patricia T. O’Connor

Working Alone, by Murray Felsher

Working Toward Zion: Principles of the United Order for the Modern World, by James W. Lucas and Warner P. Woodworth

*The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, by Robert L. Heilbroner

The Worlds of Joseph Smith: A Bicentennial Conference at the Library of Congress, ed. John W. Welch

Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity, by Terryl L. Givens

*Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig

The four books I am currently reading that will soon earn a spot on this list are:

From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon, by Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat

Revelation, Resistance, and Mormon Polygamy: The Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830–1853, by Merina Smith

*Wandering Realities: Mormonish Short Fiction, by Steven L. Peck

What’s on the Other Side: What the Gospel Teaches Us about the Spirit World, by Brent L. Top